Advantest R6161 6.5 Digit Voltage Current Source

[CrazyTiger]

I bought an Advantest R6161 direct from Japan, it arrived and got stuck at the customs for tax clearance.

After spending 4 hours basically arguing, sweet talking and finally begging ( in that order) with the customs officer that this is indeed an used instrument, they were clueless what this is to begin with (it looks brand new, no scratches, no manufacturing date stated, and had no invoice) .
I was finally able to bring it back home . 

First thing, I changed the Input Voltage to 240V, it has a voltage selection card, and turned on the unit, output set the voltage to 1V and fed it to my 34401A.
My heart sank when there was no output   . When I purchased it, the post was written in Japanese and what google translated for me is "good conditiion...bla bla bla...junk", maybe this is indeed junk 

Hence I begin my troubleshooting, opening up the unit, I noticed it has been never opened before, each screw had locktite, that never been disturbed, thats a good sign for sure. I checked the lithium battery its was 3.6V, which made me curious when was this model manufactured, Adavantest first introduced at 1991, and its impossible for battery to last 29 Years, so this is definitely a very late model.

Next thing I did is take apart all the ribbon cables and connectors and re-seat it and powered it up again, and this time I heard sweet relays clicking



Yay, I checked though across different voltages and current up to 1000V it was spot on, next up I will be testing it with my 3458A, will be posting how it goes, I will be automating it and check multiple test points and plot the linearity too

Does anyone has any service manual on R6161?

[BravoV]

.... its impossible for battery to last 29 Years, so this is definitely a very late model.

It is possible, some even longer, ask around, especially old Tektronix CRO owners. 

[CrazyTiger]

.... its impossible for battery to last 29 Years, so this is definitely a very late model.

It is possible, some even longer, ask around, especially old Tektronix CRO owners. 

Maybe we should start a separate post for longest battery life span on an instrument 

[BravoV]

Just my 2 cents, also do not rely on the voltage reading of the battery cell, as most of these long life long term battery are Lithium Thionyl Chloride (LTC) type, the will die with very steep the discharge curve, the voltage will drop like a rock at the end of it's life/capacity, so no nice smooth slope as other popular types, replace asap if you have doubt.

Example discharge curves from two top tiers long life LTC cell manufacturers.

Source, Saft Batteries


Source, Hitachi Maxell Energy

[Kleinstein]

An easy way to get a good guess on the age is from date codes on chips.
Usually there should be cal stickers on such an instrument if really used and not NOS. I would expect at least one from the original manufacturer.
 

[coromonadalix]

Good find, look kinda new in the box ??   

[Synthtech]

What a beautiful unit! 

I service synthesizers from the early 1980’s every week that have original factory lithium RAM backup batteries in them that are still showing 3.2V. After 35 years they are still going strong.

[aronake]

I am considering buying one of these. Any more findings to share? Linearity? Stability? Noise?