[volt-nuts] ...a guide to buying the HP/Agilent 3458A

[Greg Burnett]

Mark - a few questions that might be helpful to the rest of us...

1. How do we measure the internal battery voltage for the DS1230Y and 
DS1220Y chips? ...Across which pin numbers?

2. Where can we buy the 3 chips for around $50? (That sounds like a good 
deal to me.)

BTW, my first 3458A NVRAM battery failure occurred at 15 years, right in the 
middle of a critical 6 month-long data collection experiment. So this was 
catastrophic. In a second 3458A, the NVRAM battery failure occurred at 16 
years. Over their lifetimes, I estimate those two units were powered up only 
10 percent of the total time. So if someone powers-up their 3458A more of 
the time (e.g. running 24/7 all those years), maybe they stand a better 
chance of longer battery life? (These chips automatically disconnect their 
internal batteries when Vcc rises above 3Vdc.)

The 3458A first went into production 21 years ago. Time sure flies when 
we're having fun!

-Greg