Tektronix TDS 2022 Scope Teardown
Added 2023-03-24 03:24:06 +0000 UTCFrom the Vault to the Bench - a Tek scope that seems to need some calibration. Let's take a look!
Comments
Follow up is underway....
Fran Blanche
2023-03-24 15:37:49 +0000 UTCFran, the "Brainstorm" stickers come off easily. Just a joke I knew you'd get. I think it's looking for an external 50 ohm load on the input. These digital scopes can be tricky since configurations and settings can be saved by the user and they boot up to the last known setting. Essentially, if you put a signal into channel A, select A as the trigger source, then press the "AUTO SET" button, it will automatically adjust amplitude and sweep to give you the best expected "generic" display. If you press it and it still goes off the scale, the 50 ohm load is not on the input, or the internal 50 ohm load has been selected to "OFF". There's so many options that you can spend hours selecting all kinds of crazy measurements, math functions, etc. A direct coax connection to a signal generator will appear too hot if there is no 50 ohm load. Using a probe will almost always ensure you get a signal you can work with. There is a probe cal connection on the lower right hand side of the front panel and you can connect your probe there and compare it to what it is displayed. The X1 X10 X100 X1000 should also work with the probes. The brightness control can be found if you press the "UTILITIES" button. Actually, I don't think it can be calibrated like the older analog scopes. Since this is a whole new world technology-wise, it just takes some experimenting to get proficient using it. I think there are help screens too. It acts like the other sister digital scopes in that same skid of stuff. If you use the frequency generator I sent, I think you will have a lot better results. I don't think it's broken, it's just not set right and you can play with it and get the feel of it rather quickly. You have your older scope to compare it to and can run both from the same signal generator using the T adapters in that box of adapters. It can be a lot of fun to figure out how to set it up. After you know the basics, you'll find it can do things that usually took separate pieces of test equipment. It's all just for fun. I love the old CRT analog scopes as well. There's something about that vivid, sharp, green trace that digital scopes just can't match. LCDs are kind of bad for viewing angles. CRTs are the best. Sometimes the backlighting takes time to heat up to get to full brightness. It's a very nice tool, made by a reputable manufacturer, but if it's no fun to figure out, I'd try to sell it on eBay. I know that model goes into the several hundred dollar range used. At work, I have to use these digital scopes weather I like it or not, and after I figured out how to get them to do what I wanted, I found they outperformed my expectations. I have not seen a CRT scope in a company lab for at least 15 years. I do miss them.
Matt Wietlispach
2023-03-24 04:33:46 +0000 UTC
