After having created over 800 videos and spent 6 years watching the stats and reading every comment, I'm pretty confident it won't be worth the time and effort vs return for views. If that's all I was after of course.
Of course. I'm sure some of it is also the fun that comes from making these videos and then seeing people enjoy them.
I'm afraid that list amounts to a hill of beans in the scheme of views.
I have no doubt it would be popular amongst them, but to the general audience a series like that is not going to be hugely popular I'm afraid. Especially given the time and effort investment required, and the risk of it not working out well. I do not like committing myself to a series like that, and it is not my usual workflow nor style to work on videos in the background for months and then produced a polished repair video (that could be reasonably popular, but no more so than other repair videos).
I agree that it might not be your usual off-the-cuff style, but occasionally mixing things up a little with a different or more complex repair project might work out pretty well too. I think most of your viewers (or at least those of us who have tackled these sort of projects) would understand that a video covering something like this would require some additional pre-planning.
What I was trying to suggest though is rather than going into it only with the expectation of a fully working scope at the end, is to break it down into individual sections, each of which can stand on its own. If at the very end (whenever that is) you wind up with a fully functional scope, all the better, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the end-goal.
For example, the single most common problem with these scopes is their PSU, which can be rebuilt and tested separately from the scope itself, so even if the scope has other problems, you could still tackle the PSU first in a standalone video. One community member has even been assembling
dummy loads, and since you have two PSUs to potentially restore, something like that might be a worthwhile investment.
If either scope has the later processor board with the 4 small SMD electrolytics that leak, that could make for a video which covers the removal of those capacitors and repair of the board. If you already have a known working PSU, you might even be able to fold this into a video along with the Dallas NVRAM module issue and potential loss of cal data, if either of the boards have a Dallas module and the internal battery has died.
The same goes for the U800 horizontal amplifier IC (the large DIP package with the metal tab). Certain production versions of those chips suffered early thermal-related failures, but there is a good chance that your scopes do not even have this problem. If they did however, there are
repair (155-0241-02 Re-Bake) and
replacement options.
Anyhow...I'm probably going into way too much detail here, but you probably get the idea.
Thanks for the offer but I'm afraid I cannot commit the time and effort required for this.
I have countless other videos and things I'd rather do instead of this, and ultimately for every video I do it comes down to motivation to do it, and as such a series like this barely registers on my interest list at present.
There is also so much I'd have to learn about Tek scopes in order to not look like a fool to the Tek repair email list crowd. I can't imagine the furore if I got some obvious things wrong.
Unless you repair a specific widget regularly, it is basically impossible not to make at least one mistake. I think if you were to break the 24x5 scope restoration down into smaller parts though you'd find it really wouldn't be that bad.
And honestly, making a video for that kind of niche Tek fanboy crowd is like making a teardown video on a vintage *insert brand* computer. There are just so many people all too willing to scream that I got this and that wrong, I don't know squat about *insert brand* etc. As a content producer I would not be honest if I said that kind of stuff doesn't sit in the back of my mind, and plays a part in the motivation required to do a video on something. It's not fear of course, it's one of motiviation.
Pfft...since when do you care what the fanboys think?
In all serious though, I get that. I also think the Tektronix community and other electronic test equipment communities would be very forgiving of any mistakes you might make since you don't service this stuff on a regular basis. No matter what sort of video you make, there are also always going to be a few Youtube trolls who will nitpick and scream.
If I thought the Tek scopes might be fixable fairly easily in a day then I'd of course have a shot at them. But my spidey sense tells me they won't be. And it might be well and good to "have a crack", I'd have to be willing to take the heat for potentially not finishing it, not producing follow-up's in timely enough fashion etc, like has happened with other videos.
Maybe I will, maybe I won't, but at this stage it's a no I'm afraid.
Yeah...they are definitely not a single day project from start to finish, but with enough prep work ahead of time, you might well be able to tackle the PSUs and stabilize/repair the processor boards (if your scopes have the later processor boards with those pesky SMD capacitors) in a single day.
In the end though, if you did restore the PSUs and processor boards and still had major problems with the scopes that just couldn't be overcome at all, you
could always sell off both scopes to someone who could put more time into them and then reinvest in a fully restorable 2465B or 2467B...
Anyhow, you've got my email address if you ultimately change your mind. Overall though, I think you really are ahead of most with your two 24x5 scopes. They appeared to have all of their hybrid modules present (most of which are easy to remove since they are just held in with screws and nuts)
and they still have all of their knobs (the small knobs almost
always break when you try to pull them off, but I've come up with a way to repair them perfectly by solvent welding the plastic fingers back in).
PS, since I have your ear, any plans to have Doug back again anytime soon? I
always seem to learn something new from those videos.
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