What do you think of this scope? (Tek)

[Paul Burridge]

This looks quite nifty. Anyone know anything about them?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3842004277&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
--

"What is now proved was once only imagin'd." - William Blake, 1793.

 

[Stefan Heinzmann]

Paul Burridge wrote:

This looks quite nifty. Anyone know anything about them?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3842004277&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Those are widely used and decent modular scopes from the seventies. Lots
of different plugins were made, including spectrum analyzers and logic
analyzers.

Don't know about the condition of this one, it looks alright if the
photo is from the actual unit, but a picture can't show everything.

--
Cheers
Stefan

 

[Joerg]

Hi Paul,

I have the bigger brother of it, a 7704. Four slots instead of three.
Nice scopes, lots of plug-in modules available but it's not the ticket
for today's fast digital stuff. If you ever buy one of these make sure
the CRT is in great shape. Their replacement is quite cost prohibitive.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:30:46 +0100, Paul Burridge
<pb@notthisbit.osiris1.co.uk> wrote:

This looks quite nifty. Anyone know anything about them?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3842004277&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

I really hate to admit this, but I'm starting to prefer digital
scopes. I have a "personal" TDS2012 (or it would be personal, except
that it's always borrowed) and it's really great for general-purpose
putzing around. 100 MHz, 2 traces, color, storage/persistance of
course. It's about as big as a shoe box and weighs almost nothing. I
think I'll buy all my engineers one, so they'll leave mine alone.

I was using a big ole Tek 7104 the other day and got confused because
all the traces were the same color. Creepey. I hope I don't get an
automatic transmission on my next car.

John

 

[Rich Grise]

On Thursday 30 September 2004 08:30 am, Paul Burridge did deign to grace us
with the following:

This looks quite nifty. Anyone know anything about them?


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3842004277&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
--

"What is now proved was once only imagin'd." - William Blake, 1793.

This one, too.

It depends on what you want - I've never been able to make a storage
scope work the way they tell me it's supposed to, but that doesn't
mean a storage scope is bad. ;-)

But, 52 pounds is about a hundred bucks, isn't it? Get them both!

Have Fun!
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

On Thursday 30 September 2004 04:56 pm, Paul Burridge did deign to grace us
with the following:

There seems to be a bit of a <ahem> "meme" among some of you chaps
here that the older scopes are in some ways better than the newer
ones. It's a bit confusing. I guess they're infinitely more
repairable, but aside from that, do they still hack it?
--

It seems to me that the "old" scopes got the job done, but since
they got digital, all those programmers in all those cubicles
have to keep coming up with more eye candy to justify that big
fat paycheck, much like at MICRO$~1.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Rolavine]

From: Rich Grise null@example.net

04:56 pm, Paul Burridge did deign to grace us

with the following:

There seems to be a bit of a <ahem> "meme" among some of you chaps
here that the older scopes are in some ways better than the newer
ones. It's a bit confusing. I guess they're infinitely more
repairable, but aside from that, do they still hack it?
--

It seems to me that the "old" scopes got the job done, but since
they got digital, all those programmers in all those cubicles
have to keep coming up with more eye candy to justify that big
fat paycheck, much like at MICRO$~1.

The best scope is one that you know how to use and trust. A good scope is like

a faithful dog. I'm a self employed one man band engineering firm and I have
four scopes, one digital, two analog-digital, and one analog. Of all of them I
like my Philips PM3365 the best, a 1993 vintage beast. But the reason I like it
is that we have prob spent 6 months together being intimate over the years. Get
a room will ya!

The new Tek digital scopes are great, wonderful, and I enjoy using them at
clients places.

Rocky

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 16:30:46 +0100, Paul Burridge
<pb@notthisbit.osiris1.co.uk> wrote:

This looks quite nifty. Anyone know anything about them?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3842004277&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

The 7603 is nice, but the military version is fairly heavy. The cool
thing about the 7000-series is that many interesting plugins are
available, cheap. One of my favorites is the 7A22 vertical plug; it
has switchable upper and lower bandwidth limits to 1 MHz, serious
differential inputs, and goes down to 10 uV/cm, which is wonderful for
low-level stuff and picking audio-range signals out of the
ever-present RF fuzz; the trace sharpness is surprising, even as you
crank the gain to max. I'd prefer this to the HP.

John

 

[Tony Williams]

In article <Sr17d.3455$JG2.557@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>,
Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Hi Spehro,
They don't have a lot of cup holders in German cars, do they?

Mine never did. Neither did they have AC. But create comfort is
setting in over there and some friends in Europe now bought cars
with AC.

I have a bottom-of-the-range Skoda (owned by VW).
Yes, it does have cup holders, and aircon. There
are also two chilled compartments in the dashboard,
with the one near the steering wheel shaped to take
a water bottle.

The engine is a 2 litre direct injection diesel that
redlines at 4500 rpm, but I rarely exceed 3000rpm,
which is about 85mph in fifth gear. It averages about
65mpg over long journeys.

--
Tony Williams.

 

[Mike Monett]

John Larkin wrote:

[...]

Another reason that Tek and HP went digital is that basic 20-100 MHz
analog scopes are now dirt-cheap imports, and they just can't compete
with a perfectly usable $299 import. They *can* stay ahead on ADCs,
ASICs, and firmware.

John

Interesting - any links, manufacturer's names or model numbers for these
cheap imported scopes?

Mike Monett

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:58:57 -0400, Mike Monett <no@spam.com> wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

[...]

Another reason that Tek and HP went digital is that basic 20-100 MHz
analog scopes are now dirt-cheap imports, and they just can't compete
with a perfectly usable $299 import. They *can* stay ahead on ADCs,
ASICs, and firmware.

John

Interesting - any links, manufacturer's names or model numbers for these
cheap imported scopes?

Mike Monett

Instek, B&K, EZ Digital, Protek, Goldstar, there must be a dozen. Lots
of house brands, too.

John

 

[Rolavine]

Digital scopes are great for their one shot - storage capabilities. The more
modern ones add clever triggering options like trigger only if signal is > DC
trigger for < 500 ms.

Damn useful stuff on these beasts!
And it dosen't matter if there were marketing reasons for going digital, it is
invaluable for any computer related work. Even something as dumb as checking an
RS232 signal digital is a blessing.

Again my favorite scope (philips PM3365) is both digital and analog and are
often on EBAY. Make sure to get a perfect one that you can return cause you
can't afford to get them fixed.

Rocky

 

[SioL]

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news:0pl7d.3752$JG2.1226@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...

The real nasty surprises come when doing EMC work. Once I almost tore my hair
out, trying to figure where a 120MHz harmonic could come from and why none of
the math jibed. Then it dawned: The "modern" scope had an LCD screen and that
thing was blasting out noise like a Harley with a sawed off exhaust.

Regards, Joerg

You should check out those "saving" lamps, they spew nasty stuff.
Its "great" to have one of those just above your desk.

The best for the lab are still the good old incadestant lamps.

SioL

 

[Paul Burridge]

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 11:22:04 +0200, "SioL" <Sio_spam_L@same.net> wrote:

You should check out those "saving" lamps, they spew nasty stuff.
Its "great" to have one of those just above your desk.

The best for the lab are still the good old incadestant lamps.

No! Too inductive. ;-)
--

"What is now proved was once only imagin'd." - William Blake, 1793.

 

[dd]

In message <n37pl096tv243hnd8earj7ts4qds7vb378@4ax.com>, Paul Burridge
<pb@notthisbit.osiris1.co.uk> writes

There seems to be a bit of a <ahem> "meme" among some of you chaps here
that the older scopes are in some ways better than the newer ones. It's
a bit confusing. I guess they're infinitely more repairable, but aside
from that, do they still hack it?
--
I suspect theres more profit in modern scopes.

Analog CRT scopes have greater bandwidth and dynamic range per Ł$
The dont store digital so well but will show a 1 mV 200MHz spurious
oscillation on a2V out audio amp which digital will not.

--
dd

 

[Joel Kolstad]

"dd" <dd@ddwyer.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Yh9vXLEJFIZBFwWG@ddwyer.demon.co.uk...

I suspect theres more profit in modern scopes.
Analog CRT scopes have greater bandwidth and dynamic range per Ł$
The dont store digital so well but will show a 1 mV 200MHz spurious
oscillation on a2V out audio amp which digital will not.

'Regular' digital scopes might not, but slightly fancier ones such as the
Tektronix 3000 series with their 'digital phosphor' modes can (I imagine the
Agilents, Yokogowahs, etc. of the world have similar features, I just
haven't used them). I've seen many an 'anti-digital scope' person eBay
auction off their 2465B once they get their hands one a TDS3054B! OK, just
kidding, but still... the results are impressive.

---Joel Kolstad

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 12:52:21 -0700, "Joel Kolstad"
<JKolstad71HatesSpam@Yahoo.Com> wrote:

"dd" <dd@ddwyer.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Yh9vXLEJFIZBFwWG@ddwyer.demon.co.uk...
I suspect theres more profit in modern scopes.
Analog CRT scopes have greater bandwidth and dynamic range per Ł$
The dont store digital so well but will show a 1 mV 200MHz spurious
oscillation on a2V out audio amp which digital will not.

'Regular' digital scopes might not, but slightly fancier ones such as the
Tektronix 3000 series with their 'digital phosphor' modes can (I imagine the
Agilents, Yokogowahs, etc. of the world have similar features, I just
haven't used them). I've seen many an 'anti-digital scope' person eBay
auction off their 2465B once they get their hands one a TDS3054B! OK, just
kidding, but still... the results are impressive.

---Joel Kolstad

As an old analog-scope guy (I have almost 50 scopes, including a bunch
of 547's) I've been mostly converted to digital. A TDS3052 is fabulous
for catching fast intermittent glitches at 2 ns/cm or for plotting a
control loop at 5 sec/cm, neither of which you can do on an analog
scope.

About the only uses I have for analog scopes is very low-level stuff
(using a Tek 7A22 differential plugin) or checking out very fast
things using a 1 GHz 7104, which is often easier to set up than an
equivalent-time sampling scope.

My 'everyday' scope is a 100 MHz Tek TDS2012, not DPO but still very
nice.

John

 

[dd]

In message <os7bm0ljek8ra7211rk7letmnie3a9sntq@4ax.com>, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highSNIPlandTHIStechPLEASEnology.com> writes

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 12:52:21 -0700, "Joel Kolstad"
JKolstad71HatesSpam@Yahoo.Com> wrote:

"dd" <dd@ddwyer.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Yh9vXLEJFIZBFwWG@ddwyer.demon.co.uk...
I suspect theres more profit in modern scopes.
Analog CRT scopes have greater bandwidth and dynamic range per Ł$
The dont store digital so well but will show a 1 mV 200MHz spurious
oscillation on a2V out audio amp which digital will not.

'Regular' digital scopes might not, but slightly fancier ones such as the
Tektronix 3000 series with their 'digital phosphor' modes can (I imagine the
Agilents, Yokogowahs, etc. of the world have similar features, I just
haven't used them). I've seen many an 'anti-digital scope' person eBay
auction off their 2465B once they get their hands one a TDS3054B! OK, just
kidding, but still... the results are impressive.

---Joel Kolstad


As an old analog-scope guy (I have almost 50 scopes, including a bunch
of 547's) I've been mostly converted to digital. A TDS3052 is fabulous
for catching fast intermittent glitches at 2 ns/cm or for plotting a
control loop at 5 sec/cm, neither of which you can do on an analog
scope.

About the only uses I have for analog scopes is very low-level stuff
(using a Tek 7A22 differential plugin) or checking out very fast
things using a 1 GHz 7104, which is often easier to set up than an
equivalent-time sampling scope.

My 'everyday' scope is a 100 MHz Tek TDS2012, not DPO but still very
nice.

John


I believe you but:

the digital scope must digitise to a finite number of bits which appears
to be limited to 12 or so.
This means that 1mV on 10V is difficult to see and when that 10mV is a
VHF parasitic a good analogue will see it as a broadening of line where
a digital wont. Also various sinusoidal that are non synchronous with
the fundamental fail to be consistently displayed, a spectrum analyser
will show these but costs a lot. the analogue scope with adequate bw
does show
--
dd