OT: Oscilloscope Purchase

[boslab]

The electronics guys in work used to use tektronics, but last go off Agilent was the thing they had, first time I saw one I said that looks expensive, I was right, multi channel digital sampling dodah cost like a house, I could end believe it to be honest, just calibration was mental but I was assured the were the best
and made in sunny californium. I don’t use or even know what all the buttons were for,
mark

[eKretz]

The one I'd really like to have gotten is a Rohde & Schwarz RTH 1004, but I've never seen one of those go (even used on eBay) for less than around $4k for a 4-channel. Very nice scope, but way too rich for my blood. The newest bench model oscilloscopes from the big names (Tek, Agilent/Keysight, LeCroy, Rohde & Schwarz, etc.) are ludicrously priced for a home user, they're pretty much out of reach for anyone price-wise until they're quite old unless you're a business user with legitimate money-making use.

[J Tiers]

Found a manual, and yes, batteries are NiMH.

Manual is an official one, but definitely not complete or perfect.... removing the bottom "holster" (padded cover), is described basically as "remove screws and pull off".

That is an over-simplification, since the actual unit has two totally un-mentioned snaps under the "holster" on the control panel side, and the instruction SHOULD say to pry the "holster" over them. Those appeared when they skittered across the workbench as the holster was "pulled off", which did rather irritate me.. Luckily, the screws are adequate for holding on the cover.

The top cover (at the end with the inputs) has the same "procedure" in the manual, but obviously has something beside the screws holding it on. I want to find the snaps for that one so I do not break them (or something else) off.

Something for tomorrow.

Oh, yeah. Manual was found at https://bama.edebris.com. Looks like a useful site.

[rcaffin]

I too used to use Tektronix almost exclusively (working for the Gov't in research).

Recently I had a TDS220 for my consultancy, but it was dying. Tek was not interested in supporting it, so I started to dig. I found that the guts (PCBs etc) were not made in USA.

I now believe that a lot of the low-end CROs are actually made in China for the Western companies. In the case of the low-end Tek units, made by Hantek. Their low-end units are almost identical to the Tek ones: the Hantek DSO5102P is identical in specs and appearance to the Tek TDS220 - except that the Hantek unit has a USB port and a colour screen. Well, the advances of time. But the specs, buttons and function layouts - identical.

Ah, but the Hantek unit is half the price.

Cheers
Roger

[J Tiers]

...............................

I now believe that a lot of the low-end CROs are actually made in China for the Western companies. .....................

The Fluke Scopemeter I have was made in the Netherlands.

But Fluke has gone along with Tek. "Most" of the meters from Fluke, including "all" the lower end ones, of course, are made in China.

It shows. Out of a dozen meters a client bought, 2 or 3 had at least one non-functional range. At least one more was out of calibration, it read values different from every other meter it was compared to.

Even Harbor Freight has better than a 33% failure rate.

[eKretz]

Mine says Romania. Not sure if that's better or worse than China...

[J Tiers]

Just to be sure I was not missing a bet, I looked up the battery pack.... Fluke BP190

Sometimes it is cheaper to buy the real deal. Not in this case, sellers of new want $194 for 6 NiMH batteries plus a temp sensor. The most expensive cells are $14 or so per.

I found that the 'scope would not operate with the battery, and would not operate with battery plus adaptor. That did not look good.

But I found that it WOULD do just fine with the adapter and NO battery...... so battery bad.

[nickel-city-fab]

Sometimes it is cheaper to buy the real deal. Not in this case, sellers of new want $194 for 6 NiMH batteries plus a temp sensor. The most expensive cells are $14 or so per.

But I found that it WOULD do just fine with the adapter and NO battery...... so battery bad.

Think you can save a few by using whatever Tenergy has to make up your own pack? (the link I gave previously, I *think* they have NiMH also)

[CPeter]

A friend just bought this for $25. I know from nothing about scopes, only used them to splice and test fiber optic cable 20+ years ago.

[PStechPaul]

The 465(B) was the defacto standard for portable analog scopes from 1972 to 1983. It's easily worth ten times what your friend paid for it.

[Jim Stewart]

The 465(B) was the defacto standard for portable analog scopes from 1972 to 1983. It's easily worth ten times what your friend paid for it.

Yep. My favorite scope.

-js

[Paul Alciatore]

That is a classic Tek model. A good scope. It seems to be working and all the buttons and knobs are there.

Looks like a good score!

A friend just bought this for $25. I know from nothing about scopes, only used them to splice and test fiber optic cable 20+ years ago.

[rcaffin]

The 465 was the gold standard.

Cheers
Roger

[genea]

I . . .

Recently I had a TDS220 for my consultancy, but it was dying. Tek was not interested in supporting it . . .

Cheers
Roger

Why would anyone expect support for a 25 year old oscilloscope design that's been out of production for at least a decade?

[PStechPaul]

I think I evaluated a TDS220 scope around 1989 when I was going into business, and I could have gotten it at cost from my previous employer who was a distributor, but I chose my Hitachi VC-6025A instead. IIRC the Tektronix scope had a complicated user interface needed to set most functions, and it was difficult to use.