Nice, so I'll get even more entertainment out of it!
The equipment that's bought and sold at the electronics flea market typically isn't used as a means to an end, it is the end. There's disappointment when you buy something there and it just works. There's no fun in that.
I'm blanking on the exact models I used; I'm fairly certain they were tds700s or tds71xx, but a lab I ran had about a dozen units and we had nothing "fry" in the 4 years I worked there. What applications would result in these catastrophic failures?
We had some "ghosting" on the displays on a few now that you mentioned it, but they were still 100% usable. I guess my expectations were lower since I never had to foot the bill for the lot of em (which at 20k/unit I guess I'd be upset about when one was faulty)
i thought maybe it was just something regionally here or the way people stored em, but i was in a position to refab many a few years ago and totally agree. tek had 100% repart rate and seemed like anything else (brand wise) was always in better condition internally even when way older.
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Nice, so I'll get even more entertainment out of it!
The equipment that's bought and sold at the electronics flea market typically isn't used as a means to an end, it is the end. There's disappointment when you buy something there and it just works. There's no fun in that.
I don't really have a use for a R&S AMIQ, but replacing all the PC motherboard caps taught me a lot about good desoldering practices. https://tomverbeure.github.io/2026/06/28/Rohde-Schwarz-AMIQ-...
Yeah agreed. I’ve fixed more Tek equipment than most people out there. In the order of hundreds of units.
These are just exceptionally bad.
I'm blanking on the exact models I used; I'm fairly certain they were tds700s or tds71xx, but a lab I ran had about a dozen units and we had nothing "fry" in the 4 years I worked there. What applications would result in these catastrophic failures?
Over the years, I've had 5 TDSxxx series scopes, and I still have a few. The common issues are:
NuColor CRT displays going bad. Bad capacitors. Dallas NVRAM units battery running out of juice
Fried electronics are pretty rare.
We had some "ghosting" on the displays on a few now that you mentioned it, but they were still 100% usable. I guess my expectations were lower since I never had to foot the bill for the lot of em (which at 20k/unit I guess I'd be upset about when one was faulty)
i thought maybe it was just something regionally here or the way people stored em, but i was in a position to refab many a few years ago and totally agree. tek had 100% repart rate and seemed like anything else (brand wise) was always in better condition internally even when way older.
I’ve seen rust in a newish (Danaher era) one.
A little while ago I bought a 386 laptop. It pretty much had everything wrong with it. Spent weeks repairing it. Best $40 I ever spent.
That feeling when it finally works is great. I spent $40 on this basket case: https://tomverbeure.github.io/2025/12/24/Repair-of-SRS-DG535.... Took me ages to figure that one out.