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My treasured Tektronix 465 is now as healthy as a 35 year old electronics device could be. What did I learn from all this.
Some of the problems encountered during the repair, were of my own doing. That is not that unusual and is to be expected when one is attempting to learn how to repair something that is a bit out of their comfort zone.
In the process of doing this repair, I learned quite a bit about how this device works. I think that this will benefit usage of the tool going forward. For instance, I have a much better understanding of the “B Dlyd” trigger than I did before. I have used the “B” trigger pretty frequently in the past. However, with the additional knowledge that I’ve gained, I should be able to put it to even greater use.
Repairability of this generation of equipment is still good. Even though some of the repair parts are getting hard to find, with persistence, they can be had at an affordable price
Though I sometimes think I should get a newer scope with digital storage, it’s hard to find a great deal on anything with 100MHz bandwidth and multiple channels. For instance, the low end Rigol 100MHz, 2 channel scope sells at near $400.
And here’s something I’ve known for a while. While the Tektronix 465 is a 2 channel scope, the external trigger modes almost get you the equivalent of 3 channels. If you have a simple trigger, you can connect that to the trigger “A” external input and look at two other signals with the regular channel 1 and 2 inputs. You know when the trace starts the external trigger condition was satisfied, so you pretty much know what that third signal is doing, without even seeing it on the screen.
Repairing this scope was an fun learning experience and I’m glad I spent the time to dig into it. Though there are a lot of discrete components involved, thanks to the excellent service manual, debugging it readily wasn’t that much different than debugging a digital system. Finally, I hope I don’t have to try to fix it again, for a good, long time.
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