New battery

I've got a fleet of 'scopes, one of the friskier vessels being a Yokogawa 150MHz digital 'scope, DL1540. Decent 'scope, 4-channels, FFT, GPIB (which I don't use), saves waveforms in .BMP on floppy(!).

(I don't know mine's birth year, but Yokogawa's website says they retired the line in 2003, for whatever that's worth.)

Its 1/2-AA Li RTC/backup battery just finally died Thursday, so the 'scope was losing its time, date, configuration, and setup data every power-off. And displaying an error message on boot. Not a big deal, but slightly tedious.

Replaced the dead cell on Saturday with a AA-sized Li backup. Inside, quite a tight bundle of interconnected boards in a heckua awkward tight space. Lots of fast ICs with heatsinks, in a carefully- planned stream of high-velocity air.

Back in business. The first Li lasted >=13 years, so I figure I'm good for at least another 20. :-)

Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat
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I still have my trusty Tektronix 454A scope from 1970 that I found at a garage sale in 1986 for $400. But one channel went out so it's just a single trace now. But I'm sort of a single channel guy so I don't need the extra trace. I have a couple other low bandwidth scopes that I usually use. One is new in the box that I found at GW for $50. It's a cute little thing that fits on my kitchen table. The sweep time and amplitude knobs are both variable and have only one calibrated position when the control is fully turned against the stop.

So, how do you calibrate your scopes? Do you have some lab do it, or do you calibrate them yourself?

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Reply to
Bill Bowden

I got the Yokogawa at GW (swapmeet) too--you might even have been there!

I don't calibrate them at all, not for just looking at waveforms. The DSO's timebase is crystal, and even the old analog 'scopes' sweeps are still two or three percent. They're all more than close enough for my use.

I'd add a crystal-controlled marker waveform for reference if I ever really needed rock-solid accuracy.

I should probably get a Rigol some time for the USB + color, plus they're quiet and light and cute. I just haven't really needed one.

Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat

Well, my experience was if the scope didn't have a current calibration tag, we were not allowed to turn it on. We did some government work where the rules were strictly enforced. I got in trouble once when I used a soldering iron that would suck out the solder from a joint, but I hadn't attended soldering school and wasn't qualified to suck out any solder. And I remember an engineer from MIT who was reprimanded by DCAS for touching a circuit board he had designed. The DCAS inspectors said they were not allowed to touch the board, and so he was also subject to the rules.

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Reply to
Bill Bowden

ah the joy of corporate stupidity

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

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