Keysight 3446xA Screen Saver Mode

[Messtechniker]

Since I have been using my Keysight 34465A for six months now on a daily
basis doing mostly long term logging, there is in my opinion still some room
improvement as to saving screen life.

With the current firmware the screen dims completely after 8 hours when
in remote. It might be useful if the 34465A were a bit smarter in this area. 
It would be nice if the screen could be set to switch off /dim earlier than
after 8 hours in remote and/or when in remote mode to have the ability
switch screen off/dim/on locally.

What does the community here think?

[HighVoltage]

I agree to have a setting for screen saving in the next FW upgrade.

Another thing I would really like is a change in way the statistics are written for the Standard Deviation
When I make a logging of a very stable signal, I get for instance:
StdDv: 0.000,001 V on the 34470A

On the 34410A it would show the StdDv in uV, for instance 1.234,56 uV instead.
And yes, not all digits would be meaningful in this case but I would still prefer the value to be shown in uV
For some reasons, I find this really annoying
May be because I was too much used to the 34410A


One more suggestion for a future FW update for the 34461A to 34470A:
Please add a variable setting for a Thermistor value of 2.2k, 5k and 10k, as it is implemented in the 34410A and the 34411A
I was very much surprised to see this not being added to at least the 34470A
But maybe this requires a hardware change as well?

[6thimage]

You can manually turn the display off if using it locally and there is a SCPI command that will dim the screen remotely (display:state).

I contacted Agilent (as it then was) about the screen life (as it only dims after 8 hours) and their answer was that it should never be a problem - I found out, from a different source, that the display used is the same as that in a car GPS receiver / sat nav (I think it was Garmin), so should be more than capable of surviving years of abuse, but I think everyone would be happier having a screen saver or sleep mode.

There is currently a bug affecting the 65 and 70, where a delayed data logging will not start if the display is turned off through the settings.

Please add a variable setting for a Thermistor value of 2.2k, 5k and 10k, as it is implemented in the 34410A and the 34411A
I was very much surprised to see this not being added to at least the 34470A
But maybe this requires a hardware change as well?

I doubt that there would need to be a hardware change - all the meter is doing is measuring the resistance of the thermistor (you can get the resistance value from the secondary measurements display). So it should just be a case of adding in the extra values. The only things that might be stopping them is if other values might decrease the accuracy specification, might need to be certified accuracy wise or if it was a marketing decision (i.e. we only sell a 5k thermistor, why does it need to support 2k2 or 10k?).

[Svuppe]

One addition I'd like to see is a current readout for their 30A shunt, instead of having to convert voltage to current myself.
It is no big deal to do it manually, but it wouldn't take much to put that in a firmware update.

[HighVoltage]

I doubt that there would need to be a hardware change - all the meter is doing is measuring the resistance of the thermistor (you can get the resistance value from the secondary measurements display). So it should just be a case of adding in the extra values. The only things that might be stopping them is if other values might decrease the accuracy specification, might need to be certified accuracy wise or if it was a marketing decision (i.e. we only sell a 5k thermistor, why does it need to support 2k2 or 10k?).

I can only suspect it to be a marketing decision. As you also assume, it probably does not need any other hardware and the software code to be added should be very simple.
I can understand that for marketing reasons it would not be in the 34460A but it should be in all other models above that one.
May be someone is hearing us!

[HighVoltage]

One addition I'd like to see is a current readout for their 30A shunt, instead of having to convert voltage to current myself.
It is no big deal to do it manually, but it wouldn't take much to put that in a firmware update.

Very good point indeed and simple to implement.
I am using this 30 A shunt all the time.
For those who are not familiar with it, it is Model Number: 34330A
Here is a picture: