TEA time ?
No worries, look what I just got a minute ago !
I have just had enough time to give it a quick clean and test drive.
My old Philips sig gen that Tautech was shitting on, calling it old junk as always, now gets some help !
I just had to buy it. They cost around 500 Euros here usually but this one popped up on Leboncoin.fr at only 130 Euros.
A pic of the back, a pic of the front, super dark, blurry and not even power up, as you do.
The description of the ad amounted to only single short sentence : " I am relisting this because I got the price wrong the first time ".
Strange... at 130 you still have the price wrong my dear, but well.
So, looked as fishy scammy as it gets.
Was not gonna fall for it, but just in case, I asked him to make me better pics, with the unit powered up, connected to the scope he was also selling (that his ad claimed was working), and to show me what the display looked like, so I can see if it was too dim, or uneven brightness or something.
I was fully expecting the guy to come up with excuses (" I don't know how to use it"), or simply not reply, and I would have given up on it with no regret.
BUT... much to my surprise, only on hour later he did do what I asked, see his pic below (first attachement).
He even did more than I asked : he took pics of both a sine wave output and a square wave. I didn't task for anything specific, just to see "some" output on the scope, so at least I know it can generate something, that the output driver is not smoked or something.
Display looks as you can see, bright and even. Of course it was clear from his picture that the exposure of the camera was set low, so I fully expected the display to not be as bright in real life. But still, all parameters considered, it looked to me as if it would be decently bright none the less.
So, it didn't look as scammy as before... guy was not trying to hide a non working unit or dead display...
But, just in case I might be missing some important aspect, and might be scammed anyway and would regret it..... I low balled the guy, offering 105 Euros. Low balling a 130 price tag for something that sells for 500 usually, is insulting. So I was hoping he would insult me and I would get to keep my money. But.... go figure, he accepted my offer !
![Shocked :o](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
Still, I was fully prepared to either not receive anything, or receive something but then discover WHY it was so cheap...
But at that price, decent display and able to generate at least "some" signal, I thought I had nothing to lose as I could probably flog it on ebay and get my money back and yet some more.
So, I took the plunge....
Gave it a quick clean, opened it up to have a peek inside... didn't see anything suspicious. Everything was there, no sign of rework or damage, missing or loose screws, no blown caps.... I counted 7 big electrolytic caps, and 10 surface mount yellow tantalum.
Then put it back together and tried it out, trying to see what was wrong with it.
Problem : I didn't find anything wrong with it ?!
![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif)
Display is bright enough to be read easily even though it's very sunny here in the lab, next to the window with no curtain, so good enough for me.
Rotary encoder is not playing up, it's reliable.
I tried all wave forms, works fine. Sine wave is nice and clean and stable. Varying the frequency works fine, amplitude and DC offset as well. Can go up to the specified 15MHz just fine.
It works
![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif)
Only little things I noticed is the cooling fan that's not noisy per se, but it makes a slight rattling noise that's unpleasant.
Any recommendation brand/model on a quiet replacement ? Or anything will do ?!
Also, triangle and saw tooth wave forms appear to be limited to 100kHz ?! Weird, oh well...
The button marked "Single" is a bit yellowed, but not the others. I guess it was in some test rig in some company where the operator had to push that button all day long all year long
![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif)
So I am over the moon, can't believe I got one of these for only 105 Euros !
![Cheesy :D](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif)
It's a tremendous update over my old analog Philips. Much better rise time, frequency and amplitude are much more stable, 15MHz vs 1Mhz, GPIB for automation. Extra wave forms like saw tooth. Does noise generation, and arbitrary wave forms. Digital controls to set the frequency in steps, that's convenient for testing stuff and plot frequency responses. The ability to vary the frequency from super low up to the max 15MHz with NO interruption, no decade switch to fuck with, is also incredible, love it.
Time base most likely better too. At the back it says " Option 001 ". I assume it's the crappiest option but still better than the Philips for sure. Plenty good enough for what I do. PLUS, I really don't care anyway because it has an external 10MHz ref input so that's what I plan on using anyway, if I ever want great accuracy.
So that's it... was unexpected, was just pot luck, but here I am modernizing the lab !
![Grin ;D](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif)
See Tautech ? Now I don't want to hear you anymore saying I only buy old junk. I am a modern HP guy now. Less vacuum tubes and more CPU's.
Of course I am keeping the old Philips, love it, and was given by my dad, it's sentimental, my first sig gen. I will never part with it.
First attached pic is the one I asked the seller to do. Others are from me.
![](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=1472869;image)