[volt-nuts] Solartron 7081 ROM images

J. L. Trantham jltran at att.net
Tue Jan 3 13:46:14 UTC 2012


Dave,

Do you recall the information you receive from your 7081 when you connect to
the meter via an RS232 terminal and (IIRC) hit 'Initialise'?  Mine says:

VDD BSW 8 De 86 8 50

Mine is SN 001523 and also has 'DD' labeled EPROM's.  Therefore, I wonder if
the 'VDD' statement reflects version DD of the firmware?

BTW, the calibration on my meter was done by Dave Moon.

Joe



-----Original Message-----
From: volt-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:volt-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of David C. Partridge
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 2:36 AM
To: 'Discussion of precise voltage measurement'
Subject: [volt-nuts] Solartron 7081 ROM images


On 22 December I received an email from a Solartron (Ametek) engineer (one
of the very few remaining) who had found my web site.

Amongst other things he said:

==== QUOTE ====
Incidentally did you know that the 7081 and 7071 are essentially the same
instrument? The reference zener diodes were soaked for several weeks in an
oven which temperature cycled them and each diode was checked regularly for
stability. The very best ones were selected to go in the tighter specified
7081. The not so good ones went in the 7071. Otherwise the only difference
is the front panel and the contents of the EPROMS. The 7081 has an 8 x nines
(51 seconds integration time) button. On the 7071 this button is not present
and the firmware limits the integration time to  3.2 seconds (7 x nines
display). Both units can go down to 3 nines (1.56mS integration time, 100
readings/second) when under remote control although of course this rather
defeats the object of having such an long scale instrument. 

Out of interest I just took the lid off my 7081 (serial 104) to see what
firmware it has in it. The EPROMS which are labelled issue (DD) have the
same checksums as in your article and looking at records this seems to be
the last version produced. The only difference is that mine are 2764 rather
than the 2564 in yours. (They are of course interchangable). 
==== END QUOTE ====

It's nice to have confirmation of my suspicion that the ROM set I have IS
the final revision.

Cheers
Dave


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