insides of Tektronix 2230 dso

[jackbob]

I saw Dave's video of the insides of his 2215 so I thought I would post some pictures of my 2230 storage scope. Its very amazing how much is in one of these and just how complex they are. It was when thing were built to last and the design is amazing. The top is pretty much made of ic's from many brands including Texas Instruments, Intel, Motorola, Sony, AMD, and some Tektronix specialty ones. Not common you see such a wide diversity if ic brands. It surprised me but made me laugh that a brand like Tektronix especially back then had ic's from Malaysia and Mexico. I was expecting all USA. This is my primary scope for now and I love it because of the storage and the cursors to tell voltage and time. Yes it has a fan on the back and what I found interesting is there was a seal on the corner from GE.. don't know if you can see it in the picture. Sorry for the quality of the pictures I took them in the dark and with my 1080x1920 camera.

[elliott]

Looks a lot like my 2221A, the top board is hinged, it is pretty neat. On mine I can disconnect the RS232 board cable, remove all of the screws and it will lift right up and the little black plastic thing clips into the frame of the scope to hold it vertically. Very cool design, makes servicing easy since all of the adjustments are under that board.

Dave's 2225 looks nearly empty inside compared to these.

EDIT: Does yours have the surfing wizard easter egg?

[jackbob]

Yes the design is incredible just think how much time went into designing it. I have a 2213A which is empty like Dave's, it's the digital storage and all the other bells and whistles that make ours complex inside. There is a pretty big weight difference too these dso's are heavy compared to normal oscilloscopes.

[tekfan]

And the best thing about these scopes is that you can select between digital and pure analog operation.

[jackbob]

Exactly.  All it takes is the push of a button, I love it. And to be honest I think analog scopes are much faster than today's digital scopes. Don't get me wrong the scopes today can do much more, but they are not as fast and direct. It's always great to have an old analog scope lying around. What's funny is when I watch the science channel  and still see NASA using old tektronix analog scopes. You know there's a reason for that because they have the money to buy $40k oscilloscopes

[BravoV]

Beautiful piece of equipment, thanks for sharing !

..<snip>... I think analog scopes are much faster than today's digital scopes. Don't get me wrong the scopes today can do much more, but they are not as fast and direct. ......

I remembered my mentor used to say bout digital vs analog scope many moons ago, just love his analogy that a digital scope is like a car with it's engine hook up with the complex gear box (digital section) and the wheels like current modern car, while the analog scope, its like the engine hook up directly to the wheels without the gear box at all , its a bit wild though like riding a bull in rodeo, but if you could stir and fine tune it's acceleration and tame the wild beastly nature, it will serve you really well.

[jackbob]

Yes that's so true. On a digital scope there is so much more that can change the look and delay of the original signal. Digital scopes are a cheat as far as operating, you don't learn anything by pushing an auto button. Analog scopes allow you to learn how the oscilloscope operates and the user makes all the adjustments, which helps understand how the scope functions. I would like to get a cool digital scope someday but will never give up the old analog.

[elliott]

The old hybrid scopes are great for a first scope, they can be found as cheap as a pure analog scope and will give you a taste of the digital functions to decide if you really need to spend the money on a modern digital scope. My 2221A was $40 from Craigslist and it only needed some knobs and to have the internal ribbon cables reseated, I have $20 in repairing it. Even if I get a Rigol or something similar one day and never push the Store/Non-Store button on the 2221A again, I still have a killer 100Mhz analog scope for a great price.