Tektronix TDS210 oscilloscope inside photos

[luca1000]

Hi,

I like to see what there is inside the Tektronix TDS210 oscilloscope.

Someone have some hi-res photo of inside ?

[AlfBaz]

I have a tds220 I've allways meant to pull apart, might do that in the next day or so and post some pics for you. From memory not much difference between the 2 except one's 60 and the other 100MHz

[luca1000]

Hi AlfBaz,

Thank you !!!

I wating for the photos .....

[dr.diesel]

I just had mine apart a few months ago to fully clean the front panel and buttons.  Not much to see inside, still a scope I use all the time, it was my first DSO.

[free_electron]

Not a lot... The scope board is the size of a credit card. Holds a motorola 68000, two asics and a ram.
The frontpanel is a simple pcb with some 4049 schmitt triggers, the encoders are cheap plastic press fitted using the pcb as contacts. And the power supply is a huge board made by astec

 I think i have the guts from a dead one laying around.

[luca1000]

Hi free_electron ,

Thank you for your informations.

If you have a chance to post some photos I like to see more details from inside ...

[PA0PBZ]

It looks a bit boring indeed:

[Carrington]

Wow...
It seems a design very sober, I like. 

[free_electron]

Bottom left :motoroil 68k. Above two flash eproms
The national chip right of the 68k is an asic that holds the image processor, memory controller and graphic card.
Long chip in soj is a micron dram. Under the shield is a few relays, some resistor networks and the AD converter (also custom and made by national semi).

These ad run so hot they some times desolder themselves.... Tek actually has two retrofits for these scopes. O e is a bit of esd gasket that can electrocute you ... Needs to be removed .. The other is a small metal block to glue on the AD converter ... So it can dissipate its heat i to the top cover

[dr.diesel]

These ad run so hot they some times desolder themselves....

Mmmm, I've had mine since the mid 90s IICR, don't recall for-sure.  Heatsink hacking might be in order to keep it running for the next decade or two!

[c4757p]

Wow.... that's the whole thing (except PSU and front panel)? I like it.

[kayvee]

I have one kicking around too.

Missing a few knobs, anyone know where these can be had relatively cheaply?

Does someone have a link to to details of the earth mod that was subject of the recall, that would also be good.

[echen1024]

Not a lot... The scope board is the size of a credit card. Holds a motorola 68000, two asics and a ram.
The frontpanel is a simple pcb with some 4049 schmitt triggers, the encoders are cheap plastic press fitted using the pcb as contacts. And the power supply is a huge board made by astec

 I think i have the guts from a dead one laying around.

How much would you want for a dead one? I've always wanted a cheap second scope.

[luca1000]

Hi PA0PBZ ,

Thank you for the photo !!

It is very simple compared to recent models.

Wating to look other photos ...

[nctnico]

Not a lot... The scope board is the size of a credit card. Holds a motorola 68000, two asics and a ram.
The frontpanel is a simple pcb with some 4049 schmitt triggers, the encoders are cheap plastic press fitted using the pcb as contacts. And the power supply is a huge board made by astec

 I think i have the guts from a dead one laying around.

How much would you want for a dead one? I've always wanted a cheap second scope.

Hmm be carefull not to waste your money and time. These scopes are the crappiest Tektronix ever made.

[marshallh]

They are a laggy POS but they still sell truckloads of them to schools and other markets where brand and supply/support are more important than functionality.
So, Tektronix did what any sensible mfg would do, and consolidated as much as possible.

[alm]

Hmm be carefull not to waste your money and time. These scopes are the crappiest Tektronix ever made.

Just because their specs suck nowadays doesn't make them crappy. They were very popular when they were introduced about 15 years ago, and in my opinion a decent replacement for an analog scope as long as you didn't need intensity grading or fast update speeds. This was their target market: replace low-end analog scopes in markets like education and service. They were the first scopes that offered real time sampling in an entry level DSO, none of that equivalent time sampling nonsense that all their competitors offered (so less aliasing that lead people to mistrust early DSOs). To achieve that, they compromised on memory depth, noise performance and used a passive LCD. What contemporary competitor would you suggest that offered better performance for a similar price?

[nctnico]

Rule number one: never be an early adopter 

[AlfBaz]

These scopes are the crappiest Tektronix ever made.

I got mine second hand when they where still selling brand new for around 4.5k

Compared to analog scopes of the time it paid for itself in a couple of months. Being able to do single shot capture and other typical storage advantages plus 100Mhz back then was not an entry level scope requirement as it is today

[free_electron]

I have one kicking around too.

Missing a few knobs, anyone know where these can be had relatively cheaply?

Does someone have a link to to details of the earth mod that was subject of the recall, that would also be good.

which knobs do you need ?

[free_electron]

Not a lot... The scope board is the size of a credit card. Holds a motorola 68000, two asics and a ram.
The frontpanel is a simple pcb with some 4049 schmitt triggers, the encoders are cheap plastic press fitted using the pcb as contacts. And the power supply is a huge board made by astec

 I think i have the guts from a dead one laying around.

How much would you want for a dead one? I've always wanted a cheap second scope.

it's boards only. all the rest is gone. and the boards are defective ...

[echen1024]

Not a lot... The scope board is the size of a credit card. Holds a motorola 68000, two asics and a ram.
The frontpanel is a simple pcb with some 4049 schmitt triggers, the encoders are cheap plastic press fitted using the pcb as contacts. And the power supply is a huge board made by astec

 I think i have the guts from a dead one laying around.

How much would you want for a dead one? I've always wanted a cheap second scope.

it's boards only. all the rest is gone. and the boards are defective ...

Not much experience in fixing digital scopes, so that seems like a no for me.

[kayvee]

Missing a few knobs, anyone know where these can be had relatively cheaply?

which knobs do you need ?

The smaller ones.  Two have split completely and number three now also has a hairline crack.  Must have been a dodgy batch.

[AlfBaz]

These pictures may be a little redundant as the main boards already been posted but here they are anyway, including the communications module

[Selectech]

I had one for 16 years. Great little scope to take out to sites, traveled well, and was way better than any of the USB scopes in mid 2000's.

Finally upgraded this year to a DS2102 and happy with that.