I left the bench in Dec 1981. This is so informative and great to watch. Learned a lot too. Am retired, but interest still there. Repair and calibration was the best job I ever had. Still miss it ! Thanks again :)
Video producers.. Don't be afraid of stating what you paid for your ebay bargain. It helps the rest of us determine what's actually a good buy. Excellent videos by the way :-}
Thank you, very helpful. I purchased a TDS540 for $100 and I know these things are notorious for the Acquisition Failures, mine does actually Pass it's POST with no failures but I brought a spare board just in case for $7.50 (that's very clean). So when it arrives, I shall open it up and inspect and before too long replace all (cough 100) caps to extend it's life as far as possible.
I just bought one of those from Ebay and i have not received it yet. Looking forward to the repair. One trick with those capacitors for easy removal is to grab the can with long nose pliers and twist them so they come off, then, remove the rest off of the board and clean the pads. No heat needed! Also, the best way to see how far the electrolyte has gone on the board is to use a black light to aluminate the board. The contamination will glow.
I grab them caps with needle nose pliers and twist and the cap will break off...without hurting the pads...you have to do it slowly and take your time...I practiced on alot of old computer boards and old tv boards to get the hang of it..nice video...
A number of comments here were asking about the prices of used scopes. The author gives the good advice to check eBay. I would add to check out other local sources, such as university surplus sales, ham/electronics flea markets, Craigslist, Facbook market. Prices in those places can be much less. Bought several old working scopes for $10 and $15. A nice Tektronic 465A for $75. You never know what you will find! Currently the local university surplus sale is offering a TDS 460A for $50 (unknown condition).
Keep the repairs coming. I love the older equipment but unfortunatly over here in the UK we don't have the availability that you enjoy in the US. When items do turn up as repairable they tend to sell for a higher price which makes it a bit of a gamble. Karl..
There is a good selection of non-working instruments available in the US, but the risk of acquiring a non-repairable unit are just as high as anywhere else. I always assume that an instrument is non-repairable and bid accordingly, but we can always hope.
The availability issue is more about shipping costs. We can access the US eBay items from across the pond as well, but buying a cheap "for repair" device becomes a lot less cheap when you pay 200-300$ for shipping. Unfortunately finding these types of instruments for sale in Europe is rare, and when they do appear, they cost a fortune, comparatively.
21:58 One thing that always bothered me about these scopes is all the dead space to the right of the captured waveform. I understand it's to make room for the soft button labels but why not expand the graticule to fill the screen when the soft button labels are not active? My HP 54645D from around the same era boots up in seconds (under 10 seconds easily I've never actually timed it) heck the majority of the boot time is the heaters in the CRT warming up :-) from a cold boot you barely have enough time to read the splash screen and the captured waveform fills all of the horizontal space on the screen. I love the older analog Tek scopes and have quite a few but these early digital scopes just seem lackluster IMO. It feels like Tek was phoning due to their past success.
Nice video and a cool OLD scope. I have a THS720 at work and I recognize the menus you have on your scope. I think they just ported the firmware across. Four channels is great but having 100M/S is pretty poor but good for the day though. This will only get worse as you enable more channels. 5 x Bandwidth is the rule of thumb I think, to be any good.
Surface mounted caps can easily be removed by grabbing them with tweezers and 'break' them off by turning 90° clockwise. No heating required. Well done, nice score. Hope the CRT will last a couple of years.
I have actually seen that tip, can't recall where though. I did twist off the bad caps, but for me tweezers didn't have enough leverage so I used needle nose pliers. Worked like a charm with no pad damage whatsoever.
i recently repaired a TDS460A. my traces aren't that clean. i think i might need to recap my acquisition board. scopes functional but more jitter in the trace.
More videos, please! You mention "hours of work" between cuts. It would be a nice reference for viewers to know how long you are actually working off camera to find and fix certain issues. Maybe at the end of the video a total hour tally of diagnostics, fixes and head scratching. And it would also be interesting to mention prices. Normally sells for $X in working condition. The ones for sale in non-working condition cost $Y-Z and I selected this one because, blah, blah, blah. I suspect you do this for the challenge and not for economic reasons but it's still nice to know what the $ value would be.
I'm afraid of tallying up the total time spent on a repair because that number would probably be totally depressing and take the fun out of it. Prices for vintage equipment vary quickly, the best way is to check for yourself by searching for the instrument on eBay and then clicking on "Sold listings" for current pricing.
Hi, I have an Oscope that looks similar to yours ( it’a TDS 3xx I think). I have not used it for a while...passed Calibration BUT the screen/ grid has moved a little to the left side (slightly curve looking grid). Is this an internal issue or something I can do from the menu?? Thanks
Artifact Electronics When I said the “grid”, I was trying to say or meant the square box ( the two parallel vertical lines of the box) is slightly curving to the left. If the answer is the same , BIG thanks Sir!
Electrolitics that age always are suspicious. The same applies (even more) to tantaliums: notoriously unstable!! Always replace them. And check voltages. When caps short out they tend to take resistors along.
The caps were removed using a heat gun. The mask was necessary so that surrounding small smd components wouldn't be dislocated by the windstream since the solder was soft. Fortunately the Xbox did not have the problem of electrolytic smd caps leaking so we don't have go back.
I left the bench in Dec 1981. This is so informative and great to watch. Learned a lot too. Am retired, but interest still there. Repair and calibration was the best job I ever had. Still miss it ! Thanks again :)
Congrats! I have one of these, and I changed all caps by tantalums. It's working like a charm.
Video producers.. Don't be afraid of stating what you paid for your ebay bargain. It helps the rest of us determine what's actually a good buy.
Excellent videos by the way :-}
Thank you, very helpful. I purchased a TDS540 for $100 and I know these things are notorious for the Acquisition Failures, mine does actually Pass it's POST with no failures but I brought a spare board just in case for $7.50 (that's very clean). So when it arrives, I shall open it up and inspect and before too long replace all (cough 100) caps to extend it's life as far as possible.
I just bought one of those from Ebay and i have not received it yet. Looking forward to the repair.
One trick with those capacitors for easy removal is to grab the can with long nose pliers and twist them so they come off, then, remove the rest off of the board and clean the pads. No heat needed! Also, the best way to see how far the electrolyte has gone on the board is to use a black light to aluminate the board. The contamination will glow.
Instablaster...
Superb video. Great to see a scope brought back to life. Subbed. Make more videos.
Excellent repair! Thank you.
Great scope! I'm looking on to buy one for myself too :)
I grab them caps with needle nose pliers and twist and the cap will break off...without hurting the pads...you have to do it slowly and take your time...I practiced on alot of old computer boards and old tv boards to get the hang of it..nice video...
Very helpful. Thank you sir
Great job man! just excellent!
Finally a video with Hi Res demo. :)
Great repair! Thou shalt always check voltages!
Nice job, keep the videos coming...
A number of comments here were asking about the prices of used scopes. The author gives the good advice to check eBay. I would add to check out other local sources, such as university surplus sales, ham/electronics flea markets, Craigslist, Facbook market. Prices in those places can be much less. Bought several old working scopes for $10 and $15. A nice Tektronic 465A for $75. You never know what you will find! Currently the local university surplus sale is offering a TDS 460A for $50 (unknown condition).
Keep the repairs coming. I love the older equipment but unfortunatly over here in the UK we don't have the availability that you enjoy in the US. When items do turn up as repairable they tend to sell for a higher price which makes it a bit of a gamble. Karl..
There is a good selection of non-working instruments available in the US, but the risk of acquiring a non-repairable unit are just as high as anywhere else. I always assume that an instrument is non-repairable and bid accordingly, but we can always hope.
The availability issue is more about shipping costs. We can access the US eBay items from across the pond as well, but buying a cheap "for repair" device becomes a lot less cheap when you pay 200-300$ for shipping. Unfortunately finding these types of instruments for sale in Europe is rare, and when they do appear, they cost a fortune, comparatively.
21:58 One thing that always bothered me about these scopes is all the dead space to the right of the captured waveform. I understand it's to make room for the soft button labels but why not expand the graticule to fill the screen when the soft button labels are not active?
My HP 54645D from around the same era boots up in seconds (under 10 seconds easily I've never actually timed it) heck the majority of the boot time is the heaters in the CRT warming up :-) from a cold boot you barely have enough time to read the splash screen and the captured waveform fills all of the horizontal space on the screen.
I love the older analog Tek scopes and have quite a few but these early digital scopes just seem lackluster IMO. It feels like Tek was phoning due to their past success.
Nice video and a cool OLD scope. I have a THS720 at work and I recognize the menus you have on your scope. I think they just ported the firmware across. Four channels is great but having 100M/S is pretty poor but good for the day though. This will only get worse as you enable more channels. 5 x Bandwidth is the rule of thumb I think, to be any good.
The low capture bandwidth limits the usefulness of the scope, but it still works great in the audio range.The UI is well thought out.
Good repair. There are a slew of Tek scopes on eBay with the Aqc fail problem. A person could make a career out of repairing them.
Subscribed.
Surface mounted caps can easily be removed by grabbing them with tweezers and 'break' them off by turning 90° clockwise. No heating required. Well done, nice score. Hope the CRT will last a couple of years.
I have actually seen that tip, can't recall where though. I did twist off the bad caps, but for me tweezers didn't have enough leverage so I used needle nose pliers. Worked like a charm with no pad damage whatsoever.
It seems that when they leak it further weakens the pins and using your method causes no damage to the pads.
The fan is veery loud. Hope for long usability!
i recently repaired a TDS460A. my traces aren't that clean. i think i might need to recap my acquisition board. scopes functional but more jitter in the trace.
See Paul Carlsons video of the same Tek. model where he collect it from pieces.
More videos, please! You mention "hours of work" between cuts. It would be a nice reference for viewers to know how long you are actually working off camera to find and fix certain issues. Maybe at the end of the video a total hour tally of diagnostics, fixes and head scratching. And it would also be interesting to mention prices. Normally sells for $X in working condition. The ones for sale in non-working condition cost $Y-Z and I selected this one because, blah, blah, blah. I suspect you do this for the challenge and not for economic reasons but it's still nice to know what the $ value would be.
I'm afraid of tallying up the total time spent on a repair because that number would probably be totally depressing and take the fun out of it. Prices for vintage equipment vary quickly, the best way is to check for yourself by searching for the instrument on eBay and then clicking on "Sold listings" for current pricing.
R483 and R482 inside adjust the brightness of the screen
Hi, I have an Oscope that looks similar to yours ( it’a TDS 3xx I think). I have not used it for a while...passed Calibration BUT the screen/ grid has moved a little to the left side (slightly curve looking grid). Is this an internal issue or something I can do from the menu?? Thanks
I only saw intensity adjustments in the screen menus. If the grid looks curved and offset this might indicate leaky caps in the CRT driver board.
Artifact Electronics When I said the “grid”, I was trying to say or meant the square box ( the two parallel vertical lines of the box) is slightly curving to the left. If the answer is the same , BIG thanks Sir!
Electrolitics that age always are suspicious. The same applies (even more) to tantaliums: notoriously unstable!! Always replace them. And check voltages. When caps short out they tend to take resistors along.
How do you solder radial lead electrolytic caps on to the board from the top side without removing the board for access to the pads from the rear?
The caps I replaced are all surface mount and solder directly to pads on top of the PCB.
If I am not Repairing stuff I am Watching Other Revive the Dead Electronics..
Nice vid, but please say exactly what you paid for it since this helps your viewers know what a fair price is for something used.
i need one that give the frequencies of Sun 🌞 >< Yochana 3:16
call the capacitor police
I'm still on eternal hold
Why do I feel this guy did none of this. “Mask of course not to scale.” Why? How did you replace the caps? Back to xbox. Ok?
The caps were removed using a heat gun. The mask was necessary so that surrounding small smd components wouldn't be dislocated by the windstream since the solder was soft. Fortunately the Xbox did not have the problem of electrolytic smd caps leaking so we don't have go back.