My
Tektronix® SCOPE rebuild page.
![]() Model 465 and 2430 and 2430A. Not affiliated with Tektronix but old logo's used with permission! I do not own any tube based scopes, nor desire to own them ever again., CRTs are always cool.(aka, CRO's) This page shows calibration for low tech work, not NASA work or CERTIFIED work of any kind... Like a Ham radio operator, or a service tech, working low tech, low end (low price for old schoolers) gear. Low end to me, means I can fix it, and High end means I need a bloody NASA engineer to fix it then a $500 cal-lab fee later. At no time am I doing NIST.gov level standards here, this is just HOBBY levels... and accuracies, ( and costs of owner ship) The CRO scopes (means CRT) , all are easy to fix, if broken. All Tek scope are until they started adding magic chips. (tunnel diodes, custom hybrids, etc) But if the scope is cheap and works, all Tek scopes are BUY !!! The 2465B scope is very popular. Many tek scopes the BW is 2 times the stated bandwidth, (TEK quality is serious here) but it does have hybrids, <(unobtainium rare) if this scares you drop down to 22xx scope series, the older the scope the less unobtainium. But really if it's only $100 why worry.? Still not sure what 2 scopes to own (takes a scope to fix a scope so.. check out the TAS series. 465-up!) See this the wiki. I have no opinions on best, each person has his/hers own needs , cost , bandwidth or performance features. I have 3 pages covering 3 scopes; WHAT ARE GOOD USES FOR A SCOPE? (O'SCOPE, DSO) Working with out a scope is near impossible, for the serious problems we face. (noise, hum, glitches, timing,etc) Electronics technology is very diverse. (DC to Daylight as we call it) No one scope does it all, save a few $50,000 scopes (maybe) so pick a scope that matches your needs. Below are some Ideas on how to use a scope. A simple list. The first rule of being a technician is , is your scope overloading the circuit (RF mostly) , so that causes wrong readings. (use a high Z probe and low parasitic capacitance probe. 10:1 or 100:1 ratio. What are the rules for this signal you are trying to measure, the circuit impedance low or high , and freqency or even rise times expected. The answer to that is easy, read the service manual for the system under test. (or the chips themselves) The Scope can find very easy, the following problems, in circuits:
I have set up this older 1980 scope to catch glitches, that are very random and it will do the job. ( a dark room helps!) You can arm the trigger ("Single Sweep"), and wait for the signal, and BANG. Practice and you can too. The trace will die away fast, but you saw the glitch. Hard pressed one day ,we used a camera (lights out) , 2 guys to photo that 1 time event."Polaroid" (we didn't have the storage scope option , very expensive $$$ back then , late 80's) Today 10x more easy this is. The real DSO scope is the far better one, to do the capture and look, after the fact. In the world of electronics, not all problems are simple , like DEAD or inactive. (noise , glitches and weak, timing is wrong) Not all problems go away with parts or card swaps and guessing . Sorry but that is reality, and reality is that digital fails for analog reason too, like bad VIL level for logic chips, or VIH. (or a bad pull up resistor seen on Open drain transistors) I have seen circuits cards fail, in fact, a specific chip on one board, caused by a noise being generated, far away on some other board or device in the system. Only a scope finds these levels of problems. (or bus line ringing due to bad line matching resistors) etc... If doing development work, (test jig, prototypes, breadboarding, etc) you also validate your signals, using a scope or for doing debugging of a new design. One more tech rule , we check all power supplies first, for levels then noise/ripple. (or you just might waste the whole day beating our head on the wall) end usage. rev 17++++ 8-27-2013 (last edit, 9-6-2016) revised again Jan,29-2018 (battery swaps) I'm on Eham.net, K5JXH. |