tek 2445b or 2465 (no a or b)

[yo0]

i have the opportunity of both at the same price (aprox 300usd), both in very, very good shape , wich one is more reliable and has less failure rate? wich one to buy? 

2445b 150mhz with pouch (bag attached) and front cover
2465 300 mhz

both with two probes, dont know if the probes are original.

best regards

Pio

[thm_w]

2465 is clearly nicer scope and newer scope, just go with that.
Price is high though, unless its coming with two 300MHz probes, they are very good probes.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-2465b-oscilloscope-teardown/

[rsjsouza]

According to wikipedia, the 2445B is at least five years newer than the 2465. However, the 2465 is a much nicer oscilloscope without restrictions. The 2445B has bandwidth and voltage limitations on channels 3 and 4.

Keep in mind these oscilloscopes use a lot of ASICs that cannot be easily sourced on the marketplace - a failure on one of these ICs and you will end up without an oscilloscope anyways. I would strongly recommend doing a thorough inspection of its internals before putting it into service.
 

[tggzzz]

I have a 2445b and a couple of 2465s. I don't have either on my bench; that is reserved for a 485.

If you want autosetup and auto measurements, go for the 2445b.
If you want bandwidth and manual measurements, go for the 2465.

So, decide what is most useful to you. For digital systems debugging, my preference is that a scope's bandwidth is king, so that I can check the signal integrity. Once that is ensured, I flip to the digital domain and use a logic analyser or printf statements.

In either case, make sure they have been recapped, especially the delayed-action smoke generators, and the long-running chemistry experiments on the A5 board.

[yo0]

thank you to all for the great advice, now i think i will wait for a good 465b/475a/485 specimen, less unobtanium parts and more fixable in the long run.

main use will be for audio gear and fm repair/alignment, nothing in digital domain.

best regards


Pio

[tggzzz]

thank you to all for the great advice, now i think i will wait for a good 465b/475a/485 specimen, less unobtanium parts and more fixable in the long run.

main use will be for audio gear and fm repair/alignment, nothing in digital domain.

best regards


Pio

For radio work, consider using a spectrum analyser.

[bd139]

Depending on your interests, if it's basic audio/AM/FM alignment, any old scope with at least 3x higher bandwidth than the IF you are looking at (usually 10.7MHz max) will do the job to be honest. A basic 50MHz analogue unit or better (2215/2225/2235 etc) is a better investment than a 24xx for that and it contains no ASICs, hybrids or anything nasty and can be repaired with one eye shut. While the 24xx's are pretty cool they're certainly not necessarily reliable! As tggzzz says, a spectrum analyser has more mileage but most of the time you don't even need one of those unless you are doing forward engineering.

In the 1950s it was very common to not even use a scope for these sort of tasks in a service capability. A good audio and calibrated RF signal generator are required and something which reads peak AC volts (voltmeter + diode probe). Scope is a good peak AC voltmeter in this role and not a lot else.

You really don't need much in the way of signal integrity or bandwidth for your use cases. Don't buy what you don't need as it's more expensive to fix.

Incidentally I bought a Tek TDS210 recently which is the sweet spot. 60MHz bandwidth (plenty), digital and automatic measurements, doesn't weigh a ton, not a lot in it to go wrong.

Edit: also perhaps a better investment than all is a Marconi 2955 test set or something which combines a lot of instruments into one unit.

[aryasridhar]

I'm probably resurrecting an old thread here, however I've just come across a 2465 (in excellent condition), for under $140 locally.
I will mostly be using it for Audio repairs. I already have a Philips PM3213 (20Mhz Scope), however been longing for a Tek for some time.

Is it a good idea to put the money down for the Tek?

My only worry is the several mentions of the ASIC's and how they might fail etc, just wondering.

[med6753]

I'm probably resurrecting an old thread here, however I've just come across a 2465 (in excellent condition), for under $140 locally.
I will mostly be using it for Audio repairs. I already have a Philips PM3213 (20Mhz Scope), however been longing for a Tek for some time.

Is it a good idea to put the money down for the Tek?

My only worry is the several mentions of the ASIC's and how they might fail etc, just wondering.

I have two 2465's and I've never had a problem with the ASIC's nor the infamous U800. The biggest problem with the 2465's is the unique Siemens cooling fan. But there's fixes for it which you'll find in the 2465B teardown thread in this section. Also, if the power supply caps haven't been replaced they should be. Again, the 2465B teardown thread has complete instructions on how to do it.

If you decide to purchase it make SURE it powers up with no boot errors. If it does have errors I suggest walking away unless you want to spent the time and effort in troubleshooting it. But we can help there too.