Displaying your Instrument's Firmware and Hardware Information

The information provided is for help with Commtest Instruments products:

vbSeries® instruments, MMS data loggers, Profiler instrument

QUESTION

I've been asked to supply my distributor or Commtest with some advanced information about my Commtest instrument. How do I access this information?

ANSWER

There is an advanced information screen available on the instrument.

When the instrument is first powered up there is a 'splash screen' that displays some basic, useful information:

The instrument model and version, in this example a 'vb3000' from the vbSeries®.

The Firmware version and release date (Firmware version 2.23, 11th of February 2003; vbX instruments do not display the firmware date).

If you have another Commtest product the information may be in a different location on the splash screen, but the format will be the same. Also the advanced screen access instructions are the same.

To Display the Advanced Information

With the instrument powered off - press and hold the [0] (zero) key ([5] for vbX instruments).
Press the ON/OFF key. If your instrument is a vbX the firmware version will be displayed once the instrument has completed loading, on the main screen.
Release the [0] key when the splash screen appears on the LCD. This screen will look similar to the one below.

You could record all the information here (it would not hurt) but the advanced details of interest are:

Firmware v2.23 11 Feb 03

This is the firmware currently installed on the instrument (for vbSeries in this example).

MMS S/N: 54358

For all instruments this is the instrument Main Unit Serial number. This information helps greatly.

vb1 S/N: 00010410

This is the Module Serial number of the instrument.

H/W vers 4 512K

This is the hardware build version (4) and the memory capacity of the main board (512K). (The 8 MB extended memory resides in the internal module and does not display on the splash screen).

FAQ ID: 11603 Last Reviewed: 2 November 2007