Have one of these, acquired it when an electronics manufacturing facility shut down in my area. This was part of a large lot of test equipment for sale and got it for a very reasonable price. The unit had recently been calibrated and was working fine, it's been sitting in my radio room on the shelf for a couple years. This video piqued my interest so I may browse through the manual and fire it up. Enjoy all your videos, very interesting information.
I am in the process of figuring it out. Not much information out on the web - I think the modules that are available by Pete Millett are for runtime v5 and may not work with Agilent 82357A USB/GPIB interface that I have. I think his modules were written for the ISA/PCI boards and connect to the 488 interface on the 8903 with a cable. I may be wrong about all this but I will continue working on it and certainly post any success I have.
Love your videos. I've learned a ton. I'm toying with the idea of buying a HP 8903B or a Keithley 2015 for my audio lab. Would you consider doing a demo on the setup and operation of a THD and Watt measurements and any other cool audio tests you do with your HP 8903? I have found demo's on operating the Keithly 2015 but not on the HP. The HP videos always seem to have HP already setup and running on the THD measurement. Thanks
I have done several videos on the HP 8903 - Here is one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Xzr8Xk_GLjY.html and there are several others on my channel. I hope they help.
Great set of videos on this subject and all of your others. Have you calibrated the 8903 before or do it on a regular basis? Would be super keen to see a video of that process that doesn't use a calibrated reference source so a person with limited equipment could do it. (ie. Scope, DMM, frequency generator). Thanks again for your great videos. Haydn
Another EXCELLENT video.. THANKS!!!! I think I mentioned finding a 8903 at a Ham Fest for $25.. Lucky me, and I have used it a fair amount as a sweep source. I don't have the manual yet but will get one from epay. I have seen another video where the 8903 is interfaced to a PC and perhaps you can ask that fellow. The vid is on youtube search 8903 HP. If you do get it going, please do a video on that. What is the meter on the 8903 used for? Again thanks for your helpful videos. 73, Glenn WA4AOS
Hello I think you need to need to run through the calibration manual. when i use frequency 1 kh it is 1000.0 not the point .2 Also dose your rf gen have the rubidum clock for the 10mhz you can link all instruments via this 10mhz external clock witch should sync everything. As far as the gbip usb ports i have never found one that would work with everything. i found a pci-e card on ebay and that works really well on the hp website you can still download the source code for all machines so you can build your own test applications.
Actually, this is nothing to do with the machine's calibration. The frequencies are selected in a limited number of digital steps, so they may not correlate exactly with 1KHz or any particular frequency. The manual specifies that entering 1KHz on the unit's generator could produce anywhere from 960-1040Hz.
The only issue I have had with mine was with a relay on one of the boards. There are four or five little yellow relays about one inch square each on one of the boards that one went bad on mine and I found a new one on Ebay for just a few dollars. The problem was intermittent and not easy to find but I did not give up. If it has an issue you will surely have to fix it yourself probably down to the component level.
@@ElPasoTubeAmps thanks! I love all this gear, but I can only afford the non working. But it's a good way to learn, and I'm up for the challenge thanks to your channel. Keep up the good fight!
No, I have never had the opportunity to use the Boonton instruments. Sorry I can't be of much help there. I have had some of the older HP distortion analyzers that worked nicely for THD measurements. www.ebay.com/itm/313599953388?hash=item49040389ec:g:L6kAAOSw0Wdg65id
@@ElPasoTubeAmps No worries, thank you for following up. I've learned a lot from watching your videos. I think you do a great job at explaining what you are doing; your time is appreciated
Yes, it was a simple configuration issue at my end. I made a couple more videos after this one showing how, I believe, the issue was I was not saving the configuration updates correctly. Being six years ago I may be wrong with this comment but please see my videos on the HP 8903 made after the date of this one. It is a fantastic piece of equipment and I still use it pretty much on a daily basis.
Yes, they are precision (1% non-inductive) loads rated at 300 watts each. They are made by Arcol and are sold by www.mouser.com These are type, NHS300 8R F www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/ARCOL-Ohmite/NHS3008RF?qs=%2Fha2pyFadujDb2nxGdHVgQnvAKT1meAIb7Q2Jc2GZ1vieb1uu3IXqA%3D%3D
