To 34465A owners, what do I need to buy, to get oscilloscope functionality?

[ivonenand]

Hi guys,
I'm considering purchasing a Keysight 34465A, but before I do that I need to get the whole picture of what I'm paying for. I often do battery powered wireless sensors with low power modes. Usually the sensor wakes up every minute or so, takes measurements and sends data. They use a few uA in idle and a few mA when active. I need to measure the power consumption during the active phase (which is about 1s long). So I need a DMM that can trigger on rising edge, sample and record the data - basically a slow current-mode oscilloscope. The 34465A seems to have everything I need, but exactly what options I need to achieve that aren't that well documented. To be exact, do I need to buy:

- BenchVue Digital Multimeter App Pro (here I don't know exactly what exactly the "Digitizer functions" mean)
- 3446DIGU Upgrade (do I need Advanced Triggering for rising edge triggering?)

Thanks for any input in advance,
Ivo

[nctnico]

Perhaps a Keysight Mobile communication source (=precision power supply) and the associated software is a much better tool. These are power supplies which can measure currents very precisely as well and make fast recording. Look at the end of the 'Agilent 66311B poor man's SMU thread'. The mobile communication sources are geared towards characterisation of battery powered devices (and their wildly fluctuation current draws).

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/my-poor-mans-smu-the-agilent-66311b/msg1040279/#msg1040279

[ivonenand]

Hi,
Thanks for the suggestion, though I just gave one example of use. I still need a new DMM for the "regular" stuff DMMs do.

Regards,
Ivo

[Dr. Frank]

For digitization up to 50kHz (DCV and DCI modes), and triggering, you'll need the DIGU option. This includes advanced trigger options.
The 2MB memory option is for free, currently, and highly recommended for that purpose.

BenchVue is ok for standard measurements, but has some problems when transferring fast signals, so it's not very usable when making 50kHz and > 1MSa measurements.

See 34465/470A and BenchVue threads.

Frank