Oscilloscope question

[Ethan Dicks]

On 4/13/05, Joe R. <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> >>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Jennings <tomj at wps.com> writes:
> > Tom> The problem with all of these older Tek devices, as pretty much
> > Tom> everyone who uses them for some time discovers, is that they
> > Tom> soon enough die of electromechanical issues -- the switches get
> > Tom> touchy, intermittent, then die -- and are essentially
> > Tom> unrepairable.
> 
>    It's VERY common. In fact, it's pretty much the rule for old Tektronix
> scopes IMO. Come over to Sanford, Florida and I'll show you several HUNDRED
> Tektronix scopes and AT LEAST 95%+ of them have aging problems (bad caps,
> brittle plastic, intermitant switches, etc. I recently pulled out a dozen
> of so 465/466/475s and I didn't find a one that worked properly. In my
> experience, sitting unused is death on a Tektronix scope.

I have an old 465 that seems to have died from loneliness... it has a
dead short somewhere in the PSU such that one of the internal fuses
blows violently.  I keep meaning to get around to fixing it (it's my
newest scope (of 4)), but just never mange to do much more than prod
at it.

-ethan