Recently I’ve been putting a couple of HP logic analysis systems into action. Accumulated from various places over the last couple of years I have both a 16500A and a 16500B. They’re remarkable units which take a whole variety of plugins for doing high-speed digital and analogue measurements. They must have been eye-wateringly expensive when new and, as a result, have such high specifications that they’re still useful even though they’re around 20 years old. For example, the 16500B boasts a colour touch-screen, a built-in hard drive and Ethernet. It was launched in 1992 when many desktop PCs didn’t have those features, so it must have seemed awesomely high-tech at the time.

Here’s a picture of the 16500B. The 16500A is similar but looks…older.

There are a few quirks to using these machines in 2013, and I’m intending to write about some of my experiences here.