Rant - Bad (Chinese) engineering

;-)

Sounds like something RadioShaft would have done. A floor sweeping grab bag.

Over $10,000? How many are you ever going to see in use?

$10K hasn't been a lot for a scope for thirty years. In the early '70s, a full-boat 7904 was easily twice that. ...in different dollars.

This one costs $25.000:

And if you buy active probes and other accessory, it could be easily going up to $50.000 (a 50 GHz active probe costs more than a good x GHz scope, x $10.000 scope, because they need it for SDI and other high speed applications. But if you don't need it full-time, it would make more sense to rent it when you need it.

I see lots in use, regularly. Not that I'd always spent that much if it was my decision. So far I could scope everything I needed with the Tek

The 7704A is still in use here. So Michael, there :-)

If we ever get another decent sized project, I'm planning on lobbying for a MSO3034, which is about $14K with the SPI/I2C and I2S support. Then, when the firmware types slip schedules I'll tell management that they should have had the scope so they could see what's happening. ;-)

For some reason I never liked the 7704A. The only one I bought was one of the split ones, with the A/Ds in the middle section (the original DPO - Digital Processing Oscilloscope).

Well, Tek just launched a 100Gs/s scope. AFAIK its >$100k excluding matching probes. I guess some people are going to buy those.

But those were the only way to get the performance you needed. Today, there are alternatives.

'So there' isn't a new scope.

Rental is OK, but at the end you have little to show for it. One place I worked had about 100 Leader 508 scopes in the metrology system. They were used wherever possible. They were over 20 years old, and sold new for about $500. There were about 35 newer scopes, mostly in engineering which didn't do a thing to help on the production floor where they were used all day, every day.

Of course they will, but how many?

I have an old Leader that I dearly loved, but it's lost focus. I'm considering sending it in for refurb. ...Jim Thompson

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Archie will buy a dozen. He personally buys only the finest. He stacks them up like cord wood, just to make sure he has backups. Right Archie?

Certainly, but the performance point has just shifted. $10K is *not* a lot to spend on a scope. Like I said earlier, even the MSO3034 is about $13K. It's

So, sort of a Dear Leader?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Truly... it's really analog :-) ...Jim Thompson

Have you checked the resistors in the intensity/focus divider chain? I repaired a lot of scopes with just a couple new resistors in that circuit.

I should open it up myself first. ...Jim Thompson

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Yup. Check the value of resistors with HV DC across them... likely one or more have shifted in value.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany