I bought one of these 512 Oscilloscopes a couple of months ago and have cleaned it as it was very dirty, same as your scope was in this video. It is about 100 serial numbers earlier than this one, so I guess it is probably exactly the same model. It does work partly but I have not completely checked everything yet. I have not checked all the tubes with a tester but they all light up when power is applied. It looks to be in original condition with nothing altered. It is missing the two large metal shields, one by the signal inputs and the other below the CRT, I will have to figure out how to make something that will work for it instead. It is very much fun to work on this and I will try to make it look nice and operate correctly again. Thank you for your nice video. Robert D. Robbins
Hmmm.... you got lucky finding this old scope from the very beginnings of Tek, introduced in 1948 ! We are all familiar with the rounded blue cabinet that was introduced in the mid-50's, but seeing a scope from before this era is pretty rare I would say ! First time I see one on YT anyway, and never ever saw one for sale in my country. So it was quite nice to see this old scpoe up close, thanks for the video. Was interesting to see how the very first Tek scopes were put together. First thing that strikes is that it does NOT yet use the famous ceramic strips ! So I guess that was introduced in the revised designed in the '50's... These spare matched tube pairs, pretty rich ! How thoughtful of Tek :-) Too bad for the weak CRT, hope you can find another one, or one that's compatible, or that can be made to work with some minor adaptation... Not a native so maybe I missed it, but I didn't hear you mention the most interesting feature of that scope : high-sensitivity differential inputs... and the low 2MHz bandwidth that comes with it of course. So we could say it was the ancestor of the type 502 that would come 10 years later... According to Tekwiki back in the '40's it was also quite a thing to be able to be get down to DC like this scope does... Anyway, glad that you found this rarity and that you took care of it to keep it from rotting away in some garage before ending in the dump ! No, this one is SAVED ! :-D Vincent Trouilliez, from France
From the view it looks like you paralleled the capacitors to the old ones? I know you most likely didn't but how did you put the new capacitors in? Thank you
Hello, I live near Vancouver, Canada and I own 3 vintage Tektronix oscilloscopes that would need repair. Would you know of anyone around Vancouver like yourself who could help by any chance? I have two of Type 503 and one Type 564. Thank you and kind regards, Giorgio Magnanensi
That was a very skilful restoration sir! Great troubleshooting.
I bought one of these 512 Oscilloscopes a couple of months ago and have cleaned it as it was very dirty, same as your scope was in this video. It is about 100 serial numbers earlier than this one, so I guess it is probably exactly the same model. It does work partly but I have not completely checked everything yet. I have not checked all the tubes with a tester but they all light up when power is applied. It looks to be in original condition with nothing altered. It is missing the two large metal shields, one by the signal inputs and the other below the CRT, I will have to figure out how to make something that will work for it instead. It is very much fun to work on this and I will try to make it look nice and operate correctly again. Thank you for your nice video. Robert D. Robbins
Great job on repairing the vintage scope, lots of good troubleshooting info. I have a 545 I need to get started on.
You are a Saint for taking these projects on. However, I've done this very same thing with tube radios.
Thank you!
Hmmm.... you got lucky finding this old scope from the very beginnings of Tek, introduced in 1948 ! We are all familiar with the rounded blue cabinet that was introduced in the mid-50's, but seeing a scope from before this era is pretty rare I would say ! First time I see one on YT anyway, and never ever saw one for sale in my country. So it was quite nice to see this old scpoe up close, thanks for the video. Was interesting to see how the very first Tek scopes were put together.
First thing that strikes is that it does NOT yet use the famous ceramic strips ! So I guess that was introduced in the revised designed in the '50's...
These spare matched tube pairs, pretty rich ! How thoughtful of Tek :-)
Too bad for the weak CRT, hope you can find another one, or one that's compatible, or that can be made to work with some minor adaptation...
Not a native so maybe I missed it, but I didn't hear you mention the most interesting feature of that scope : high-sensitivity differential inputs... and the low 2MHz bandwidth that comes with it of course. So we could say it was the ancestor of the type 502 that would come 10 years later...
According to Tekwiki back in the '40's it was also quite a thing to be able to be get down to DC like this scope does...
Anyway, glad that you found this rarity and that you took care of it to keep it from rotting away in some garage before ending in the dump ! No, this one is SAVED ! :-D
Vincent Trouilliez, from France
Thank you and what you wrote is the exact reason why I did the video, to show how it was put together :)
Nice I am excited because I am getting a analog 465m ooscilloscope I noticed you have the same one I heard it is very good
Yes, the 465M is really good, no Fan, soldered transistors.
Inspires me to take on my 512. I still wonder who would want it after it's restored.
From the view it looks like you paralleled the capacitors to the old ones? I know you most likely didn't but how did you put the new capacitors in? Thank you
Nope, the old and new caps are never in parallel, I guess there is a ceramic standoff between the leads.
The old scope had terrible compensation on the square wave but it will be a nice scope. Does it have a delay line?
Nope.
Hello, I live near Vancouver, Canada and I own 3 vintage Tektronix oscilloscopes that would need repair.
Would you know of anyone around Vancouver like yourself who could help by any chance?
I have two of Type 503 and one Type 564. Thank you and kind regards, Giorgio Magnanensi
Hi Giorgio, I don't know anyone sorry. But you can try posting in tekscopes group on groups.io
@@LazyElectrons Thank you!!