Paging: TEK465/2465 owners

[JB]

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of retrofit
modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable, TEK-specific parts U400 &
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself an
electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often purchased to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He is in the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two chips which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering skill.
He and two of his colleagues between them have over 30(!) of these
instruments all needing these replacement chips, so this project has a fair
chance of becoming a reality in the next few months. If the volumes are
realistic, a ceramic hybrid-based module will be commisioned, or if lower
volumes, a pcb with identical footprint to the existing chip outlines.
If there's any interest in this project, let's have your thoughts.
Regards,
JB

 

[Dr. Anton T. Squeegee]

In article <45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net>, JB@nospam.net (known to some
as JB) scribed...

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of retrofit
modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable, TEK-specific parts U400 &
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself an
electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often purchased to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He is in the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two chips which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering skill.

<snippety>

Please, PLEASE ask this same question on the 'TekScopes' Yahoo
group! The response should be most enthusiastic.

Even though I don't currently own either model, THANK YOU and your
friend for taking this project on! I would like nothing better than to
see Tek's current offerings continue to have to compete with their older
stuff. ;-)

Keep the peace(es).



--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, KC7GR)
http://www.bluefeathertech.com -- kyrrin a/t bluefeathertech d-o=t calm
"Salvadore Dali's computer has surreal ports..."

 

[JB]

"Dr. Anton T. Squeegee" <SpammersAreVermin@dev.null> wrote in message
news:MPG.1e5b9b514b411d3598969b@192.168.42.131...

In article <45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net>, JB@nospam.net (known to some
as JB) scribed...

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of retrofit
modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable, TEK-specific parts
U400 &
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself an
electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often purchased
to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He is in
the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two chips
which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering skill.

snippety

Please, PLEASE ask this same question on the 'TekScopes' Yahoo
group! The response should be most enthusiastic.

I will do this very thing.

Even though I don't currently own either model, THANK YOU and your
friend for taking this project on! I would like nothing better than to
see Tek's current offerings continue to have to compete with their older
stuff. ;-)

I know a friend is waiting to find Ł650 to buy a replacement mainboard for
his 2yr old TDS-series TEK. He is now using his older 2430a.

cheers,
JB

 

[Walter Harley]

"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in message news:45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net...

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of retrofit
modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable, TEK-specific parts U400
&
U800

I've got a still-working 2465 - would probably buy the modules just for
insurance, if they weren't too pricy. Do you have an estimated price yet?

You might also contact equipment repair/resellers, if you haven't.

 

[JB]

"Walter Harley" <walterh@cafewalterNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:QNadneuHktLzjG_eRVn-vg@speakeasy.net...

"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net...
Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of retrofit
modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable, TEK-specific parts
U400 &
U800

I've got a still-working 2465 - would probably buy the modules just for
insurance, if they weren't too pricy. Do you have an estimated price yet?

I am frankly *amazed* by the response! I knew these were popular instruments
but WOW!
I am forwarding all contacts onto the designer directly. I'll keep everyone
posted on the newsgroups too.

You might also contact equipment repair/resellers, if you haven't.
Damn good idea.

Thanks again,.

JB

 

[Jim Yanik]

"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in news:45ectbF6c6eeU1@individual.net:

"Dr. Anton T. Squeegee" <SpammersAreVermin@dev.null> wrote in message
news:MPG.1e5b9b514b411d3598969b@192.168.42.131...
In article <45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net>, JB@nospam.net (known to
some as JB) scribed...

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of
retrofit modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable,
TEK-specific parts
U400 &
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself
an electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often
purchased
to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He is
in
the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two
chips
which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering
skill.

snippety

Please, PLEASE ask this same question on the 'TekScopes' Yahoo
group! The response should be most enthusiastic.

I will do this very thing.

Even though I don't currently own either model, THANK YOU and your
friend for taking this project on! I would like nothing better than
to see Tek's current offerings continue to have to compete with their
older stuff. ;-)

I know a friend is waiting to find Ł650 to buy a replacement mainboard
for his 2yr old TDS-series TEK. He is now using his older 2430a.

cheers,
JB

He should not have to BUY a new board(unless he attempted repair and
damaged it);they are serviced by *exchange*,you call up TEK(module
services,or something like that,it should be in the manual),they send you
the assy,you return the bad one in the shipping container. Or I believe
they can do a "repair and return",but I've found this to be risky;they can
LOSE the item.

Or he can send in the whole instrument and TEK will repair and calibrate
it,they will tell you the cost over the phone.(it's may be online,too)

2yrs old should not be out of LTPS.

I note you quoted a English monetary unit,so they may have a different
policy,although TEK-US may want to know about that.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

 

[JB]

"Jim Yanik" <jyanik@abuse.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns976A93996DBFDjyanikkuanet@129.250.170.83...

"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in news:45ectbF6c6eeU1@individual.net:


"Dr. Anton T. Squeegee" <SpammersAreVermin@dev.null> wrote in message
news:MPG.1e5b9b514b411d3598969b@192.168.42.131...
In article <45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net>, JB@nospam.net (known to
some as JB) scribed...

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of
retrofit modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable,
TEK-specific parts
U400 &
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself
an electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often
purchased
to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He is
in
the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two
chips
which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering
skill.

snippety

Please, PLEASE ask this same question on the 'TekScopes' Yahoo
group! The response should be most enthusiastic.

I will do this very thing.

Even though I don't currently own either model, THANK YOU and your
friend for taking this project on! I would like nothing better than
to see Tek's current offerings continue to have to compete with their
older stuff. ;-)

I know a friend is waiting to find Ł650 to buy a replacement mainboard
for his 2yr old TDS-series TEK. He is now using his older 2430a.

cheers,
JB





He should not have to BUY a new board(unless he attempted repair and
damaged it);they are serviced by *exchange*,you call up TEK(module
services,or something like that,it should be in the manual),they send you
the assy,you return the bad one in the shipping container. Or I believe
they can do a "repair and return",but I've found this to be risky;they can
LOSE the item.

Or he can send in the whole instrument and TEK will repair and calibrate
it,they will tell you the cost over the phone.(it's may be online,too)

2yrs old should not be out of LTPS.

I note you quoted a English monetary unit,so they may have a different
policy,although TEK-US may want to know about that.

--
Thanks for the advice Jim. Yes I am in the UK. I'm sure that this TDS series

scope is only a couple of years old, but it was an Ebay purchase, so no
warranty or so I am led to believe. I think the Ł650 TEK quoted was a return
and repair service as you say. I'll ask him on Thursday when I'm up in
London.
He keeps thanking his lucky stars that he can fall back on the various older
465/2475/2430A scopes he also keeps handy. (many companies round here seem
to have sold off all of their old CRT-based scopes and gone totally over to
the newer type TEK scopes. Warranty and support I suppose).
Regards,
JB

 

[JB]

"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in message news:45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net...

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of retrofit
modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable, TEK-specific parts U400
&
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself an
electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often purchased to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He is in the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two chips
which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering skill.
He and two of his colleagues between them have over 30(!) of these
instruments all needing these replacement chips, so this project has a
fair
chance of becoming a reality in the next few months. If the volumes are
realistic, a ceramic hybrid-based module will be commisioned, or if lower
volumes, a pcb with identical footprint to the existing chip outlines.
If there's any interest in this project, let's have your thoughts.
Regards,
JB

Correction to the scope types (havving talked to the designer last night):
The 465B is not included. My mistake.
The actual scope types the retrofit modules are designed for are
TEK2445/2465/2467.

Apologies for any confusion.

JB

 

[Mike Harrison]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:25:57 -0000, "JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote:

"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in message news:45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net...
Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of retrofit
modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable, TEK-specific parts U400
&
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself an
electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often purchased to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He is in the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two chips
which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering skill.
He and two of his colleagues between them have over 30(!) of these
instruments all needing these replacement chips, so this project has a
fair
chance of becoming a reality in the next few months. If the volumes are
realistic, a ceramic hybrid-based module will be commisioned, or if lower
volumes, a pcb with identical footprint to the existing chip outlines.
If there's any interest in this project, let's have your thoughts.
Regards,
JB



Correction to the scope types (havving talked to the designer last night):
The 465B is not included. My mistake.
The actual scope types the retrofit modules are designed for are
TEK2445/2465/2467.

Apologies for any confusion.

JB

I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to do this - I'm sure modern semiconductors to
replicate the original functions have been around for a good many years.

Unfortunately I think the potential market is a lot less than it was, say, 5 years ago, as digital
scopes have now improved to the point where the advantages of analogue ones are minimal, and this
has been reflected in the fall in used prices of these old Tek scopes.
The potential 'Professional' market for such an upgrade has all but vanished now.

Of course the availability of the Teks at lower prices won't hurt sales of a replacement module,
but also means you won't be able to charge anything like as much for it - a few years ago, good
used Tek 2465As were typically $2-3000, and a new digital scope with comparable performance (DPO
etc.) several times that, so you could easily have sold modules for, say $500, but looking at ebay,
working 2465As are going for about $400, so the market will mainly be hobbyists who don't price
their time for doing the repair.

I still think it's a worthwhile project, and will likely earn him some money, but nowhere near what
it would have done a few years ago. Unless doing a ceramic hybrid offeres noticeable performance
benefits, I doubt it's worth the investment risk compared to a PCB, which won't have such high
one-off costs.

 

[Jim Yanik]

"JB" <JB@Nospam.co.uk> wrote in news:45es4bF6bvd1U1@individual.net:

"Jim Yanik" <jyanik@abuse.gov> wrote in message
news:Xns976A93996DBFDjyanikkuanet@129.250.170.83...
"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in news:45ectbF6c6eeU1@individual.net:


"Dr. Anton T. Squeegee" <SpammersAreVermin@dev.null> wrote in
message news:MPG.1e5b9b514b411d3598969b@192.168.42.131...
In article <45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net>, JB@nospam.net (known to
some as JB) scribed...

Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of
retrofit modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable,
TEK-specific parts
U400 &
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine,
himself an electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes,
often purchased
to
cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower hours. He
is in
the
process of prototyping a pair of retrofit modules for these two
chips
which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering
skill.

snippety

Please, PLEASE ask this same question on the 'TekScopes' Yahoo
group! The response should be most enthusiastic.

I will do this very thing.

Even though I don't currently own either model, THANK YOU and your
friend for taking this project on! I would like nothing better than
to see Tek's current offerings continue to have to compete with
their older stuff. ;-)

I know a friend is waiting to find Ł650 to buy a replacement
mainboard for his 2yr old TDS-series TEK. He is now using his older
2430a.

cheers,
JB





He should not have to BUY a new board(unless he attempted repair and
damaged it);they are serviced by *exchange*,you call up TEK(module
services,or something like that,it should be in the manual),they send
you the assy,you return the bad one in the shipping container. Or I
believe they can do a "repair and return",but I've found this to be
risky;they can LOSE the item.

Or he can send in the whole instrument and TEK will repair and
calibrate it,they will tell you the cost over the phone.(it's may be
online,too)

2yrs old should not be out of LTPS.

I note you quoted a English monetary unit,so they may have a
different policy,although TEK-US may want to know about that.

--
Thanks for the advice Jim. Yes I am in the UK. I'm sure that this TDS
series scope is only a couple of years old, but it was an Ebay
purchase, so no warranty or so I am led to believe.

Regardless of how you bought it,the instrument's serial number should show
as a warranty repair when TEK logs it in for service.
TEK just looks at model and S/N in regards to warranty(ONE yr),and if it's
an OEM product,it gets a different warranty period,IIRC 18 months)

I think the Ł650
TEK quoted was a return and repair service as you say. I'll ask him on
Thursday when I'm up in London.
He keeps thanking his lucky stars that he can fall back on the various
older 465/2475/2430A scopes he also keeps handy. (many companies round
here seem to have sold off all of their old CRT-based scopes and gone
totally over to the newer type TEK scopes. Warranty and support I
suppose). Regards,
JB

LTPS is not "warranty",but Long Term Product Support,the period of time
that TEK provides parts and service support after the product was last sold
in their catalog. It's usually 6 years after the last catalog inclusion.

*AFTER* LTPS is over,TEK-USA disposes of their exchange assemblies and
parts specific to that model,and only offers calibration serivces.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

 

[Jim Yanik]

Mike Harrison <mike@whitewing.co.uk> wrote in
news:rbd6v1h9v0thokk8lq1en01d3q7rmei9le@4ax.com:

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:25:57 -0000, "JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote:


"JB" <JB@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:45ealdF66iaoU1@individual.net...
Just curious as to the level of potential interest in a pair of
retrofit modules to replace the now virtually unobtainable,
TEK-specific parts U400
&
U800 which often seem to fail in these otherwise superb scopes.
I'm not an electronics engineer, but a good friend of mine, himself
an electronics design engineer, has many of these scopes, often
purchased to cannibalise for spares to rebuild 465/2465s with lower
hours. He is in the process of prototyping a pair of retrofit
modules for these two chips
which
can be retrofitted by anyone with a moderate degree of soldering
skill. He and two of his colleagues between them have over 30(!) of
these instruments all needing these replacement chips, so this
project has a
fair
chance of becoming a reality in the next few months. If the volumes
are realistic, a ceramic hybrid-based module will be commisioned, or
if lower volumes, a pcb with identical footprint to the existing
chip outlines. If there's any interest in this project, let's have
your thoughts. Regards,
JB



Correction to the scope types (havving talked to the designer last
night): The 465B is not included. My mistake.
The actual scope types the retrofit modules are designed for are
TEK2445/2465/2467.

Apologies for any confusion.

JB

I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to do this - I'm sure
modern semiconductors to replicate the original functions have been
around for a good many years.

Unfortunately I think the potential market is a lot less than it was,
say, 5 years ago, as digital scopes have now improved to the point
where the advantages of analogue ones are minimal, and this has been
reflected in the fall in used prices of these old Tek scopes. The
potential 'Professional' market for such an upgrade has all but
vanished now.

Of course the availability of the Teks at lower prices won't hurt
sales of a replacement module, but also means you won't be able to
charge anything like as much for it - a few years ago, good used Tek
2465As were typically $2-3000, and a new digital scope with comparable
performance (DPO etc.) several times that, so you could easily have
sold modules for, say $500, but looking at ebay, working 2465As are
going for about $400, so the market will mainly be hobbyists who don't
price their time for doing the repair.

I still think it's a worthwhile project, and will likely earn him some
money, but nowhere near what it would have done a few years ago.
Unless doing a ceramic hybrid offeres noticeable performance benefits,
I doubt it's worth the investment risk compared to a PCB, which won't
have such high one-off costs.

Well,the U800 horizontal output amp is NOT a hybrid module,it's a DIP IC.
The IC is a specific design for differential driving of a CRT horizontal
plates,with adjustable gains,and a digital control section.

U400,the channel switch IIRC,is a hybrid,with multiple IC chips on a
ceramic substrate with laser-trimmed thick-film resistors and ceramic caps.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net