Oscilloscope question...

[Pars]

I know some of the newer and cheaper Chinese digital scopes are all the rage (Keysight, etc.)

I am toying with buying a refurbed Tek 2465A, completely working, for a decent price. I know these have a proprietary IC in them, that if it fails, turns these into a doorstop (though I seem to recall this IC being available now...).

Good idea or bad? For some reason, I've always wanted one of these...

Flail away.

[justin]

I have a Tek 2467B scope sitting around that i've been planning to sell. Only thing wrong with it (AFAIK) is it needs some calibration for the scaling on the display.

I had a 2465A a few years ago but the display just went dead after owning it a few months

[Emooze]

I've personally got a Rigol DS1054Z on my wishlist. It's chineseium definitely and I have literally no idea on longevity but the DIY hacker community seems to love it and I have not come across any cautionary tales against it. As always YMMV

Edited February 22, 2019 by Emooze

[Pars]

Yeah, Rigol was the name I was looking for. My Tek 465b needs recapping and a bit of cal, etc. The 2465 I was looking at sold (bastards!).

Justin, PM me with what you would want for the 2467.

[Craig Sawyers]

I'm a collector of (mainly) 7000-series scopes, most of which use custom silicon. The 7104 and 7904A are full of them in esoteric Tektronix packages. I have not had a single custom IC failure in any 7000 mainframe or plugin. There are other  irritating failures that crop up after 30-40 years, but no dead chips.

However the 2465 and related scopes have a weakness in the IC's with an integrated heatsink. It is not a silicon failure, but a bondwire failure. I recall that there are those who can open up the IC and rebond the chip, and reassemble.

For a more modern offering, cost effective, and reliable Rigol is a good call.

Ah - here we go regarding fixing the hybrids in the 2400 series scopes https://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/tek-parts/tek-info.html

 

[kevin gilmore]

I have a 2465A which still works fine. I have a 2465B which I had to send the cpu board to Greece to get it fixed, it works fine. I also have a 2467B which had the same problem with the cpu board. All 3 still work fine. I did get a tek 1GHZ BW digital scope which I use a lot now, and a 300mhz rigol which is much more portable, and I use that a bit too.

The next time the 2465's die, I will retire them.

Edited February 22, 2019 by kevin gilmore

[Pars]

I guess that was something I had wanted to ask... that if the scope is working fine now, are you good, or can it die (like a dog*) at any time? I guess probably the latter?

*sorry, been listening to early Curve lately


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[kevin gilmore]

the cpu board has a known issue where the display goes blank. only the guy in Greece seems to know how to fix them. The one in the 2465a is different and does not seem to ever die.

[mikeymad]

Thanks for this thread.

I have been working on my ES1 for a while now -- learning a lot. I have been using this old HP at work  (HP spun off -> Agilent spun off -> Keysight)  (I now work for Keysight).

 

It seem like a solid scope (more than I need for sure).  I maybe doing scope shopping in the future.

 

I am trying to talk them into letting me take this home...  

[Pars]

Bought a 2465A... hopefully its a good one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/183692541596

This was the one I was originally going to buy

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TEKTRONIX-2465A-350MHz-OSCILLOSCOPE-TUBE-AUDIO/283374991066?epid=96991967&hash=item41fa7736da:g:jGYAAOSw~TNcP5sP

Edited February 23, 2019 by Pars

[Emooze]

I ended up buying a Rigol but I also feel the urge for an analog scope, been eying a Tek 465.

[Pars]

I would get a 465b instead of the 465 if you can find one.

[Skooby]

May be a help to someone...I once bought a Tek 2213A at a local swap meet but  got no power.  Took to this gentleman:

Scott Howell ([email protected])
MobileTek 
7456 Eton Ave 
Canoga Park, CA 91303-1408 
Tel: 818 346-6673 
Fax: 866 872-8648 

He used to work for Tektronix so he's knowledgeable on Tek.  He re-capped and re-calibrated my scope.  Worked great ever since!

Highly recommended to repair or service Tek.  I did this in 2014, not sure if he's still doing it; he's a retiree.    

 

[Craig Sawyers]

3 hours ago, Pars said:

I would get a 465b instead of the 465 if you can find one.

The main advantage of the 465B does not  relate to performance, it is mainly due to internal design changes, and the fact that it is a more recent (1978) design.

But the 465, 465B (both 100MHz) and the 475A (250MHz) have a maximum sensitivity of 5mV per division. The 475 has a bandwidth of 200MHz, but a maximum sensitivity of 2mV per division.

So it really depends on what bandwidth you need, and what sensitivity you need, and that dictates your choice.

[Pars]

I got the 2465a and have been learning some of its features. When I was a tech in the ‘80s I’d never used one of these (they may not have been out yet), instead using 475s and 485s and 7000 series mainframe scopes.
At any rate, I’m questioning whether the triggering is working correctly or not. My 465b seems to trigger better, and has a somewhat sharper display. Almost the opposite of what I was expecting. Everything on the 2465a seems to work, but I am thinking that this one should should work considerably better than my 465b. I think I can return it if I want for another 14 days or so.

Maybe I’m just being a whiny little bitch



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[Craig Sawyers]

There is a wealth of expertise on Tektronix gear on https://groups.io/g/TekScopes . Join it - you'll like it. Extremely helpful mailing list. You'll get plenty of information regarding triggering performance of a 2465A, and whether it is behaving itself. It is not at all like Head Case - you can just dive straight in with no problems. Well maybe an introduction mail first and then immediately dive in.

Craig

[Pars]

Thanks Craig,
I was already a member of the Tek scopes Yahoo group. I signed up for its replacement (I gather) on groupsio this weekend. It wouldn’t surprise me if the seller is a member there as well.
I just wanted to run this by you guys first to see what those of you with a lot of scope experience thought.


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[Craig Sawyers]

If was 7000 series I could certainly give advice. But I have no real knowledge of the 2465A, alas.

[Pars]

Thanks Craig!

At this point, even though given the cleanliness of the scope, I'm leaning towards returning it as something doesn't feel right.

I really wish I would have jumped on the other one, but it was gone. One other thing I didn't mention, but which bothered me, was the fact that when I was taking the scope to my shop in the basement, and carrying it by the handle, it seemed like the guts were moving around inside the case, almost as if a rear bracket wasn't secured, etc. I picked my 465b up and carried it in the same way, and it was solid.

I asked a question about this, and the seller finally replied, 3 days later: Remove the rear cover 6 screws and fix what is loose. Nothing should be moving around.

Here is the description on the one I should have bought:

Offered here is a Tektronix model 2465A 350MHz 4 channel analog scope. This instrument has no options.

With so much hype surrounding the Tek 24xx scopes, I will be succinct:

I buy, sell and repair electronic test equipment for a living, and have for decades. I have worked on hundreds of scopes, and have all the calibration equipment service this model for some of the largest repair facilities in the country.

This scope has had the power supply serviced with all small electrolytic capacitors replaced with high quality Nichicon 105c parts. A complete adjustment was performed using Tek factory equipment.
This instrument didn't need any other repairs.

This scope looks great and works perfectly, guaranteed.

And the one I bought:

For sale is a FINE working Tektronix 2465A 350Mhz Oscilloscope.

Real nice condition and works great.

Comes with power cord and cd with operating and service manuals.

Cleaned, repaired and tested for proper operation.

No start up errors.

No physical damage to case or knobs.

This item will be well packaged.

 

[Craig Sawyers]

I've looked at the auctions from the above. Both sellers have been on eBay for a long time (1998 and 2000) and both have 100% positive feedback. Since Tekscopes only opened in 2001 it is likely that these sellers are not list members

All of the more "recent" (ie post about 1970!) scopes have a scan expansion mesh, which makes the traces look oddly defocused as compared with older (tubed/valved) scopes. They had no expansion mesh and had pin sharp traces, but much much lower bandwidth of course.

I suspect that he had your scope to bits to replace capacitors etc and forgot to tighten some of the screws, which does not confer great confidence.

[Emooze]

I ended up going for a 465B that looked to be in much better condition than some of the regular 465s available for a not bad price. Only downside is that it does not come with probes. I'll wait until it gets here to see if the probes that came with my Rigol will work before I go buying more.

[Pars]

I think you should be happy Adrian (hope I got that right). The Teks have a ring on the BNC which is used to sense probe attenuation and automatically adjust for it (x1, x10, etc.). Most other probes don't do this, so you'll have to adjust the voltage range in your head.

I took the 2465A apart and didn't see anything wrong, other than a wire loom thing that was floating around... couldn't see where it was supposed to go so just took it out of there. I'm still a bit underwhelmed by it compared to my 465B. I still have a few days left to return it, but it would wind up costing about $100 in shipping both ways and it seems to be fine. I also didn't see any obvious recapping, etc.

[Emooze]

Thanks Pars and yes you got it right.

And she's a real beaut

[Pars]

Looks nice! Enjoy!

[Torpedo]

I don't have the slightest chance to need one of those in the future, but I'd love having one. I've always liked all those buttons, knobs, switches and the tiny screen with grid and scales. Something's wrong in my brains since a kid.