TDS540 newbie owner - experience so far

[rjmusto]

Have recently acquired one of these scopes, first time for me tackling a Tektronix example. Sold as faulty with the ubiquitous acquisition faults showing at startup.

In good overall condition and very little sign of corrosion evident on the two main boards.

Checking the electrolytics in situ showed only 9 dud, but some others have a signs of leakage, so am working on replacing these ones first.  The processor board looks clean though with no shadows around these ones. But maybe I’m being overly optimistic……

Why did Tektronix decide to specialise their probes with select pins? This one came with none (no surprise) so will probably have to try and get hold of some. But why not just make the scale factor selectable in the menu?

One immediately obvious issue though is the noise from the fan. OMG - were they really shipped like this? If so, don’t think I’ll be able to live with it for long. Has anyone found a newer, quieter alternative I wonder?

Good to see active support still there for this old bit of tech though! Hope I succeed in getting it going…..

Ralph

[wn1fju]

Do yourself a favor and replace ALL the SMT electrolytics.  Doing anything less is just asking for eventual trouble.  On my similar TDS520, there were many capacitors that either 1) looked like there was no leakage, but tested bad when I pulled them, or 2) looked like there was no leakage, but there were small puddles right underneath the capacitor that weren't visible until I pulled them.

And of course, scrub clean the boards, and clean them again, and clean them again.  Look carefully with a magnifying glass for broken/corroded traces and/or IC pins in any area where there was leaking electrolyte.

Yes, the fan is a bit loud, but it doesn't bother me.

[rjmusto]

Hi, thanks for the reply

Took your advice and removed some caps that looked ok and, sure enough, clear signs of corrosion underneath. So will just have to knuckle down and work my way through the whole lot….