[volt-nuts] HP 3458A SCAL

[Greg Burnett]

Dick,
I think the mode you're referring to is its ACV SYNC mode (Synchronously 
Sub-sampled Mode) which can be used to measure repetitive AC waveforms from 
1Hz to 10MHz.

Here are some excellent articles:

HP Journal April 1989 (Several excellent 3458A articles)
http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1989-04.pdf


Ron Swerleins' 10ppm Accurate Digital AC Measurement Algorithm
http://www.home.agilent.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/Swerleins_Algorithm.pdf

Note: Ron's "God's AC" algorithm uses the 3458A's DCV mode to sample AC 
waveforms, and is good for AC waveform frequencies at or below 1kHz.

Best,
Greg


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Moore" <richiem at hughes.net>
To: <volt-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: [volt-nuts] HP 3458A SCAL


One of the joys of the 3458 is that at 100kHz and below, you can tell the 
box to bypass the AC rectifier circuit and directly sample the AC waveform 
with the ADC and then do all the processing, which yields quite good --  
well, very good -- accuracy.  Above 100kHz, the system must be used like the 
majority of DMMs and do an absolute value conversion before ADC and 
computing the TRMS. So I think your system will provide good results either 
way at, say 500kHz and below, and the 2MHz and 8MHz flatness will have 
essentially no affect on either way of processing the signal at lower 
frequencies.

Dick Moore