I Think I have just found Heaven

[TheOne]

He is Robert, and I am Bob and then there's the hair and the beard as well ...not forgetting the mess on the workbench.

 

[jrz126]

Made a trip to the junk room...
some of the important discoveries:

HP 1600A logic analysier, has the probes, and a very detailed manual. dont know about it's condition though.

TEK 465 scope, just says it's uncalibrated, so it might just need recal'd.
has a small manual with it.

tek434 storage scope

7623 scope, has removable units

HP64000 huge computer, 2 5.25" drives built in. possibly a prom burner as well.

tek type 422

tek 7313

tek 7704 (2 of these)

7403N

7834 storage scope

there are also some of those removable units that are seperate from the scopes.
7b53a
7a13
7a18
7b53n

Also found a couple of large manuals for 7a18 and 7b50

What should I try to buy?
I dont know the status of many of those scopes, is there a circuit that I could rig up quickly to attach to the scope to see if most of the functions work properly? So I can try before I buy?

 

[jrz126]

Nobody has a suggestion on which scope to try to get?
I think I'll try to get one of those old digital storage scopes, the one with the mainframe unit and then smaller addon units as well. They may be a bit big, but I'll just tell myself bigger is better.

There were some o-scope carts as well, those sell pretty good on ebay?

**broken link removed**
this is the one Im thinking about getting.

 

[TheOne]

Don't overlook the 4xx for compactness and performance. I own about 3-465's, 2-475's, 3-475A's, 2-485's, 2-453's and love them all! (and some spares, should something die)

BTW the Tektronix 7834 is not digital storage

 

[jrz126]

wow that's alot of scopes...how many total do you own?

Seems like every time I go down there I find something new...today's discoveries include:
2 digital storage (real digital storage, not like that 7834 ).
one is severly damaged i guess. It is quite new as well, I didnt write down the model number, but it was something like tds-2234. the second one looks promising, a 2430A. the trigger thingy fails on the self check though. and a note on top says it wont store settings and it will not keep trigger.

There is also a 230V Variac rated at 10 amps. I think I might pick that up too. I was looking into making a Tesla coil awhile back and I bought a neon transformer. It's a 220V, does it need the 220V or can it be run off this variac and have an adjustable voltage output?

 

[TheOne]

I must have about close to 20 scopes in total, including storage, modules etc.(Wife hates them :x as they take up a lot of space)

The 2430A is a good scope. This was one of the first scopes that had "peak detect" to enable glitch capture at slow sweep speeds. I remember HP & Philips loosing out on a good sale many years ago where we bought a bunch Tek's instead, even though the others were way much cheaper.

The problem with the later TDS series scopes is that repairs become expensive as there's no circuits and they work on exchange modules only.

I still love a circuit where I can "see", read and analyze the diagram and do repairs if necessary. But unfortunately that seems to be fading away.

 

[TheOne]

There's the story about the guy who had 20 scopes. One day the wife said "Make your pick, me or the scopes!", Guy answers "Honey, I really gonna miss you!"

 

[jrz126]

There's the story about the guy who had 20 scopes. One day the wife said "Make your pick, me or the scopes!", Guy answers "Honey, I really gonna miss you!"

:lol: wife getting jealous of them? that sounds like something I would say...

I'm looking into buying the 7834, 465, and the 2430.
The 7834 doesnt work, it tries to come on, but the fan doesnt spin, something in the back just clicks about 2 times a second, and the leds in the front will flash occasionally with the clicking. so it could just be a simple power supply problem?

The 465 works, the ground trace at least. sticker on it says it is uncalibrated. do these scopes tend to become very inaccurate after awhile? Is it possible for me to recalibrate it.

and finally will it be hard to repair the 2430 scope?

I figure even if I can fix them I can sell them on ebay for 50-100 for repair parts. I'm only going to pay $0.10 a lb too

Oh yeah, is it really necessary to have 20 o-scopes? I can only dream about owning that many..

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The 465 works, the ground trace at least. sticker on it says it is uncalibrated. do these scopes tend to become very inaccurate after awhile? Is it possible for me to recalibrate it.

It probably doesn't need to be recalibrated, some professional users are required to have a current calibration certificate on their test gear. This needs renewing probably once a year?, and costs quite a lot of money. As this is an old scope they probably decided not to bother doing it again, and stopped using it - replacing it with a more modern scope instead.

So it's probably perfectly OK, and calibration is probably within acceptable limits - it just doesn't have a piece of paper saying so!.

I'd tend to pounce on a scope with a label like that :lol:

Certainly if I lived anywhere near, I'd be hiring a big van and coming round for $0.10 per pound! - and I wouldn't tell my wife :lol: surprises are good for her!.

 

[jrz126]

It probably doesn't need to be recalibrated, some professional users are required to have a current calibration certificate on their test gear. This needs renewing probably once a year?, and costs quite a lot of money. As this is an old scope they probably decided not to bother doing it again, and stopped using it - replacing it with a more modern scope instead.

So it's probably perfectly OK, and calibration is probably within acceptable limits - it just doesn't have a piece of paper saying so!.

I'd tend to pounce on a scope with a label like that :lol:

Yes, they do have yearly renewals for calibration here. I figured it would be ok, I doubt that tektronics would make a scope that would become uncalibrated over time, wouldnt be a very good product then.
I'm still waiting for a response from the techie about buying these scopes

Certainly if I lived anywhere near, I'd be hiring a big van and coming round for $0.10 per pound! - and I wouldn't tell my wife :lol: surprises are good for her!.

I dont know about how much of this 'junk' (I refer to them as 'goodies') they will sell. I doubt they will let me buy most of it, (well not at one time), but I'm sure there are other junk rooms around, the plant is about 5 acres big .

and I take it that women don't appreciate these electronics goodies, I guess it's good that I'm starting my collection of these toys early before any woman can complain about them.

Oh yeah, what exactly is a logic state analyser used for? Would it be useful for microcontroller applications? They have one of these in the 'goodies' room
**broken link removed**
It has the probes and all the manuals (very detailed circuits ect.). On my next visit, I'll have to plug it in and check it out.

 

[williB]

jrz , a logic analyzer is a device that has many probes , each channel can be displayed relative to its timing to any other channel..
for example :: if you hooked it up a counter with one input ( the clock) and four outputs .. you could set the clock as the source and watch each channel change relative to the changing clock..
yes it would be good for uControllers..
i suppose the advantage of a dedicated logic analyzer over a scope is its multi input capabilities..