BK-2542 vs. TDS-340 which is better?

[kevinateev]

Here is a happy dilemma to have.   I just couldn't find a source for a scope so I resorted to auctions.  Fortunately, there were some very plentiful and amazing scopes for sale (it was a Radar manufacturer!).  Nobody cared about my little lot and I managed to get for very good price.  Only, I had to buy the lot so I now have two scopes and a counter(HP5340A) and have promised to sell some of the equipment.

Which one should I sell?  The BK-2542 or the Techtronix TDS-340 ?? All equipment was calibrated in 2015.

TDS has better name brand recognition but has pokey parallel port and rs-232 only along with a floppy drive.  The BK has USB and RS-232.  TDS has green screen, BK has color.  Both are 100Mhz units.

[Swake]

Unless you go HF radio yourself I would first sell the counter (and unless it has a working rubidium standard in it) because you will never use it and with some patience might sell it for good money.

Also ditch the tds-340.

Now with the money of above you should not have to supplement much to buy a Rigol DS1054Z and then 'upgrade' it.

And lastly get rid of the BK too.

[PA4TIM]

Keep de BK, seems like a rather modern scope. I do not know about the 340 in general but there are several Teks from that area with big problems (like problems with the pushbuttons around the screen and severe damage from leaking capacitors.

[james_s]

The TDS340 does not have the problems with leaky capacitors that the TDS400 series has. I have a couple of them and they're quite good scopes, the one weak point they do have is a DS1644 to store the calibration values. The batteries in those are getting to the age where they're going to start failing and both of mine lost the values when I desoldered the chip to socket it and back it up.

[kevinateev]

Swakie :  Havent got my gear yet, Friday is pickup day!

For FC, youre saying if it has rubidium option, it is a keeper because it is so rare you'll never get again  without much $$$?

Thanks for the input guys! The Tek is actually the TDS-340A.  Ive already ordered a 3.5" floppy to USB adaper for it, window for those kind of transition technologies is closing so best to act now before i pass on this relatively nice scope. Another nice thing about this one is how open the information is for it, user, service, and programmer's manual all online.

The BK is actually a good brand and is Sigland made so looking forward to that, maybe i can find more info anout it once i get my hands on it.

I'll be sure to check for batteries on all gear, i expect they are fine though as all were calibrated in 2015.

[PA4TIM]

i expect they are fine though as all were calibrated in 2015.

Calibration  is nothing more as comparing something against standards. If it is outside the specs there is often a problem (a scope is not a precision instrument, the average analog meter has better specs so calibration is not really important for a scope unless some regulation or so demands it) If so they can align it or "repair" and then align it. Aligning  is not a standard action and for sure not a good thing because from that point on you lost the history and can not predict anymore what it will do in the future. Calibration is not a complete check to see if everything is OK, they only look if voltage and frequency respons are within specs.

Also without the cal certificates you know nothing, It can be that it passed calibration in 2015 but failed in 2016 and was sold or dumped after that.

This is not to scare you but just information. A cal sticker without the certificate and test results has no value.

[kevinateev]

So, got possession of the equipment today.  I had to guess on one of the machines as it's label was covered with an auction tag.

Turns out, I have BK-2542 as I'd thought.  I does have manuals and software disks in its top drawer, it has a probe bag with adjustment tool and other typical bits but it does not have probes.   I do have Hantek probes so I'll use those for now.

The Tektronics scope is not the TDS-340 as expected, it is a TDS-360 which is significantly better than the 340.  It had 1G sample/s and is 200Mhz scope.  I'd also noticed it's rise time is much better than the 340 at 1.25ns.   It does not have connection 14 option at back, also does not have probes with it.  The auctioneer lumped everything together and put all cables in mystery box  ho-hum ... they didn't know how to sell this stuff!

Have not taken close look at HP counter yet.  There was a note on it, a company inventory status tag, that said they'd used it ONCE in 2012.

Like to keep both but wife will put pressure on for me to sell one .   Seems like I may just have to use them both for a while and see which one I like best!

As for the floppy drive, as already stated, will replace that with a USB adapter that puts 1000 virtual floppy drives on one usb stick and use that for moving 'hardcopies' and such between scope and computer.  Won't be missing the Option 14.  So with thaht 20$ add-on feature, the two units are very comparable.