[..]
I am now starting to understand why 4 years ago, when I contacted a good friend in the US i San Francisco, and asked him to order some stuff from Mouser (a few CERMET trimmers to fix the storage and CRT board on my Tek 5111A scope... only Mouser had a good enough replacement somehow ! ) and forward it to me in France so I can avoid the $$$$ sum that Mouser wanted to export it to me.... he said to my dismay : "Look Vince, I would love to help you but I can't do that ! Our mail service here is so broken that it's not a good idea, trust me !!! ".
Ah, I can see that there are more Tektronix 5000-series enthusiasts here in this forum. The 5111A is a design from the early 1980s and for sure a nice one - I like its large storage CRT...
Good luck with your repair.
Cheers,
THDplusN_bad
OK my mistake ! Mine is NOT an 'A', just a regular/vanilla 5111 ! I don't know why I keep calling it a 5111A, I really must stop !
...might because the only service manual Tekwiki provides is that of the 5111A, none for the 5111.
So the 5111 is mid-eighties design not early 80's. Hit the market in 1976 if one believe the Wiki. Given it's looks and internal construction/ design, it screams '70's design that's for sure ! I wish it weren't though, as it's the decade IMHO where instruments were the hardes to work on. No connectors or almost. Lots single wires going all over the place connecting board. Makes it a pain to pull a board or just flip it to the side to probe stuff on it or get access to an adjacent board... then remember where each wire goes !
I don't know what they did to the 'A' version in the '80s, though.. but as far as the service manual goes, the 'A' is just like the 5111, only tiny differences. So even the A is still very much a '70s design, regardless of when it hit the market...
I don't know if the 5000 scopes are gaining traction but well if you say so !
I do remember someone on here recently getting one though... a member in Germany.. Saskia ? Can't remember...
To be honest I don't like the 5000 scopes... as I said mostly because the '70s scopes/instruments in general are a pain to service and repair, and also because they invariably come in this portable/bench use "vertical" form factor, with the handle at the top and the CRT stacked on top of the plugins.
I know it makes a lot of sense to have this form factor...it's portable, it takes less space on the bench, and having the CRT at the top is practical as it's raised, easier to look at, and you can obfuscate it with probe wires, or just with your hand while fiddling with the controls on the plugins.... it is, for all practical purposes, the best form factor, I do admit it ! BUT.... it's just me, I know.. it's irrational, I know, it stupid, I know ... but... I just find this form factor ugly. I know, a highly scientific criteria to assess an instrument !
However, one day, 5 years ago, as I was doing my daily search on our local French web site, a 5111 popped up that was rack mount (original pictures below), not vertical form factor. I don't know what it, but it was love at first sight ! I's like with women... it's not rational... either it "clicks" or it does not.
Looked gorgeous on the sellers pictures. Had EIGHT channels, all working, and a storage tube, and an extra large CRT, and guy wanted a reasonable sum for it, and nobody had yet bought it.... so I did !
When I saw it, I knew nothing about the 5000 series, the specs of these scopes or that the rack mount version was super rare and 99,999% of these scopes came in vertical form factor. I knew nothing of that. I simply saw that scope and it was just love at first sight. It's only when I received it that I started learning about them...
5 years later I still love it to bits and am over the moon that I bought it as in 5 years I saw only ONE other 5000 scope in rakc mount version, last year, and it was way overpriced, like 250 Euros (paid mine 85 or something IIRC).
However the good thing is that other than the form factor, it's strictly identical to the a "normal" 5000 scope. So I can just buy a vertical cabinet one which is common and cheap, to get parts if I need to !
For the same reasons, I don't like the 7000 scopes... but would love one if I can find one in rack mount version, but again super rare. Would want one with a decent B/W so a modern/late one, with a nice large CRT like my 5000, and cursors and readout. A 4 slots mainframe would be great but would be happy with a 3 slot instrument.
If it's anything like the the 5000, the scope is split in two distinct parts, the CRT and the plugin side. They are just bolted together with some brackets/angles, and of course different panels/covers... ISTR in the part manual Tek showed a kit with these parts, to let you switch / convert your scope from one form factor to the other.
Problem of course is that theses kits are unobtanium so I really do need to find at least one rack mount 7000 then only like the 5000, I can buy vertical cabinets just for parts if needed.
Anyway, I just love my little rack mount 5111 even with stellar 2MHz B/W, actually down to 1MHz with the 4channel plugins I have in it ! Don't care, still love it !