at the following address:
<
http://www.rhodiatoce.com/pics/time-nuts/FE-5680A/FE-5680A_schematics_v0.1.pdf

you will find the 0.1 release of the FE-5680A schematics.

New additions:

• pinout of the unpopulated (24 pin) connector (J9) behind the DB9
• connections between CPU/MAX3232 and the TWO serial ports!!!
• component values of the 10MHz filter + option on PCB to output a square
  10MHz wave on DB9
• connections between CPU and MAX1246 (A/D converter)
• connections between XC9572 and MAX392 (quad analog switch)
• unknown pins marked as '?'

As you can see, it seems FE-5680A fully supports 2 serial ports:
one on DB9 and the other one on the unpopulated connector (J9) behind DB9.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome.

.      ciao
_        Elio.

Elio,

I've contacted with the guy who dissected his FE-5680A in YouTube.  I
offered to pay the shipping and he agrees to send the board to you, so
he needs your address.  Please contact directly with me.

Regards,
Ignacio, RB4APL

El 15/02/2012 2:31, Elio Corbolante escribió:

Hi

Some of the schematic is less important for "how it works" but all of it is
useful for troubleshooting. I wonder if splitting off stuff like tracing out
the power supplies and heaters might be a good idea...

Once we get into things like typical voltage levels, we will need to look at
multiple units anyway.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On
Behalf Of Elio Corbolante
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 8:31 PM
To: time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] FE-5680A Schematics (v0.1)

at the following address:
<
http://www.rhodiatoce.com/pics/time-nuts/FE-5680A/FE-5680A_schematics_v0.1.p
df

you will find the 0.1 release of the FE-5680A schematics.

New additions:

• pinout of the unpopulated (24 pin) connector (J9) behind the DB9
• connections between CPU/MAX3232 and the TWO serial ports!!!
• component values of the 10MHz filter + option on PCB to output a square
  10MHz wave on DB9
• connections between CPU and MAX1246 (A/D converter)
• connections between XC9572 and MAX392 (quad analog switch)
• unknown pins marked as '?'

As you can see, it seems FE-5680A fully supports 2 serial ports:
one on DB9 and the other one on the unpopulated connector (J9) behind DB9.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome.

.      ciao
_        Elio.

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
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https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.

FYI

Schematics for the 60MHz to 10MHz out divider, directly behind the DB9.

There are 3 selectable output signals on the mini RF connector,
either 10MHz or 60MHz (Square) and 10MHz bandpass filtered

http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i370/bobgrant1/TimeNutz/clockout.png

Bob

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012, at 12:53 PM, Bob Camp wrote:

--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Does exactly what it says on the tin

I haven't personally tried but others have reported they were somewhat less than
cooperative.

Peter

On 2/15/2012 6:23 PM, Bill Riches wrote:

FEI is the most surly and uncooperative company I've dealt with in 40
years.
Don

Peter Gottlieb

--
"Neither the voice of authority nor the weight of reason and argument
are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind."
R. Bacon
"If you don't know what it is, don't poke it."
Ghost in the Shell

Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL
Six Mile Systems LLP
17850 Six Mile Road
POB 134
Huson, MT, 59846
VOX 406-626-4304
www.lightningforensics.com
www.sixmilesystems.com

I used to work for one of their subsidiaries, and yes, I agree entirely with
what you say Don!

Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On
Behalf Of Don Latham
Sent: 16 February 2012 02:59
To: nerd@verizon.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A Contact FEI

FEI is the most surly and uncooperative company I've dealt with in 40 years.
Don

Peter Gottlieb

--
"Neither the voice of authority nor the weight of reason and argument
are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind."
R. Bacon
"If you don't know what it is, don't poke it."
Ghost in the Shell

Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL
Six Mile Systems LLP
17850 Six Mile Road
POB 134
Huson, MT, 59846
VOX 406-626-4304
www.lightningforensics.com
www.sixmilesystems.com

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.

I have written to them on several occasions about 56

Sent via Gerald's iPad

Begin forwarded message:

Hmmm,

Seems they dont realise that their lack of cooperation will lead, not to
protecting their product, but rather to the massive, public reverse
engineering of it?

On Friday, February 17, 2012 05:43:49 PM Gerald Molenkamp wrote:

--
Mike McCauley                              mikem@open.com.au
Open System Consultants Pty. Ltd
9 Bulbul Place Currumbin Waters QLD 4223 Australia  http://www.open.com.au
Phone +61 7 5598-7474                      Fax  +61 7 5598-7070

Radiator: the most portable, flexible and configurable RADIUS server
anywhere. SQL, proxy, DBM, files, LDAP, NIS+, password, NT, Emerald,
Platypus, Freeside, TACACS+, PAM, external, Active Directory, EAP, TLS,
TTLS, PEAP, TNC, WiMAX, RSA, Vasco, Yubikey, MOTP, HOTP, TOTP,
DIAMETER etc. Full source on Unix, Windows, MacOSX, Solaris, VMS, NetWare etc.

Or worse, they will start requiring their scrappers to use a drill press or punch to render the physics package unusable. I've seen this done locally by hard drive manufacturers- hundreds of pounds of working HDs destroyed on purpose on a regular basis. If they only scrap "killed" units, no one will want to reverse engineer them.

-Dave

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike McCauley" mikem@open.com.au
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" time-nuts@febo.com
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:02:28 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Fwd: FE-5680A Contact FEI

Hmmm,

Seems they dont realise that their lack of cooperation will lead, not to
protecting their product, but rather to the massive, public reverse
engineering of it?

On Friday, February 17, 2012 05:43:49 PM Gerald Molenkamp wrote:

--
Mike McCauley mikem@open.com.au
Open System Consultants Pty. Ltd
9 Bulbul Place Currumbin Waters QLD 4223 Australia http://www.open.com.au
Phone +61 7 5598-7474 Fax +61 7 5598-7070

Radiator: the most portable, flexible and configurable RADIUS server
anywhere. SQL, proxy, DBM, files, LDAP, NIS+, password, NT, Emerald,
Platypus, Freeside, TACACS+, PAM, external, Active Directory, EAP, TLS,
TTLS, PEAP, TNC, WiMAX, RSA, Vasco, Yubikey, MOTP, HOTP, TOTP,
DIAMETER etc. Full source on Unix, Windows, MacOSX, Solaris, VMS, NetWare etc.

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.

If the device is reverse engineered and the work made public domain,
the device is likely to increase in value on the used market. I've seen
this before when proprietary products are reversed.
Suddenly they are transformed from black magic, in to something that a
community of people may thoroughly discuss, modify, repair, and
maintain. This makes a hot, usable device, for years to come.

The last big reversing project I worked on dealt in the automotive
sector, I made my work available in a rar'd collection of abstract html
pages and documents within a directory that was easy to save and pass
on. I also encouraged everyone who looked at the document to download it
and pass it along. The system operators of the servers where the files
were originally located were told to remove the documents due to vague
claims of IP violations. The internet archive also removed my work as it
was cited for the same IP violoations. So in addition to increasing the
value of the device, reverse engineering also brings the very reversing
documentation under fire.

usenet is a good place to distribute such a document, and it's also a
good idea to use several names so that any counter efforts are forced
to find all the derivatives.

Steve

The used market makes no difference to them. No revenue stream.
In fact I would say you are swatting at the behive. It would be wise to
leave them alone since several have reached out and already had a poor
experience.
As someone else pointed out this is what gets manufactures to demand
crushing or drilling holes etc. Further the very hard work being done by
this group to understand these units can be at risk if FEI decides to
really get cranky.
Regards
Paul
WB8TSL

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Steve iteration69@gmail.com wrote:

On 2/17/12 5:27 AM, paul swed wrote:

A lot of companies don't provide docs on request because it costs
significant money to do so, and provides little bottom line return.
Someone has to dig in the files for the old drawings, which are almost
certainly marked "proprietary" (on general principle).  Then, they have
to through some sort of redaction/release process to make sure it's not
dangerous, illegal, or unwise to release it.

None of which contributes much to their bottom line, and more
particularly, none of this helps the engineer stuck with it get his or
her deliverables done on schedule and on budget.

Net result is, unless you have a friend in the company who's willing to
invest some time for free, it isn't going to happen, if it's not a
standard policy.

As Paul pointed out, this is probably not perceived as a revenue stream.

Good points made - no income for the company, However on the other side of
the coin - look at Agilient having available all of the old HP manuals for
download even though there is no income to them.  I wonder if it was a
requirement of them to supply HP manuals when they absorbed HP.

I just purchased a new HP Pavilion laptop and was surprised to see that you
can download a service manual from HP with part numbers and it has
disassembly instructions - don't know of any other mfgs that do that.  Of
course HP computer company does not have any connection with the original HP

• or do they...

73,

Bill Riches, WA2DVU
Cape May, NJ

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On
Behalf Of Jim Lux
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 9:43 AM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Fwd: FE-5680A Contact FEI

On 2/17/12 5:27 AM, paul swed wrote:

On 2/17/12 7:02 AM, Bill Riches wrote:

I think you will find that there's no particular rhyme or reason to
documents being available. Contractual obligations are probably way down
the list of reasons. More, it's just a "company habit" (I won't go so
far as to say culture).

Aglient has such a huge installed base, and lots and lots of HP gear
still being used. In their case, it probably saves them money to have it
online, otherwise they'd have to have a whole department printing off
copies, shipping them, etc.

Companies that make "components" or "assemblies" (e.g. Wenzel) and who
do a lot of custom work are less likely.  Wenzel has all their catalog
units online, but it would be impractical for them to just publish all
the customs.. they'd have to do the export control review and
proprietary review, and they're not a very big shop.  If you happened to
ask when they weren't very busy, they'd probably be more helpful than
when they've got a big order they're trying to get out.

One thing to keep in mind is that FEI is very largely a defense
contractor, so their customers, marketing, and motivation are a bit
different than the typical business-to-business model.

John

On 2/17/2012 10:02 AM, Bill Riches wrote:

I think that for many of us, we are both professional and hobbyist Time Nuts and companies that encourage the hobbyist will find it pays of when we make professional purchases. Agilent seems to be learning this lesson as they put more and more manuals for obsolete products on line.

Thomas Knox

I have been leaning more toward Agilent and away from Tektronix for
this very reason.

On Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:17:54 -0700, Tom Knox actast@hotmail.com
wrote: