Test Equipment: Oscillocopes

[TinselKoala]

Ah OK, now the video link shows as "being processed".

[Brian516]

TK-
Yes I do have the full, original service manual, including the manuals for the probes.  I was thinking that I was going to need a working scope and function gen to properly test this guy.... but I probably will in order to properly calibrate it, right?
I really didn't think I had messed anything up... I was EXTREMELY careful when cleaning it, and made sure I read the part of the manual on preventative maintenance to make sure I didn't use any products that would harm it.   I used IPA and some camel hair artist paintbrushes, and Deoxit D5 for the contacts and pots, then cleaned up any excess Deoxit with IPA.  I went thru it several times cleaning and inspecting, and saw nothing that was broken or damaged at all. In fact, it seemed to be in near-mint condition inside to begin with other than a little dust.  It doesn't have a filter on the fan, and hasn't for who knows how long now, so I'm surprised it didn't have more fuzz inside of it.. I'll need to get some material to make a filter, or just buy the ones someone is selling on ebay.  $15 for 100 tek brand replacement filters... but it looks like a pretty common filter material.

There still is quite a bit of noise occurring from somewhere, it seems to mainly be coming from the A trig level/slope knobs, the A trig holdoff, and the time/div contacts.  I didn't take that board off and clean any of those. Since those controls are right up against the faceplate, I might see if there is enough room for me to get the tip of the Deoxit straw to the shaft if I just take the faceplate off. But if I have to take the board off to clean it, I'll just have to do it I guess.  The only board I took off was the vertical preamp/vertical sweep assembly.  all those seem to work perfectly now, so I must have done it right.


Milehigh -

Yes, I had it in X-Y....        Goes to show you how very little I know about using a scope.....
It's producing a readable trace now, but it still seems to have a some minor issues as you'll see in the vid once it's done uploading....

That is def some good info, though.  Good to know for future restoration and cleaning projects!
I'll have to go garage sale/yard sale hunting once spring comes around and see what kind of goodies I can find!  I should have some funds to play with by then.
Maybe I'll even run across some stuff that you and TK might be interested in that I can pass on. never know...

[Brian516]

Ah OK, now the video link shows as "being processed".

Ahh I just noticed that youtube froze up on me.  I'm having to do it all over again.   Hopefully it actually works this time....

I'm going to make sure that it works and then I will edit this and put the link in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9PxTExuJjU

Someone was leaching my bandwidth and somehow affecting my upstream in the process....  stupid Xfinity and their unprotected wifi access point for "other Comcast customers".   Bout to disable their router in the combo device and hook it to my other one.  It's finally done though.

[MileHigh]

Brian:

The scope is working just fine.  I am assuming when you change the horizontal timebase it also woks fine.

The fact that you can barely see the vertical lines is a very good thing.  I am not going to bother explaining why, you will figure it out as you learn.   Your triggering level function is working just fine and doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

Do not worry about the blown light bulb to illuminate the scope display.  If it is difficult to get at to replace it would be a very foolish move on your part to replace it because you will incur more risk of accidentally damaging the scope.  You absolutely do not need that light bulb replaced and chances are you will almost never use the display illumination function.

MileHigh

[Brian516]

Brian:

The scope is working just fine.  I am assuming when you change the horizontal timebase it also woks fine.

The fact that you can barely see the vertical lines is a very good thing.  I am not going to bother explaining why, you will figure it out as you learn.

Do not worry about the blown light bulb to illuminate the scope display.  If it is difficult to get at to replace it would be a very foolish move on your past to replace it because you will incur more risk of accidentally damaging the scope.  You absolutely do not need that light bulb replaced and chances are you will almost never use the display illumination function.

MileHigh

That's what I was thinking, too. It doesn't seem like any of the illumination lights are really actually necessary.
One thing I did notice after the vid, when I started changing the horizontal timebase to anything but 1ms It started showing a bunch of "noise" on the sides. It also had it intermittently on 1ms, but nowhere near as bad as any other setting. Probably just needs a good cleaning, such as the WD40 trick, but just in case, I'll make a little vid to show you what I'm talking about once I'm done eating.  It only seemed to do it after it was warmed up all the way, though. If there is really such a thing....
It only really started happening after it was on for about 5 minutes, though.