Agilent E8357A

[joeqsmith]

I had asked Keysight about obtaining a key for an old E8357A PNA to extend its range to 9GHz.  This is a software only upgrade and they no longer offer it.  Doing a Google search brought me here.  Any chance to enable it?

[PA0PBZ]

I had asked Keysight about obtaining a key for an old E8357A PNA to extend its range to 9GHz.  This is a software only upgrade and they no longer offer it.  Doing a Google search brought me here.  Any chance to enable it?

Can you give me the HOSTID of the instrument and the option ID? If you have any active upgrades it would be helpful to give me the key for those too.
Either here or PM will do.

[joeqsmith]

PM sent.

[tv84]

For Agilent/Keysight PNA N5224A and possibly other PNAs:

License format example:
FEATURE 000 agilent 1.0 permanent uncounted 123456789012 HOSTID=PNAID=12345678

[joeqsmith]

First, I want to say I appreciate all the help I have received from this group.   

I suspect there is more to this range upgrade than what information I could come up with. 

Agilent paper 9018-40582 Extended Frequency Range Upgrade Kits,t talks about the 1F6 to 1F9 upgrade to change the 8357A to the 58A.  I could not get this to work making the license directly or following their guide using the tools to change the product model.     Using the above codes does however allow me to create a key for the 010 time domain option.  I tried out the feature and it does seem to work.   

The user manual talks about an option 009 that was also available for the 8357A that would extend the frequency as well.  I can create the key and it does not throw an error, however the PNA does not report it was added and is still limited to the original 6GHz range.

The installation note 9018-40582 was released on November of 2001.   I am running the last release of the firmware that supported Windows 2000 which was from September of 2005.    I would assume this firmware would support the range upgrade but it seems I am missing something.   

[TheSteve]

Probably worth starting a new thread to discuss and keep this for the N1996A which is a totally different machine. Would keep the info easier to find down the road.

[joeqsmith]

This is what I had mentioned.  Note how they actually changed the HOSTID.   There is no mention about this for mine, however see the note about needing new license keys for previously installed options.   This would make sense if the hostid were changed but they never have you key that in with their Option Enable software.   

[PA0PBZ]

So it uses a HOSTID that is not stored on the instrument? That's scary 

Here is (was) the utility:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150301225912/http://na.support.keysight.com:80/pna/upgrades.html

hostid.cgi is long gone of course...
https://na.support.keysight.com/cgi-bin/hostid.cgi?Model=E8357A&Serial=Enter+serial+number

[joeqsmith]

That explains the note about having to recreate the other keys.   So they use the model/SN to create a new host.   They would create a new key based on that hostid and supply a new gen.lic.  Once installed, then you had to correct that SN/PN.  The PNA includes a utility "Option Data Repair" that you use to change the model and serial number, but not the host.   

Rube Goldberg must have spent some time at Agilent.       Hard to believe that the frequency range option was an afterthought.  The hardware was all there.   Maybe 20+ years ago, there was a big difference in cost between the 6&9GHz and the loss of revenue if customers were to circumvent their procedure.   Funny as I am playing around with a $120 VNA with a 9.3GHz top end.   

[joeqsmith]

I posted an update on the groups.io.  Going through the wayback, they did have some of this site archived with some bit of the generator.  It would throw up a that the serial number was invalid.   The earliest they went back was 2014 and the PNA was already listed as obsolete. 

[PA0PBZ]

Going through the wayback, they did have some of this site archived with some bit of the generator.  It would throw up a that the serial number was invalid.

I had a look and it doesn't point to the hostid.cgi but to a login.cgi: https://web.archive.org/web/20160523001939/http://na.support.keysight.com:80/cgi-bin/login.cgi
Why it gives "An invalid serial number was entered!" I don't know, I guess something to do with the way the crawler works.

[tv84]

Is there any forum member that went through this HostID migration path of a N1996A E8357A ?

If we get an example, it may help a lot, even without the .cgi.

[PA0PBZ]

Is there any forum member that went through this HostID migration path of a N1996A ?

I know it's the wrong thread, but this is about the E8357A, not the N1996A.

[tv84]

I know it's the wrong thread, but this is about the E8357A, not the N1996A.

  oopss... then we should not be fueling this OT. We should do as Steve asked, create new thread.

[PA0PBZ]

I agree, I wonder if a mod could move everything starting with #49 to a new E8357A thread.

[joeqsmith]

I assume Steve had already put in a request to have them moved.  After your posts, I have also requested it.

When using their Option Enable, Repair tool and changing the model number (only) and then exiting, it complains about the EEPROM's HOST ID not matching.  This tool is called Option.exe.     There is another program for the EEPROM which allows you to back it up (eepromtool.exe).   I loaded both of these programs and changed the model again, saving the EEPROM before and after.  It appears that the file it creates is ASCII.  There was no difference.  The EEPROM that tool saves may not even be the same device used to store the HOSTID.   

[tv84]

Joe, please upload here those tools.

[joeqsmith]

Joe, please upload here those tools.

I can certainly do this but I want to make sure that I send you what you need.  These will have a lot of dependencies and I suspect these will have to be installed.   If you were able to install them, these both require that the main PNA software is running for them to run.   I had attempted to setup a Win2k virtual PC with the same settings at the PNA, however I wasn't able to get very far as it wants the hardware.   I can provide you with the firmware I am using and you would have everything but I am not sure you could install it. 

I was going to just send you a link to the firmware but I suspect Keysight has scrubbed it.  Using the links I had archived now just take you to their current product line.    Again, I have it archived local so just let me know.  Archived image is just under 50MB.   The two EXEs would fit here if that's all you want.

[joeqsmith]

You should now have the entire install image.

[joeqsmith]

I have included the three EXEs.  The main PNA software would have to run in order to run the other two.   Let me know if there is anything else. 

[joeqsmith]

Selecting No instead of Yes after changing model displays a different dialog.    Both appear to have the same end effect.  The options program returns to the defaults.

[joeqsmith]

Result of sending DIAG:POKE:LONG?

[tv84]

Do you know any special "keyword" like?

-95403

It's in the code next to this msg:

"Model changed to special.  Other options can be added after the analyzer restarts.   This will take a few seconds."

Seems related to "EEPROM validitiy code" as they call it.

[joeqsmith]

You're a genius!   Thank you everyone who helped.   Hopefully others are able to benefit from your efforts.   

[tv84]

You're a genius!   Thank you everyone who helped.   Hopefully others are able to benefit from your efforts.

Seems pure luck but each one makes his own luck!    All done within 1h of code surfing from scratch...

So, my recipe for Joe to find his new E8357A HostID was:

1 - Delete or rename "c:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer\gen.lic".

2 - Kill the main app (I assume it's 835x.exe) and run it in a DOS shell with the following param:

835x.exe -95403

3 - The app will detect the absence of the license file and regenerate it from the EEPROM, due to that special param, using the new HostID.

4 - Then, with the new HostID, one can recalculate the new FLEXlm licenses.