Tektronix 454A scope from ~1971
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- A friend dropped this off on Halloween. Did I get a treat or not?
It's a 150MHz dual trace analog scope from the early 1970s and it's had a hard life.
Let's check it out and try to fire it up
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I have one of these at work and I still use it. I really like how it used nuvistors for the input amplifiers. It smells like old electronics every time I turn it on and the fan starts up. I wished you could bottle that smell and sell it.
As far as i'm aware, the 454-without-A uses nuvistors, and the 454A is the one with transistors. I could be wrong though.
I own an 454a and it's a lovely o'scope. Beautifully made, i love the little roll of lead free solder that you can find inside of it, that you're supposed to use if you work on the circuits with the ceramic solder strips.
@@laurensvisser7623 I’ve got a 485 that I use and every six months or so have to pull down and replace all the tantrum capacitors on one of the boards.
300Mhz bandwidth. Brilliant oscilloscope for its age
@@MidlifeRenaissanceMan The lead is not the culprit with regular solder, rather, the lack of silver. That little roll of solder is 3% silver, so it can bond with ceramic.
I was brought up on Tek scopes going back to 1962. I ised to teach a class on how to use the early scopes. In my senior years I repaired and calibrated Tek Scopes for the RCA research labs at ghe David Sarnoff Center , Princeton, Nj.
This was made back in the day when US semiconductors were top notch for the times. Test instruments also. Tek was so dominant in the test instrument field back then and all their stuff was top quality. All 100% US made also. Problem now is many of those transistors are not made and you have to scrounge EBay for NOS parts. Let alone the problem of getting matched pairs etc... Makes fixing the older tube stuff look simple in comparison. Fortunately the quality is so high on these instruments that they don't need repair often!
I was an Air Force PMEL type. In the Philippines, we had a ‘clipper’ in receiving that we used to wash the Tek scopes - and some other equipment. As long as you allowed them to dry thoroughly, there was no problem. We used a mild detergent - not commercial dishwashing liquid. We dried them for a week. Foe those which needed a quicker turn around, we had a dryer made with 100 watt lamps. Four hours in there would generally get them ready.
That is a thing of beauty! Mind blown at how well it works!
My first Tek Scope was the 535 model. This scope uses tunnel diodes for triggering and Nuvistor Triodes for high inout impedance sensitivity.
Ive got one if these. I restored it a few years ago. Its used everyday in my shop!
Blew my mind when you opened it up...Way over my head!! LOL!
It cleaned up outside quite well. The critical attenuator circuit boards inside are made with Polysulfone.
The polymer will react with the "good stuff". Rotary switches are not affected by normal cleaning agents.
Cleaning all the switches inside ( accessing) may be a trip down the "rabbit hole" for sure. It is a really nice
scope. Steve
We all have our specialty, your is vintage Monochrome
TV’s, my specialty is test equipment. Once in my life i did Mono Chrome TV repair in the field and the shop. these days I just dabble.
Theremins are my specialty.
454 has nuvistors - 454A uses JFET circuit.
I have a 454A, needs some work on channel 2, but it does work. The inside of these is "art". All the hand soldered, hand detailed components. Quite a piece of kit. If I remember correctly, this is the last Tektronix scope that doesn't have proprietary IC'c etc.
Yes, that's right. Although the parts list seems to show they are hand selected for matched characteristics. Might be a little tricky to replace them.
Neat! I have a 453A scope that I use when restoring old receivers. It originally had an issue where the high voltage to the CRT would arc to a ground point when I got it. I had a friend look at it and he told me to put a dab of silicon grease where the arcing was happening and it's never been an issue since. Like your scope, it's loaded with boards and parts that will make your head spin.
Wow Bob, that REALLY cleaned up very nice! It looks SO good! Great job man.
I have a telequipment scope from 1971 very similar. Cheap knockoff of tek but made by tek. It's actually very functional. Not very serviceable like tek is though. It has like 50 or more transistors if I recall, all socketed in ceramic sockets. It was shipped to me on the east coast from California and unfortunately it was damaged in shipping. A knob was chipped, the plastic back was in a few pieces. Also some caps knocked off the board. All fixed now.
Dual trace must have been really expensive back in the 70s..
Dual Trace = 1 electron gun, 1 timebase (multiplexed channels)
Dual Beam = 2 electron guns 2 timebases.
The advantage is that you can have 2 completely different frequencys displayed simultaneously.
The big advantage is it doesn't have to chop.
Thank you for the terminology clarification
If the fan is. It running well, you can operate this scope temporarily with open covers and small fan. The normal loud background is normal.
Hey Bob, there's a certain "charm" about using old scopes that is not often appreciated. I mean, back in the day this was like top technology. Anyway, the fact it is essentially transistor driven (and not so much full of proprietary components) means it should be "somewhat easier" to repair and/or maintain. Since you're not restoring equipment that goes into ultra high frequencies I guess this scope should be perfectly useable to you, albeit maybe not so easy to set as your HP scope.
Either way it's a nice score and should make for a fun restoration
Also an eico scope from the 50's. Very basic but it's a beast
Yours does not appear to have the nuvistors in the front end; it looks like the 454 has them, and the 454A replaced them with FETs. Mine must be the 454 then because it does indeed have them.
I've been wanting a scope for a while
I would imagine that was a very expensive piece of kit in the easy 70s, interesting video
I have a Tek 454 that I got from a former employer's employee auction, think I paid about $150 for it back in the late 1980's. Price included all the manuals, probes, viewing hood, and a scope cart. It still works fine, though I had to do a bit of cleaning inside to get rid of some 'noise'. The CRT filter bezel was missing on mine, so I made my own out of some strips of double sided PC board and a blue overhead projector blank sheet. I'm not sure what the difference is between the 454 and the 454A, they seem to look identical. (Actually mine has a smaller CRT).
Based on other comments it seems the 454 had nuvistor tubes on the inputs while the 454A has FETs.
Hi Bob, I have a 453 and when I powered it up for the first time the roar from knackered bearings in the fan nearly made me leap out of my chair! Sealed bearings so you can't really lubricate them. R3ZZ I believe would be a replacement if your noisy fan is the same as the 453.
Used the 454 a lot in my early days. That delayed trigger took a bit to get your head around. Was real nice in digital stuff to trigger on one signal, then look at another at a later time. Was like the 10X expansion where you could zoom in on a small part of a sweep but not so dim.
I wonder if those knobs might be tenite and getting the white crud like old Xcelite nut drivers and my Craftsman screwdrivers.
I have five scopes, one like yours but 60MHz, a HP 16500c analyzer with a scope card, some cheap USB hantek scope, a Tek 2235 and my first scope a Elenco s-1330.
I've been working on a retro computer project that is going to use a 5UP1 tube and with some circuity to make it work as a X-Y display and use a scope terminal board I found to connect to a PC via TTL/RS-232. In other words a Vector Dumb Terminal.
Thanks for taking the trouble to video your scope . I was given a 454A 20 years ago and it has sat in the loft unused since so I thought I would power it up today. Well to my surprise it turned on and worked ok, I had a trace on the screen as well. When I swicthed it on after lunch it worked for 5 minutes then there was quite a pop sound and it is now dead. I have checked the fuses but still dead, what have I done to my scope ?
I think it was the "non-A" versions of the 453 and 454 that had the Nuvistors.
Nice work. Ive restored a Tek 475 and a 475A which are similar scopes to the 454 and they were both basket cases and I will say this, Tek scopes of this era (early 70's and solid state), are absolute maintenance whores. So many cam/drum activated mechanical switch contact points in the both the timebase and vertical attenuator controls make for some lengthy and meticulous cleaning steps. Once you get everything done though, they are pretty solid. Just try not to move them around too much once you have them setup on your bench where you want lol, they can get...a little grouchy
At 11.24 into the video. That's called the twilight zone switch
Ua got lucky Bob!
There are a few functions that are not working so I haven't been using it. Picked up a 465 for $40 that's my main scope right now. If I can get a good deal on a 2465, I may pick one up.
Seems like the more modern (i.e. triggered and calibrated sweep) analog scopes are getting thin on the ground now. 5-10 years back it wasn't hard to hop on the nearest large city craigslist and pick from a few sub hundred buck sub 100mHz beaters. I suspect it's a combination of age, plenty have probably been parted out or tossed, and covid driving up demand for inside hobby stuff.
It looks like that was made in 1972 based on a date code I saw on a transistor. I know somebody who just acquired an HP spectrum analyzer (released 1979( and I would need to imagine that it's a fair bit more complicated than your scope which is already way too complicated. Like this scope it looks complicated at first and has a huge manual but once you power it up you find that it's relatively easy to use.
I had one of those early spectrum analyzers a while back. Truly a wonder to behold. It used analog circuitry to "draw" all the little zeroes and ones on the CRT face.
I have a 453A got it with ground lead intentionally disconnected...wondered why casing was floating at 100 VAC hehe
They're great for XY mode. Superior to digital scopes in that regard.
The scope was made for IBM Tech as so it would fit under the seat of an airplane. IBM designed some of the functions. I cant stand the new digital crap, they are very cheaply made, but cheap in price is attractive. A few months back I had one and could not get use to it. Make sure to keep the air filter clean.
There are very expensive, high end digital scopes too. Like the $20,000 5 series B MSO scopes.
I don't know if the Transistors are germainium but ( I expect you know anyway) the metal can ones could have tin whiskers. My 1970s radio's have AF117S they are notorious for whiskers
No, thankfully it's 100% silicon
What a beauty! - An extra 'A' sneaked into the year? ::)
I have a Tektonix 465M in very good condition. Too bad I barely know how to use it and am very apprehensive when using it (don't want to blow it up).
It has an auto trigger function
How do I contact you about free parts for this scope.
I have lots of parts as took one apart for parts I needed.
So let me know.
Thanks for your sharing your work
Hi. Thank you for the offer! My email is bob.w.andersen@gmail.com
Try the delayed triggering knob
Looks like my old oscilloscope two channel multiple band width circa 1980
Too bad the camera missed so much. He mispronounced "Tektronix." Tektronix service facilities used an ultrasonic cleaner the size of a clothing washer machine to clean incoming units, for repair. Ron W4BIN
Thats a very nice scope Bob. I have a Digital Tektronix that has a color flat panel display. Technically it is a bit above me. BTW I still cannot figure out what is wrong with my 1950 magnavox TV. The problem is is the AGC circuit. The AGC delat tube should have a minus voltage on it but the voltage goes up to +8 and try as I might I cannot find out why.
Not knowing anything about your TV I'd guess that the positive voltage is from a leaky paper capacitor.
@@eDoc2020 It's a Magnavox CT-224. I replaced all the capacitors but one of them could be defective. This one has me stumped.
@@HD7100 I can't find any reference of that model. Could it be a CT-214 or CT-222?
@@eDoc2020 It is a CT-224. I have a riders manual.
It's not uncommon for the ground pin to fall out of a cord like that, especially given how mangled the plug is
... especially when the user happens to need to float the ground somewhere along the way to avoid blowing things up... :)
С1-64А in USSR