Programmable

Frequency Counters
PM6685 & PM6685R

Operators Manual
 4822 872 20101
May 2003 First Edition

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is

prohibited without written consent of the copyright owner.
 Pendulum Instruments AB - Sweden - 2003

II
 Table of Contents
1 Preface 6 Measuring Functions
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Introduction to This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2
Design Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Selecting Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2
New Fast SCPI Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
Rubidium Counter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
Burst Frequency and PRF . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6
2 Safety Instructions AM Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
Ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12
Safety Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12
3 Preparation for Use Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13
Unpacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13
Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Pulse Width and Duty Factor. . . . . 6-14
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-14
4 Using the Controls Pulse Width A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15
About This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2 Duty Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15
The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2 Totalize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3 Totalize A Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
Basic Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
Input A Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 7 Measurement Control
Measurement Control Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6 About This Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2
Display Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7 Measuring Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2
Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8 Display Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3
Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9 Arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3
Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10 Digit Blanking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5
Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11 Controlling Measurement Timing . . 7-6
PM6685R Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12 Arming Setup Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12
Arming Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13
5 Input Signal Conditioning Example #1: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13
Introduction to this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2 Example #2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-16
Input A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2 Example #3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17
Input C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6
Reducing Noise and Interference . . . . . . . . 5-6

III
8 Processing
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2
Averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2
Nulling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

9 Auxiliary Functions
About This Chapter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2
Auxiliary Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

10 Performance Check
General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2
Recommended Test Equipment . . . . . . . . 10-2
Front Panel Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-3
Short Form Specification Test . . . . . . . . . 10-5
Rear Input/Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-6
Measuring Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7
PM9621, PM9624 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8
PM9623 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8

11 Preventive Maintenance
Calibration and Adjustment. . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2
Other Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

12 Specifications
Measuring Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2
Input and Output Specifications . . . . . . . . 12-3
Auxiliary Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4
GPIB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5
Battery Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6
Measurement Uncertainties . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
Timebase Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8
General Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-9
Ordering Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-10

13 Appendix
Appendix 1, Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

14 Index
15 Service Centers
SERVICE CENTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-II

IV
 LIMITED WARRANTY & LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
Each Fluke product is warranted to be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal
use and service. The warranty period is one (1) year for the instrument and for its accessories. The
warranty period begins on the date of shipment. Parts, product repairs and services are warranted for
90 days. This warranty extends only to the original buyer or end-user customer of a Fluke autho-
rized reseller, and does not apply to fuses, disposable batteries or to any product which, in Fluke’s
opinion, has been misused, altered, neglected or damaged by accident or abnormal conditions of op-
eration or handling. Fluke warrants that software will operate substantially in accordance with its
functional specifications for 90 days and that it has been properly recorded on non-defective media.
Fluke does not warrant that software will be error free or operate without interruption.
Fluke authorized resellers shall extend this warranty on new and unused products to end-user cus-
tomers only but have no authority to extend a greater or different warranty on behalf of Fluke. War-
ranty support is available if product is purchased through a Fluke authorized sales outlet or Buyer
has paid the applicable international price. Fluke reserves the right to invoice Buyer for importation
costs of repair/replacement parts when product purchased in one country is submitted for repair in
another country.
Fluke’s warranty obligation is limited, at Fluke’s option, to refund of the purchase price, free of
charge repair, or replacement of a defective product which is returned to a Fluke authorized service
center within the warranty period.
To obtain warranty service, contact your nearest Fluke authorized service center or send the prod-
uct, with a description of the difficulty, postage and insurance prepaid (FOB Destination), to the
nearest Fluke authorized service center. Fluke assumes no risk for damage in transit. Following
warranty repair, the product will be returned to Buyer, transportation prepaid (FOB Destination). If
Fluke determines that the failure was caused by misuse, alteration, accident or abnormal condition
of operation or handling, Fluke will provide an estimate of repair costs and obtain authorization be-
fore commencing the work. Following repair, the product will be returned to the Buyer transporta-
tion prepaid and the Buyer will be billed for the repair and return transportation charges (FOB
Shipping Point).
THIS WARRANTY IS BUYER’S SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY AND IS IN LIEU OF
ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. FLUKE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA, WHETHER
ARISING FROM BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, RELIANCE
OR ANY OTHER THEORY.
Since some countries or states do not allow limitation of the term of an implied warranty, or exclu-
sion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, the limitations and exclusions of this war-
ranty may not apply to every buyer. If any provision of this Warranty is held invalid or unenforce-
able by a court of competent jurisdiction, such holding will not affect the validity or enforceability
of any other provision.
Fluke Corporation, P.O. Box 9090, Everett, WA 98206-9090 USA, or
Fluke Industrial B.V, P.O. Box 90, 7600 AB, Almelo, The Netherlands

V
 DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY
for
Fluke

Frequency Counters PM6685 & PM6685R

Fluke Industrial B.V.
Lelyweg 1
7602 EA Almelo
The Netherlands
Statement of Conformity

Based on test results using appropriate standards,

the product is in conformity with
Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 89/336/EEC
Low Voltage Directive 73/23/EEC
Sample tests
Standards used:

EN 61010-1 (1997)
Safety Requirements for Electrical Equipment for Measurement, Control, and
Laboratory Use
EN 61326/A1 (1998)
EMC Requirements for Electrical Equipment for Measurement, Control, and
Laboratory Use
The tests have been performed in a
typical configuration.
This Conformity is indicated by the symbol ,
i.e. “Conformité Européenne”.

VI
 Chapter 1

Preface
Preface

No Mistakes
Introduction
You will soon find that your new counter is a
Your PM6685 Counter is designed to bring you delight to operate. One example is the backlight
a new dimension to portable and bench-top LCD that shows you measurement results, set-
counting. It offers significantly increased per- ting status, and operator messages. The AUTO
formance compared to traditional counters. The function triggers automatically on any input
counter offers the following advantages: waveform. A bus-learn mode simplifies GPIB
programming. With bus-learn mode, manual
– Ten digits of frequency resolution per sec-
counter settings can be transferred to the con-
ond and 250 ps resolution, as a result of
troller for later reprogramming. There is no
high-resolution interpolating reciprocal
need to learn code and syntax for each individ-
counting
ual counter setting if you are an occasional bus
– A 1.3 GHz or a 3.0 GHz input frequency user.
option
– A foolproof autotrigger function

New Powerful and Versatile Design Innovations

Functions
The unique versatile autosensitivity and State of the Art Technology
autowaveform compensation takes care of all Gives Durable Use
triggering from 50 Hz and up. It even optimizes
This counter and the other models in the
itself to the requirements of different measuring
PM668X family are designed for quality and
functions.
durability. The design is highly integrated. The
Another unique feature in your instrument is digital counting circuitry consists of just two
the bar-graph level monitor. It always shows custom-developed VLSI-ASICs and a 16-bit
you the input signal level on a dB scale to verify microcontroller. The high integration and low
proper signal strength. component count reduces power consumption
and results in an MTBF of 30,000 hours. Mod-
The burst frequency and PRF functions mea- ern production surface-mount technology en-
sure bursts and AM signals without any exter- sures high production quality and a rugged me-
nal synchronization signal. chanical construction including a metal cabinet
To solve even tougher tasks, the counter has that withstands mechanical shocks and protects
complete arming possibilities which lets you against EMI.
synchronize measurements with external
events. You can even delay the arming of the High Resolution
counter (compare to delayed timebase trigger-
The use of reciprocal interpolating counting in
ing in an oscilloscope). Read more about
this instrument results in excellent relative res-
Armingin Chapter 7, "Measurement Control’’.
olution: 10 digits in one second for all frequen-
cies, see Figure 1-1.
The measurement is synchronized with the in-
put cycles instead of the timebase. Simulta-

1-2 Introduction
 Preface

neously with the normal “digital” counting, the The counter’s microcomputer calculates the re-
counter makes analog measurements of the sult after completing all measurements, i.e., the
time between the start/stop trigger events and digital time measurement and the two interpo-
the next following clock pulse. This is done in lation measurements.
two identical circuits by charging an integrating
capacitor with a constant current, starting at the The result is that the ba-
trigger event. Charging is stopped at the leading sic “digital resolution”
edge of the first following clock pulse. The of ± 1 clock pulse (100
stored charge in the integrating capacitor repre- ns) is reduced to 0.25%
sents the time difference between the start trig- of a clock pulse cycle, or
ger event and the leading edge of the first fol- 250 ps.
lowing clock pulse. Since the measurement is synchronized with
When the “digital” part of the measurement is the input signal, the resolution for frequency
ready, the stored charges in both capacitors are measurements is very high and is independent
measured. The capacitors are discharged with a of frequency.
constant current, which is only 1/400:th of the The Counter has 10 display digits to ensure that
charging current, which means that the dis- the display does not restrict the display resolu-
charge time will be 400 times the charging time. tion. It also has an overflow function that lets
This 400-fold stretched time is digitally mea- you see digit 11 and 12.
sured by the counter itself, with adequate reso-
lution.

# o f d ig its

1 0 M e a s u r e tim e = 1 s

9 M e a s u r e tim e = 1 0 0 m s

8 M e a s u r e tim e = 1 0 m s

7 M e a s u r e tim e = 1 m s

1 k 1 0 k 1 0 0 k 1 M 1 0 M 1 0 0 M

F re q u e n c y (H z )

Fig. 1-1 Resolution of the counter.

Design Innovations 1-3

Preface

fine group settings for complex measurements,

New Fast SCPI Bus then reduce them to one macro command.

The counter is not only an extremely powerful The GPIB interface, the Analog Output in-
and versatile bench-top instrument, it also fea- cluded, makes up the PM9626/031 option that
tures extraordinary IEEE-488 bus properties. can be easily installed after purchase.
To ensure compatibility now and in the future,
the Counter incorporates the latest IEEE-488.2
bus standard and the internationally standard-
ized SCPI Command set (Standard Commands
for Programmable Instruments). The bus trans-
Rubidium Counter
fer rate of the Counter is up to 1,000 measure- The PM6685R contains an atomic reso-
ments over the IEEE-488 bus, and 1,600 mea- nance-controlled timebase (rubidium) that
surements per second to internal memory. This gives a new meaning to 10-12 digit measure-
very high measurement rate makes new mea- ments.
surements possible. For example, you can per-
form jitter analysis on several thousands of The battery unit PM9623 is unnecessary in this
pulse width measurements and capture them in model, nor can it be built in.
a second. Together with the IEEE-488 inter-
faces you get an extensive programming man- The PM6685R uses a larger cabinet due to the
ual that helps you understand SCPI and pro- size and power requirements of the rubidium
gramming of the counter. timebase. The standard outfit also includes a
fan.
You get an analog recorder output as standard
with all IEEE-488 interfaces. This output pro-
vides an analog signal proportional to the value
of any three consecutive display digits. The
output can be used for recordings of measure-
ments on a strip-chart recorder or as a feedback
signal to an analog control system.
The counter is easy to use in IEEE-488 bus en-
vironments. A built-in bus-learn mode makes it
possible to transfer the complete counter setting
to the controller after having made all
individual settings manually via the front panel.
The response can later be used to reprogram the
counter to the same settings. This eliminates the
need for the occasional user to learn all individ-
ual programming codes. Complete (manually
set) counter settings can also be stored in 20 in-
ternal memory locations and can easily be re-
called for use at a suitable opportunity. Another
user-friendly feature is macro-programming.
You can define your own mnemonics and de-

1-4 New Fast SCPI Bus

 Chapter 2

Safety Instructions
Safety Instructions

Introduction Safety Precautions

Read this page carefully before you install and To ensure the correct and safe operation of this
use the instrument. instrument, it is essential that you follow gener-
ally accepted safety procedures in addition to
This instrument has been designed and tested the safety precautions specified in this manual.
according to safety Class 1 requirements of IEC
publication 1010-1 and CSA 22.2 No.231, and
has been supplied in a safe condition. The user Caution and Warning
of this instrument must have the required Statements
knowledge of it. This knowledge can be gained
by thoroughly studying this manual. CAUTION: Shows where incorrect
procedures can cause damage to,
This instrument is designed to be used by or destruction of equipment or
trained personnel only. Removing the cover for other property.
repair, maintenance, and adjustment of the in-
strument must be done by qualified personnel WARNING: Shows a potential danger
who are aware of the hazards involved. that requires correct procedures
or practices to prevent personal
injury.

Symbols

Shows where the protective ground ter-

minal is connected inside the instrument. Never
remove or loosen this screw.

Indicates that the operator should con-

sult the manual.

One such symbol is printed on the instrument,

beside the A input. It points out that the damage
Fig. 2 -1 Do not overlook the safety in-
level for the input voltage decreases from
structions!
350 Vp to 12 V rms when you switch the input
impedance from 1 MW to 50 W.

Another such symbol is printed near the battery

switch on the rear panel. Read more about the
battery switch on page 4-11. (Not for the
PM6685R)

2-2 Introduction
 Safety Instructions

If in Doubt about Safety

Whenever you suspect that it is unsafe to use
the instrument, you must make it inoperative by
doing the following:
– Disconnecting the line cord
– Clearly marking the instrument to prevent
its further operation
– Informing your local Fluke Service Center.
For example, the instrument is likely to be un-
safe if it is visibly damaged.

Disposal of Hazardous
Materials
If your counter has a rechargeable battery op-
tion, that option uses lead-acid batteries of a
type similar to automotive starter batteries.
When the batteries no longer work properly,
dispose of them at a battery recycling station.
You can of course return these batteries to Fluke
for recycling as well.

Safety Precautions 2-3

Safety Instructions

This page is intentionally left blank

2-4 Safety Precautions

 Chapter 3

Preparation for Use

Preparation for Use

n Fuse
Unpacking A 1.6 A/250 V slow blow fuse is placed inside
Check that the shipment is complete and that no the counter. This fuse rating is used for the full
damage has occurred during transportation. If voltage range.
the contents are incomplete or damaged, file a
claim with the carrier immediately. Also notify
your local Fluke sales or service organization in
Fig. 3-1 1.6AT 5x20mm fuse
case repair or replacement may be required.

CAUTION: If this fuse is blown, it is

Check List likely that the power supply is
The shipment should contain the following badly damaged. Do not replace the
items: fuse. Send the counter to the local
Service Center.
– The PM6685 Counter
– Line cord n Battery Supply
– This Operators Manual (Not for the PM6685R)
– Options you ordered should be installed. It is possible to run the counter from an optional
See "Identification.’’ battery supply, the PM9623.
– Programming Manual (when GPIB option With a battery unit installed, the counter can op-
is installed). erate without line power supply. The annuncia-
– N-to-BNC Adapter, (only with prescaler tor "LO BAT" will be displayed a few minutes
PM9624) before the battery is discharged.

Charging
Identification
You must Charge the battery before use or stor-
Check marks on the rear panel show what op- age. The counter charges the battery automati-
tions are installed in your counter, see Figure cally when connected to line power, whether
3-2. the instrument is in standby or turned on.

Grounding
Installation Grounding faults in the line voltage
supply will make any instrument con-
nected to it dangerous. Before connecting any
Supply Voltage unit to the power line, you must make sure that
the protective ground functions correctly. Only
n Setting then can a unit be connected to the power line
The Counter may be connected to any AC sup- and only by using a three-wire line cord. No
ply with a voltage rating of 90 to 265Vrms, 45 to other method of grounding is permitted. Exten-
440 Hz. The counter automatically adjusts itself sion cords must always have a protective
to the input line voltage. ground conductor.

3-2 Unpacking
 Preparation for Use

90V-265V

ON 16 8 4 2 1 IEEE 488/IEC 625 INTERFACE

OFF ADDRESS SH1, AH1, T5, L4, SR1,
ANALOG OUT RL1, DC1, DT1, E2
—ON
PRIMARY FUSE INSIDE
PM9621 PM9626 PM9628/85 1.6AT
—OFF/EXT DC
PM9623 PM9678 PM9697
12-24V DC INTERNAL
PM9624 PM9690 _______
BATTERY
PM9625 PM9691 _______
10MHz OUT REF IN EXT ARM Made i n S weden

G D E

Fig 3-2 Check marks on rear panel showing options included.

CAUTION: If a unit is moved from a

cold to a warm environment, con-
densation may cause a shock
hazard. Ensure, therefore, that the
grounding requirements are
strictly met.

WARNING: Never interrupt the

grounding cord. Any interruption Fig. 3-3 Fold-down support for comfort-
of the protective ground connec- able bench-top use.
tion inside or outside the
instrument or disconnection of the support can also be used as a handle to carry the
protective ground terminal is likely instrument.
to make the instrument danger-
ous.

Orientation and Cooling

The counter can be operated in any position de-
sired. Make sure the air flow through the venti-
lation slots at the top and side panels is not ob-
structed. Leave 5 centimeters (2 inches) of
space around the counter.
Rackmount Adapter
Fold-Down Support Note: The PM6685 and the PM6685R use dif-
ferent adapters. See Ordering Information.
For bench-top use, a fold-down support is
available for use underneath the counter. This

Installation 3-3
Preparation for Use

If you have ordered a 19 inch rackmount kit for – Remove the two plastic lids that cover the
your instrument, it has to be assembled after de- screw holes on the right and left side of
livery of the instrument. The rackmount kit
consists of the following:
– 2 brackets, (short, left; long, right)
– 4 screws, M5 x 8
– 4 screws, M6 x 8
WARNING: When you remove the
cover you will expose live parts
and accessible terminals which
can cause death.
the front panel.
WARNING: Capacitors inside the in-
strument can hold their charge – Push the instrument back into the cover.
even if the instrument has been – Turn it upside down
separated from all voltage – Install the two rear feet with the screws
sources. (A) to the rear panel.

n Assembling the Rackmount Kit – Fasten the brackets at the left and right
side with the screws included as illustrated
Make sure the power cord is disconnected from below.
the instrument.
Turn the instrument upside down.

– Loosen the two screws (A) at the rear feet. – Fasten the PM6685 or the PM6685R in the
rack via screws in the four rack mounting
– Grip the front panel and gently push at the holes
rear.
– Pull the instrument out of the cover. n Reversing the Rackmount Kit
– Remove the four feet from the cover. The instrument may also be mounted to the
Use a screwdriver as shown in the following il- right in the rack. To do so, first remove the plate
lustration or a pair of pliers to remove the on the long bracket and fasten it on the short
springs holding each foot, then push out the one, then perform the preceding steps.
feet.

3-4 Installation
 Chapter 4

Using the Controls

Using the Controls

– Timeout.
About This Chapter – Scaling factor for the analog output (when
This chapter gives you a quick introduction to GPIB option is installed).
all the controls of the counter, the design of the The counter has no numerical keypad, so you
user interface, and front panel text. For the oc- must use the following keys:
casional user, the information in this chapter is
often sufficient to solve a measurement prob- n Coarse Adjustment
lem. – Press DATA ENTRY p or
FUNCTION u to increase, and
DATA ENTRY q or t FUNCTION
to decrease a value in 1-2-5 steps.
The User Interface n Fine Adjustment

Keys – Press SENS uand the parameter to be set

expands over the entire display.
Most keys are simple toggle keys that turn on
and off the function printed above the key. Most – A cursor flashes to the left of the MSD
of the keys have an on/off annunciator in the digit. Move this cursor to the digit you
display directly over the key. This annunciator want to change. Use the t SENS u
is on when the function is active. keys.
– Change the value of the selected digit by
pressing the DATA ENTRY keys.
Auxiliary Menu Selection
– The sign (+ or –) is changed when the cur-
Functions which are not so frequently used are
sor flashes to the left of the MSD (only
gathered together in the AUX MENU. To select
minus is indicated).
from this menu:
Move the cursor to the next digit and repeat the
– Press AUX MENU and scroll through the above procedure until the display shows the de-
functions with the t FUNCTION u key. sired value. Then press ENTER to confirm the
– Press ENTER when the function you are selection.
looking for is displayed. Now new selec-
tions appear.
– Press DATA ENTRY keys or
t FUNCTION u to select.
– Press ENTER to confirm the selection.

Changing Numerical Values

You must enter numerical values when you set
the following:
– Measuring time.
– Arming delay.
– Reference values for nulling.

4-2 About This Chapter

 Using the Controls

Default Settings
PARAMETER VALUE/
SETTING
Input A:
Sensitivity AUTO
Trigger level AUTO
Impedance 1MΩ
Trigger slope Pos
Filter OFF
Arming:
Start OFF
Start Delay OFF
Stop OFF
Miscellaneous:
Function FREQ A
Null/offset OFF
Time out OFF
Measuring time 0.2s
Check OFF
Single cycle OFF
Analog output control OFF
Auxiliary functions All switched OFF
Blank LSD OFF

Table 4-1 Settings directly after the

counter has been switched
on, or the counter has been
PRESET.

Default Settings 4-3

Using the Controls

Basic Controls

STAND-BY LED STANDBY/ON FUNCTION

Lit when the counter Press ON and the counter turns on and re- Selects measuring function
is off, but power is turns to its default (standard) setting. If
available to an oven you want to recall the settings you used
oscillator. before you turned off the counter, press
AUX MENU, then press ENTER twice.
Press STAND-BY to turn off the counter.
LOCAL/
PRESET
The instrument
will ask De-
fault? If you AUX
press ENTER
the counter
will return to
preset (default) W
settings (see W
page 4-3). W
W

If in Remote
mode: the
INPUT A INPUT C
counter
switches to lo- This input is used for all This input is used for high
cal operation. measuring functions except frequency measurements.
frequency C and Ratio C/A. The frequency range is
It measures signals with fre- printed above the connec-
quencies between 10 Hz and tor. This is an option and if
Up and running in no time! 300 MHz and levels between no connector is installed
30mVpp and 70Vpp. you do not have this func-
– Turn on the counter by pressing
tion. The C input is fully
the ON key.
automatic and no controls
– Connect a signal to the input. affect its performance.
– Select function with the FUNC-
TION key.
Now the counter automatically mea-
sures with optimum input settings.

4-4 Basic Controls

 Using the Controls

Input A Controls
WAVEFORM AUTO SENSITIVITY
Offsets the trigger level, This key switches on the auto sensi- Increases or decreases the
when the AUTO function tivity and auto waveform compensa- sensitivity of the counter
is switched off, for sig- tion. when the AUTO function is
nals with: AUTO selects 33% of Vpp as sensi- switched off. The set sensitiv-
very low duty cycle tivity for input A, and it adjusts to ity is shown on the bar graph
the waveform more accurately than display.
normal duty cycle the three choices available via man- If you turn off AUTO by
ual setting. pressing the SENS keys, the
very high duty cycle Both the waveform and the SENS selections made by AUTO re-
keys switches off AUTO. main as fixed settings.

AUX

W
W
W

Filter 50 W SLOPE
Switches on and off the Switches between 50 W/1 MW The trigger slope can be set in the
100 kHz low pass filter. input impedance. AUX MENU; see chapter 10,
This filter removes high 1 MW allows the counter to “Auxiliary functions”.
frequency interference measure without loading down This selection is intended for neg-
when measuring on LF the measuring signal while ative pulse width and negative
sine wave signals. 50 W terminates the cables in duty factor measurements.
50 W systems, minimizing re- The negative slope of the wave-
flections and interference. form indicator flashes when the
counter triggers on negative
slopes.

Input A Controls 4-5

Using the Controls

Measurement Control Keys

MEASURING TIME SINGLE
Sets measuring time between 800ns and 400 s. When on, the result from each mea-
Use FUNCTION key to step up/down the time in 1-2-5 surement cycle is displayed. Now
steps. The measuring time works like the exposure time of the set measuring time becomes the
a camera, a long measuring time captures more information Display Time (time between mea-
giving more details to the result (higher resolution). surements). When off, the counter
averages all data captured during
GATE LED the set measuring time.

On while a measurement proceeds.

EXT REF
Switches be-
tween the ex- AUX

ternal and the

internal
Timebase
W

W
W
W

CHECK DATA ENTRY AUX MENU

Connects the internal Increases and decreases numerical val- Gives you access
10 MHz reference to the ues on the display. Used for MEAS to additional
counter logic to allow test TIME, BURST, PRF, ARM functions like
of all measuring functions. START/STOP, TIME OUT and ANA- arming, burst
LOG OUT. triggering,
save/recall and
MEAS RESTART much more. See
ENTER
Chapter 10
Interrupts the measurement, clears the display, and starts a new “Auxiliary Func-
Confirms a
measurement. tions”.
selection
Reset the measurement result in TOT A MAN.
Arms individual measurements when DISPLAY HOLD is ac-
tive.

4-6 Measurement Control Keys

 Using the Controls

Display Controls

DISPLAY HOLD NULL BLANK DIGIT

Freezes the display until The NULL function stores the Each press on this key blanks
you press the key again. current result on the display, then out one display digit, starting
New measurements are shows all the following results as with the LSD.
armed every time MEAS deviation from that result. When all digits are blanked,
RESTART is pressed. You can read and change the the next press disables the
Starts/stops the measure- stored reference in the AUX blanking.
ment in TOT A MAN. MENU.

AUX

W
W
W

DISPLAY LIGHT DISPLAY OVERFLOW MENU

You can switch on and off The measurement result can con- If you press MENU, the
the display backlight in tain up to 12 digits. With the over- display shows all selectable
the AUX MENU. flow function you can see the two functions and the current
additional digits that normally are selections are blinking.
hidden.

Display Controls 4-7

Using the Controls

Display
MEASURING NUMERICAL ENTER
FUNCTIONS PRESENTATION
Displayed when the instrument wants
The current mea- A 10-digit display used for you to confirm a selection by pressing
suring function is showing measuring results ENTER.
shown on the dis- and other values.
play.
The display always shows
If MENU is basic units (Hertz, counts or
pressed, all possible seconds) plus an exponent
selections are when necessary.
shown on the dis-
play and the current
setting is blinking.
Mantissa Exponent Unit Indicator

NULL
S OVERFLOW SINGLE
ON if the re- MEMORY BURST
PRF
sult is dis- ENTER AUX
ARM ARM
FREQ A FREQ C PER A RATIO A/E RATIO C/A P WIDTH A TOT A MAN DUTY F A STA STO
played relative
LEVEL A SENSITIVITY A
to a nulling REMOTE EXT REF
SRQ LO BAT
CHECK FILTER
OVERLOAD HOLD
150M W
NULL OFFSET
AUTO
TRIG
constant.

OVERLOAD OFFSET LEVEL/SENSITIVITY

BAR GRAPH
Flashes if you press 50 W when the Read more about
input signal is 12 to 24 Vrms. the offset annuncia- Shows Input Level A be-
Press 50 W again to confirm selec- tor on page 5-5 un- tween -27 dB and +33 dB
tion. If OVERLOAD turns off, the der “Auto Once”. (3 dB/bar) when AUTO is
input signal falls below 12 Vrms ON. Level above +33 dB is
when loaded with 50 W . INPUT SETTINGS indicated by an arrow at the
right edge of the graph.
Caution: Immediately discon- Input settings are
When AUTO is OFF, it
nect the signal if this shown on the display
shows sensitivity. Max. Sen-
annunciator is on; other- directly above the key
sitivity, -27 dB = all seg-
wise the input could be used for each setting.
ments, except the leftmost,
seriously damaged. are off.

4-8 Display
 Using the Controls

Display

REMOTE MEMORY OVERFLOW

BURST and
On when the instru- This indicator is When this annunciator PRF
ment is controlled ON when a setting is on, the counter has
One of these
from the GPIB. has been recalled measured an 11 or 12
segments are
Press LOCAL to go from, or saved in digit result, and shows
ON when the in-
to local control. memory. MEM- the 10 least significant
strument is set
ORY is only ON digits on the display.
up for a fre-
until something is The overflow function
quency burst
changed in the in- is enabled/disabled in
measurem. via
strument setting the AUX MENU.
AUX MENU.

S OVERFLOW SINGLE
MEMORY BURST
ENTER AUX PRF
ARM ARM
FREQ A FREQ C PER A RATIO A/E RATIO C/A P WIDTH A TOT A MAN DUTY F A STA STO

REMOTE EXT REF CHECK FILTER 150M W AUTO LEVEL A SENSITIVITY A

SRQ LO BAT OVERLOAD HOLD NULL OFFSET TRIG

SRQ LOW AUXILIARY ARMING

BATTERY
ON when the instrument Displayed when an AUX Indicates that the
has sent a Service Request ON when the MENU function results in Arming function
via GPIB but the controller optional battery a setting that cannot be is in use and
has not fetched the mes- needs charging. shown on the display oth- shows the selec-
sage. erwise. tion of positive or
Reading the status byte via Make it a rule to keep an negative slope for
the controller will show eye on this indicator. arming start/stop.
what caused the SRQ and
turn off the annunciator.

Display 4-9
Using the Controls

Rear Panel

GPIB OPTION
ANALOG OUT- GPIB ADDRESS GPIB CONNECTOR
PUT SWITCH
A standard IEEE 488.1
Outputs any 3 Selects address between 1 connector for connection
consecutive digits and 30. The display shows to a controller.
on the display as 0 the address every time the
to 4.98 V. counter is turned on.

90V-265V

ON 16 8 4 2 1 IEEE 488/IEC 625 INTERFACE

OFF ADDRESS SH1, AH1, T5, L4, SR1,
ANALOG OUT RL1, DC1, DT1, E2
—ON
PRIMA
PM9621 PM9626 PM9628/85 —OFF/EXT DC
PM9623 PM9678 PM9697
12-24V DC INTERNAL
PM9624 PM9690 _______
BATTERY
PM9625 PM9691 _______
10MHz OUT REF IN EXT ARM

G D E

10 MHz OUTPUT REFERENCE INPUT

A frequency reference out- If you have an in-house reference or want to run several instru-
put to be used by other in- ments on the same reference, connect 10 MHz here and select
strument. it by pressing the EXT REF key on the front.

4-10 Rear Panel

 Using the Controls

Rear Panel

EXT SUPPLY INTERNAL BATTERY SWITCH

(Option)
Connector for external DC
powering of the counter. ON The rechargeable battery option powers the
counter whenever the line power is un-
This is part of the rechargeable plugged.
battery option. To extend the battery life, you can turn off
the backlighting in the AUX MENU.
OFF/EXT DC The counter is powered from AC line or ex-
ternal DC source, and the battery is charged.

90V-265V
POWER SOCKET
88/IEC 625 INTERFACE
H1, T5, L4, SR1, The input can handle 90 to
C1, DT1, E2

628/85
—ON
PRIMARY FUSE
1.6AT
INSIDE 265 VAC and 45 to 440 Hz
without any range switching.
—OFF/EXT DC
697
12-24V DC INTERNAL
____
BATTERY
____
REF IN EXT ARM Made i n S weden
Just connect and go!

D E

ARMING (Input E) FUSE

An arming input used to start There is a 1.6 A slow-blow pri-

and stop the measurement with mary fuse inside the housing.
external signal. If blown, the fuse should not be
Also used as an extra measuring replaced without a thorough ex-
input for Ratio measurements. amination of the power supply.

Rear Panel 4-11

Using the Controls

PM6685R Front Panel

n Operation
– Switch on the counter.
– Locate the UNLOCKED indicator to the
right on the front panel. As long as this in-
dicator is lit, the timebase is warming up.

F U N C T IO N M E A S U R IN G
T IM E
U N L O C K E D
H z
E N T E R A U X A U X
F R E Q A F R E Q C R A T IO A /E R A T IO C /A P W ID T H A T O T A M A N D U T Y F A M E N U M E N U S IN G L E

E X T R E F C H E C K
G A T E
F R E Q U E N C Y
L O C A L E X T
IN P U T A 1 0 m V 1 0 0 m V 1 V 1 0 V r m s A A D J U S T
P R E S E T R E F C H E C K F IL T E R 5 0 9 A U T O S E N S D C - 3 0 0 M H z C 0 .1 - 2 .7 G H z

M A X
M E A S U R E D A T A E N T R Y 1 2 V r m s -5 0 9
S T A N D - B Y O N R E S T A R T H O L D N U L L B L A N K E N T E R 3 5 0 V p -1 M 9
5 0 9
M A X 1 2 V rm s

– When the indicator turns off, start us-

ing the counter.
– Apart from this UNLOCKED indica-
tor, the counter works like a normal
PM6685.
U N L O C K E D

F R E Q U E N C Y
A D J U S T

4-12 PM6685R Front Panel

 Chapter 5

Input Signal
Conditioning
Input Signal Conditioning

measurements a wide hysteresis band that re-

Introduction to this duces noise and gives time measurements the

chapter narrow band they need to minimize trigger er-

ror. AUTO ON is the recommended setting for
99% of all measurements.
This chapter describes how the input amplifier
operates, and when and how to set its controls. You can easily switch off the AUTO function,
but to successfully set these parameters manu-
ally, it is essential to understand how the con-
trols work with the AC-coupling of the input.
Input A Read more about it further on under AUTO
OFF.
The input amplifier adapts the measuring signal The block diagram shows the order in which
to the measuring logic of the counter. the different controls are connected. This is not
The built-in microprocessor automatically con- a complete technical diagram; it is only in-
trols the trigger level, sensitivity, and attenua- tended to help in understanding the controls.
tion of the input amplifier. This AUTO function
is so powerful that you scarcely ever need to
turn it off. At four measurements per second it
is quick enough to enable real-time adjust-
ments, and it works down to 50 Hz.
The AUTO function even adapts itself to differ-
ent measurements. It gives frequency-related
M E A S U R IN G
L O G IC
C

IM P A U T O M A T IC F IX E D 1 0 0 k H z L P M IC R O -
A T T E N T IO N A C C O U P L F IL T E R S E N S C O N T R O L L E R
S L O P E ,
A A R M IN G ,
S Y N C ,
D E L A Y
E T C . N U L L ,
D IS P ,
H O L D
E T C
S E N S IT IV IT Y

W A V E F O R M
C O M P E N S A T IO N

D A C

M a n u A l

S E N S

O F F O N
A U T O

Fig. 5 -1 PM6685 Signal Conditioning Block Diagram.

5-2 Introduction to this chapter

 Input Signal Conditioning

Triggering indicator shows the symbol that is closest to the

auto-selection made.

+
Auto sets the waveform compen-
sation much more accurately
than is possible manually. So it is
likely that the auto trigger can
handle signals that are impossi-
AUX
ble to trigger on manually.

If the duty factor of the signal changes very

W

W
W

much, the auto function can follow a slow

W

change, but signals with rapidly changing duty

n AUTO ON factors are best measured with a DC-coupled
timer/counter, such as the PM6680B.
AUTO The AUTO key turns the

+
auto function on. Switching Turn off AUTO:
- If the input frequency is <50 Hz
on the power always acti-
-If you measure AM signals
vates AUTO. -If you measure single shot phe-
The auto triggering function of the counter con- nomena
trols both the sensitivity (also called trigger
window or hysteresis) and the waveform com- Speed
pensation (also called trigger level offset, or The counter measures amplitude and calculates
duty factor compensation). Auto measures the sensitivity and trigger level offset rapidly. The
peak-to-peak levels of the input signal and sets typical time is 50 ms. If you use the counter in
the upper level of the hysteresis band to 66% an automatic test system and need faster mea-
and the lower level to 33% of that value (for surements, read about speed in chapter 19
pulse width and duty factor measurements, “How to Measure” in the GPIB Programming
both levels are set to 50%). AUTO accurately Manual.
sets the waveform compensation to compensate
for duty factors other than 50%. The waveform
H y s te r e s is b a n d ( S E N S )
T r ig g e r le v e l o ffs e t
T r ig g e r p o in ts
t

0 V

R e s e t p o in ts
Fig. 5-2 Parameters controlled by SENS and Waveform keys.

Input A 5-3
Input Signal Conditioning

n AUTO OFF nal leads to the smallest trigger (timing)

error since the signal slope is steepest at
the sine wave zero crossing, see Figure
5-9.
Switch to manual triggering
by pressing the waveform t SENS u Press the t SENS and
key so SENS u keys to set man-
that he AUTO TRIG annun- ual sensitivity.
ciator on the display is The hysteresis band can be set
switched off. between 10 mV and 10 V and is shown on the
The sensitivity and waveform indicators return bar graph.

+
to the last manual settings, and you can control It is much easier to set the cor-
the input amplifier by pressing the SENS and rect sensitivity if you know the
the WAVEFORM keys. signal level. Read the level on
the bar graph before switching
When to use manual sensitivity off AUTO.
– The most obvious use for manual settings
is for signals below 50 Hz, for which
AUTO does not function.
You can use the WAVE-
– When measuring on non-repetitive signals, FORM key to compensate
you also need to use manual trigger levels; a waveform in three steps:
see Chapter 6. (0 – 25% duty factor)
– When measuring AM signals. (25–75% duty factor)
– When measuring sine wave signals with (75–100% duty factor)
little noise, you may want to measure with The reason for this setting is that
a high sensitivity (narrow hysteresis band) non-symmetrical signals do not center on 0 V,
to reduce the trigger uncertainty. Trig- but get a dc shift after the ac coupling capacitor.
gering at or close to the middle of the sig- Signals with less than 50 % duty factor have a

The grayed fields show the position of the hysteresis band, and the circles are
trigger points and reset points

ac coupling capacitor

Trigger level indication on the

display

Fig. 5-3 Dc shift caused by the ac coupling capacitor.

5-4 Input A
 Input Signal Conditioning

positive dc shift, and signals with more than

50% duty factor have a negative dc shift, see
Figure 5-3. When the duty factor exceeds a cer- 0dB
tain factor, the input will stop triggering unless
the trigger window is offset to compensate for
the dc shift of the signal. -20dB
n AUTO Once
Press one of the t SENS u keys when AUTO -40dB
is on. Now the counter will switch to manual 100kHz 1MHz
settings and freeze the last sensitivity and trig-
ger level offset selections made by AUTO. The Fig. 5-4 Characteristics of LP filter.
OFFSET annunciator on the display is on to
show that the counter uses a trigger level offset
that cannot be manually entered. You can use Accurate frequency measurements of noisy LF
the t SENS u keys to adjust the sensitivity (Low Frequency) signals (less than 200 kHz)
around the frozen trigger level offset. When can be made, even when the noise components
you press the WAVEFORM key, the counter are significantly higher in frequency than the
returns to one of the three ordinary trigger level fundamental signal.
offset selections.
n Impedance
n Analog Low-Pass, Noise 50W The input impedance can
Suppression Filter be set to 1 MW or 50 W.
FILTER Input signals having a sig-
nal-to-noise ratio less than Before switching to 50 W, the counter checks to
approximately 6 dB cannot see if the amplitude of the signal exceeds the
be measured successfully maximum allowed 12 Vrms. If it does, the over-
without filtering in one way load annunciator on the display flashes and the
or another. counter does not switch to 50 W unless you
press the 50 W key once more.
The counter has an analog LP (Low-Pass) filter
with a cutoff frequency of approximately You can force the counter to 50 W this way
100 kHz and a signal rejection of 40 dB at since a too high signal may fall below 12 Vrms
1 MHz. when loaded with 50 W.
– If the signal falls below the limit, the over-
load annunciator will turn off and you can
continue to measure.
– If the annunciator remains on, quickly dis-
connect the signal cable from the input A
BNC connector. Here you must use an ex-
ternal 50 W termination that can withstand
the power you feed into it.

Input A 5-5
Input Signal Conditioning

If the signal check shows an amplitude above

24 Vrms, the overload annunciator will turn on Reducing Noise
and the counter will refuse switching to 50 W.
and Interference
CAUTION: To avoid permanent dam-
age to the input amplifier, do not Sensitive counter input circuits are, of course,
connect signals with amplitudes also sensitive to noise. By matching the signal
above 12 Vrms to the counter when amplitude to the counter’s input sensitivity, you
the counter is already set to 50 W. reduce the risk of erroneous counts from noise
and interference. These could otherwise ruin a
measurement.
To ensure reliable measuring results, the coun-
Input C ter has the following functions to reduce or
eliminate the effect of noise.
Input C is the input for the optional prescalers. – Continuously variable sensitivity.
As opposed to input A, input C can only mea-
– Analog low-pass noise suppression filter.
sure frequency. All prescalers are fully auto-
matic and require no settings at all. – Trigger level offset.
To make reliable measurements possible on
very noisy signals, you may use several fea-
tures simultaneously. Optimizing the input am-
plitude and optimizing the trigger sensitivity by
using the sensitivity control are independent of
input frequency and useful over the entire fre-
quency range. LP filters function selectively
over a limited frequency range.

Fig. 5-5 Trigger hysteresis.

5-6 Input C
 Input Signal Conditioning

Trigger sirable to cross the

hysteresis as fast
Hysteresis as possible. Figure
Each trigger device 5-8 shows that a
has some hyster- high amplitude
esis (or trigger win- signal passes the
dow) that the signal hysteresis faster
must cross before than a low ampli-
triggering occurs. tude signal. For
Other names are low frequency
“trigger sensitiv- measurements,
ity” or “noise im- where the trigger
Fig. 5-6 Erroneous munity” and ex- uncertainty might
Counts due to Noise. plain the various be important, the Fig. 5-9 Timing er-
characteristics of sensitivity should ror due to slew rate.
the hysteresis. be as high as possi-
Fig. 5-5 and 5-6 ble, due to the trigger timing error ( se Figure
show how spurious 5-9 ).
signals can cause
the input signal to In practice however, trigger errors caused by er-
cross the trigger or roneous counts (Figure 5-5 and 5-6) are much
hysteresis window more important and require just the opposite
more than once per measures to be solved.
Fig. 5-7 Trigger input cycle and
To avoid erroneous counting caused by spuri-
Uncertainty due to cause erroneous
ous signals, you need to avoid excessive input
Noise. counts.
signal amplitudes. This is particularly valid
Figure 5-7 shows when measuring on high impedance circuitry
that less noise still and when using the 1 MW input impedance.
influences the trig- Under these conditions, the cables easily pick
ger point by ad- up noise.
vancing or delay-
External attenuation reduces the signal ampli-
ing it, but it does
tude, including the noise, while the internal sen-
not cause errone-
sitivity control in the counter reduces the coun-
ous counts. The
ter’s sensitivity, including sensitivity to noise.
trigger (timing) un-
Reduce excessive signals with external coaxial
certainty in Figure
attenuators. You can set the input sensitivity of
Fig. 5-8 Low Am- 5-7 is shown as the counter continuously between 10 mVpp and
plitude delays the Trig- trigger uncertainty 10 V pp.
ger Point. or trigger error.
This trigger uncer- The auto function normally takes care of setting
tainty is important the hysteresis band by setting its limits to 33%
when measuring low frequency signals, since and 66% of the amplitude.
the signal slew rate (in V/s) is low for LF sig-
nals. To reduce the trigger uncertainty, it is de-

Reducing Noise and Interference 5-7

Input Signal Conditioning

n Stable readings

+ As a rule, stable readings are

free from noise or interference.

However, stable readings are not necessarily

correct; harmonic distortion can cause errone-
ous yet stable readings.
If you cannot obtain a stable reading, the sig-
nal-to-noise ratio is too poor (assumably poorer
than six to ten decibels), and you should use a
filter.

5-8 Reducing Noise and Interference

 Chapter 6

Measuring Functions
Measuring Functions

Introduction to This Selecting Function

Chapter
This chapter describes the different measuring
functions of the counter. The functions have
been grouped as follows:

Frequency Measurements
– Frequency
AUX

– Burst frequency and PRF W

W
W

– AM
W

– Ratio FUNCTION Press one end of the

Period Measurements t u FUNCTION key. This
scrolls the function cursor
– Period on the display. Release the
Pulse Width Measurements key when the desired func-
tion is high-lighted.
– Pulse width
– Duty factor
Totalize Measurements
– Totalize A-B Manual

6-2 Introduction to This Chapter

 Measuring Functions

Frequency

Introduction Theory of Measurement

Frequency is the basic function of a frequency n Reciprocal Counting
counter. The PM 6685 measures frequency be- Simple frequency counters count the number of
tween 10 Hz and 300 MHz on the A input, and input cycles during a preset gate time, for in-
up to 3.0 GHz on the optional C input. Fre- stance one second. This leads to the ±1 input
quencies above 50 Hz are best measured using cycle count error that, at least for
the AUTO triggering and the default measuring low-frequency measurements, is a major con-
time of 200 ms. The counter always starts up tribution to uncertainty.
with Frequency A selected and AUTO ON,
ready to measure. However, this counter uses a high-resolution,
input signal synchronized, reciprocal counting
technique. With this technique, the counter
counts an exact number of integral input cycles,
H y s te r e s is b a n d ( S E N S )
thereby eliminating the ±1cycle error.
T r ig g e r le v e l o ffs e t
T r ig g e r p o in ts
t S e t M e a s u r in g T im e

0 V

R e s e t p o in ts

A c tu a l G a te tg
T im e

Fig. 6-1 Frequency is measured as Fig. 6-2 Synchronization of a measure-

the inverse of the time be- ment.
tween the one trigger point
and the next.
1
f =
t

Introduction 6-3
Measuring Functions

After the start of the set measuring time, the counter will show NO trig when triggering
counter synchronizes the beginning of the ac- has stopped.
tual gate time with the first trigger event (t1) of
the input signal it measures on. Signal detection is ON for all functions but
TOT A MAN, burst frequency, PRF, arming
In the same way, the counter synchronizes the and single measurements.
stop of the actual gate time with the input sig-
nal, after the set measuring time has elapsed. n Sample-Hold
The multi-register counting technique in the If the input signal disappears during the mea-
counter allows you to simultaneously measure surement, the counter will show NO SIGNAL.
the actual gate time (tg) and the number of cy- If you probe test points and you cannot simulta-
cles (n) that occurred during this gate time. neously view the display this will be a problem.
Thereafter, it calculates the frequency accord- In that case, press DISPL HOLD to activate
ing to Mr. Hertz’s definition: HOLD, put your probe tip on the test point and
n press MEAS RESTART. Now the counter
f= makes one measurement, and when you re-
tg
move the probe tip from the test point, the coun-
ter continues to display the measured value and
The counter measures the gate time, tg, with a
behaves like a voltmeter with a sample-hold
resolution of only 250 ps. independent of the
feature.
measured frequency. Consequently the use of
prescalers does not influence the quantization
n Time-Out
error. Therefore, the relative quantization error
is: 250 ps/tg. Mainly for GPIB use, you can manually select a
fixed time-out in the AUX MENU. The range
250 ps of the fixed time-out is 100 ms to 25.5s and the
Relative RMS quantization error =
tg default setting is OFF.
For a 1-second measuring time, this value is:
Select a time-out that is longer than the cycle
250 ps time of the lowest frequency you are going to
= 250* 10-12 = 2.5* 10-10
1s measure; multiply the time-out by the
prescaling factor of the input channel. When no
Except for very low frequencies, tg is nearly triggering has occurred during the time-out , the
identical with the set measuring time. counter will show Ti.Out.

n Signal Detection Measuring Speed

The counter has an automatic signal detection
The set measuring time determines the measur-
system that terminates the measurement if no
ing speed. For continuos signals,
triggering has occurred about 200 ms after the
measuring time has expired. 1
Speed » + 0.2
tg
When AUTO trigger is turned on, the counter
will show NO SIGNAL when triggering has when AUTO is ON and can be increased to:
stopped. When AUTO trigger is turned off, the

6-4 Introduction
 Measuring Functions

1 250 ps
Speed » + 0.001 still: .
tg tg
with AUTO turned OFF. The prescaling factors are:
Function Prescaling factor
n Frequency Average and Single
Cycle Measurements BURST A 1 (80 MHz)
FREQ A average* 4 (300 MHz)
To reduce the actual gate time or measuring ap-
*
erture, the counter has very short measuring PER A average 4 (300 MHz)
times and a measuring time called SINGLE. FREQ C (PM9624) 64 (3.0 GHz)
The latter means that the counter can measure FREQ C (PM9621) 512 (1.3 GHz)
during only one cycle of the input signal. In ap-
RATIO A/E 4/1 (300/80 MHz)
plications where the counter uses an input chan-
nel with a prescaler, this frequency divider RATIO C/A (PM9624) 64/4 (3.0/0.3 GHz)
causes the SINGLE measurement to last as RATIO C/A (PM9621) 512/4 (1.3/0.3 GHz)
many cycles as the division factor. TOTALIZE A 1 (100 MHz)

n Prescaling May Influence All other functions 1 (80/60 MHz)

Measuring Time *
Note: Functions using prescaling by 4 on In-
Prescalers do influence the actual gate time to put A in AVERAGE mode change the
some extent. This may be a problem for exam- prescaling factor to 1 in SINGLE mode. At the
ple when measuring the carrier wave frequency same time the frequency range will be reduced
in a short burst signal. correspondingly.
Fig 6-3 shows the effect of the 3.0 GHz n LF Signals
prescaler. For 64 input cycles, the prescaler
P o s s ib le tr ig g e r e v e n ts
gives one (shaped) output cycle. When the
counter uses a prescaler, it counts the number of
prescaled output cycles, here f/64. The display
shows the correct input frequency since the mi-
crocomputer compensates for the effect of the
d
division factor d as follows: f = n * S e t m e a s u r in g
tg tim e
f G a te tim e
In p u t
S ig n a l
T im e fo r o n e m e a s u r e m e n t
A fte r
P r e s c a le r f/6 4

Fig. 6-4 Measuring time.

6 4 p e r io d s

Fig. 6-3 Divide-by-64 Prescaler.

Signals below 50 Hz must be measured with
Prescalers do not reduce resolution in recipro- manual triggering. The lower frequency limit
cal counters. The relative quantization error is for the counter is 10 Hz for sine waves. How-
ever, the counter can measure pulses with a
lower repetition rate. For example, when you

Introduction 6-5
Measuring Functions

measure a 0.1 Hz pulse with a non-prescaled etition frequency (PRF), that switches the CW
function like PERIOD SINGLE, the measure- signal on and off.
ment will require at least the duration of one cy-
cle, that is 10 seconds, and worst case nearly 20 With PM 6685’s built-in measurement control
seconds. The worst case is when a trigger event facilities, you can measure burst signals with-
takes place just before the beginning of a mea- out the external arming signals that traditional
suring time (Fig. 6-4). counters need. You can also make measure-

n HF Signals C W

As mentioned before, a prescaler in the C input B u rs t

S ig n a l
divides the input frequency before it is counted
by the normal digital counting logic. The divi- P R F

sion factor is called prescaling factor, see table

on previous page. For example, the 3.0 GHz Fig. 6-6 Burst signal.
input has a value of 64. That means that an
Input C frequency of, e.g., 1.024 GHz is trans- ments using external arming signals with the
formed to 16 MHz. counter. See Chapter 7 “Measurement Control”
about arming and arming delay.
Prescalers are designed for optimum perfor-

+
When measuring Burst A or PRF
mance when measuring stable continuous RF. A, the maximum burst frequency
The prescalers have a nasty habit, and that is is 80 MHz and the minimum
that they are not stable and would like to number of cycles in a burst is
self-oscillate when there is no input signal pres- three.
ent. To prevent a prescaler from oscillating, the
prescaler incorporates a “go-detector.” The
go-detector continuously measures the level of n Triggering
the input signal and simply blocks the prescaler Bursts with a PRF above 50 Hz can be mea-
output when no signal, or a signal that is too sured with auto triggering on.
weak is present.
The out of sync error described under heading
N
&
T o c o u n tin g “Possible errors” on page 6- 8 may occur more
lo g ic
frequently when using autotrigger.
G o -d e te c to r
When PRF is below 50 Hz and when the gap
Fig. 6 -5 Go detector in the prescaler. between the bursts is very small, use manual
triggering.

Burst Frequency Try using AUTO ONCE to make the counter

set fixed trigger levels, it will work in most
and PRF cases.

A burst signal as in Figure 6-6 is an AM modu-

lated signal with 100% modulation depth. The
signal has a carrier wave (CW) frequency and a
modulation frequency, also called the pulse rep-

6-6 Burst Frequency and PRF

 Measuring Functions

Burst PRF When the PRF function is on and the counter is

triggered, all further input triggering is blocked
The pulse (burst) repetition frequency can be until the PRF sync delay has expired. When
measured as follows by using the PRF function correctly set, the PRF delay should expire in the
in the AUX MENU: gap between the bursts, making the counter
– Press MEAS TIME and enter a measuring ready to measure again when the next burst ar-
time that gives you the resolution you rives.
want.
The selected measuring time is not used for
– Switch off SINGLE. synchronization. It only decides how many
– Press AUX MENU, select PRF, and press bursts the counter should use for averaging, i.e.,
ENTER. the resolution.
– Select channel A or C as measurement in-
put, and press ENTER. Burst Frequency
– Set a sync delay longer than the burst du- Using Sync Delay
ration and shorter than the burst repetition You can measure the frequency on Input A to
period. See Fig. 6 -7. 80 MHz with the internally synchronized
– Press ENTER to measure. BURST function as follows:

B u rs t
S ig n a l
+ Internal burst synchronization
also works with the prescalers
PM 9621 and PM 9624, but with
S y n c . d e la y limited specifications.

Fig. 6-7 Set the sync delay so that it ex- – Select a measuring time that is shorter
pires in the gap between the than the burst duration minus two burst
bursts. frequency cycles or pulses.
– Press AUX MENU, select BURST, and
press ENTER.
n How Does PRF Work?
– Select channel A or C as measurement in-
The PRF is the number of bursts per second. put, and press ENTER.
This means that the counter must count one – Set a sync delay longer than the burst du-
pulse in each burst. ration and shorter than the burst repetition
period. See Figure 6 -7.
M e a s u re
– Press ENTER to measure.

n Selecting Measuring Time

The measuring time must fit inside the burst.
S y n c - D e la y
Should the measurement also include part of
G a te T im e
the burst gap, no matter how small, the mea-
surement is ruined. Choosing a measuring time
Fig. 6-8 Measuring Burst Pulse Repeti- that is too short is better since it only reduces
tion Frequency. the resolution. Making burst frequency mea-

Burst Frequency and PRF 6-7

Measuring Functions

surements on short bursts means using short reliable, at least two measurements must be
measuring times, giving a poorer resolution made, the first one for synchronizing the mea-
than normally achieved with the counter. surement and the second one for reading out the
measuring result.
n How Does the Sync Delay
Work? Autosync on Slow-Starting
The sync delay works as an internal start arm- Bursts
ing delay: it prevents the start of a new mea-
surement until the set sync delay has expired. Bursts may start a bit slowly, especially RF
See Figure 6-9. bursts. The result when measuring the burst fre-
quency will then be erroneous unless the first
few pulses are excluded from the measurement.
M e a s u re
A delay can be used that starts on the first nega-
tive slope of the burst, and expires when the set
arm start delay ends.

S y n c - D e la y n Preparations
– Switch off the AUTO function.
G a te T im e
– Check that the waveform compensation
Fig. 6 -9 Measuring the frequency of the shows .
carrier wave signal in a burst.
– Set a suitable sensitivity.

After the set measuring time has started, the n Switching on Burst
counter synchronizes the start of the measure- Measurements
ment with the second trigger event in the burst.
– Press AUX MENU.
This means that the measurement does not start
erroneously during the Burst Off duration or in- – Select BURST.
side the burst. – Press ENTER.

n Possible Errors
– Select A or C.
– Press ENTER when the display shows
Before the measurement has been synchronized
SYNC DELAY.
with the burst signal, the first measurement(s)
could start accidentally during the presence of a – Enter a synchronization delay that is lon-
burst. If this would happen and if the remaining ger than the burst duration but shorter than
burst duration is shorter than the set measuring the burst repetition time.
time, the readout of the first measurement will – Press ENTER.
be wrong. However, after this first measure-
– Press MEAS TIME and select 800 ns.
ment, a properly set start-arming sync delay
time will synchronize the next measurements. – Increase the measuring time until you get
the number of digits you want. Take care
In manually operated applications, this is not a not to increase it so much that the counter
problem. In automated test systems where the counts incorrectly
result of a single measurement sample must be

6-8 Burst Frequency and PRF

 Measuring Functions

– Now the counter measures the frequency n Switching Off Burst

inside the burst, starting with the first Don’t forget to switch off arming start when
pulse. you switch off BURST in the AUX MENU or
So far this description is the same as for normal change function. Otherwise the counter will not
burst frequency. measure unless there is an arming signal on In-
put E .
n Switching on Arming Delay
– Press AUX MENU. Burst Frequency
– Select ARM START. Using External Arming
The counter can also measure burst frequencies
on the GHz input C options. However, to ensure
good synchronization, this requires an external
synchronization signal and the use of arming
and arming delay.
The counter will measure correctly when an ad-
equate, continuous, input signal is present.
Fig. 6-10 Three time values must be set When this signal disappears, however, as is the
to measure the correct part of case with burst signals, the prescaler oscillates
a burst and generates an output frequency on its own.
The counter would erroneously display this sig-
nal if the go-detector did not block the signal.
– Press ENTER and the display will show
POS. There is a drawback with the go-detector. It
– Regardless of selecting POS or NEG, the takes some time before the go-detector is con-
arming delay will trigger on the negative vinced that an input signal is really present. It
slope of the signal. cannot enable the prescaler output immediately.
The go-detector delay time is dependent on the
– Select DELAY ON. input signal levels. High level input signals re-
– Enter a delay that equals the part of the sult in a fast go-detector reaction, whereas
burst that you want to mask. low-level input signals mean a longer delay.
– Press ENTER. The delay is at most 50 ms for the go-detector to
switch on, and 5 ms to switch off.
Now the counter measures on the remaining
part of the burst. This means that bursts shorter than 50 ms can-
not be measured at all, unless you take “special
actions” and use ext. arming for synchroniza-

+ Make sure that the delay plus

measuring time is shorter than
the burst length.
tion.

n How to Disable the Go-Detector

+
As long as burst is ON, the arm- The counter automatically disables the
ing delay is triggered by the burst go-detector when both start arming and
itself, not by the arming signal on FREQ C are active; thus, there is no special
input E. function to enable.

Burst Frequency and PRF 6-9

Measuring Functions

n Do the Self-Oscillations Disturb

My Burst Measurement? AM Signals
The answer is yes if you start to measure imme- The counter can usually measure both the car-
diately at the first burst cycle. rier wave frequency and modulation frequency
The answer is no if you are wise and use start of AM signals. These measurements are much
arming delay to delay the measurement: like the burst measurements described earlier in
> 2 * prescaling factor * period. this manual.
For instance when measuring 1 GHz burst fre-
quencies using Input C (PM 9624), the delay Carrier Wave Frequency
time should be The carrier wave (CW) is only continuously
> 2 * 64 * 1 ns = > 128 ns. Thus, the mini- present in a narrow band in the middle of the
mum delay of 200 ns is OK. signal. If the sensitivity is too low, cycles will
be lost, and the measurement ruined.
n How Do I Set Up My
Measurement? To measure the CW frequency:
Use arming with time delay as described in the – Select a measuring time that gives you the
previous example. resolution you want.
Set up a correct burst frequency measurement – Turn off AUTO.
as follows: – Press the WAVEFORM key and select
– Connect burst signal to Input C. symmetrical signals.

– Connect external SYNC to Input E. – Press ƒSENS to select the highest sensi-
tivity and then decrease the sensitivity un-
– Use the FUNCTION key to select til the measurement result is no longer sta-
FREQ C. ble.
– Set a measuring time shorter than the burst – Increase the sensitivity a couple of dB’s
duration. and measure.
– Press the AUX MENU key, select ARM
START, and positive slope (ARM STA+).
A
– Press ENTER.
– Enter a delay time and press ENTER.
– Measure.

Fig. 6-11 Effects of different sensitivity

when measuring the CW Fre-
quency of an AM signal.

6-10 AM Signals
 Measuring Functions

Modulating Frequency
The easiest way to measure the modulating fre-
quency is after demodulation. If no suitable de-
modulator is available, use the PRF function to
measure the modulation frequency in the same
way as when measuring Burst PRF.
– Press MEAS TIME and enter a measuring
time that gives you the resolution you
want.
– Switch off SINGLE.
– Press AUX MENU, select PRF, and press
ENTER.
– Select INPUT A as measurement input,
and press ENTER.
– Set a sync delay of approximately 75% of
the modulating period. See Figure 6-7.
– Press ENTER to leave the AUX MENU.
– Switch off AUTO.
– Press the WAVEFORM key to select sym-
metrical signal.
– Press SENS„ until the counter stops trig-
gering.
– Increase the sensitivity a couple of dB’s
and measure.

S y n c . d e la y

M e a s u r e d c y c le s

Fig. 6-12 Effects of different sensitivity

when measuring the CW Fre-
quency of an AM signal.

AM Signals 6-11
Measuring Functions

Ratio

Introduction
To find the ratio between two input frequencies,
the counter counts the cycles on two channels
simultaneously and divides the result on the pri-
mary channel by the result on the secondary
channel.
Ratio can be measured between A and E inputs
or between C and A inputs.

+
The input frequency range of in-
put E is limited to 80 MHz.

Note also that the resolution cal-

culations are very different from
those used for frequency mea-
surements.

6-12 Introduction
 Measuring Functions

Period

Introduction
From a measuring point of view, the period
function is identical to the frequency function.
This is because the period of a cyclic signal has
the reciprocal value of the frequency ( 1 f ).

In practice there is a minor difference.

– Where the counter calculates
FREQUENCY as:

number of cycles
f=
actual gate time

it calculates PERIOD as:

actual gate time

p=
number of cycles
– In PERIOD SINGLE mode, the counter
uses no prescaler, resulting in 80 MHz
maximum frequency.
All other functions and features as described
earlier under FREQUENCY apply to PERIOD
measurements.

Introduction 6-13
Measuring Functions

Pulse Width and Duty Factor

Introduction Triggering
If AUTO is on when these functions are se-
lected, the counter adjusts the trigger level to
H y s te r e s is b a n d ( S E N S )
50 % and the sensitivity to maximum .
T r ig g e r le v e l o ffs e t
T r ig g e r p o in ts The set trigger level and trigger slope define the
t
start and stop triggering. The manual trigger
function of the counter allows only three trigger
0 V level settings. This limited selection makes it
R e s e t p o in ts possible to trigger correctly only on signals
with very steep slopes.

+
Always use AUTO or AUTO
ONCE when measuring Pulse
Fig. 6-13 Time is measured be- Width and Duty Factor.
tween the trigger point
and the reset point. Ac- n Hysteresis
curate measurements
are possible only if the In pulse width measurements the trigger hyster-
hysteresis band is nar- esis, among other things, causes measuring er-
row and centered rors. Actual triggering does not occur when the
around 50 % of the am- input signal crosses the trigger level at 50 per-
cent of the amplitude, but when the input signal
has crossed the entire hysteresis band. At maxi-
This counter can measure PULSE WIDTH and
mum sensitivity, the hysteresis band is as small
DUTY FACTOR.
as possible, about 10 mV.

6-14 Introduction
 Measuring Functions

Pulse Width A
The counter measures pulse width on Input A.

Normally the counter measures the positive

pulse width. If you want to measure the nega-
tive pulse width, you must select negative trig-
ger slope in the AUX MENU. The selected trig-
ger slope controls the start trigger slope. The
counter automatically selects the inverse polar-
ity as stop trigger slope. Thus, if positive slope
has been selected, the counter starts measuring
on the first positive slope; then the first negative
slope stops the counting.

Duty Factor
A duty factor (or duty cycle) measurement con-
sists of two measurements: one pulse width
measurement and one period measurement.
The duty factor is then calculated as:
Pulsewidth
Duty factor =
Period

+ This takes 2x the set measuring

time

Pulse Width A 6-15

Measuring Functions

Totalize

Totalize A Manual
This mode enables you to totalize (count) the
number of trigger events on channel A. Start
and stop of the totalizing is manually con-
trolled.
The counting capability is 1* 1014 events at rates
to 100 MHz.
FUNCTION Select TOT A MAN with the
FUNCTION key.

DISPL Start and stop the

HOLD totalization manually by
pressing the DISPLAY
HOLD key.
Repetitive start/stops
causes the counter to accu-
mulate the number of
events.

MEAS Press the RESTART key

RESTART when you want to reset the
total sum to zero.

+
AUTO is switched off during
TOTALIZE. You must always set
manual trigger level.

6-16 Totalize A Manual

 Chapter 7

Measurement Control
Measurement Control

The measuring time is changed in 1/2/5 steps

About This Chapter from 100 ns to 15 s. Default and preset value is
200 ms.
This chapter explains how you can control the

+
If you select SINGLE, the set
start and stop of measurements and what you
Measuring Time becomes the
can obtain by doing that. The chapter starts by Display Time (time between
explaining the keys and the functions behind measurements).
them, then gives some theory, and ends with ac-
tual measurement examples. n Fine-Tuning the Measuring
Time
For times above 50 ms, you can set your own
measuring time as follows:
Measuring Time – Press MEAS TIME.
– Press SENS u and the parameter to be
set expands over the entire display.
– A cursor flashes to the left of the MSD
digit. Move this cursor to the digit you
want to change. Use the t SENS u keys.
– Change the value of the selected digit by
pressing the DATA ENTRY keys p and
q.
– Move the cursor to the next digit and re-
AUX
peat the procedure above until the display
shows the desired value. Then press
ENTER to confirm the selection.
W

W
W
W

SINGLE When SINGLE is ON, the

counter shows the result
from a single measurement
MEAS The measuring time is pre-
cycle.
TIME set to 200ms. This gives
nine digits on the display, When SINGLE is OFF (default setting), the
and four measurements counter makes an average measurement over
each second. the set measuring time.

Increasing the measuring time gives more dig- Use SINGLE when you want to measure on
its, but fewer measurements per second. single-shot phenomena or when you just want
fast results without the need for many digits.
To change the measuring time:
– Press the MEAS TIME key. The number of input periods in a SINGLE mea-
surement depends on the prescaler factor of the
– Increase/decrease the value by pressing the input and which function is selected as follows:
FUNCTION key.
– Confirm your selection by pressing
MEAS TIME again.

7-2 About This Chapter

 Measurement Control

All functions using Input A except

DUTY FACTOR: Arming
The result is from one period.
DUTY FACTOR:
The counter makes a composite measure-
ment, one PERIOD and one PULSE
WIDTH.
All functions using Input C:
The prescaling factor sets the number of
periods used: AUX

512 for prescaler PM 9621

64 for prescaler PM 9624 W

W
W
W

á Gate Indicator
The GATE LED is on when the counter is busy AUX External arming gives you
counting input cycles. MENU the opportunity to start and
stop a measurement when
an external qualifier event
occurs.
Display Hold Start and stop of the arming function can be set
independently to positive slope, negative slope,
DISPLAY Pressing DISPLAY HOLD or OFF.
HOLD freezes the result on the
display. The display is not Input E on the rear panel is the arming input.
frozen until one measure-
Arming is somewhat complicated, so study the
ment has been completed
examples later in this chapter to see what you
after DISPLAY HOLD has
can obtain by using it. There is normally no
been pressed.
need for arming except when measuring on
MEAS MEAS RESTART initiates a complex signals (non-continuous wave).
RESTART new measurement.

Display Hold 7-3

Measurement Control

Start Arming results in an “external gate” function which de-

termines the duration of the measurement.
Start arming acts like an EXT TRIGGER on an
oscilloscope. It allows the start of the actual Activate stop arming as follows:
measurement to be synchronized to an external – Press AUX MENU, select AR. STOP
trigger event. with the FUNCTION key, and press
In a complex signal, you may want to select a ENTER.
certain time slot where the measurements are to – Select POS or NEG trigger slope with the
be performed. For this purpose there is an arm- DATA ENTRY keys, and press ENTER.
ing delay function which delays the actual mea- Stop arming can be used for all functions except
surement start with respect to the arming pulse, PULSE WIDTH, DUTY FACTOR, BURST,
in a similar way as a “delayed timebase” does in and PRF.
an oscilloscope.

Activate start arming as follows:

– Press AUX MENU; use the FUNCTION
key to select AR. START and press
ENTER.
– Select POS or NEG trigger slope with the
DATA ENTRY keys, and press ENTER.
– Select DELAY ON or OFF with the
DATA ENTRY keys and press ENTER.
– If you enabled delay, select delay time
from the predefined times using the DATA
ENTRY keys. You can also enter a delay
of your own by selecting a digit with the
t SENS u keys and increasing/decreas-
ing that digit with the DATA ENTRY
keys. Continue with other digits until the
display shows the desired delay. End by
pressing ENTER.
Start arming can be used for all functions ex-
cept BURST and PRF.

+
If you use start arming to arm an
average measurement, it only
controls the start of the first sam-
ple.

Stop Arming
Stop arming prevents the stop of a measure-
ment until the counter detects a level shift on
the E input. Combining Start and Stop Arming

7-4 Arming
 Measurement Control

ing the display update frequency. It makes it

Digit Blanking possible to switch off any number of digits be-
tween zero and ten. This means that the number
of digits displayed is zero to ten less than as cal-
culated by the counter’s truncation algorithm.

AUX

W
W
W

BLANK Blanking switches off un-

DIGITS necessary digits on the dis-
play. Press BLANK DIGIT
once for each digit you
want blanked.
Fig. 7-1 Each press on the BLANK
To turn off blanking, press BLANK DIGIT
DIGITS key removes one digit.
once after you have blanked all digits.

n Two Methods to Reduce the

Number of Digits
Reading a 10-digit display when you do not
need more than five or six takes more time than
necessary, and makes the result more difficult
to read.
Reducing the measuring time gives fewer digits
on the display. However, it also means that each
result is shown for a shorter time, with more
display updates per second. If the display is to
be easy to read, it should not be updated more
than a few times per second as with the default
measuring time, which gives four display up-
dates per second.
Digit blanking on the other hand, decreases the
number of digits on the display without increas-

Digit Blanking 7-5

Measurement Control

Controlling Measurement
Timing

The Measurement Process – The set measuring time has expired (in
frequency measurements, for example).
Basic Free-Running Measurements
– In SINGLE, the measurement stops imme-
Since the counter uses the reciprocal counting
diately when the input signal fulfils the
technique, it always synchronizes the start and
stop trigger conditions (which is normally
stop of the actual measuring period to the input
when it passes the trigger window the sec-
signal trigger events. In free-running mode a
ond time).
new measurement automatically starts when
the previous measurement is finished. This is
ideal for continuous wave signals. Measuring Time and
The start of a measurement takes place when
Measurement Rates
the following conditions have been met (in or- The set measuring time decides the length of a
der): measurement in all average types of measure-
ments. In a single-shot type of measurement,
– The counter has fully processed the previ-
however, the measuring time instead acts as a
ous measurement.
“display time” setting. For example, if a mea-
– If the counter makes SINGLE measure- suring time of 500 ms is set in a single period
ments, the display time (=set measuring measurement, and the period is 100 ns, the dis-
time) must have expired. play will show the result for 500 ms before the
– All preparations for a new measurement next measurement can start.
are made.
This is important to know when you want to
– The input signal triggers the counter’s make fast measurements, for example, when
measuring input. using the GPIB bus.
The measurement ends when the input signal
meets the stop trigger conditions. That happens
directly after one of the following events:

7-6 Digit Blanking

 Measurement Control

+
To get maximum measuring Resolution as Function of
speed, you should use the com-
bined benefits of SINGLE and Measuring Time
minimum measuring time. The quantization error and the number of digits
on the display mainly define the resolution of
The time between the stop of one measurement the counter, that is the least significant digit dis-
and the start of the next one can be below 1 ms played.
in free-running mode if you do the following:
– Do not use AUTO. As explained on page 6-4 under Reciprocal
Counting, the calculated frequency f is:
– Do not use NULL.
n
– Switch off the display via GPIB. f=
tg
Additional Control of Measurement
Start / Stop while the relative rms quantization
Free-running measurements may be easy to un- error = ±250 ps/tg .
derstand, but measurements can get more com- The counter calculates the mantissa of f with up
plex. to 15 digits. However, the number of justified
Besides input signal triggering, the start of a digits depends on the selected measuring time
measurement is further controlled by the fol- and the measured frequency, and is much more
lowing elements: limited.

– Manual MEAS RESTART, if DISPLAY The counter truncates irrelevant digits so that
HOLD is selected. the rms quantization resolution cannot change
the LSD (least-significant digit) more than
– GPIB triggering (<GET> or * TRG), if bus
± 2.5 units. This is when the displayed value is
triggering is selected.
99999999, and the quantization error is worst
– External arming signal, if Start Arming is case.
selected.
– Expired start arming delay, if Arming De-
lay is selected.
+ ±1 unit in 99999999 (=1E8)
means 10 times more relative
resolution than ±1 unit in
In addition to expired measuring time and stop 10000000 (=1E7), despite the
same number of digits.
signal triggering, the stop of measurement is
further controlled by: In practice, the quantization error is two to three
– External arming signal triggering, if Stop times better than the specified value, and the
Arming is selected. measured value can range from 10000000 to
GPIB triggering is described in the Program- 99999999. Therefore, in practice the
mer’s manual. Now let’s look deeper into the quantization uncertainty shown as instability in
concept of arming. the LSD can range from 0.25 to 2.5 LSD units.

A gradual increase of the measuring time re-

duces the instability in the LSD caused by the
quantization uncertainty. At a specific measur-
ing time setting, the counter is justified to dis-
play one more digit. That one additional digit

Digit Blanking 7-7

Measurement Control

suddenly gives ten times more display resolu- What Is Arming?

tion, but not a ten times less quantization uncer-
tainty. Consequently, a measuring time that Arming is a pretrigger condition (“qualifier”)
gives just one more display digit shows more that must be fulfilled before the counter allows
visual uncertainty in the last digit. a measurement to start. The pretrigger condi-
tion can be compared to using a gun. When you
For a stable LSD read-out, the maximum mea- use a gun, you must first arm the gun before you
suring time selected should be one that still can pull the trigger.
gives the required number of digits. Such opti-
mization of the measuring time enables the total Arming can also be used to qualify the stop of a
resolution to be equal to the quantization reso- measurement. This is called “stop arming” as
lution. This is shown in Figure 7-2 as a function opposed to the more common “start arming”.
of the selected measuring time. When you use arming, you disable the normal
free-run mode, i.e., individual measurements
must be preceded by a valid start arming signal
transition.

R e la tiv e
Q u a n tiz a tio n Q U A N T IZ A T IO N R E S O L U T IO N
E rro r
-3
1 0
-4
1 0
-5
1 0
-6
1 0
-7
1 0
-8
1 0
-9
1 0
-1 0
1 0
-1 1
1 0
-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 + 1 + 2
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

M e a s u r in g T im e in s

Fig. 7 -2 Resolution as a function of measuring time.

7-8 Digit Blanking

 Measurement Control

If you use start arming and stop arming together n When Do I Use Stop Arming?
you get an externally controlled measuring
You normally use stop arming together with
time.
start arming. That means that the external
gating signal controls both the start and the stop
n Manual Arming
of the measurement. Such a gating signal can be
The counter has a manual arming function used to force the counter to measure the fre-
called DISPLAY HOLD. Here you manually quency of a pulsed RF signal. Here the position
arm individual measurements one-by-one by of the external gate must be inside a burst. See
pressing the RESTART key. Figure 7-4.
Use this manual arming mode to measure sin-
gle-shot phenomena, which are either triggered S ta rt A rm S to p A rm
E x t G a te
manually or occur at long intervals. Another
reason for using this manual arming could sim-
ply be to allow sufficient time to write down in- B u rs t
dividual results. S ig n a l

n When Do I Use Start Arming?

Fig. 7-4 Start and stop arming together
Start arming is useful for measurements of fre- is used for burst signal gating.
quency in signals, such as the following:
– Single shot events or non-cyclic signals.
n The Arming Input
– Burst signals.
Input E is the arming input. This input is suit-
– Signals with frequency variations versus able for arming (sync) signals that have TTL
time (“profiling”). levels. The trigger level is fixed at 1.4V and
– A selected part of a complex waveform cannot be changed. The trigger slope can be set
signal. to positive or negative.
Signal sources that generate complex wave-
n When Do I Use Arming with
forms like pulsed RF, pulse bursts, tv line sig-
nals, or sweep signals, usually also produce a Delay?
sync signal that coincides with the start of a You can delay the start arming point with re-
sweep, length of an RF burst, or the start of a tv spect to the arming signal. Use this function
line. These sync signals can be used to arm the when the external arming signal does not coin-
counter. See Figure 7-3. cide with the part of the signal that you are in-
terested in.
S y n c
The range for time delay is 200 ns to 5 seconds
P u ls e with a setting resolution of 100 ns.
S ig n a l

Fig. 7-3 A synchronization signal starts

the measurement when start
arming is used.

Digit Blanking 7-9

Measurement Control

n Getting the Whole Picture

The flowchart in Figure 7-5 illustrates how
arming enables precise control of the start and
stop of the actual measurement when you oper-
ate the counter from the front panel. If you use
the counter via the GPIB, read more about bus
arming and triggering under the heading “How
to Use the Trigger System” in Chapter 18, “
Trigger Subsystem” of the GPIB Programming
Manual.

7-10 Digit Blanking

 Measurement Control

S IG N A L n o y e s
A U T O O N ? S H O W "N O S IG N A L "
D E T E C T E D ?

o u i n o

S H O W "N O T R IG "

D IS P L A Y y e s P R E S S
H O L D R E S T A R T

S T A R T y e s W A IT F O R y e s
D E L A Y ?
A R M IN G E X T . S IG N A L

n o
n o

W A IT F O R IN P U T W A IT P R E S E T T IM E
S IG N A L T O T R IG G E R

S T A R T O F
M E A S U R E M E N T

S T O P y e s W A IT F O R
A R M IN G ? E X T . S IG N A L

n o

E N D O F P R E S E T
M E A S U R IN G T IM E

W A IT F O R IN P U T
S IG N A L T O T R IG G E R

S T O P
M E A S U R E M E N T

P R O C E S S R E S U L T
& D IS P L A Y

Fig. 7-5 Measurement control flow diagram.

Digit Blanking 7-11

Measurement Control

When arming delay is selected, the setup time is

Arming Setup Time different. See Figure 7-7. It illustrates the effect
of the 100 ns delay resolution.
The measurement is not armed until about 5 ns
after the active edge of the external control sig- A r m in g S ig n a l
nal on channel E. See Figure 7-6. P ro g ra m m e d
D e la y
M e a s u re d
S ig n a l
A r m in g S ig n a l
S e t U p T im e :
ra n g e fro m -6 0 to + 4 0 n s
M e a s u r e d S ig n a l
Fig. 7-7 Time from expired time delay
until the measurement is armed:
–60 to +40 ns.
S e tu p T im e
Figure 7-7 shows that a start trigger signal may
Fig. 7 -6 The arming logic needs a setup be detected although it appears 60 nanoseconds
time of about 5 ns. before the programmed time delay has expired.
The start trigger signal must come 40 nanosec-
onds after the programmed time delay has ex-
pired to guarantee correct start of the measure-
ment.

7-12 Arming Setup Time

 Measurement Control

Arming Examples

Example #1: The conditions for success are that the pulse
burst does not repeat itself more than 50 to 150
times per second. The duration of a pulse burst
Measuring Pulse Width in a (between first and last pulse) must be substan-
Pulse Burst tially less than the distance to the next burst.
In the first example we will measure the width
of pulse #1 in a repetitive pulse burst. In this ex- Do the following steps to perform auto syn-
ample, a synchronization signal (SYNC) with chronization without arming:
TTL levels is also available. See Figure 7-8. – Connect the burst signal to input A.
– Adjust the manual sensitivity and trigger
S y n c E
level until the burst signal triggers the
counter correctly.
– Use the FUNCTION key to select
In p u t A P WIDTH A.

Fig. 7-8 Synchronizing the measurement – Select SINGLE measuring mode.

so that the pulse width of the – Press MEAS TIME and set a measuring
first pulse is measured. time according to the following text.
The measuring time setting can be used for syn-
Our task is to synchronize the start of the mea- chronization purposes. The set measuring time
surement (start trigger) to the leading edge of does not influence the actual measurement time
the first pulse. Depending on the signal timing, in SINGLE mode, but it will influence the time
this can be easy, difficult, or very difficult. between measurements. If you select a measur-
n A. Auto Synchronization
without Arming
If we are lucky, we can manage without using
the arming function at all. Often, the counter
can automatically synchronize the measure-
ment start to the triggering of the first pulse.

Example #1: 7-13

Measurement Control

ing time that almost equals the duration of a – Connect the burst signal to input A.
burst, the auto-synchronization will work.
– Adjust the manual sensitivity and trigger
level until the burst signal triggers the
counter correctly.
N o t U s e d
– Press AUX MENU, select ARM START,
and select arming on positive slope (ARM
STA+).
A
In p u t A
B C
– Use FUNCTION key to select PULSE
WIDTH.

Fig. 7 -11 A= Measure

– Press MEAS TIME and set a short mea-
B= Process time + display
suring time.
time(=set measuring time) min- – Select SINGLE measuring mode and mea-
imum 3 to 4 ms sure.
C= Waiting for next input sig-
nal trigger event. If there is no (or too little) time difference be-
tween the arming signal and the first pulse in
If the repetition rate is too high, synchroniza- the pulse burst, arming must be combined with
tion will not be guaranteed, but there is a high a delay. See example c.
probability that auto-synchronization will work
anyway. However, occasional erroneous values n C. Start Signal Synchronization
will be displayed. To achieve guaranteed syn- Using Start Arming with Time
chronization, use the Start Arming function. Delay
If the pulse bursts have a stable repetition fre-
n B. Synchronization Using Start
quency, you synchronize the measurement us-
Arming ing Start Arming with Time Delay. Here you
The SYNC signal can be directly used to arm use the SYNC pulse belonging to a preceding
the measurement. This requires that the leading burst to synchronize the start of measurement.
edge of the SYNC signal occurs more than 5 ns Set the time delay to a time longer than the du-
before the leading edge of the first pulse in the ration of a pulse burst and shorter than the repe-
burst. See Figure 7-10. tition time of the pulse bursts. See Figure 7-11.
S y n c E S y n c E
S ta r t A r m in g

D e la y
> 5 n s
In p u t A
In p u t A
Fig. 7 -9 Synchronization using start arm-
ing. Fig. 7-10 Synchronization using start
arming with time delay.

Take the following steps to perform synchroni-

zation using start arming: Take the following steps to start signal synchro-
– Connect SYNC to input E. nization using start arming with time delay:

7-14 Example #1:

 Measurement Control

– Connect SYNC to input E.

– Connect the burst signal to input A.
– Adjust the manual sensitivity and wave-
form until the burst signal triggers the
counter correctly.
– Press the AUX MENU, select ARM
START, and arming on positive slope
(ARM STA+), and press ENTER.
– Select delay ON using DATA ENTRY
keys and press ENTER.
– Enter a suitable delay, and confirm with
ENTER.
– Use FUNCTION key to select PULSE
WIDTH.
– Press MEAS TIME, and set a short mea-
suring time.
– Select SINGLE measuring mode, and
measure.

Example #1: 7-15

Measurement Control

Example #2 A r m in g in p u t

Measuring Frequency in
Two-Tone Bursts
In p u t A o r C
Sonar bursts can consist of two different fre- s ig n a l
quencies with different durations. See Figure
7-12

S Y N C

M e a s u r in g tim e

Fig. 7-13 Autosync or external arming

In p u t A o r C makes it possible to measure
s ig n a l the first tone in the burst.
Fig. 7 -12 A two-tone burst with its sync
pulse.
To measure the frequency of the second half re-
quires the use of arming delay. The delay time
To measure the frequency of the first part is nor- should be set to a value slightly longer than the
mally no problem. Because of the reciprocal duration of the first tone in the two-tone burst.
measurement, the counter automatically syn- See Figure 7-14.
chronizes the measurement with the start of the
A r m in g in p u t
burst. And for fool-proof synchronization, start
arming can be used, as in Figure 7-13. The mea-
suring time should of course be short enough. A r m in g d e la y

In p u t A o r C
s ig n a l

M e a s u r in g tim e

Fig. 7-14 Add a delay to the external

arming, and the second tone
can be measured.

7-16 Example #2
 Measurement Control

Single-Cycle Measurements Using

Example #3 Measuring Time Setting for “Pacing”
When SINGLE measurements are set on the
Profiling counter, the measuring time acts as a “measure-
Profiling means measuring frequency versus ment hold time”. By setting the measuring time
time. Examples are measuring warm up drift in to 10 s for example, single-cycle measurements
signal sources over hours, measuring the linear- are automatically made at 10 s-intervals.
ity of a frequency sweep during seconds, VCO
switching characteristics during milliseconds,
Using a Controller as “Pacer”
or the frequency changes inside a “chirp radar” With fairly large intervals such as seconds be-
pulse during microseconds. The counter can tween individual samples, the timer in the con-
handle many profiling measurement situations. troller can be used for pacing the individual
Profiling can theoretically be done manually, measurements.
i.e., by reading individual measurement results
Using External Arming Signals
and plotting in a graph. However, to avoid get-
ting bored long before reaching your 800th or External arming signals can also be used for
so measurement result, you must use some “pacing.” For example with an arming signal
computing power and a counter with GPIB in- consisting of 10 Hz pulses, individual measure-
terface. In profiling applications, the counter ments are armed at 100 ms intervals.
acts as a fast, high resolution sampling front Letting the Counter Run Free
end, storing results in its internal memory.
These results are later transferred to the control- When the counter is free-running, the shortest
ler for analysis and graphical presentation. time between measurements is approximately
600 ms plus set measuring time. For example
You must distinguish between two different when a measuring time of 2 ms is set, the time
types of measurement called free-running and between each sample is approximately 2.6 ms.
repetitive sampling. You have to perform some special actions in
search of that high speed, for instance blanking
n Free-Running Measurements the display. This is described in Chapter 19 of
Free-running measurements are performed the Programming Manual.
over a longer period, e.g. to measure the stabil-
ity over 24 hours of oscillators, to measure ini- n Repetitive Sampling Profiling
tial drift of a generator during a 30-minute The measurement setup just described will not
warm-up time, or to measure short-term stabil- work when the profiling demands less than
ity during 1 or 10 s. In these cases, measure- 600 ms intervals between samples.
ments are performed at intervals from half a
millisecond and upwards. In other words, the
maximum sampling rate is 1.6 kHz. There are
several different ways of performing the mea-
surements at regular intervals.

Example #3 7-17
Measurement Control

How to Do a VCO Step Response When all 100 measurements have been made,
Profiling the results can be used to plot frequency versus
time. Note that the absolute accuracy of the
– with 100 samples during a time of
time scale is dependent on the input signal it-
10 ms, i.e., 100 ms between samples.
self. Although the measurements are armed at
This measurement scenario requires a repetitive 100 ms±100 ns intervals, the actual start of mea-
input step signal, and you have to repeat your surement is always synchronized to the first in-
measurement 100 times, taking one sample per put signal trigger event after arming.
switch period. Each new sample should be de-
layed 100 ms with respect to the previous one.

A GPIB controller is well suited for this pur-

pose, although it is possible but tedious to man-
ually set and perform all 100 measurements.
The following are required to set up a measure-
ment:
– A repetitive input signal (e.g., frequency
output of VCO).
– An external SYNC signal (e.g., step volt-
age input to VCO).
Fig. 7-16 Results from a transient profil-
– Use of arming delayed by a preset time ing measurement.
(e.g., 100, 200, 300 ms).
See Figures 7-15 and 7-16.

V o lta g e s te p
g e n e ra to r V C O

In p u t E , E X T A R M

In p u t A

7-15 Setup for transient profiling of a

VCO.

7-18 Example #3
 Chapter 8

Processing
Processing

Introduction Nulling
Two different ways to process a measurement
result are available: Averaging and Nulling.

Averaging
AUX

W
W
W

NULL One press on the NULL

key stores the current dis-
played result, then shows
all the following results as
AUX
deviation from that result.
W

+
W
W

It can be difficult to freeze the

W

display in exactly the right mo-

SINGLE If SINGLE is switched off, ment when all ten digits show the
the counter makes a multi- desired value. Don’t worry, you
ple period average. That can display and change the null
means that it averages all value by entering the AUX
data captured during the MENU.
set measuring time and dis-
plays the result. To show the stored nulling value:
– Press AUX MENU, select NULL with the
FUNCTION key and press ENTER.
To change the value:
– Press the t SENS u keys to select the
digit you want to change and press the
DATA ENTRY p q keys to change the
value.
– Press ENTER, and the new value is
stored.

n Manually Entering a Null Value

When nulling is off:

8-2 Introduction
 Processing

– Press the AUX MENU key.

– Select NULL with the FUNCTION key.
– Press ENTER and the display shows the
previous Null value (if any).
– To use the shown value, press ENTER.
– To change the value, press the
t SENS u keys to select the digit you
want to change, and increase/decrease the
digit with the DATA ENTRY p q keys.
Repeat these steps for all digits you want
to change, then exit the AUX MENU by
pressing ENTER.
The NULL annunciator on the display is
switched on and the display shows the devia-
tion from the entered value.

Nulling 8-3
Processing

This page is intentionally left blank.

8-4 Nulling
 Chapter 9

Auxiliary Functions
Auxiliary Functions

If you frequently need to use some AUX

About This Chapter MENU functions, we recommend that you save
your favorite complete front panel setup in one
This chapter describes less commonly used of the 20 memory locations for easy recall later.
functions that are “hidden” in the auxiliary
menu. You can use such preprogrammed settings as
default settings for your particular applications,
from which you can manually modify the vari-
ous individual control settings.

Auxiliary Menu When you select something in the AUX

MENU, that cannot otherwise be indicated, an
AUX annunciator on the display is switched on.
Introduction
+
The AUX annunciator only
All the counter’s measuring logic and input set- shows that a change has been
tings are computer controlled. The ability to se- made in the AUX MENU. The
lect, combine, and add new functions is limited unique settings that have been
only by the number of controls on the front made are not shown on the dis-
panel. play.

To keep the normal operation of the counter as

simple as possible, the use of dual or triple
function keys has been avoided. For the same
reason the number of keys has been restricted,
however, the counter contains many “hidden”
features. The AUX MENU key gives you ac-
cess to all the extras that are not generally found
in a traditional counter.

9-2 About This Chapter

 Auxiliary Functions

A U X
M E N U E N T E R

F U N C T IO N

D IS P L A Y B A C K L IG H T R E C A L L M E M O R Y
O N / O F F

N U L L S A V E M E M O R Y
R e a d /C h a n g e

D IS P L A Y O V E R F L O W P R O T E C T M E M O R Y
O N / O F F

A N A L O G O U T P U T T R IG G E R S L O P E
O N /O F F + C o n tr o l S c a lin g P o s it iv e o r n e g a tiv e

G P IB -A D D R E S S A R M IN G S T A R T A R M IN G D E L A Y
R e a d O N /O F F /D E L A Y T im e 2 0 0 n s to 1 .6 7 s

T IM E O U T A R M IN G S T O P
s e t T im e O u t, 1 0 0 m s to O N /O F F
2 5 .5 s a n d O F F

T E S T B U R S T C W
S e le c t S e lf T e s t A , C a n d O F F

S Y N C D E L A Y
T im e 2 0 0 n s to 1 .6 7 s
P R O G R A M ID E N T IF Y P R F
C o u n te r a n d G P IB p ro g ra m s A , C a n d O F F

Fig. 9-1 You will enter the AUX MENU at the same selection as you used the previous
time, except after power on. Then you enter the menu at RECALL.

Auxiliary Menu 9-3

Auxiliary Functions

Plain English AUX MENU gpIb Addr

Commands GPIB Address Read/Set
AUX The selection of functions Instr. 1.23
MENU from the menu that you find
Identity of the Instrument firmware
when you press the AUX
MENU key is simple. Just Neg
scroll through the list with Negative
FUNCTION the FUNCTION key until
you find the function you No bUS
are looking for. Pressing No GPIB interface is installed
ENTER will select the func-
tion or take you to a NULL
ENTER
submenu with more selec- Null
tions.
OFF
Off
The texts on the display are messages in abbre-
viated English. However, the ability to express On
oneself using ten, 7-segment indicators is On
somewhat limited. Here is a list of all display
messages with explanations. POS
Analog Out Positive

Analog output ON/OFF and scaling factor PrF

ar. start PRF Pulse Repetition Frequency

Arming Start Prog. Idn.

ar. stOp Program Identity

Arming Stop Protect

bUrst Memory Protect Menu

Burst Frequency recall

bUs 1.23 Recall from memory position 1 to 20

Identity of the GPIB firmware SAVE

Save in memory position 1 to 20
disp. lIght
Display light Sync. dly.
Synchronization delay
disp. Ofl.
Display overflow test
Enter the test submenu
Err. Protec
You tried to save a front panel setting while the test all
memory was protected All tests in sequence

9-4 Auxiliary Menu

 Auxiliary Functions

test asIC Memory Protect

Test of measurement logic Protects memory 10-19 from accidental over-
test dISP write, just like the write-protect tab on a dis-
kette.
Display test
test ra. Trig Slope
Internal RAM test Selects what slope the counter should trigger
test rO. on. The default trigger slope is positive.
Changing to negative trigger slope enables you
Internal ROM test
to measure negative pulse width and duty fac-
ti. Out tor.
Timeout menu Changing slope normally makes no sense in
trig SLOPE frequency, period or ratio measurements.
Trigger slope
Arming Start
Recall Selects if the counter should free-run, or if a
separate signal must arm the start of each mea-
Recalls one of the 20 previously stored front
surement. Press AUX MENU, select
panel settings. Press AUX MENU, select RE-
AR.START, press ENTER, select POS, NEG
CALL and press ENTER, then select one
or OFF, and press ENTER. If you select POS
memory location from 0 to 19, with the DATA
or NEG, the display shows DELAY OFF. Se-
ENTRY keys and confirm by pressing
lect ON and you can enter a delay from the ar-
ENTER.
rival of the arm start signal to the actual start of
The memory annunciator is on as long as the re- a measurement. Press ENTER to exit the menu.
called setting remains unchanged.
If the memory annunciator is on when you turn Arming Stop
off the counter, it will recall that memory auto- Selects if the counter should stop measuring
matically when the counter is turned on again. when the measuring time expires, or if a sepa-
rate signal must arm the stop of each measure-
ment. Press AUX MENU, select AR.STOP,
Save
and press ENTER. Select POS, NEG or OFF
Saves the current front panel setting in one of and press ENTER.
the 20 front panel memory locations. Press
AUX MENU, select SAVE and press ENTER,
then use the DATA ENTRY keys to select an Burst Frequency
unused memory location between 0 and 19. Turns the burst frequency function on or off and
Confirm by pressing ENTER. selects measuring input. Read the explanation

+ The MEMORY annunciator is of this function in Chapter 6 “Measuring Func-

only on as long as no changes of tions”.
the saved setting have been
made.

Auxiliary Menu 9-5

Auxiliary Functions

PRF error was detected. Contact your Local Service

Center for repair.
Turns the burst PRF function on or off and se-
lects measuring input. Read the explanation of
this function in Chapter 6 “Measuring Func- Time-out
tions”. Turns the time-out on and off for measure-
ments. Use the DATA ENTRY keys to change.
Program Identity If you select ON, you enter a submenu where
you can set the value of the timeout. Time-out is
Shows the firmware version of the instrument a programmable stop for a measurement in
and the GPIB interface. progress. The time-out starts when the counter
starts a measurement, and it interrupts the mea-
Test surement if a result is not ready within the
time-out period.
In the Test menu, you can choose to run tests
used in the power-up test one at a time: The range is 100 ms to 25.5 s. Preset time-out is
– Select the test submenu by pressing the OFF.

+
FUNCTION key until the display shows The time-out is mainly used for
TEST. GPIB applications.
– Enter the test menu by pressing the
ENTER key. GPIB Address
Selections for internal self-tests are as follows: Shows and changes the
– TEST ALL (the four tests below in se- GPIB address. The new
quence) address is stored in
– TEST DISP (Display Test) non-volatile memory
and remains until
– TEST Logic (Measuring Logic) changed again via this
– TEST RA (RAM) menu, the address
– TEST RO (ROM) switches on the rear panel or via a bus com-
If any fault is detected, an error message will mand.
appear on the display and the program halts. This means that the address of the counter can
Possible error messages are as follows: differ from the address indicated by the
– Internal ROM test failed. switches on the rear panel.
– Internal RAM test failed. The hex-address
+
The last set address is the valid
where an error is detected is shown. address whether it is set via the
aux menu, the address switches
– Test of measuring logic failed. or a GPIB command.

+
The display test turns on all seg-
ments of the display for a visual The counter shows the used address during the
inspection. No failure is reported. power-up test.
Press ENTER to end the test.

If an error message is displayed, press any key

to make the instrument continue even though an

9-6 Auxiliary Menu

 Auxiliary Functions

Analog Output (GPIB option want the analog output to assume its maximum
voltage (5 V).
only)
The default mode of the analog output is OFF. Example:
You turn it ON/OFF and set the scaling factor – Take a measurement result, for instance:
under ANALOG OUT in the AUX MENU. 12.34567890E+6 Hz
– Write the value without exponent:
12345678.90 Hz
– Multiply this value by the scaling factor,
for instance 0.001.
12345.67890
– Take the fractional part of the result:
.67890
– This is the value that will determine the
output voltage, .00 will give 0 V and .99
will give 5 V. this means that “our” read-
ing will give .67890*5=3.3945 V.
This is output as 3.38 V due to the 0.02 V
resolution of the analog output.

Default scaling factor = 1

Same exponent, opposite sign

Scaling factor = 1E-6
Fig. 9-2 The analog output function.

n Scaling Factor
The scaling factor has two functions: Fig. 9-3 To use the shown decimal
point as reference; set the
– The exponent selects the display digits to exponent of the scaling fac-
be represented by the analog output. tor to the same value as the
– The significant figures set the reading to exponent of the measure-
ment result but with opposite
represent full scale.
sign.
The default scaling factor is 1 (1E0). This
means that the full scale value is 0.999, and the n Resolution
analog output converts the fraction (digits to the The analog output range is 0 to 5 V in 250 steps,
right of the decimal point) to a voltage. so one step is 0.02 V. If the scaling factor is 1,
one such step is taken each time the display
The scaling factor should be:
changes with X.004, and if the scaling factor is
1
Scaling factor = 4, one step is taken each time the display
full scale value changes with X.001.
where full scale value is the value for which you

Auxiliary Menu 9-7

Auxiliary Functions

The X in the above paragraph can be any digit Using OVERFLOW with Display Hold
and does not influence the output voltage. If the
When DISPLAY HOLD is active, The ENTER
display changes from 0.996 to 1.000, the volt-
key toggles OVERFLOW on/off. If the counter
age drops from 4.98 V to 0V. If the display
has measured a result with more than 10 digits
value increases further, the output voltage starts
and you press ENTER, the OVERFLOW an-
to increase again, see Figure 9-4.
nunciator will switch on and the display will
O u tp u t v o lta g e
show the additional digits. The counter is de-
S c a lin g fa c to r 1
4 .9 8 V signed this way because switching on OVER-
0 .0 0 4 FLOW in the AUX MENU will initiate a new
measurement. This is undesirable if you want to
2 0 m V
study single shot phenomena or long-term
totalizing.
0 .0 0 V
0 .0 0 0 1 .0 0 0 2 .0 0 0 D is p la y e d 14
0 .9 9 6 1 .9 9 6 v a lu e When totalizing, the result can be up to 10 ,
that is 14 digits, but overflow will not show
O u tp u t v o lta g e S c a lin g fa c to r 4
4 .9 8 V
more than 12 digits.
0 .0 0 1

2 0 m V
Null
The null function stores the result currently dis-
0 .0 0 V played, then shows all the following results as
D is p la y e d
deviations from that result.
0
00

v a lu e
0

0
0.

25

50
0.

0.
49

99

You store the current display reading by press-

2

4
0.

0.

Fig. 9-4 Output voltage versus dis- ing the NULL key on the front panel. You can
played value for two different read and change the stored result in the AUX
scaling factors. MENU.
When NULL is ON:
Display Overflow – Press AUX MENU
Display overflow makes 12-digit measure- – Select NULL with the FUNCTION key.
ments possible . When OVERFLOW is on and – Press ENTER and the display will show
the measurement justifies 11 or 12 digits, the the stored value.
OVERFLOW annunciator turns on, and the
Change the value in 1-2-5 steps with the DATA
counter truncates one or two MSDs and shows
ENTRY keys, or select what digit you want to
one or two extra LSDs instead.
change with the SENS keys and change it with
You have to keep track of the decimal point the DATA ENTRY keys.
yourself, compare the values with overflow ON – When the display shows the desired value,
and OFF to see if one or two overflow digits are press ENTER.
shown when the OVERFLOW annunciator is
As default the null value is negative and sub-
ON.
tracted from the new readings, but you can also
enter a positive null value.

Turn off the nulling by pressing NULL again.

9-8 Auxiliary Menu

 Auxiliary Functions

If you want to turn on nulling without storing

the currently displayed value but keep the old
one, press AUX MENU, select NULL and
press ENTER twice.

Display Light
You can turn the display backlight ON or OFF:
– Press AUX MENU.
– Select DISP LIGHT with the FUNCTION
key.
– Press ENTER.
– Select ON or OFF with the DATA EN-
TRY keys
– Press ENTER again to exit the aux menu.

Auxiliary Menu 9-9

Auxiliary Functions

This page is intentionally left blank.

9-10 Auxiliary Menu

 Chapter 10

Performance Check
Performance Check

General Recommended
Information Test Equipment
WARNING: Before turning on the in- Type of in- Required Suggested
strument Specifications Instrument
strument, ensure that it has been
LF Synthe- Square; Sine
installed in accordance with the in-
sizer up to 10 MHz
stallation instructions outlined in
Power 50 W PM9584/02
Chapter 3 of this manual. Splitter
T-piece
This performance procedure is intended to do
Termination 50 W PM9585
the following:
Reference 10 MHz Fluke 908,
– Check the instrument’s specification. oscillator ±0.1 Hz for or a counter
– Be used for incoming inspection to deter- standard oscil- with cali-
lator brated
mine the acceptability of newly purchased
PM9691
instruments and recently recalibrated in-
10 MHz Fluke 909,
struments. ±0.01 Hz for 910R,
– Check the necessity of recalibration after PM9691 and PM6685R or
the specified recalibration intervals. PM9692. PM6681R

+
The procedure does not check 10 MHz Fluke 910R
every facet of the instrument’s ±0.0001 Hz or Cesium
calibration; rather, it is concerned for PM6685R. Standard
primarily with those parts of the HF signal 500 MHz (no
instrument which are essential generator prescaler
for determining the function of option)
the instrument. 1.5 GHz (op-
tion PM9621)
It is not necessary to remove the cover of the in- 3.3 GHz (op-
strument to perform this procedure. tion PM9624)
Pulse Gen- 125 MHz
If the test is started less than 30 minutes after erator
turning on the instrument, results may be out of Oscillo- 350 MHz
specification, due to insufficient warm-up time. scope

Table 10-1 Recomm.Test Equipment

*) Two of the cables must have 10 ns
difference in delay, for example: 5 ns
and 15 ns.

10-2 General Information

 Performance Check

Preparations – Turn on your counter and check that all

segments light up on the display and that
Power up your instruments at
no error message appears.
least 30 minutes before begin-
ning the performance check to
let them reach normal operat- Internal Self-Tests
ing temperature. Failure to do The built-in test programs from the power-on
so may result in certain test steps not meeting test can also be activated from the front panel as
equipment specifications. follows:
– Enter the Auxiliary Menu by pressing
AUX MENU.

Front Panel – Select the test submenu by pressing DATA

ENTRY por q.
Controls – Enter the test menu by pressing the
ENTER key.
Power-On Test Selections for internal self-tests are as follows:

At power-on the counter performs an automatic – 1 TEST RO (ROM)

self-test of the following: – 2 TEST RA (RAM)
– Microprocessor – 3 TEST ASIC (Measuring Logic)
– RAM – 4 TEST DISP (Display Test)
– 5 TEST ALL (Test 1 to 4 in sequence)
– ROM
– Measuring circuits – Use DATA ENTRY pq to select TEST
ALL, then press ENTER.
– Display
– If any fault is detected, an error message
If a GPIB interface is installed, the GPIB ad- appears on the display and the program
dress is displayed. halts.
If there are any test failures, an error message is – If no faults are detected, the program re-
shown. turns to measuring mode.

S OVERFLOW SINGLE
MEMORY BURST
ENTER AUX PRF
ARM ARM
FREQ A FREQ C PER A RATIO A/E RATIO C/A P WIDTH A TOT A MAN DUTY F A STA STO

REMOTE EXT REF CHECK FILTER 150M W AUTO LEVEL A SENSITIVITY A

SRQ LO BAT OVERLOAD HOLD NULL OFFSET TRIG

Fig. 10-1 Text on the display.

Front Panel Controls 10-3

Performance Check

Keyboard Test DATA 200.0 s

-3

ENTRYq
The keyboard test verifies that the counter re- ENTER NO SIGNAL
sponds when you press any key. To check the MEASURE HOLD
function behind the keys, see the tests further HOLD
on in this chapter. MEASURE ----------
RESTART
Press the keys as described in the left column MEASURE NO SIGNAL
and look on the display for the text, as described HOLD
in the second column. Some keys change more SINGLE SINGLE ----------
text on the display than described here. The dis- tFUNCTION DUTY F A
play text mentioned here is the text mostly asso- tFUNCTION TOT A MAN 0
ciated with the selected key. FUNCTIONu DUTY F A ----------
FUNCTIONu FREQ A
For the instrument to respond correctly, this test AUX MENU RECALL
must be carried out in sequence, and you must PRESET DEFAULT? Default
start with the preset (power-up) setting. ENTER NO SIGNAL setting
NULL NULL
KEY(S) DISPLAY NOTE Pass
NULL NO SIGNAL
/Fail
CHECK 10.000000006 Start
STANDBY Display OFF Red
LED Hz * count-
ing
beside 6
the key BLANK 10.00000---
ON (3 times) Hz *
ON Backlight ON Self- MENU Displays all available
test functions, processes and
PRESET DEFAULT? Default input controls. Selected
items are blinking.
ENTER NO SIGNAL setting
PRESET DEFAULT? Default
EXT REF EXT REF
ENTER NO SIGNAL setting
Input A **
FILTER FILTER
50 W 50 W
Table 10-2 Keyboard test.
TRGLVL SENSITIVITY NO * The LSD digit may vary.
A TRIG
** MENU is not disabled by
TRGLVL
setting DEFAULT; press
menu again.
tSENS Bar graph:
(2 times) zzzzzzzz
SENSu Bar graph:
(2 times) zzzzzzzzzz
Others
PRESET DEFAULT? Default
ENTER NO SIGNAL setting
MEAS 200.0-3 s
TIME
DATA 500.0-3 s
ENTRYp

10-4 Front Panel Controls

 Performance Check

Reference Oscillators
Short Form
Crystal oscillators are affected by a number of
Specification Test external conditions such as ambient tempera-
ture and supply voltage but also by aging.
Therefore, it is hard to give limits for the al-
Sensitivity and Frequency lowed frequency deviation. You must decide
Range the limits depending on your application, and
– Press the PRESET key to activate the de- recalibrate the oscillator accordingly. See
fault setting mode (DEFAULT?). Then Chapter 11 Preventive Maintenance.
confirm by pressing ENTER.
Oscillator Max. tem- Max. ag- Max. ag-
– Turn off AUTO by pressing the TRGLVL perature ing per ing per
button to the left of AUTO. depen- month year
dence
– Select 50 W. (Hz) (Hz) (Hz)

– Select maximum sensitivity by keeping the Standard ± 100 ±5 ±50

tSENS button depressed until only one PM9691 ±0.05 ±0.1 ±0.75
bar in the bar graph is ON. PM9692 ±0.025 ±0.03 ±0.2
Rubidium ±0.003 ±0.0005 ±0.002
– Connect the output from an HF generator
to a BNC power splitter. Table 10-4 Deviation (for PM9691 and
PM9692 after 48 hours
– Connect the power splitter to your counter warm-up time).
and an oscilloscope.
– Set input impedance to 50 W on the oscil-
loscope. To check the accuracy of the oscillator, you
must have a calibrated reference signal that is at
– Adjust the amplitude according to the fol- least five times as stable as the oscillator that
lowing table. Read the level on the oscillo- you are testing. See the following table.
scope. The Counter should display the cor-
rect frequency. – Set the counter to default settings by
pressing PRESET and ENTER.
Freq Level Pass/
Fail – Connect the reference to input A
MHz mVPP mV dBm Input – Check the read-out against the accuracy
A
RMS
requirements of your application.
1 30 10 –27
50 30 10 –27
100 45 15 –23
150 60 20 –21
200 90 30 –17
300 150 50 –13

Table 10-3 Sensitivity for input A at vari-

ous frequencies

Short Form Specification Test 10-5

Performance Check

n Acceptance Test Test Procedure

As an acceptance test the following table gives – Connect the counter to the line power.
a worst case readout figure after 30 minutes – Check that the UNLOCK indicator turns
warm-up time. All deviations that can occur in on, and then turns off again within 6 min-
a year are added together. utes after connecting line power.
Oscilla- Frequency Suitable Pass – Connect the 10 MHz reference signal to
tor read-out reference / Fail input A of the counter.
6
Standard 10.00000000 PM9691
± 120 Hz or
– Select FREQUENCY A measurement.
PM9692 – Select 2 s measuring time.
PM9691 10.000000006 909, – Check that the displayed frequency is
± 1Hz PM6685R
10.00000000 MHz ±0.05 Hz £ 10 minutes
PM9692 10.000000006 or
after connection to line power.
± 0.25Hz PM6681R

Table 10-5 Acceptance test for oscilla-

tors

n Acceptance Test, PM6685R

Rear Input/Output
To fully test the accuracy of the PM6685R, an INT REF Output
extremely high stability reference signal is
needed. Examples of such references are Ce- – Connect an oscilloscope to the 10 MHz
sium Atomic references, or transmitted signals output on the rear of the counter. Use co-
from a nationally or internationally traceable axial cable and 50 W termination.
source. – Check that the output voltage is sinusoidal
and that the amplitude is minimum 1.4
Recommended Test Equipment V pp.
Type Stability Model
-10
10 MHz £ 1x10 Fluke 910R with satel-
reference lite contact during the
EXT REF Input
last 72 hours. – Set the counter to Default Setting by
pressing PRESET and ENTER.
– Apply a 10 MHz sine wave signal to input
A equipped with a T-piece and to the REF
IN connector at the rear, terminated with
50 W. Amplitude of 10 MHz signal:
200 mV RMS, (0.6 Vpp)
– Press the EXT REF key.
– The display should show
10.00000000 6 Hz ±5 LSD.

10-6 Rear Input/Output

 Performance Check

EXT ARM INPUT

Measuring
– Press the PRESET key, and confirm by
pressing the ENTER key to recall the de- Functions
fault setting.
Preparation for Check of Measuring Function is
– Select 50 W input impedance.
as follows:
– Apply 10 MHz, 500 mVRMS (1.4 Vpp) sine
wave to input A
– Connect a 10 MHz sine wave signal with
3.0 V pp amplitude via a T-piece to In-
– The counter measures and displays put A.
10 MHz.
– Connect a cable from the T-piece to Input
– Press AUX MENU key. E (EXT ARM).
– Press DATA ENTRY pq keys until dis- – Select the measuring functions in the ‘Se-
play shows Ar. Start, confirm by lected Function’ column successively and
pressing the ENTER key. check that the counter performs the correct
– Press DATA ENTRY pq keys until dis- measurement by displaying the result as
play shows POS, confirm by pressing the shown under the “Display” column in the
ENTER key. following table.
– Press ENTER once more. Selected Function Display Pass/
Fail
– The counter does not measure.
PRESET DEFAULT?
– Connect a pulse generator to input ENTER 10 MHz 2)
EXT ARM. 50 W Input A 2)
10 MHz
2)
– Settings for pulse generator: Non AUTO 10 MHz
2)
PER A 100 ns
– single shot pulse RATIO A/E 1.0000000
– TTL levels (0 and +2 V) PWIDTH A 1)
50 ns
TOT A MAN
– 10 ns duration DISPLAY HOLD Start counting
– Apply one single shot pulse to input DISPLAY HOLD Stop counting
EXT ARM . 1)
DUTY FACT 0.500000
1)
– The counter measures once and shows AUTO 0.500000
10 MHz on the display.
Table 10-6 Measuring functions check
1) Value depends on the
symmetry of the signal
2) Exact value depends on
input signal.

Measuring Functions 10-7

Performance Check

PM9621, PM9624 Frequency

MHz
Amplitude
mVRMS dBm
Pass

100-300 20 -21
Prescaler Check 300-2500 10 -27
2500-2700 20 -21
To verify the specification of the HF input in the
2700-3000 100 -7
instrument:
– If your counter does not have an Input C Table 10-9 Sensitivity of PM9624
connector, skip this test.
– Connect the output of the signal generator
to the HF-input of the counter.

Required Test Equip-

ment
Suggested instrument
PM9623
HF signal generator Wiltron 6717B-20

Table 10-7 Test equipment

Battery Unit Check
- Charge the battery for 24 hours.
Connect the 10 MHz REF OUT of the generator
to the REF IN at the rear panel of the counter. - Make sure the capacity of the battery is suffi-
cient to drive the counter for 2 hours with the
backlight switched on.

Fig 10-2 Connection.

– Preset the counter.

– Set Function to FREQ C.
– Select EXT REF.
– Generate a sine wave in accordance with
the corresponding tables below.
Frequency Amplitude Pass
MHz mVRMS dBm
70-90 10 –23
900-1100 15 -23
1100-1300 40 –15

Table 10-8 Sensitivity of PM9621.

10-8 PM9621, PM9624

 Chapter 11

Preventive
Maintenance
Preventive Maintenance

temperature between 0 and 50 degrees

Calibration and may cause a frequency change of up to

Adjustment 100 Hz, whereas the aging per month is

only 5 Hz. There is always a temperature
increase inside the counter, during the first
To maintain the performance of the frequency
30 minutes of operation, that will influ-
counter, we recommend that you calibrate the
ence the oscillator.
timebase of your instrument every year, or
more often if you require greater timebase ac- How often should you calibrate?
curacy. Calibration should be performed with In the table below you can see the uncertainty of
traceable references and instruments at a certi- your timebase oscillator for various MTBRC
fied calibration laboratory. Contact your local (Mean Time Between Recalibration) intervals.
service center for calibration.
Compare the requirements of your application
To know the present status of your instrument, with the values in the table, and select the
test your counter from time to time. The test can proper MTBRC accordingly.
be made according to the information in Chap-
ter 10, “Performance Check.” Please note that the frequency uncertainty when
operating in a temperature-controlled environ-
ment is different from field use. See the two
Oscillators sections in the table.
The frequency of the reference crystal oscilla-
tor is the main parameter that influences accu-
racy of a counter. External conditions, such as
ambient temperature and supply voltage, influ-
ence the frequency, but aging is also an
important factor. Remember that adjustment
can only compensate the reference oscillator
for frequency deviation due to aging.

n Some Important Points:

– The high-stability oscillators, PM9691 and
PM9692, have been built into an oven to
keep the oscillator temperature as stable as
possible. Continuous operation is also im-
portant for optimum stability. For example,
the PM9692 has an aging/24h that is
3x10-10 when operating continuously . Af-
ter a power interruption, the oscillator drift
is higher, and the specification of 3x10 -10
per 24h is not reached until after 48h of
continuous operation.
– The frequency uncertainty for standard os-
cillators is mainly dependent on the ambi-
ent temperature. Variations in ambient

11-2 Calibration and Adjustment

 Preventive Maintenance

n Stability of Timebase Oscillators:

Model PM6685 PM6685R

Option: Standard PM9691 PM9692
Timebase type: UCXO OCXO OCXO Rubidium
Total uncertainty , for oper-
ating temperature 0°C to 50°C,
at 2 σ (95%) confidence in-
terval:
-5 -8 -9 -10
- 1 month after calibration < 1.2 x 10 < 3 x 10 < 8 x 10 < 4 x 10
-5 -8 -8 -10
- 3 month after calibration < 1.2 x 10 < 4 x 10 < 1.2 x10 < 4 x 10
-5 -7 -8 -10 *
- 1 year after calibration < 1.2 x 10 < 1 x 10 < 2.5 x10 < 4 x 10
-5 -7 -8 -10 *
- 2 year after calibration < 1.5 x 10 < 2 x 10 < 5 x 10 < 6 x 10
Typical total uncertainty,
for operating temperature 20°C
to 26°C, at 2 σ (95%) confi-
dence interval:
-6 -8 -9 -10
- 1 month after calibration < 4 x 10 < 3 x 10 < 8 x 10 < 1 x 10
-6 -8 -5 -10
- 3 months after calibration < 4 x 10 < 4 x 10 < 1.2 x10 < 2 x 10
-6 -7 -8 -10*
- 1 year after calibration < 7 x 10 < 1 x 10 < 2.5 x10 < 2.5 x 10
-5 -7 -8 -10 *
- 2 years after calibration < 1.2 x 10 < 2 x 10 < 5 x 10 < 5 x 10

* st st -10
After 1 year of operation. For 1 year add: < 3 x 10

For complete specifications see Chapter 12,

Specifications.

Calibration and Adjustment 11-3

Preventive Maintenance

Other Maintenance
Fan Replacement
The PM6685R is equipped with a fan, and if it
is operating in a 24h/day system, you need to
replace the fan every second year to maintain
high reliability. For part-time applications and
low ambient temperatures, an extended service
interval is acceptable.

Optional Battery-Pack
Replacement
The PM9623 rechargeable battery kit contains
two sealed lead-acid batteries. These batteries
are similar to ordinary automotive starter bat-
teries, but they are made maintenance free by
using a gel instead of liquid acid.
The performance of this kind of batteries de-
creases with time, and high ambient tempera-
tures accelerate this performance decrease.
We recommend that you run the capacity test in
the performance check chapter once a year to
ensure correct battery operating time. If your
counter is used in a hot environment, run this
test more often.
When the counter no longer passes the test, the
batteries must be replaced.

Examples of suitable batteries:

Hitachi HP3-6
Sonnenschein A206/3.2S
Contact your local Service Organization to re-
place the battery.

11-4 Other Maintenance

 Chapter 12

Specifications
Specifications

Measuring Single

Functions Range: 12 ns to 100 ms

Prescaling factor: 1
Resolution: 10 digits/s measurement time
Refer to table 1 for measurement uncertainty
information.
Ratio A/E, C/A
Frequency A, C
Range: 10-9 to 10 9
Range Frequency
Input A: 10 Hz to 300 MHz Range
Prescaling factor: 4 Input A: 10 Hz to 300 MHz
Input C: 70 MHz to 1.3 GHz (PM9621) Prescaling factor: 4
Prescaling factor: 512 Input E: 10 Hz to 80 MHz
100 MHz to 3.0 GHz (PM9624) Prescaling factor: 1
Prescaling factor: 64 Input C: 70 MHz to 1.3 GHz (PM9621)
Resolution: 10 digits/s measurement time Prescaling factor: 512
100 MHz to 3.0 GHz (PM9624)
Burst Frequency A Prescaling factor: 64
Note: The higher frequency should be
on the first-mentioned input, i.e.
Frequency Range: 100 Hz to 80 MHz input A or C.
Prescaling factor: 1
PRF Range: 1 Hz to 1 MHz
Burst Duration: 0.8 ms to 50 ms, min. 3 pe- Pulse Width A
riods of this signal
Range: 6 ns to 10 ms
Period A Frequency Range: 50 Hz to 60 MHz
Prescaling factor: 1
Voltage Range: 100 mVpp to 70Vpp
Average

Range: 3.3 ns to 100 ms Duty Factor A

Prescaling factor: 4
(if possible to easily differenti-
ate between single and average, Range: 0 to 1
otherwise see specifications for Frequency Range: 50 Hz to 60 MHz
single) Prescaling factor: 1
Voltage Range: 100 mVpp to 70Vpp
Resolution: 10 digits/s measurement time

12-2 Measuring Functions

 Specifications

Totalize A Auto Trigger:

Event counting on input A with manual start Automatic setting of input signal condition-
and stop. ing circuits for optimum triggering on differ-
ent amplitudes and waveforms.
Range: 0 to 1014 Frequency: Minimum 50 Hz
Frequency Range: 0 to 100 MHz Sensitivity Range: 10 mVrms to 25Vrms
Signal Monitor:
Input and Output A bar graph displays actual input signal level
in 3 dB steps, 10mVrms to 10Vrms
Specifications Low Pass Filter:
100 kHz nominal 3 dB point. Minimum
Input A 40 dB attenuation at 1 MHz.
Damage Level:
Frequency
Range: 10 Hz to 300 MHz 1 MW: 350 V (dc + ac peak) at dc to
Coupling: AC 440 Hz, falling to 12V rms at
Impedance: 1 MW//25 pF or 50W, VSWR 2:1 1 MHz and above
Connector: BNC 50 W: 12Vrms
Sensitivity:
Sinewave: 10 mVrms , 10 Hz to 50 MHz Input C (PM9621)
15 mVrms , 50 MHz to 100 MHz
20 mVrms, 100 MHz to 150 MHz Frequency Range: 70 MHz to 1.3 GHz
30 mVrms, 150 MHz to 200 MHz Prescaling Factor: 512
50 mVrms, 200 MHz to 300 MHz
Operating Input Voltage Range:
Pulse: 50 mVpp, 3 ns minimum pulse
70 to 900 MHz: 10 mV rms to 12 Vrms
width
900 to 1100 MHz: 15 mV rms to 12 Vrms
Dynamic Range: 30 mVpp to 70Vpp 1100 to 1300 MHz: 40 mV rms to 12 Vrms
Manual Trigger: Amplitude Modulation:
Sens.
DC to 0.1 MHz: Up to 94% depth
Range: 10 mVrms to 10Vrms , variable in
0.1 to 6 MHz: Up to 85% depth
3 dB steps, indicated on a bar
graph. Minimum signal must exceed minimum op-
Trigger erating input voltage.
Level: Selectable for optimum trigger-
ing on waveforms with duty Impedance: 50 W nominal
factors <0.25 , 0.25 to 0.75 and Coupling: AC
>0.75 VSWR: <2:1
Trigger Positive or negative Max. Voltage
Slope: Without Damage: 12Vrms, pin-diode prot.
Connector: BNC

Input and Output Specifications 12-3

Specifications

Input C (PM9624) Reference Output G

Frequency Range: 100 MHz to 3.0 GHz Frequency: 10 MHz sine wave
Prescaling Factor: 64 Output Level: >1 Vrms into 50 W
Coupling: AC
Operating Input Voltage Range:
Connector: BNC
100 to 300 MHz: 20 mVrms to 12 Vrms
0.3 to 2.5 GHz: 10 mVrms to 12 Vrms
2.5 to 2.7 GHz: 20 mVrms to 12 Vrms
2.7 to 3.0 GHz: 100 mVrms to 12 Vrms
Auxiliary Functions
Amplitude Modulation: See PM9621 above

Impedance: 50 W nominal External Arming/External Gate

Coupling: AC An external signal on input E can be used to in-
VSWR: <2.5:1 hibit start and/or stop triggering.
Max. Voltage
Without Damage: 12V rms, pin-diode prot. Stop arming is not applicable to Pulse Width
Connector: Type N Female and Duty Factor measurement modes.

Start Arming Delay: OFF or 200 ns to 5 s in

External Reference Input D 100 ns steps
The use of external reference is indicated on the
display. Nulling/Frequency Offset
Input Frequency: 10 MHz Nulling enables measurements to be displayed
Voltage Range: 200 mVrms to 10 V rms relative to a previously measured value or any fre-
Impedance: Approx. 1 kW quency offset value entered via front panel keys.
Coupling: AC
Connector: BNC Other Functions
Measuring Time: Single cycle or 100 ns to
Input E 15 s, in 1-2-5 steps
Used in Ratio A/E and external arming/gating Local/Preset: Go to local function in re-
modes. mote mode, or preset
counter to default setting
Frequency Range: DC to 80 MHz in local mode
Pulse Width: 6 ns minimum Restart: Starts a new measurement
Slew Rate: 2V/ms minimum Display Hold: Freezes measuring result.
Trigger Level: TTL level, 1.4 V nominal Start and stop of the
Trigger Slope: Positive or negative totalization in TOT A
Impedance: Approx. 2 kW MAN.
Coupling: DC
Damage Level: ±25V peak
Connector: BNC

12-4 Auxiliary Functions

 Specifications

Check: Applies 10 MHz to the mea- Analog Output: Select digits and scaling
suring logic factor
Display: LCD with high-luminance Display
backlight Backlight: On/Off
Number of
Digits: 10 plus exponent
Blanking: Least significant digits can be

Bar Graph:
blanked.
Displays input signal level or GPIB
sensitivity setting in 3 dB steps
from 10 mVrms to 10 Vrms (Option PM9626/031)
Programmable
Auxiliary Menu: Functions: All front panel and AUX
Functions available from AUX MENU or via MENU functions
GPIB (PM9626/031): Compatibility: IEEE 488.2-1987,
SCPI 1991.0
Save/Recall: 20 complete instrument set- Interface
tings. 10 settings can be user Functions: SH1, AH1, T6, L4, SR1,
protected RL1, DC1, DT1, E2
GPIB-Addr: Read and temporarily change Max. Meas.
via front panel keys. (Set new Rate to Inter-
address on rear panel switch.) nal Memory: 200 to 1600 readings/s, de-
Burst pending on measurement
Frequency: Input A + C, set synchroniza- function and internal data
tion delay time format
PRF: Input A + C, set synchroniza- Internal Mem-
tion delay time ory Size: 764 to 2600 readings, de-
Trigg. Slope: Positive or negative pending on measurement
Arm. Start: Positive or negative slope, set function and internal data
start arming delay time format
Max. Bus
Arming Stop: Positive or negative slope Transfer Rate
Null: Read and change stored offset from Internal
frequency Memory: 150 to 1000 readings/s, de-
Display pending on internal data for-
Overflow: Display of the 11th and 12th mat and output data format
digits Data Output
Test: Select self-tests Format: ASCII, IEEE double preci-
Program Ver- sion floating point
sion: Display instrument and GPIB Time Out: Off or 100 ms to 25.5 s in
program versions 100 ms steps
Time Out: OFF or 100 ms to 25.5 s in
100 ms steps

GPIB 12-5
Specifications

Analog output (included with Battery

GPIB option) Quantity: 2
The analog output produces a voltage that is Type: 6V/3Ah sealed
proportional to any selected group of three con- lead-acid gel cells
secutive display digits. Dimensions: 134*34*60 mm
Terminals: 4.8 mm flat spade
Output Voltage: 0.00 to 4.98 V in 20 mV Battery Capacity
steps @ 25 °C
Output Impedance: 200 W Standby Mode: Typically 20 h with
Output Connector: BNC oven timebase
Operating Mode: Typically 3 h without
options, 2.5 h with
oven timebase, 2 h
with oven timebase and
Battery Unit Input C option
Recharge time: Typically 8 h in
Option PM9623 (not for the standby mode
Battery Protection: Overcharge and deep
PM6685R) discharge protection.
The PM9623 is a rechargeable battery unit for External DC: 12 to 24 V via socket
mounting inside the counter. on rear panel (16 to 24
V to charge internal
battery)
Line Failure Prot. Counter automatically
switches to internal
battery or external DC
when the line voltage
falls below 90 Vrms

Temperature
Operating: 0 °C to +40 °C
Storage: -40 °C to +50 °C
Weight: 1.5 kg (3.3 lb)

12-6 Battery Unit

 Specifications

Measurement Uncertainties
Mea- Random Uncertainty rms Systematic Uncertainty LSD Displayed
suring
func-
tion
Freq- ± Time Base Error ´ Freq (Per )
uency/ E q2 + 2 ´ (Trigger Error ) 2 250 ps ´ Freq (Per )
Period ± ´ Freq (Per )
±
250 ps
´ Freq (Per ) Measuring Time
Measuring Time
Meas.Time
Ratio
f1 /f2 ± ( presc. factor ) 2 + 2 ´ ( f1 ´ Trig . Err. of f 2 ) 2 Prescaler Factor
f 2 ´ Meas. Time
f 2 ´ Meas. Time
Pulse
Width ±Time Base Err. ´ Pulse Width
(Auto ± E q2 + (Start TE ) 2 + (Stop TE ) 2 ±0.5 ´ Transition Time 100 ps
Trig- ±1.5 ns
ger)
Duty
Factor ± E q2 + (Start TE ) 2 + (Stop TE ) 2 ´ Freq. ± (0.5 ´ TranisitionTime + 1 ´ 10 -6
1.5 ns) ´ Frequency

Table 12-1 Measurement Uncertainties and LSD Displayed

n Random Uncertainty n Display Resolution

Quantization Error E q : 250 ps LSD Displayed
n Start/Stop Trigger Errors (TE) Unit value of Least Significant Digit (LSD) dis-
played. After calculation, the LSD value is
rounded to the nearest decade before display
(Vnoise -input )2 + (Vnoise -signal )2 (for example 0.5 Hz will be 1 Hz and 0.4 Hz
will be 0.1 Hz). LSD blanking is available to re-
Signal slewrate (V / s) at trigger point
duce displayed resolution. Measuring time 1s
can give significance in 10 digits. The 11th and
Vnoise-input: 250 mVrms typical
12th digits can be displayed using the display
Vnoise-signal : The rms noise of the
overflow function.
input signal over a 300
MHz bandwidth

n Systematic Uncertainties

Timebase Error: See Table 2 “Timebase

Options” for total un-
certainty specifications

Measurement Uncertainties 12-7

Specifications

Timebase Options
Product Family PM6685 /PM6685R series
Model:
PM6685 PM6685 PM6685 PM6685R
Option: Standard PM9691 PM9692
Timebase type: UCXO OCXO OCXO Rubidium
Uncertainty due to:
- Cal. adjustment tolerance, at
+23 oC ± 3oC < 1 x 10
-6
< 2 x 10
-8
< 5 x 10
-9
< 5 x 10
-11

- Aging:
-10 1) -10 4)
per 24 hr. n.a. < 5 x 10 < 1 x 10 not specified
per month < 5 x 10 -7 < 1 x 10
-8
< 3 x 10
-9
< 5 x 10 -11 2)
-6 -8 -8 -10 3)
per year < 5 x 10 < 7.5 x 10 < 2 x 10 < 2 x 10
- Temp. Variation:
0o C -50oC, < 1 x 10
-5
< 5 x 10
-9
< 2.5 x 10
-9
< 3 x 10
-10

20o C -26oC (typ. values) < 3 x 10

-6
< 6 x 10
-10
< 4 x 10
-10
< 5 x 10
-11
-8 -10 -10 -11
- Power voltage variation: 10% < 1 x 10 < 5 x 10 < 5 x 10 < 1 x 10
Short term stability :
t=1s not < 1 x 10-11 < 5 x 10
-12
< 5 x 10
-11
-11 -12 -11
(Root Allan Variance) t = 10 s specified < 1 x 10 < 5 x 10 < 1.5 x 10
Typical values
Power-on stability:
- Deviation versus final value af- not
ter 24hr on time, specified < 1 x 10 -8 < 5 x 10
-9
< 4 x 10
-10

after a warm-up time of: 10 min 10 min 10 min

Time to lock at 25o C
(PM6685R only): n.a. n.a. n.a. approx. 5 min.
Total uncertainty, for operating
temperature
0o C to 50oC, at 2σ (95 %) confi-
dence interval:
-5 -7 -8 -10 3)
- 1 year after calibration < 1.2 x 10 < 1 x 10 < 2.5 x 10 < 4 x 10
-5 -7 -8 -10 3)
- 2 years after calibration < 1.5 x 10 < 2 x 10 < 5 x 10 < 6 x 10
Typical total uncertainty, for op-
o o
erating temp. 20 C to 26 C, at 2σ
(95 %) confidence interval:
- 1 year after calibration < 7 x 10 -6 < 1 x 10
-7
< 2.5 x 10
-8
< 2.5 x 10
-10 3)
-5 -7 -8 -10 3)
- 2 years after calibration < 1.2 x 10 < 2 x 10 < 5 x 10 < 5 x 10
mum tolerated deviation from the true 10MHz
1)after 48 hours of continuous operation.
frequency after a calibration. When the refer-
2)after 1 month of continuous operation.
st st ence frequency does not exceed the tolerance
3)after 1 year, aging during 1 year:
-10 -9 limits at the moment of calibration, an adjust-
< 5 x 10 ; long-term < 1 x 10 / 10 years
ment is not needed.
4)after 14 days of continuous operation.
Explanation OCXO = Oven Controlled X-tal Oscillator.
Calibration Adjustment Tolerance is the maxi-
UCXO = Un-Compensated X-tal Oscillator.

12-8 Timebase Options

 Specifications

General Power rating

PM6685: max 30 W
Specifications PM6685R: max 100 W during
warm-up (< 5 min), then
n Environmental Conditions max 47 W

Temperature n Mechanical Data

Operating: 0 o C to +50 oC
Storage: -40 oC to +70o C Width

+ The temperature range is re- PM6685: 210 mm (8.25 in)

duced when option PM9623 PM6685R: 315 mm (12.4 in)
(Battery Unit) is installed. See Height: 86 mm (3.4 in)
separate specification for this Depth: 395 mm (15.6 in)
unit. Net Weight
PM6685: 3.2 kg (7 lb)
Humidity: 95% RH, 0o C to 30oC PM6685R: 5.5 kg (12 lb)
Altitude Shipping Weight
Operating: Up to 4600 m (15000 ft) PM6685: 5.5 kg (12 lb)
Non-operating: Up to 12000 m (40000 ft) PM6685R: 8.8 kg (19 lb)
Vibration: 3G at 55 Hz per
MIL-T-28800D,Class 3,
Style D
Shock: Half-sine 40G per
MIL-T-28800D, Class 3,
Style D. Bench handling.
Shipping container.
Reliability: MTBF 30 000 hours
Safety: CSA 22.2 No. 1010-1,
EN61010-1 (1997), Cat II,
Pollution degree 2, CE
EMC: EN61326/A1 (1998), CE

n Power Requirements

AC Voltage
PM6685: 90 to 265Vrms , 45 to 440 Hz
PM6685R: 90 to 265Vrms , 47 to 63 Hz
DC Voltage
PM6685: Option PM 9623: Internal
battery or external DC
source 12-24 V, max 2A

General Specifications 12-9

Specifications

Battery Unit and GPIB

Ordering Options
Information PM 6685_/_ _1 No Battery Unit or GPIB

Basic Models PM 6685/_ _3 Battery Unit (PM9623)

PM6685/011: 300 MHz Frequency
Counter including stan- PM 6685_/_ _6 GPIB (PM9626/031) and
dard timebase Analog Output
(5x10-7/month) PM 6685/_ _8 Battery Unit plus GPIB
PM6685R/071: 300 MHz Frequency
Counter/Calibrator includ-
ing rubidium timebase Example Ordering
(5x10-11/month) Configuration
Included with In-
To order the 300 MHz version of PM6685 with
strument: One-year product warranty
the PM9691 Oven Timebase and GPIB, select
Power line cord
the Complete Model Number PM 6685/056.
Operators manual
Programming manual (only To order the 3.0 GHz version of PM6685R in-
when GPIB is included) cluding GPIB, select PM 6685R/676.
Certificate of Calibration

Input Frequency options

PM 6685_/0_ _ Standard 300 MHz Fre-
quency Counter
PM 6685_/4_ _ 1.3 GHz Input C
(PM9621)
PM 6685_/6_ _ 3.0 GHz Input C
(PM9624)

Timebase Options
PM 6685/_ 1_ Standard Timebase

PM 6685/_ 5_ Very High Stability Oven

Timebase (PM9691)
PM 6685/_ 6_ Ultra High Stability Oven
Timebase (PM9692)
PM 6685R/_7_ Rubidium Timebase

12-10 Ordering Information

 Specifications

Options and Accessories

PM 9621 1.3 GHz Input C

PM 9622/00 Rack-Mount Kit for

PM 6685R
PM 9622/02 Rack-Mount Kit for
PM 6685
PM 9623* Battery Unit

PM 9624 3.0 GHz Input C

PM 9626/031** GPIB Interface

PM 9627 Carrying Case

PM 9627H Heavy Duty Carrying Case

PM 9691 Very High Stability Oven

Timebase
PM 9692 Ultra High Stability Oven
Timebase
*
PM9623 cannot be fitted in the PM6685R
**
PM9626/031 includes Analog Output
When ordered with the basic counter, options
are factory installed. Options ordered sepa-
rately can be retrofitted by the customer.

Ordering Information 12-11

Specifications

This page is intentionally left blank.

12-12 Ordering Information

 Chapter 13

Appendix
Appendix

Appendix 1, Error
Messages Err. UFLO
Underflow: A math operation in the counter
If the counter detects an internal error or an in- caused an underflow error.
valid setting, it shows an error message on the
nO bUS
display. This appendix lists all possible error
messages. No Bus: No GPIB interface is installed.

If the counter has the PM9626/031 ( GPIB ) in- nO dAtA

stalled, GPIB error messages can be displayed No data: A reading of statistics data is made be-
in addition to the messages shown below. When fore data is captured.
a GPIB error is placed in the GPIB error queue,
nO PrESC
the display shows an error code number which
is explained in Chapter 8, Error Messages, of No Prescaler: No Prescaler is installed.
the GPIB Programming Manual. This message NO SIGNAL
is removed the next time the counter uses the
display for a message or a measuring result. No signal: Displayed when measurement is in-
terrupted by a timeout. Disable Timeout (in
Auxiliary Menu) or set a longer time.
Messages Due to False
err. ProtEc.
Settings:
Error Protect: An attempt to make a save in a
Err. FAIL protected memory position.
Error Failure: The internal instrument setting
OFLO
is not valid.
Overflow: The measurement has been aban-
Err. No SAV doned due to an overflow condition.
Error No Save: An attempt to recall a memory
that has never been saved
Err. OFLO
Error Overflow: A math operation in the coun-
ter caused an overflow error.
Err. PrESC.
Error Prescaler: An attempt to use the
prescaler functions without a prescaler.
Err. rAnGe
Error Range: An attempt to enter a value
above the maximum or below the minimum
limit was made.

13-2 Appendix 1, Error Messages

 Appendix

Messages Due to Severe

Errors:
err. asIC
Error ASIC: Displayed when there is a Mea-
suring Logic Circuits failure.
e.rA 8888
Error RAM XXXXh: Displayed when there is
a RAM test failure. XXXXh is the hexadecimal
address where failure is detected first.
err. rO
Error ROM: Displayed when there is a
ROM test failure.
Err. UPrOC.
Error Microprocessor: Displayed when an er-
ror is detected in the microprocessor’s internal
RAM, timers, or I/O port.

Appendix 1, Error Messages 13-3

Appendix

This page is intentionally left blank.

13-4 Appendix 1, Error Messages

Chapter 14

Index
 Index

! input E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11
±1 cycle count error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3 manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
50ohm/1Mohm key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3
setup time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12
A start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5
AC coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5 stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5
Address sync. delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
Auto
Reading the GPIBAddress . . . . . . 9-6
Address switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10 once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
time to determine levels . . . . . . . . 5-3
Adjustments
time-out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
timebase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2
Auto trigger
Air flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
AM modulated signals . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10
Aux
Analog
indication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
menu description. . . . . . . . . 9-2 - 9-10
Analog output
menu key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
connector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11
AUX
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6
annunciator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2
using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-7
Averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-5, 8-2
Aperture
SEE Measuring time B
Arming Battery
delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4 - 9-5 disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8 test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8
examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13
Blank digits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5
indication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

!- B II
 Index

Burst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6 Display hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

frequency (CW) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5 Display Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
Frequency (CW). . . . . . . . . . . 6-7, 6-9 Display time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2, 7-6
indication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9 Drift measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17
PRF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7, 9-6 Duration
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2
SEE Pulse width
C Duty cycle
SEE Duty factor
Calibration
Duty factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15
intervals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2
Duty Factor
Carrier wave frequency AM . . . . . . . . 6-10
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2
Caution statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
uncertainty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
Channel
Duty factor compensation
SEE Input
waveform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
Cooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3 E
Count error, ±1 cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3 Earthing
Counting SEE Grounding
erroneously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7 End of a measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6
events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
Enter
reciprocal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
indicator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5 key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
Crystal oscillators
Erroneous counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2
Error
CW Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
AM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10
Error ASIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3
burst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5
Error Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
D Error Microprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3
Error NO SIGNAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
Default settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
Delay Error NO TRIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
arming sync. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9 Error Prescaler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
Error Protect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
Delayed timebase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4
Delta measurements Error RAM XXXXh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3
SEE Nulling Error Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
Error ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-3
Digit blanking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5 - 7-11
Display Event counting
hold key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7 SEE Totalize

III C-E
Index

Examples Function
arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13 indication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Ext Ref period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13
input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10 ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12
key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6 selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
output test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-6 Functions hidden
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4 SEE Aux menu
External Arming Fuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
input test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4 G
External Gate Gate
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4 indicator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3
Go-detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9
F GPIB
Fan Address switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
replacement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4 connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
Filter reading the address. . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6
analog LP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5 specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5
characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5 Grounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
Firmware release H
SEE Program version Handle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
Fixed Hidden functions
timeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4 SEE Aux menu
Fold-down support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3 Hiding digits
Free-running SEE Digit blanking
measurements . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6, 7-17 Hold display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7
Freezing the display Hysteresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7, 6-14
SEE Display hold SEE ALSO Sensitivity
Frequency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
I
burst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5
Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
burst PRF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6
impedance
range test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5
ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12 key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2 Impedance
uncertainty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7 setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
Frequency versus time Input
SEE Profiling impedance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

F-I IV
 Index

selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3 - 6-5 SEE Stop Arming

Input A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4 Measuring Functions
keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3 Measuring speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4, 7-7
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5 Measuring time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6, 7-6
Input C influence by prescaling . . . . . . . . . 6-5
specification . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3 - 12-4 setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8 specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4
Input D Memory
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4 specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5
Input E Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4 with more functions . . . . . . . 9-2 - 9-10
Interference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6 - 5-8 Modulating frequency AM . . . . . . . . . 6-11
Interpolators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
N
K No Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
Keyboard No data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4 No Prescaler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
No Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
L No signal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2
Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
display message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
Low pass filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5 No trig
M display message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6 - 5-8
Maintenance
Noise Suppression Filter . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4
Null
Manual
annunciator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3
arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
sensitivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4 Nulling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2
copy measurement result to . . . . . 8-2
Measurement
end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6
free-running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17
O
Offset
rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6
start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6 SEE Nulling
timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6 On
Measurement start control key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
SEE Start Arming settings after . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
Oscillators
Measurement stop control
calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2

V K-O
Index

Output G transient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17

specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4 VCO step response . . . . . . . . . . . 7-18
Overflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2 Program version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6
Pulse period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13
P Pulse Width. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15
Packing list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2
Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13 uncertainty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2
uncertainty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7 R
PM9621 Rack mount adapter
specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3 installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
PM9623 Rate of measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6
specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6 Ratio
PM9624 function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12
specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4 specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8 uncertainty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
PM9626/031 Recalibration
specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5 intervals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2
PM9691 Reciprocal counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8 Recommended Test Equipment. . . . . 10-2
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5 Reference
PM9692 input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8 input specification . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5 output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
Power-On test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-3 output specification . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4
Prescaler Reference Oscillators
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8 test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5
Prescaling Relative measurements
effect of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-5 SEE Nulling
Preset Remote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9
key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4 Reset
settings after . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3 totalizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
PRF Resolution
burst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6 test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-6
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2 Restart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
Processing Rubidium reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
measuring results . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2 specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8
Profiling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17 test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5

P-R VI
 Index

Supply voltage
S setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Safety requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I-VI
Support
Sample-hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
fold-down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
Scaling factor
Suppression of noise
analog output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-7
SEE Analog lowpass filter
Self-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6, 10-3
Synchronization of a measurement . . . 6-3
SENS key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4
Syncronization delay
Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-14
arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
SEE ALSO Hysteresis
manual setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4 T
speed of auto setting . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3 Test Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5
Time
Setup time
set the measuring. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2
for arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12
period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13
Signal detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4 to set up arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12
Single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6, 6-5 - 7-6, 8-2 Time interval
Single-shot phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9 SEE Pulse width
Slope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 Timebase
Speed calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2
arming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-12 Timeout
of measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
fixed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
of the auto function . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3 manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
SRQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9
Time-out
Standard Oscillator
set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6
test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5 Time-Out
Stand-by
auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
indicator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
Totalize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3
Start
Totalizing
a new measurement . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
arming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3, 7-9, 9-5
start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
of a measurement . . . . . . . . . 7-6 - 7-7
stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
totalizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16
Touch-hold
Stop
SEE Sample-hold
arming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3, 7-9, 9-5
Transient profiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-17
of measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7
totalizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-16 Trigger
auto level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

VII S-T
Index

error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4
hysteresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
slope selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
uncertainty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
Trigger level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
SEE ALSO sensitivity
Trigger Level
output test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

U
Uncertainty
duty factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
PM9691. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8
PM9692. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8
pulse width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
random . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
rubidium reference . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8
standard timebase. . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8
systematic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7
Underflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

V
VCO
step response profiling . . . . . . . . 7-18
Voltage, supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

W
Warm-up time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2
Warning statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
Waveform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
how to set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4
Width
of pulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15

U-W VIII
 Chapter 15

Service Centers
 SERVICE CENTERS

To locate an authorized service center, visit us on the World Wide Web:

http://www.fluke.com

or call Fluke using any of the phone numbers listed below:

+1-888-993-5853 in U.S.A. and Canada

+31-40-2675200 in Europe
+1-425-446-5500 from other countries

II