[Snip oodles of OT (in the TEA thread, this is nigh blasphemous
) blathering about what cheap test gear costs vs capability]
...What can the old compact Teks do that a modern el-cheapo scope cannot ?
How about actually giving you an accurate representation of a waveform at anywhere near the upper limits of the advertised spec...? That would really be nice.
How about actually meet spec, when most of this old gear actually exceeds spec by a considerable margin? How about... survive well into the next decade? Most of our old gear will do so, and much of it will outlive the new stuff, even AFTER surviving 20-30 years before your new gear was even made.
Oh... and how about... being able to be repaired without literal rocket surgery...? You complain you couldn't desolder/resolder an edge-soldered sub-board; that's flupping "stone axes and flint knives" easy to fix compared to modern i-Device "BIC Lighter use it up & throw it away" construction where you need a hot-air rework
workstation with cost in the tens of thousands that has processor-controlled IR preheat, IR camera and a microscope built in... just to replace a single IC.
The point being... you simply cannot compare what's needed for a modern production workbench to what we tinker with. For us, the journey is as important... even more important... than the destination. We learn so much about the art of electronics engineering and design by taking this stuff apart and putting it back together again... in many cases, it's almost like being taught by the great masters personally. You simply cannot put a price tag on THAT kind of education.And if you never take that journey, you don't learn ANY of the things (good and bad) that we've learned along the way. That is doing yourself a grave disservice, actually.
That said... I've spoken with you before in other threads; I know you know better. So I'm going to throw down a gauntlet:
Please make a list of 10 ways our favored old test gear is better than the new stuff.
I'll start you out:
1) It was designed by actual engineers who know what engineers need, not an intern pulling specs literally out of his/her arse.
2) Documentation. Not only complete user manuals, but technical documentation and even
detailed principles of operation.
3)...
Then make a similar list for the new el-cheapo stuff:
1) You can buy new for cheap.
2) The specs are far higher for the dollar.
3)...
Cheers!
mnem
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