fixing old stuff

Troubleshooting two big old Tektronix 7854 in my garage. The first analog oscilloscope with a computer. An oscilloscope lets you "see" electricity.

 

Currently I am checking the LV power supplies. I think I can operate them completely out of the scope.

 

I hope it will be an advantage to be able to compare one scope to the other. I have already found a few things

 

I have the 3" thick paper Tek manual with beautiful foldout diagrams and all the update pages (late issue).

 

And I have a third working 7854 on a cart in the house. I can always open that one up too :)

 

Why do this?

 

These scopes might be forty years old. A modern $400 oscilloscope from China does more, better, smaller, lighter, and is way cheaper (but probably not with 400MHz bandwidth).

 

The 7854 was introduced in 1981 at a base cost of US$10,500. In my 1987 Tek catalog it lists for $16,220 but by then included the waveform calculator and the extra memory option. Project Leader on this scope was Tom Rousseau. More about Tom and the 7A26 amplifier.

 

Some people collect old cars.

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

George Plhak
Lions Head, Ontario, Canada