Agilent E1301A good replacement for an old HP 3852A?

[davorin]

Just recently saw on Ebay those Agilent E1301A VXI mainframes...sometimes with built-in voltmeters...

Are those a good replacement for an old HP 3852A or HP 3497A? And/or do they offer a wider spectrum of pluggable cards?

[samofab]

I owned one. I think the number of card options is limited. I had the DMM, multiplexer and arbitrary waveform generator. Most of the VXI modules out there are different size (C-size).

It's possible to control most of its functions via serial port.
I left some code to control it here:
https://github.com/samofab/E1300B

[davorin]

I've looked now for a while at different VXI mainframes...

Seems most cards for the bigger mainframes with C-size slots are for telecom applications....hmm..wasn't there a VXI card which is supported by VSA software?

[samofab]

I think that this is the most complete list of cards that actually work in e1300:

http://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/arb_dc.html

Nothing RF there except some relays....

[davorin]

Wow...great list :-)

Ah found which card it was...the Agilent E1439A ADC card....so this would call for a C-size VXI frame...
Hmm....but is there a combined GPIB/Ethernet controller for that? 95Msamples/sec is way out of GPIB capabilities...

[gslick]

Hmm....but is there a combined GPIB/Ethernet controller for that? 95Msamples/sec is way out of GPIB capabilities...

I have a National Instruments VXI-1394.  According to the datasheet it has a 12 MB/s sustained throughput across FireWire and VXI.

[davorin]

So basicallly I could also just go for a E1401B, a add a E1406A command module, a E1411B DMM, some multiplexers and I'm done?

[gslick]

So basicallly I could also just go for a E1401B, a add a E1406A command module, a E1411B DMM, some multiplexers and I'm done?

An E1401B is fairly large. If you don't have a lot of room on a bench for one and you don't think you would ever need many modules installed you might want to look at something smaller like a 6-slot E1421B instead.

I had an E1406A GPIB command module and an E1412A 6.5 digit DMM in an E1401B for a while a few years ago. I never had any VXI multiplexer modules and couldn't really justify keeping that setup around.

[davorin]

Is the E1421B less deep than a E1401B as the power supply sits in the side?

Otherwise there wouldn't be a benefit as space is no problem....as I currently have a 3852A and HP 3497A sitting around (o;

What I like are those high-density SMB RF multiplexer cards...

[gslick]

If depth is your primary concern there wouldn't be any real difference.

E1401B:
Mechanical Specifications   mm      inches
Height without bottom feet: 310     12.2
Height with bottom feet:    323     12.7
Width:                      426     16.8
Depth without rear feet:    574     22.6
Depth with rear feet:       590     23.2
Weight:                     21 kg / 46 lbs

E1421B:
Mechanical Specifications   mm      inches
Height without bottom feet: 221.5   8.72
Height with bottom feet:    233.4   9.19
Width without side feet:    425.5   16.75
Width with side feet:       447.8   17.63
Depth with rear feet +
power supply handles:       558.8   22.00
Weight:                     13.9 kg / 30.6 lbs

[davorin]

Yes...not much difference....few millilmeters deeper than my 3456A in my Ikea shelf (o;

The advantage of the E1401B/E1421B is that the connectors of the VXI cards are in the front and I can easily rewire without the need to pull out for example a E1301A from the shelf (o;

Only concern might be the high inrush current of the E1401B when powering on...

[davorin]

Has anyone any idea how much power the E1401B mainframe would draw without any cards installed?

Just curious if it would blow the main fuse when I power it on (o;