Advantest R6142 to R6144 Free Upgrade Hack

[@TonyAlbus]

Thanks Jared, was looking for this, i scored one :) .. great!

[@NearFarMedia]

Oh nice! They are a nice bit of gear. They are allmmoosstt good enough to calibrate the TDS scopes. Voltage range is ok, but if the current ranges had just one more digit of resolution in the higher range it would be perfect...

[@TonyAlbus]

@@NearFarMedia The upgrade worked for me too, only i did needed to calibrate it.. after calibrating it was not linear over all values , so i did the unthinkeble and turned that pot :) now its spot-on on all values :) so its seems to change linearity.

[@artursmihelsons415]

Nice and quick update! 👍 Excellent video as always!

[@juergenschimmer960]

Maybe you made a mistake while checking the current output. You had the Multimeter and the 100Ohm Load in parallel, so some of the current goes thru the Meter, and some thru the 100Ohm Resistor.

[@NearFarMedia]

I certainly did make a mistake there! 🤭 And it would explain why the current reading difference increased linearly as the output current setting increased. I should have left the multimeter connected in DC Volts mode and done a quick ohms law calculation to see the true current (using the measurement of voltage drop across the resistor against the resistance). That will teach me to run tests after midnight when I should have been asleep! At least the test was close enough to prove the increased output anyway... 😉

[@hullinstruments]

Very interesting. Hope you're doing well and looking forward to more videos from you. 👍

[@niino4329]

Tokyo is infamous for it's tiny tiny apartments. So... how do you manage the space for all your gear? Or don't you actually live in Tokyo and just drive there? Just curious. I would be very interested in knowing how you ended up in japan!

[@NearFarMedia]

I live just outside Tokyo in a full size house. :) I came on a working holiday and life said stay, so I did. :D

[@plainedgedsaw1694]

Why would they put out 2 different models distinguished only by cut jumpers...

[@NearFarMedia]

It's to capture more of the market, it's a common strategy. Same with locking out features behind software license keys (think Rigol and Siglent for two notable examples). The company has already spent all the R&D time anyway, so why not lock out some features and sell the unit cheaper to the lower-end market to get that extra income stream. And then those customers can later upgrade anyway (in the case of software lockout). It's my suspicion that these jumpers are one of the reasons why schematics were never realeased for these two units too. If customers saw how easy the upgrade was, then word would get out and few of the higher-spec units would have been sold! 😆

[@TheDefpom]

Now the price will shoot up LOL... I think I wouldn't bother getting one because I am not sure what I could actually use it for with such a low output current. I just looked up the price of these on eBay and WOW those are expensive for a low current supply, I think they are overpriced somehow !

[@NearFarMedia]

Oh wow yeah, waaay too pricey in ebay! I paid ¥10,000 for the R6142 in the video, a bit less than US$100.... I wouldn't pay more than a couple hundred for one in mint condition. I mainly use mine for calibrating scopes and multimeters etc, so mostly use the volts range anyway.

[@DarianCabot]

Upgrade working very nicely on my R6142. Sorry, I mean R6144 😁