Equipment obession on this forum?

[Hydrawerk]

Lovely scope. The oldest I have ever seen.

[free_electron]

Who here would let this go to the trash?

Me, without blinking. Totally useless old junk. Sorry if it sound harsh , but i have no sympathy for such machines. They are useless (no triggering system to begin with) , clunky, heavy and butt-ugly. It's like making a test equipment out of the front grille of a car.

If it ain't got at least 7 segment displays , led vfd or lcd doesn't matter, and pushbuttons to enter data i don't want it. Dials and scales are crap. The microprocessor was invented in 1972... That's 40 years ago...  Anything that doesn't have one in it to , at least, control the user interface is not worth my time and or effort.

[hammy]

What's not to love about collecting newer or older test equipment.
These are both from the 1930s.
Supreme 535
Supreme 581

Are there also some teardown photos available? 

Me, without blinking. Totally useless old junk. Sorry if it sound harsh ...

Sure, old equipment of this time is (of course) useless.
But it is a collectors item. You must look at this equipment with the view of their time and they shall be threaten with respect. 

[SLJ]

Back then people took pride in what they designed and built.  Engineering was a combination of functional, long lasting designs and art.  That scope and generator still work.  Granted they are worthless for servicing todays equipment but they are a part of electronics history.  Pretty much everything now is built to maybe last the warranty period and designed to be replaced in just a few years.  There is no pride in manufacturing serviceable, long lasting equipment anymore, just pack as many features in as cheaply as possible so you can and still make a high profit.  I doubt any of the new plastic digital stuff will still be working in 80 years.

I'm afraid that many of todays engineers are use to buying cheaply made, unserviceable, disposable equipment and have now grown up never knowing anything different.  What do you think they will design?  Everything is strictly profit driven now.   When you take the pride out of it you get junk.   Sad.

[jeroen74]

But in 80 years current equipment is most likely just as worthless junk as that 1930s scope is now. And why would equipment need to last that long? There is totally no point in that, only to increase the price needlessly. Ten to twenty years is, from an engineering standpoint more then enough. Equipment gets written off and replaced after 10-15 years. If any repairs are needed they are either no longer possible or so expensive it's no longer economical and money is better spent on modern equipment.

[SLJ]

It does not need to last that long but there is a lot being manufactured today that won't even last it's warranty period. From what I've seen, more than half of the test equipment manufactured today will not last. 10 years would be pushing it.  Look at meters.  They are spewing out DMMs for just a few dollars and we're buying them.  They are garbage but there's many now that will buy and use them until they blow up and just keep replacing them with the same piece of crap.  We have turned into a throw away society for consumer electronics and it's now trickling down into test equipment. 

Rant over.

[Bored@Work]

It is the love, skills, dedication and making the best out of what you had at hand in those days that make these old instruments a showcase. That was and is real engineering. You can still learn from this, you can learn about the right mindset.

Without these forerunners who paved the way we, including the arrogant "it's all old useless crap" engineers, would still sit in trees, making grunt noises and throwing banana peels at each other.

[Bored@Work]

They are spewing out DMMs for just a few dollars and we're buying them.  They are garbage but there's many now that will buy and use them until they blow up and just keep replacing them with the same piece of crap.  We have turned into a throw away society for consumer electronics and it's now trickling down into test equipment.

It is even worse. You aren't even any more allowed to say that the crap is crap. Go into one of the threads here where they glorify some crap meter and tell them it is crap. The first response you will get is "DUDE, YOU AREN'T GETTING IT, IT IS CHEAP".  And from there it goes downhill.

On the other hand, take a crap meter, start a thread and make a big fuss about how you, a random guy on the internet with no credentials and no standing, reviewed, yes, REVIEWED it. And claim it is good, because it is cheap and looks funky. You'll get praises and high fives all around.

[robrenz]

Some of the of the old stuff is an economical way to get perfomance that is very expensive to replicate today like here

[jeroen74]

We have turned into a throw away society for consumer electronics

Yes, that's something I don't like either but inevitable given the pace of technology I guess.

Those 1930s pieces look nice to us just because it's old. Back in those days it was nothing special. And it's only the case that lasts long; the paper caps and tubes inside it are total crap of course. Maybe even in its day it was crap on the inside. It's just cosmetics.

I'm quite sure there are enough engineers who put all their love, skills and dedication into making the best of the best; within the boundaries of what marketing allows of course. I'm not sure whether true engineering means trying to make the best possible. I think it's more about designing something that's 'good enough'. Maybe it just that 'good' in longevity terms has been reduced from 10 to 2 years; or planned obsolescence. Which from a purely business standpoint is good.

[SLJ]

Actually, vacuum tubes don't really go bad sitting.  The biggest problem with tubes sitting is sometimes the glue breaks down that holds the glass securely to the base.

I replaced a couple of caps in the signal generator power supply but the scope has all its originals.  If I was going to use it on a regular basis I'd go through and replace the caps but I prefer to have it be as original as possible at this point since it's more of a history piece and I don't expect to use it.

[Spawn]

It is even worse. You aren't even any more allowed to say that the crap is crap. Go into one of the threads here where they glorify some crap meter and tell them it is crap. The first response you will get is "DUDE, YOU AREN'T GETTING IT, IT IS CHEAP".  And from there it goes downhill.

That is the thing which worries me too B@W, it is getting rather annoying, you can’t even say it is crap when it is your own equipment. I can understand it is hard to get a good equipment in some countries but it still doesn’t mean you need to be protective about equipment just because you own one. Some are okay to use for a beginning hobbyist, but for professional work it could be rather dangerous.   

[mrflibble]

Who here would let this go to the trash?

Well certainly not me. I would treat it with the utmost respect!

That is to say ... take it apart and see what can be learned from the construction methods of that era. Then put it back together again and sell it to the highest bidder. 

[SLJ]

Then put it back together again and sell it to the highest bidder. 

Yup, and then you could take the money you got for it and buy one of those new fangled digital scopes and have some money left over.

[mrflibble]

Heh, or finally get me a bench DMM since I already have one of those old fangled Rigol crushing DSO's.