| Hewlett Packard 43114A Digital Delay Generator | |
| Written by AnubisTTP on 2006-10-17 |
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According to the available documentation, the Hewlett-Packard 43114A digital delay generator does not exist. Like most HP equipment, the unit is built to survive a land war in Asia. A machined aluminum frame and a complex tongue-and-groove enclosure protect the internals. The primary point of interface is a five-digit BCD encoder, which is used to set the amount of delay applied to the source signal in units of microseconds. At its maximum setting, the unit can delay a signal by 99,999 microseconds. The unit also has a knob to set the threshold for triggering; a value between zero and 90 volts can be selected. There are two outputs: a TTL output located on the front panel, and a +90V output on the rear of the unit. An interior inspection reveals that most of the internals of the device are powered by generic TTL chips.
Unfortunately, the output of the 43114A is highly specialized. The unit does offset the input by the amount of delay selected on the BCD switch, but it does not preserve the data of the input. All of the output pulses are of the same length, regardless of the input signal, which makes it near useless for offsetting most serial signals. RZ (return to zero) signals could probably still be offset, though it would depend heavily on the width of the RZ pulses required by the destination device.
This particular 43114A also has a serious operational failure: with a +5V logic signal as the input, the maximum speed the device can handle before it no longer triggers accurately is 20Hz.
Hewlett Packard 43114A digital delay generator, at rest.
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