[volt-nuts] Solartron 7081 ROM images

[David C. Partridge]

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:

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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