TSP  

Really appreciate your honesty when making mistakes...we all learn that way and hopefully they're not catastrophic ones (but even from those we learn "the hard way"!). Thanks for sharing.

I love these 856#X (# is 0 to 5, X is A, B, E, and EC) series analyzers so much. Everything about it says portability (a huge plus over a 8566B), reliability, and servicability on it. Meanwhile it has specs I would label as "lab grade". I love it even more with CLIPS being widely available. This is the go to spectrum analyzer for those that can't afford buying a $10,000 instrument or even a $5000 one. I typically see these sold at a steal of a couple of hundred to around $3000 on ebay. I highly would recommend getting one as a starter or for educational purposes. The only things I don't like are the RYTHM and the fact that it isn't modern enough to include real time spectrum analysis. Its expensive or very labor intensive to repair a RYTHM. Its noted that over the years, for some reason the YIG balls will come out of alignment (heat affecting the epoxy keeping the YIG in place?). This ends up causing an "attenuation" of a high band signal (above ~2.9GHz). About the video you were right to assume that the YIG oscillators are the same with different bias boards. The microcircuit inside is interestingly a bit different but should put out the same frequency range. Power level might be a different story. It will still be a suitable repair because HP tends to reuse parts. Currently I'm in the process of repairing/replacing a low band assembly's ceramic microcircuit amplifier. I've ID'd several other units which I could obtain this amplifier from. So far I count 6 units. From VNAs to tracking gens to even a stand lone RF amplifier unit. The RF amp unit is one I hope to get to not only replace but also repurpose as a testing rig for these ceramic amplifiers. As for the repair of the power supply, you did a great job not only acknowledging your mistake but explaining how it would lead to failure of other components. Its a very good thing to document everything thoroughly. I'd like this video more than one time if I could.

20 years ago I used one of these extensively. Been looking for a spectrum analyzer and thought of getting one like this for nostalgia reasons. I'm beginning to rethink that logic. Thank you for the video.

I know this is a 5 year old video but I might add something interesting here. Years ago I needed to repair a Tektronix 475 scope that would not power up. I don't remember all the detail but I did determine which supply was not coming up and, of course, as it tried to power up, it shut down from over current as sensed by the regulator board. I ended up jumpering out the regulator board and when I turned it on with no over current protection, a little bypass capacitor somewhere on the PCA exploded - that was it - a shorted capacitor and that "fixed" it. I removed the jumper from around the regulator board and it worked just fine. A shorted .01 or .001 bypass capacitor on the buss that exploded when full PS voltage was applied to it. That's fixing a problem by pulling a rabbit out of the hat...

One of the best tear down videos I am seen in a long time. TY Shahriyar.

These videos will continue to help people for a long time as these topics never get expired. Thanks for posting.

An excellent example of a professional at work.

amazing alien microwave thing in the end, thanks for sharing with us!

Wow, that unit is packed for sure. There is something special about old gear :)

Nice video Shahriar. We've all made mistakes that sometimes make the repairs more extensive than they would've been otherwise - nice to see that it also happens to the best of 'em. I wonder what the original problem was with the supply before the lethal blow. It would've have been interesting (to me) to see the details of the YIG alignment process. I like the look into the oscillator - I've never seen the inside of one of them.

Drinking Sauternes 1999 and watching a guy repairing Agilent spectrum analyzer on Friday evening, I love my life

Again a very interesting video!!! The adjustment of the new YIG would be interesting for me too. I try to repair a 8593E and maybe it is a YIG-failure. I hope I´ll find it out! Thanks a lot!

Thank you for showing the YIG. I did not know it is that small.

You produce so much high quality content with every single video, thank you very much! When i graduate i will become a patreon :) Also i was really excited to see the inside of a yig oscillator! It was definitely a nice addition to this video.

Wow 75% of what your talking about I don't get but it's amazing thanks for the video I enjoy every minute of it

What I wish is that I had an hdmi converter so I can see your schematics on my larger TV screen. In fact I may get one of those new oled 65" and I could see the schematics clearly since I am 73. Keep up the good work. Excellent. Tvs have such high resolution it is rediculous for regular TV but for me zzahh zzahh.

Really a outstanding video. Loved all 41 mins. I really appreciated you including the ups and the downs (lessons I'll remember!). SUBSCRIBED :)

Awesome! I learned something today, using a scope to troubleshoot a short! And the YIG stuff was fascinating, thanks for sharing your knowledge, I look forward to more :-)

Fantastic video thanks. I must find myself a YIG to play with now

Extremly interesting video. I wondered what a YIG looked like. Great repair.

So glad I watched the whole video! This by far is my favorite TSP yet. The YIG teardown was completely unexpected when watching. Was that a coupled line coupler with a dielectric brick for tuning at the output of the YIG oscillator? You deserve more subscribers for this content.

Thanks for another nice repair video. The whole new adjustment which you talk about at minute 31:00 would surely also have been a very intresting part to see in the video.

A YIG oscillator is a cool thing.

10:54 you should replace the 4 transparent RIFA suppression caps on the input they are replace on sight parts in vintage equipment. The transparent (epoxy?) cases get hairline cracks in them. Moisture then gets inside causing the plates to corrode and short. When they do decide to fail and trust me they will there will be a lot of bad smelling smoke.

Amazing to see it running again! My 8563E‘s power supply still waits for its repair, I assume it has resistors which have gone high resistance and it‘s a pain to service. If you interested I can send you schematics and component positions of several 856x power supplies

It takes a spectrum analyzer to fix a spectrum analyzer. A conundrum!

love the frontpanel layout of this guy

"At least three more" ... ok now I know why I can't find cheap defect gear to repair on ebay ;)

I learned a lot. Thx

That SA looks soo alien..yet quite familiar. Great episode.

Awesome video. Thanks!

Unfortunately you have made an other mistake in the power supply. The capacitor labelled as one is placed back the wrong way around.

I'm about to cry too. I think there's a problem with the voltage doubler for my YTF that's causing ERR 334 in my 8563E that was working just fine 6? years ago the last time I turned it on. I think the caps are on their way out. Wish me luck!

Wow! Thanks for a great video.

Thank you for another excellent video.

Beware of the RIFA safety capacitors across the mains. I have several units where these have fused. Especially if the unit is put on 240 Volt mains after a life on 120.

Thank you! Again great video. Did you try investigate what's wrong with this YIG oscillator?

Nice video. I currently have an 8563A with a dead power supply. The rectifier section is ok, howwever I was stuck as to where to look next. So watching yor video will help a great deal. Two questions though, first what was the yellow lead, are you joining two grounds together? Second any idea where I can get the full repair manual for the 8563A? I can only find incomplete information on the internet so far.

How was the pwm driver diagnosed to be faulty? That was the whole point of the repair

Great video, thank you.

Really wanted to see the steps of the YIG alignment, but the YIG teardown was worth it. Did I see a signature of the technician in the ceramic structure? Who was the manufacturer of the YIG?

Interesting stuff again, thank you :)

CERAMIC IS USED TO TUNE FILTER MICROSTRIP LINES. INCREASE COUPLING FACTORS BETWEEN LINES, AND ALSO MINIMIZES SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE COUPLING.

Brilliant

Wow!! Thank you!!

Super , Thank You

Excellent video. Just one thing: might be interesting to be more precise about which driver MIC442x to select to avoid misery. Fortunately in my SA, IC marking was not HP references and states MIC4426C. Parts list in CLIP states TSC426CPA. Schematic reads ICL7667CPA (low current driver version: 300 mA). All these quite hard to find in Europe, except "China quality". Will check Intersil EL7212 which seems compatible (and improved) and available at Reichelt...

thanks for the video. if you mentioned it, i missed it, what was the year or around what year that the unit would have been made?

Maybe it's on my end, but your video appears to be a little underexposed. Thanks for all the awesome videos!

Where did you find that kind of equipment to be repaired?

You have the best toys!

The few (compared to you) times i've tried troubleshooting faulty (or badly designed) circuits, I am very, very, apprehensive about powering it on and poking around it.

16:19 "interesting!" :D

Hello, I have seen your videos for a long time, they have been really inspired to me. Last week, I was received a used 8563E not working for years. When I powered it up, after the message "PREPARING TO REALIGN LO", it displayed error codes of: 319, 334 and 358. I have looked up the error code with some information about the YTO but to be honest, I can not understand clearly. May I receive any suggestions from you? Thanks in advance!

Is there more information we can read about how you accomplished the alignment? The rest I understand, but without this knowledge, the repair seems incomplete? Thank you!

Wow! Very cool - haven't seen inside a YIG before. You aren't worried about accidentally shorting something with the ground ring on your scope probe? I did that once - was very exciting. Whenever I probe power circuits since then I have used the little plastic hood.

Did you try using hardware accelerated encoding for your screen capture? A decent GPU with a dedicated .x264 encoder should have no trouble capturing your desktop at 60 fps.

Hi Shahriar I have some ldi laser module and wanna know how to test them without damaging before fusion to my fibers ! both section of them laser diode and photodiode! please do some video or give us an answer the wave length of them is 1310 nm typically Thanks Great Shahriar :)

Good video, a faulty yig must mean the specy is uneconomical to repair. The inputs to the yig ass are */- 15v but the yig transistor must have less voltage across it. As someone has commented these secies are old there are much better transistors about now, such as those used in LNB,s

Hi Just a question for you today. I successfully repaired a HP 8565A spectrum analyzer. I felt this unit had a very unique problem to share with you and I hope you will give me an opinion on this experience. To make a long troubleshooting procedure short, this unit had the only three identical valued 2 watt resistors , 68.1 k ohm resistors open circuited. These resistors had no sign of overheating and were located in diverse portions of the instrument. The only thing in common was their power rating and value, all 1% resistors (all open circuited). Could this have been a manufacturing error with the resistors?

Question have you ever repaired a Yig, long time ago I did open a Yig filter to observe crack around the print, I was told to send up to pic & place repair side of the factory where they totally over soldered the socket, a broken solder joint was cover it up with Solder to the Yig :( went back & I observed the mess, one of those that I wish I had done the job, which scrapped the HP BER :( if I had done it it would have worked, but the manufacturing plant had a system in place. :(

Would be a nice qol thing to have a sorta captive terminator for that lo output

I had a 8590 that took an hour to get the 10MHz right. Does anyone know if the reference is heated and if the heating might have been broken without it generating a message?

Why was Shahriar using LoZ mode to measure the rectifier voltage? Was it to allow the caps to discharge after the test was over?

Can you tell me how to remove the front panel?, does that hinge without removing all of the connectors?, A colleague has one with a damaged 2.4mm connector

👍👍

Hi, I have recently bought a used Hewlett Packard 8592A Spectrum Analyzer and I am wondering what happens if I don't terminate the 1ST LO Output ? I see the unit you have is the 8562E and it says TERM in 50 Ohm. Should I terminate my 1st LO with 50 Ohms also? My unit does not have the term message written beneath the LO connector. I have not found anything in the manual yet to advise one way or the other. Thanks.

Is the Narrow Bandwidth option a hardware upgrade or software upgrade?

My 8596e had empty four memory bank..can explain me that function ..thx.

This makes me tempted to open up my 8590A to see if I can improve its frequency accuracy, it is off by a couple of MHz...

good afternoon, i have an AGILENT 8594E with a defective YIG, could you guide me on its replacement or repair, because here in Brazil we don't have companies specialized in this component. Grateful for the attention.

Do you have an electrical diagram of HP Spectrum Analyzer?

Hello, You restore this YIGO oscillator ? (Olá, Você faz a restauração deste oscilador YIGO ? )

And no explanation for the yellow jumper wire on the PSU. But I do think the buck conversion followed by an isolated DC-DC is interesting. What are the advantages with this method? Or is it done purely for the fact that it is easier to make an efficient buck converter that can work with a large verity of input voltages? Anyway, nice video, and I do hope more interesting content is one the way.

Since the YIG is a basket case, why don’t you try probing around to see if you can find the failure mode?

It's a pitty you didn't filmed the failure.

Hi Shahriar, how can I contact you.Thanks.

29:30 DUDE, you just happen to have that exact same YIG lying around??? I know you're into that kind of stuff, but come on, what are the odds?

Not the best supply design, no gate resistors

Died during The Incident....

how do I become as smart as you?

I hate this item when i calibrate it

Thanks for that. Good job.