August 19, 2009

Replacement Solutions for Agilent's E1426A & E1428A Oscilloscopes

Support of obsolete instruments in Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) systems is an important concern for the US military and its allies. The US Department of Defense (DoD) has significant investments in ATE hardware and Test Program Sets (TPS) software based upon older pieces of test equipment. See Legacy TPS support and instrument compatibility keeps VXI in Military ATE for a discussion on legacy concerns in the DoD.

When a hardware instrument is discontinued by its manufacturer, the ATE system integrator is forced to upgrade to a newer instrument. In order to successfully migrate to a new instrument, comprehensive knowledge of the instrument functionality and the ATE system is critical. Applying new hardware to existing applications may involve some instrument integration and test modifications. One class of instruments that is particularly prevalent in long-lifespan ATE test sets are the discontinued line of HP/Agilent oscilloscopes including the E1426A, E1428A and E1429B. This discussion addresses the difficulties and tradeoffs associated with using newer VXI oscilloscope replacements for obsolete Agilent VXI oscilloscopes.

ZTEC has approached instrument replacement in two ways:

by providing a nearly-identical drop-in replacement for a discontinued instrument, or
by providing a state-of-the-art replacement with a good software interface and comprehensive application support to assist customers with the translation of old TPSs to new hardware.

Here are two examples that illustrate the two different approaches.

EDM and MEDM Control and Display Panels for EPICS Oscilloscopes

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ZTEC Instruments announces new Extensible Display Manager (EDM) and Motif Editor and Display Manager (MEDM) control and display panels for their Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) digital oscilloscopes.

The EDM and MEDM panels can be used to control all instrument functions and monitor acquired waveforms in real time. Additionally, the panels can be modified by end users to meet their specific needs. For example, a user can modify the ZTEC panels to display captured waveforms from multiple instruments on a single display.

ZTEC Instruments' EPICS oscilloscopes are the only high-performances oscilloscopes with a built-in EPICS IOC. The instruments are accessed via LAN/Ethernet. Using EPICS, complete oscilloscope control and monitoring is possible using process variables (PVs) published using the Channel Access (CA) network protocol. Together with the new EDM and MEDM panels, users can easily integrate ZTEC EPICS oscilloscopes into their EPICS environment without having to write instrument drivers and/or display and control GUIs.

The new panels are available for download and evaluation:
Download the EDM panel >>
Download the MEDM panel >>

For access to an online EPICS oscilloscope, contact ZTEC