Tek TDS scopes--which to buy?

The only analog scope we ever use here is a 7104; 1 GHz, microchannel plate CRT. Big beast on a cart.

John

Picosomebody makes a small sampler box, USB to a PC as I recall. Absurdly expensive.

Yeah, here it is...

My wife would have a little

Build a barn!

John

That buys a whole lot of Chimay.

On this property out here that would have a really low WAF:

Meantime I've replaced that railing ...

Nice. What road is that?

Here are some views from our kitchen window. A tad more urbanized.

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/Kit1.JPG

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/Kit2.JPG

John

Isn't that about the last of the analog scopes? They have to be 30 years old (I bought a couple in '80). It's a 7000 series. Other than the DPO (split 7704A with an A/D in the middle section) they're all the same size, aren't they?

Phil Hobbs wrote in news:BYSdnctqKo1VIX7UnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@supernews.com:

I'm surprised the attenuator switch contacts are still working on the 400 series scopes! the little white plastic cam follower on them degrades and crumbles,and the gold finger contact falls off.

krw wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I believe the "last" of the TEK analog scopes was the 2465 series. They were still in production when the 7K line was terminated.

there were 3-slot 7K mainframes(7403,7503,7603) and 4- slot(7704/A,7904/A,7104),and rackmount 3-slotters.

While I do like the TDS5XX through 7XX color scopes, most of them are out of support. Additionally, they have some common problems:

1. Failing SPC. If you buy one of them, run this test repeatedly for several hours. I've seen many that fail this test intermittently.
2. Make sure that the screen is nice and bright. The CRTs often go dim on these units to the point where you can barely see the screen. They can be replaced if you can find some NOS, but figure at least 0 for the tube. The most difficult part is removing the LCD shutter for use on the new CRT. I've done one before, but it's not something I'd care to repeat.

There is a place (Norway Labs) that will replace the CRT with an LCD for $1100 or so, but I've never seen on personally, so can't comment on the picture quality.

I had one of those as a grad student--I even used the Polaroid film back for single shots. Worked great. My 466 storage scope is cute too.

When my ship comes in I'll get a 2467B, which has the MCP CRT as well, but is only 400 MHz.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

(credentials and plug omitted to salve Jan's ego) ;)

Meder Road in Cameron Park, leads to Ponderosa High School or "Pondo" in kid speak.

Very nice, but too urban for our taste.

"Civilization"...

and the one that offends Larkin so much...

...Jim Thompson

The hill due south is Mt San Bruno, with an impressive antenna farm on top, several TV and FM stations, about 4 miles away. And about 2 miles to the NW, there's Sutro Tower, roughly 22 megawatts of TV, HDTV, AM, and FM.

Cheap RatShack things don't work very well here.

John

Civilization country style:

In the background you can see our outdoor cooking facilities. I bet Bob Pease would get a kick out of this wood splitter. Built on the front axle of a 30's DeSoto.

Nice!

I have a "wedge" but do it by hand, no hydraulics, but I'm generally dealing with nothing larger than 6" diameter.

...Jim Thompson

I also have a wedge and a sledgehammer but that really gets old when you have to do 4-5 cords. Meantime we have increased the creature comfort and buy the wood. Next year's load of four cords arrive today, my wife and I just finished stacking. The really nice thing is that we already know what next season's heating costs will be because we just paid it.

Having schlepped four cords of almond I wonder what people need gyms for. I think our wheel barrow has just about had it though.

We burn mostly for "atmosphere", very occasionally to make it thru a "cold" night.

...Jim Thompson

Jim Yanik wrote

I've got a 2465 400MHz scope here. I guess it is 10 years old.

I've also got a TDS2004B here. Obviously it is much more portable than the 2465 but the 2465 is much nicer for general usage - looking at waveforms.

Well, I took the plunge and got a TDS 744A for a bit under $900 including shipping. We'll see how it is when it gets here--the CRT seems nice and bright in the photos. I thought about waiting for the new low-cost Agilent series that's supposedly coming out in May, but they'll still be 200 MHz vs. 500 for the TDS 744A, as well as being much more than $900.

Thanks all for the insights.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Under $900? That's a fantastic price! I have to ask - where did you get it for so cheap, Ebay?

You're welcome. Just make sure that you run all the extended diagnostics located in the utility menu, including SPC a number of times. Also check the logs for any previous failures.