On my electronics bench there are presently four Keysight/Aglient branded test instruments. They are:
33622A Waveform Generator
53230A Universal Frequency Counter/Timer
34461A 6 1/2 digit Multimeter
N9322C 7.0 GHz Spectrum Analyzer
All of these instruments are connected to a laptop PC via USB and Ethernet wired connections.
I have had the very good fortune to review three of the four instruments listed above for Element 14's Road Test program.
Links to those reviews and reviews conducted by other members on the same instruments are available in the table below.
| Links to Keysight Instrument reviews |
|---|
| 33622A Waveform Generator |
| 34461A 6 1/2 digit Multimeter |
| N9322C 7.0 GHz Spectrum Analyzer |
I purchased the Agilent 53230A Counter/Timer from the Keysight EBay store. This store is a great place to find fully calibrated, warrantied Keysight instruments at significant discounts. I recommend hobbyists looking for quality Keysight/Agilent instruments check the site out at http://stores.ebay.ca/keysight/.
In a series of blogs posts found here, here, here, and here I describe how the Agilent 33522B can be programmed with Agilent's BenchLink Waveform Builder Pro to generate data streams to control WS2811/WS2812 RGB LED strings.
What I plan to do with BenchVue and pro licenses for the DMM and Counter applications is generate an automated test sequence that will use arbitrary waveforms loaded into the 33622A to drive a 4 m long string of RGB LEDs to illuminate several reference patterns,such as those shown in the table below.
| Illumination Pattern | Drive Current | End of String DC Voltage |
|---|---|---|
| All Green, minimum brightness | ||
| All Blue, minimum brightness | ||
| All Red, minimum brightness | ||
| All Green, maximum brightness | ||
| All Blue, maximum brightness | ||
| All Red, maximum brightness | ||
| All White, maximum brightness |
I hope to have the 33622A generate the data streams to produce each illumination pattern, then have the 34461A take the current and voltage measurements (one separate test runs). I'm hoping this will allow me to populate the table of characteristic data for the string. This data will be useful for a project involving LED strings of this type. I have an idea for under cabinet lighting using LED strings that I don't think anyone has yet commercialized. Enough said on that topic.
For the spectrum analyzer and counter I will try to automate something I wrote about in another blog post and in my review of the 33622A. Frequency drift and spectral purity of a sinusoidal signal.
I am very busy at work for the next week attending to some major deadlines. I may not start the actual Road Test until the second week of November. I then plan to blog about my progress and wrap everything together in a consolidated Road Test review by mid_December.
I am also working on a blog post about member participation in Element 14 and how it might be increased. That blog post I hope to have out by next weekend.
Mark A