Products > Test Equipment
Why did Tektronix stop making the great scopes?
Martin.M:
Wuerstchenhund is right, there is a problem with some of the old high voltage transformers. It is a thermal problem, they are sitting in a plastic case and warm up, after 40 years of working it may be possible a lost of isolation and the transformer fail... typical for 547 and 556.. :)
The best idea is to insert a little CPU-fan on that box, so the replacement transformer will work the next 50 years without problems.
healthy 556 serial 700444, plugged 4 channels + spectrum analyzer
I have a lot of fun to make a Tek Show in any radio museum and see there old engineers who remember what they have done.
Last month I was in a music studio to look for a mixing console. The little 213 found the problem faster then the time I have to use on a DSO to tell him what I want to test now
And next month I need to visit Tek at the "embeddet systems", with my 310A to get a family picture :-DD
In 40 years we will see if there are still DSO made in 2014 what are allready working or only some informations about them.
I am collecting this nice old instruments, restoring, repair, use them sometimes, its my hobby.
The most old Tek will be destroyed by any tube vultures who want to sale the tubes in the bay to make a win.
So enjoy them now, we have saved some old Tek for you to remember the old times of a greatful engineering. See my site for some of them.
greetings
Martin
G0HZU:
--- Quote ---Like it or not, the vast majority of time domain instrument operation and theory of operation are based on the basic frame work and foundations created by Tektronix decades ago. aka, Tektronix 500 series.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. What is saddening is the disrespect for what was achieved in the golden era from the 50s through to the early 70s. It's easy to laugh at old technology. But in those days test gear was conceived and designed by engineers of the highest calibre and there would have been very little influence from corporate beancounters. This shows in the fabulous build quality and attention to detail in test gear from this classic era. The associated technical documentation easily reveals the calibre and passion of the engineers that designed and influenced every aspect of the manufacturing of the test gear.
Today, the clever technology is hidden deep inside modern ICs and much of the test gear today is designed by people 'groomed' to
exploit the technology inside these chips. i.e. the test gear will be designed by people sat all day at a computer using somebody else's CAD tools. The beancounters have a say in the build quality and the user interface won't be designed by high calibre engineers anymore. So you end up with cheap, buggy, low build quality (disposable) stuff made in the far east.
Rupunzell:
Heat is one of the root problems that result in the HV transformer failures.
Take a closer look at the soft ferrite core of a failed HV transformer. It will have a change in color and visible crystalline structure when compared to a new or properly operating transformer. This is due to the stress from heat and magnetic field cycling over decades of service. The soft ferrite no long has the same characteristics as it once did (increased losses in the soft ferrite results in more heat compounding the problem). Other problems would be insulation break down from high voltage stress combined with moisture retention within the core. Both results causes internal arcing and further insulation break down and eventually a failed transformer.
It would be wise to put these tek transformers into a slow bake to significantly remove and lower their moisture content before trying to power them up slowly. This does help reduce the risk of HV break down of these transformers if they have been in storage un-used for a very long time.
These problems can and do happen to many high voltage components. While design, materials used and production techniques can mitigate many of these inherent problems with HV bits, these Tek transformers dying after many decades of constant service is not all that bad.. long after the current generation of disposable bug ridden software driven devices have been ditched into the land fill or recycled into who knows what as these devices are generally not really repairable.
As for the fire bottle (tubes) robbers, they can get plenty of new ones from Russia, China and other nations that still produce them. These thieves need to leave vintage test gear alone. Tek & hp aged then tested their tubes to reduce their failure rate. Some of these tubes are made into matched pairs for specific applications.
Bernice
--- Quote from: Martin.M on January 17, 2015, 07:04:00 am ---Wuerstchenhund is right, there is a problem with some of the old high voltage transformers. It is a thermal problem, they are sitting in a plastic case and warm up, after 40 years of working it may be possible a lost of isolation and the transformer fail... typical for 547 and 556.. :)
The best idea is to insert a little CPU-fan on that box, so the replacement transformer will work the next 50 years without problems.
greetings
Martin
--- End quote ---
Rupunzell:
There is an awful lot of intellectual honesty, intellectual discipline and most of all creative problem solving fully supported by management at the time when Tek was creating that stuff. Beyond that, they were built to last and be repaired and intended to be used by folks who understood how to use them properly.
The individuals who designed and created instrumentation at Tek at that time were folks like Richard Ropiequet that invented wide range sweep aka that 1-2-5 sequence so very common on time domain instruments to this day. Richard start out as a Chemist, moved to the plastics industry and eventually did work in particle and quantum physics. These folks were more scientist than the modern "electronics engineer" which became specialized in a specific area. Folks like Richard had the broad and diverse background to draw from all of which allows them to solve problems in creative and innovative ways.
http://www.worldsci.org/php/index.php?tab0=Scientists&tab1=Scientists&tab2=Display&id=182
Richard Ropiequet also studied psychology. Ponder for a moment why Richard had an interest in this subject along with science and technology?
Then there were individuals like John Kobbe who out of sheer frustration and desperation from reflections caused by a probe coax cable ripped out the center conductor and replaced it with a section of resistive wire. This damped out the reflections significantly, then adding a lead-lag network resulted in the ubiqutious and very common passive scope probe of today.
Engineering students today are often driven to study stuff that is rather specialized and marketable when they graduate. These highly specialize skills are quote marketable and in demand upon their graduation. After they have worked in industry for some number of years or decades these skill-sets can easily become obsolete and no longer marketable. This often pushes them out of their technical work and relegates the to the pension farm.
No too long ago, Silly Valley lost another significant individual, John Hall. Another individual who had a diverse background and great creativity and passion for this work.
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4438149/In-memory-of-John-Haslet-Hall--Intersil-co-founder
Lastly, one more story.
Bill Hewlett had the idea of creating a "shirt pocket" scientific calculator on day and put that challenge to Barney Oliver and his group at hp labs. For several tries, Barney presented Bill with a prototype calculator only to be met with a flat out NO, not gonna work. The proto was too big, too clunky, buttons in the wrong place, buttons did not feel right, display quality poor, shape of the case awaked or other. After much frustration and efforts to make a prototype that would be acceptable to Bill, Barney and crew finally succeeded. This became the hp-35 scientific calculator. There was not design by committee, marketing studies, marketing research, bean-counter intervention. just Bill's innate sense for what the product had to be. This was the way things were.
Bernice
--- Quote from: G0HZU on January 17, 2015, 01:58:10 pm ---
--- Quote ---Like it or not, the vast majority of time domain instrument operation and theory of operation are based on the basic frame work and foundations created by Tektronix decades ago. aka, Tektronix 500 series.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. What is saddening is the disrespect for what was achieved in the golden era from the 50s through to the early 70s. It's easy to laugh at old technology. But in those days test gear was conceived and designed by engineers of the highest calibre and there would have been very little influence from corporate beancounters. This shows in the fabulous build quality and attention to detail in test gear from this classic era. The associated technical documentation easily reveals the calibre and passion of the engineers that designed and influenced every aspect of the manufacturing of the test gear.
Today, the clever technology is hidden deep inside modern ICs and much of the test gear today is designed by people 'groomed' to
exploit the technology inside these chips. i.e. the test gear will be designed by people sat all day at a computer using somebody else's CAD tools. The beancounters have a say in the build quality and the user interface won't be designed by high calibre engineers anymore. So you end up with cheap, buggy, low build quality (disposable) stuff made in the far east.
--- End quote ---
Richard Crowley:
--- Quote from: Rupunzell on January 17, 2015, 06:10:42 pm ---Bill Hewlett had the idea of creating a "shirt pocket" scientific calculator on day and put that challenge to Barney Oliver and his group at hp labs. For several tries, Barney presented Bill with a prototype calculator only to be met with a flat out NO, not gonna work. The proto was too big, too clunky, buttons in the wrong place, buttons did not feel right, display quality poor, shape of the case awaked or other. After much frustration and efforts to make a prototype that would be acceptable to Bill, Barney and crew finally succeeded. This became the hp-35 scientific calculator. There was not design by committee, marketing studies, marketing research, bean-counter intervention. just Bill's innate sense for what the product had to be. This was the way things were.
--- End quote ---
Reminiscent of reports of Steve Jobs. While I do not admire Apple's "walled garden" philosophy of creating appliances for dumb users, you can't deny their sense of style and marketing genius.
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