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how to get a scope from your bench - RF Cafe Forums
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hugo |
Post subject: how to get a scope from your bench
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:48 am
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Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 7:13 am Posts: 5
Location: the Netherlands |
Long ago I was the youngest member of an electronics design group. An older collegue
had a bench opposite to mine. He was a wise and experienced guy, but also rather proud
of this experience. Above all he marvelled in his ability to operate a very special
Tectronics scope. For its time a very fast one, with dual trace, delayed timebase, memory
screen and a lot of funtionality thanks to various plug-in units. OK, no problem
so far. However, the scope was so large that it stood partially on my bench. OK, not
a real problem, BUT, it was also blowing a LOT of hot air into my face and my experiments.
Polite suggestions for other arrangements, a cart for instance, so that others could
use this wondermachine too, were stubbornly negledted (very bad for the tubes, no one
else can work it, etc). I was once tought that every problem has one or more
stupid solutions and sometimes also a smart solution. Making a row might cost me my
job in this really good group, so a smart solution was desperately needed. After
some days of staring into the back of the monster, I discovered some plugs. One of them
was labeled 'Z'. A smart idea was coming up!
I (secretly) consulted
the manual, and indeed, this input directly controlled the beam intensity. I
quickly arranged some other equipment, including a power supply, on my bench and hidden
behind this I slipped a cable loosely on the Z-plug. The rest was simple. In the middle
of an experiment my esteemed collegue would suddenly loose his trace. After some juggeling
with the triggering, it suddenly reappeared. But after a week, he decided that the scope
needed repair. It took two man to lift the monster and I agreed to help, so nobody noticed
my little cable. After a day of testing, we decided that a minor adjustment in
the trigger circuit and a new tube had solved the problem. But the next day the problem
was there again.... After a month,
several replaced tubes and a lot of contact cleaning it was decided that the beast was
tired of life and was put aside. We both got a 7000 scope that fitted neatly on our
benches. The monster
was later donated to a very happy collectioner. Smart solutions make everybody happy,
but not everybody has to know everything.
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Dean |
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:47 pm
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Ulf Kylenfall
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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:27 pm
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It must have been the 549...
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Guest
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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 2:31 pm
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Ulf, you can tell that, just from the description of its weight and all?
As I
read it, I get a shudder. One of those little flat blue-case scopes that you can fit
in a briefcase, screen about 8 x 3 cm. Only used for trace diagnosis, and because I
was the lowliest in the place, I was expected to get on with it. The batteries would
not hold up for long, and had their life shortened by being on more or less permanent
charge from the mains connect anyway.
Next is a shared sync signal from a rack
generator amp. Commonly guys would come to it, and finding it full, would disconnect
one of the BNCs, and pause awhile. If major strife did not ensue, then they would
quietly "lose" it into the big untidy bundles on the floor, and plug in their own. I
used pink nail varnish painted into the knurling of my BNC so I could tell if I was
being relegated.
When I came to plug the BNC into the little scope, I grabbed
onto it to stop it sliding about, and slid my hand along the cable to get at the BNC.
I was floored by the 240V mains leak from the faulty PSU/charger in the scope to the
grounded BNC. Easily one of the most painful things I remember.
Scary bit was
when fellas picked me up from the floor, and I thought "OK, I made it - I survive",
I was then subject to about 2 minutes of variable and missed heartbeats, so I went back
onto the floor! I can tell all that when your heart misses a beat or messes about, you
know instantly! Feeling nausea, and freezing cold, I could hardly take in the stuff
about how I "broke" their scope, and "ruined" the distribution amplifier. There was
much disaproval about how all this was to be "reported" and logged, and all the paperwork
that would result.
OK - sure, my mates helped me, and I would be OK. But it set
the atmosphere for me. I could not work up the enthusiasm anymore. I eventually left
the place for better, with some regrets because I also found that it is mostly your
true friends that always swipe your video cable!
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Ulf Kylenfall
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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 11:16 am
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Well - It was an old tek scope. I guessed it was a tube type instrument. The only one
with memory screen (bistable) and dual time base was the old 549. It also had a BNC-connector
at the rear for Z-modulation.
I have one such instrument in a closet next to
my RF-lab on the 2nd floor. When a friend decided to threw it out, I got it. The only
sad thing is that I do not have Tek's original square type graticule cover which was
special for the CRT of the 549....
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lifan
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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:49 am
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Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 11
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I don't kown what happened.because my English is poor... I find no funny from this
article. I am sorry.
_________________ Friends are all over the world.
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Ulf_Kylenfall
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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 5:11 am
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Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 5:00 am Posts: 1
Location: Sweden |
Hugo,
I got unconcentrated and did not properly read the rest of the anecdote.
Not very nice at all.
As a ham-radio operator I have of course experienced
a few shocks. Now older I can not understand how I could be so careless. Nowadays I
always approach high voltage devices with extreme care. 1kV plate voltage of a 2C39
amplifier for 23cm also hurts even if it is only a short path between the pointer finger
to the palm of the hand. Human flesh does not smell very nice when it gets burned....
One collegue had an experience which he will always remember. Having an old Weller
230V solder iron he had to replace the tip. It was stuck, so he drilled it out of the
tool and replaced it not realizing that the drill had penetrated the metal and short
circuited the 230V winding with the metal of the tool.
One day he was sitting
in his home. Bare feet. Soldering something and then needing a third hand to hold the
solder. He used his mouth and then went on with the soldering. For some reason he touched
the electric radiator under the window with one bare foot.
You can imagine the
rest....
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Posted 11/12/2012
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