Archive for September 22, 2026

TSP #346 – Wasted 3 Hours! Keithley 2182A & Agilent 34420A Nanovoltmeters Don’t Behave the Same…

In this episode Shahriar explores the subtle difference between the Agilent 34420A & Keithley 2182A Nanovoltmeters. This difference caused three wasted hours of debugging which was not necessary.

The block diagram of the Keithley 2182A reveals the crucial difference between how the Channel 1 & Channel 2 of the instrument are treated. Unlike the Agilent 34420A, the two channels of the Keithley instrument are not fully independent. Channel 2 requires a shared reference to the LO terminal of Channel 1 otherwise the results will be erroneous. This key point is in fact mentioned in the manual. Therefore, RTFM!

If you find to buy high quality, low EMF cables for these instrument reach out to Harwell Prevision Electrical:

https://www.harwellusa.com/

Also, a big shoutout to team Borgentorskarna at Stockholm University! I wish you a great competition and a fun social science program.

Please consider supporting The Signal Path:
https://www.TheSignalPath.com/Donate
https://www.Patreon.com/TheSignalPath

Other links:
https://www.TheSignalPath.com
https://www.Twitter.com/TheSignalPath