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Archimago: Inside an APx555

chris719

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Great thread. Thanks for sharing.

The blue boards are pretty, even if the fans are obnoxious.

Some places have rules like blue for production and green or red for prototypes. I used to love the different colors but now I prefer green - it just is easier on the eyes in inspection. Blue is not bad, though. White was neat for about 5 minutes until I realized that it's terrible for anything other than showing you flux residue.
 

Tks

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Some places have rules like blue for production and green or red for prototypes. I used to love the different colors but now I prefer green - it just is easier on the eyes in inspection. Blue is not bad, though. White was neat for about 5 minutes until I realized that it's terrible for anything other than showing you flux residue.

I hear white is the most expensive as well. Is that true for single solid colors?
 

dougi

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Can one of the experts here tell me how AP compares with Rhode & Schwartz, which seems to be the other big name in SoTA measurement?
The datasheets for the R&S UPV and the Keysight U8903B analyser are readily available. I assume, at first glance, not as resolving as the AP since inherent THD seems to be 110-115dB. Both R& and Keysight do tend to have very good local support and info/whitepapers available though.
 

chris719

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I hear white is the most expensive as well. Is that true for single solid colors?

I don’t know if there are any price differences in bulk. It used to be that anything other than green was an extra cost if you didn’t have the volume for multiple panels of your own. It seems that the cost for alternate colors has gone down in general. Some batch services might have different pricing due to diffferent demand for each color.

Generally it’s assumed that all LPI solder mask is the same, but I’ve heard people claim that there are slight differences in minimum tolerances between colors. I’ve never seen evidence or gone looking at datasheets, honestly.
 

restorer-john

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The datasheets for the R&S UPV and the Keysight U8903B analyser are readily available.

Is the R&S UPV still running embedded Windows XP? I'd buy it over an APX for my purposes.
 

dougi

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KSTR

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Next time I'll open my AP SYS2322 built in 1995 I'll take photos for a comparison how things have evolved since then.
While it is not quiet, it's OK level for me for some hours of work. Other high-tech equipment of the day made much more noise and produced much more heat (Tektronix DSA600, anyone?)
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Those who haven't heard the fan in the old (and large) Tektronix vacuum tube oscilloscopes don't know what loud is. They called them 'the wind tunnel' for a reason. Kids these days are wimps with their foo-foo sissy fans. ;)
 

restorer-john

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Those who haven't heard the fan in the old (and large) Tektronix vacuum tube oscilloscopes don't know what loud is. They called them 'the wind tunnel' for a reason. Kids these days are wimps with their foo-foo sissy fans.

Honestly, my DSO gets less use, compared to my old skool CROs due to the fuggin' fan noise. For audio, a CRO is best, the DSO is hopeless for XY (lissajous) and too slow, not intuitive and the dials are not fixed (just encoders with no pointer).

I think the sweet spot were the Tek DSO scopes from the early days.
 

tomchr

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I hear white is the most expensive as well. Is that true for single solid colors?
Depends on the manufacturer. Some have just upped the price of green solder mask to match the other colours. :) My assembly house hates the white and yellow solder masks. Yellow doesn't offer enough contrast with the white silk screen legend and tends to mess up the automated optical inspection that's done at several steps in the assembly process. White tends to discolour (it'll sometimes turn almost pink) when it goes through the solder reflow oven.

I find the APx525 and APx555 to be pretty quiet in operation. Yes. There is some whirring of fans. Big whoop! Mine is no more than 50 cm from my head when I'm measuring stuff.
If you want to know what a loud fan sounds like, try working next to one of the older pieces of HP test gear, such as the HP3562/63, HP3577, HP4194A, etc. Or a Dell PC for that matter...

Tom
 

Tks

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Depends on the manufacturer. Some have just upped the price of green solder mask to match the other colours. :) My assembly house hates the white and yellow solder masks. Yellow doesn't offer enough contrast with the white silk screen legend and tends to mess up the automated optical inspection that's done at several steps in the assembly process. White tends to discolour (it'll sometimes turn almost pink) when it goes through the solder reflow oven.

I find the APx525 and APx555 to be pretty quiet in operation. Yes. There is some whirring of fans. Big whoop! Mine is no more than 50 cm from my head when I'm measuring stuff.
If you want to know what a loud fan sounds like, try working next to one of the older pieces of HP test gear, such as the HP3562/63, HP3577, HP4194A, etc. Or a Dell PC for that matter...

Tom
Haven’t touched Dell since the early 00’s

Though I doubt any modern consumer devices are loud all that much anymore.
 

Dion_Sinewave

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It is loud all the time. No temperature sensitivity. I don't know why they think this level of noise is acceptable in a lab.

I put mine in a vented but enclosed rack and that helped cut the noise in half. Still, I cannot work beside it without closed back headphones.
Wow that is too loud. I did the Noctoura mod to my Lake DLP as soon as I received it.
 

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SIY

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I find the APx525 and APx555 to be pretty quiet in operation. Yes. There is some whirring of fans. Big whoop! Mine is no more than 50 cm from my head when I'm measuring stuff.
For speaker testing, I had to isolate the APx525 and APx1701 in a different room and run cables. Still worked perfectly, though.

I've requested a Lissajous feature in the software; I've been generating those manually from data files. On va voir...
 
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