[time-nuts] hp 5061B, power-up sequence, logging

[Tom Van Baak]

I have a hp 5061B that's been in standby (Cs Off mode) for several years 
and I plan to power it up for a while and see how it's doing.

This time I'd like to track its vitals during the sequence -- not by 
manually reading the meter every few minutes as I usually do -- but by 
logging meter readings automatically with a multi-channel ADC. Readings 
of interest would be: Ion Pump I, Cs Oven, Beam I, Control, 2nd 
Harmonic, and lock state.

Has anyone done this? Do you have any recommendations on obtaining the 
voltages as simple as possible? It's slightly complicated by the fact 
that not all meter readings are referenced to ground. I'll probably pick 
an 8-channel USB ADC for this. Maybe using differential instead of 
single-ended inputs would work around the floating meter design.

A sampling rate of 1 Hz would normally be enough, but when the CBT has 
been off for so long there are interesting pulses of CBT oven and Ion 
current and so maybe 10 Hz or even 50 Hz would be better to capture that 
detail.

This is a one-off test, just to have a well documented example of Cs 
oven power-up & locking sequence. But I'd consider leaving it wired in 
so I can collect data long-term as well. Most modern rubidium and cesium 
clocks have computer connections and telemetry already, so in a sense 
this project is to explore retroactively adding similar functionality to 
5061-era cesium standards.

Anyway, if anyone has done something similar I'd be interested in 
hearing about it.

Thanks,
/tvb