Hi Bob; A great product you designed. I wish Microchip would have continued evolution in that (standalone instrument) direction. After many hours researching the heat and time-out issues on the 5125A and 5120A I found the solution was adding a larger 60mm fan and an airflow deflector near the front panel to create a circular airflow through-out the instrument. There are a number of additional details to this upgrade but It completely solved the issues and the final mod had no negative effect - perhaps actually improving performance by reducing measurement artifacts. To accomplish this, I tried over 10 fans, and in the final REV placed the fan outside the chassis using gaskets and neoprene washers to reduce electrical noise and isolate mechanical vibration. At the time I also added an external monitor output. Another upgrade that helps protect the 5120/5A series from front end damage ( I believe is standard on many later 5120A/5125A analyzers ) are DC blocks on the inputs. I did this differently than Microchip by adding metrology grade stainless TNC to SMA front panel connectors and installed Mini -Circuits BLK-89-S+ DC Blocks directly to those adapters with SMA-m to SMA-m RA cables between the front panel DC blocks and P/N module inputs. I also added additional RAM doubling the original (256MB?) to 512MB. I attached a few photos. All these minor improvements made an exceptional product better achieve its full potential. Feel free to contact me for details. Enjoy; Tom Knox SR Test and Measurement Engineer Phoenix Research 4870 Meredith Way Apt 102 Boulder, Co 80303 Formerly of: 357 Fox Lane Superior Co 80027 303-554-0307 actast@hotmail.com https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/marshall-fire/superior-man-moving-forward-after-losing-dream-research-lab-during-marshall-fire "Peace is not the absence of violence, but the presence of Justice" Both MLK and Albert Einstein ________________________________ From: Bob Martin via time-nuts <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Sent: Saturday, August 5, 2023 10:19 AM To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Cc: Bob Martin <aphid1@comcast.net> Subject: [time-nuts] TSC5120A Jim, I was involved in the design of the TC5120A and can confirm the issue. There is a single board computer (SBC) in the unit which runs off a compact flash. The flash can and does occasionally get corrupted if the power ends during a write operation. Since support has gone away for the product, I suggest you remove the cover on the unit, find the SBC, remove the compact flash and make a copy of it as a backup. If that works you will be covered in case of failure. Others in this list may be able to provide CF images. I haven't tried this as I no longer have a TSC5120A and am not sure if the CF is protected or not. I'd try and use the same size and make CF when making an image. I'm retired now but could wander over to: Timing Solutions -> Symmetricon -> Microsemi -> Microchip and ask the original software developer whether the CF can be copied if it becomes an issue. Running the unit with the cover off is something else to try as the unit runs "warm". The internal signal paths are all shielded and if the results with cover on vs cover off are the same in your working environment, I'd leave it off as heat is the enemy of long life for electronics. The enclosure was designed originally for the TSC5110 which drew less power than the TSC5120A. Good luck and hopefully many years of good use, Bob Martin _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave@lists.febo.com