What's in the box ?
Well OK... I just received my cheap HP 54645D MSO..... let's open it together...
Opened it up yet?
YES ! Just done uploading the pics to the computer, here they are.
It is a perfect example of what I was trying to explain to Papa Smurf skepticism about ads that don't tick all his boxes. How it's not just how people think here.
So, case at hand : that HP MSO scope with just a single blurry shot of the front, zero info other than "in working order", not "even stating the model number, for only 100 euros... what do we get once unpacked ?
1) Top notch packing sorry Spec.... with 80mm of foam to protect the front panel and also the back of the scope. 40/50mm foam on the sides. It is unheard of in French territory. If your average joe in your country is better than that, lucky you. For France, it's 5 start packing. And the scope did survive the shipping just fine.
2) Pic was showing the scope for dead on, zero glimpse of the covers. Trying to hide missing or damaged cover then ? No. cover is there, and in perfect mechanical and cosmetic condition. Rear cover is there too because well... you know why. Unlike my old Tek scopes with a metal cover and seperate plastic rear cover, the HP has one single buig plastic molding cover that includes the rear as well. Just one huge piece of plastic.
3) No pic of the back and no specs stated... trying to hide the lack of module at the back ? Nope, I DO have a module at the back !!!
It's a serial and // module, cool, I can have a lot of fun with that
4) See what' on the scope ?.... yes a looooovely HP clothe pouch ! That was NOT to be seen on the picture in his ad ! So I even get bonus stuff that was not even advertised !
5) Pouch is empty for sure, you say !? See for yourself....
- Power cord
- Thick paper copy of the user manual, also include instructions on how to tweak the guts of the scope to calibrate it.
- x2 original x10 HP probes , model HP 10074B. One is missing the grabber,how shocking will ask my money back
- The FREAKING DIGITAL CABLE /probe is there !!!!!
even has ALL its mini grabbers, 17 of them not 16, even have one spare ! Actually have THREE spares : there is also a couple Tek branded grabbers in the lot !
Do you think guy thought of stating all the above in his ad, and taking pics of it like I just did ? No ! Just a single pic of a blurry front panel, zero information not even the scope model number, not even showing the pouch on top !
Vince once again took a gamble and was EXTREMELY WELL rewarded !
Just like my HP 33120A HP counter the other day, from an ad that DID look extremely fishy even by my standards, cost only 100 Euros instead of 500 Euros going price here, and turned out to work 100% perfect and with a healthy VFD and even have the best time base / OCXO option which was "of course" not even specified in the ad !
I hope this illustrates my point with regards to French sellers. If you expect them to act logically and think the worse every time.... you just don't understand the psychology of people here and miss on superb bargains. So I will keep following my instinct and populate my lab with cool stuff for much cheaper on Leboncoin.fr than I could get them on Ebay.
OK so now for the damage, all I can see from the outside see below, is a small crack on the top right corner of the front panel. Not on the edge though, but on the back edge. Not done during shipping.
I think it was probably due to some guy trying to pry the scope open, not knowing how to take it apart. The tiny knob at the bottom left of the front panel, that controls the CRT brightness, was partially dislodged. I pushed a bit on it and it went back into position.
So I think the guy took it apart and was a bit of a monkey / cave man with it, as most people are sadly. So there might be monkey damage inside. Also if he opened it in the first place, it's probably because there was something wring with the scope, one can plausibly assume.... so the future is still uncertain...
But looking at the outside, can't see any blatant sign of it being dropped. Now let's crap it open for quick a sanity check, then power it up.... stay tuned...