Vintage Tek Restoration pictures by Martin

[TerraHertz]

I thought I'd bump this thread, by posting pics of my one and only representative piece of gear from that era. A Tektronix 3B3 timebase plugin, that I gather goes with the 500 series scopes. I don't know if it works, I just have it for display case purposes. I was fortunate to get it with the original cardboard protective sheath.

[Martin.M]

my actually project:

1S1 Sampling plugin, reads up to 1GHz in any 500 Series Plugin Tek with the lage slots.
I am searching for the both tubes, they are missing. Audiophools made it possible to pay more then 100 Dollars for a pair...

Have a special look to the input plug, its a General Radio. The little box behind is the diode mixer.
1S1 works with 2 tubes, 1 Nuvistor and a lot of old & cold Tek voodoo  The min. rise time is given to 350 picoseconds ( 1969! )
This unit includes vertical, horinzontal and triggering management in one. The scope is used as psu and display only, so the bandwith is not relevant. The amplitude will be drawed as ine of little points, a typical sampling scope work.
The katalog price 1969 was 1.275 us$, enough for a small car. One GHz is still expensive today. Oldies can help at home to read that also 

greetings
Martin

[Gixy]

May be of intererest for you guys, a complete batch of vintage instruments for 1000€:

http://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/770150714.htm?ca=16_s

[dom0]

Sounds like a reasonable price for the six large Teks (not counting the other stuff) plus scope-mobile.

[Electro Fan]

May be of intererest for you guys, a complete batch of vintage instruments for 1000€:

http://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/770150714.htm?ca=16_s

Translation

Description:

Following the death of my father, well-known audio equipment manufacturer and collector, I part of a large set of radio measurement devices tsf hi-fi elders. In total, more than a hundred pieces from the 30s to 70s:

-Oscillos Tektronix ref: 585A (with cart), 545,585A, 549,515A, 666,524AD
-Metrix: Tilt 201C (x2), marker 901, generator 936 B, 746A voltohmmetre, scope 1010 930D ??generator GX303A generator.
-Ferisol: CF110 generator (x2), Q meter 803A, L305 generator.
-Bruel And Koer: Heat frequency oscillator types 1014, same-type 1013, voltmeter heterodyne-type 2005 microphone amplifier Type 2603 / B, level recorder like 2306. Many other devices Bruel and Koer not listed.
-General Radio: distortionmeter 1932A, signal genera tor 805C, Impedance bridge 650A, 603A signal generator, test signal generator 604 types.
-Philips: Tube tester Cartomatic 1 and 3.
AME: Amplifier heterodyne-type 1180
Trub Tauber (Zurich): important set of voltmeters / mV / ammeters / power meters calibrated wooden boxes (30 years)

The devices are mostly in good presentation but not tested. I do not guarantee the operation.

The above list is far from exhaustive. There are especially many oscilloscope and lampemetres. Which is not listed or is to be seen photographed on location in the Val d'Oise.
The set can be divided into several lots but I will not sell to the unit.
First contact by email, thank you.

[Martin.M]

Tek have not build a Type 666, there must be a mistake.

greetings
Martin

[chrisstra84]

Here are some pictures of my Telequipment S51B…


Christian

[rx8pilot]

I saw this gem today.....

I could not find the USB or Ethernet port for firmware updates. Must have been an option.

[macboy]

I saw this gem today.....

I could not find the USB or Ethernet port for firmware updates. Must have been an option.

No, it probably uses online updates over wireless... Try sliding from the bottom of the screen up, to bring up the Wifi setup menu. 

[Tallie]

Great thread. These old machines are works of art...

[Deathwish]

Great thread. These old machines are works of art...

Hmm, at least they dont need glasses, zimmerframes or wobble when they work  .

[alsetalokin4017]

My RM503, fully restored, showing a slow sweep with its nice persistent blue-green phosphor.

This scope had a fault in the main transformer, the elevated HV from the CRT filament winding was leaking to other windings and it was blowing fuses and wouldn't show a trace. So after a long time thinking about it, I simply disconnected the filament winding, installed a separate transformer in the case to handle the filament supply and its HV elevation. And it works perfectly!

[TimFox]

I noticed lots of plastic-cased axial-lead capacitors in the tubed Tektronix units.
When restoring a Tek 130 L,C meter, I found that all of those capacitors had gone bad, presumably from absorbed humidity, so I replaced them with equivalent modern polypropylene units.  Did you have similar problems?  With the CRO's higher interior temperature, it's possible that humidity did not rear its ugly head.

[alsetalokin4017]

I noticed lots of plastic-cased axial-lead capacitors in the tubed Tektronix units.
When restoring a Tek 130 L,C meter, I found that all of those capacitors had gone bad, presumably from absorbed humidity, so I replaced them with equivalent modern polypropylene units.  Did you have similar problems?  With the CRO's higher interior temperature, it's possible that humidity did not rear its ugly head.

I did replace one of the big can dual capacitors in the power supply, but that's all. The scope calibrated easily to spec, so as long as it keeps working so well, I'm not going to mess with it further.
The scope originally came to me from a NASA Ames surplus property auction, and then it spent at least two years sitting in an unheated concrete building on Alameda Island in the San Francisco bay. So it's had plenty of opportunity to suck up humidity. In spite of that, it keeps on keeping on! These days I only use it as a room heater in winter, playing Lissajous patterns from 4 oscillators in x-y mode. (The horizontal and vertical amplifiers are identical and each has two inputs, inverting and noninverting.)

[Martin.M]

hello friends, I am back 

Now see a old glowing Tek what can sniff in the UHF area.

Tektronix Type 564 storage oscilloscope, equipped with sampling unit plugins.

The setup is this:

Tek 564
scope mobile 201 "D" with plugin housing
plugin 3B3 time base
plugin 3B4 time base
plugin 2A61 high sensitive differetial input plugin what reads from 10µV/div
plugin 3A6 (have 2 pcs) normal input plugin, have 2 to use the second for XY operation.
plugin 3T2 sampling sweep, this is a very special time base for using sampling system
plugin 3S2 is a dual channel sampling input plugin with 2 slots for sampling heads
sampling head s1
sampling head s2
sampling head s3 the complete set including attenuators
sampling head s4 (have a rise time of smaller then 25 picoseconds)

about 56x series from Tek: this scopes have no own deflection amplifiers, they are part of the plugins ! So when you own more the one of them, you have to decide by every plugin you have there which of your 56x scopes is the owner of that bec. the plugin have to be calibrated to work with the CRT.

pick up: a good loadet car... 






Sampling head S3 complete set, and the S2


some of the plugins


here is the 2A61 Diff, I need urgend the plug for that, a Bendix 8-4 male.
And the sampling unit including 2 of the heads...


the 564 inside.




the scope was in a smokers laboratory of Telefunken 






the Restoration, washing...




a new old 564? 




Plugins.








a dirty scope mobile, washing 






And here is the Tek 


A special look inside the 2A61...
the large can is a coupling C, used for the lowest frequency of 0,06Hz... Tek have placed a bipolar 20.000µF/3V. In the both blue metal cases are selected pairs of nuvistor tube. The litte fram is soft mounted with rubber to reduce microphonic effects from the case.
A highlight of the old engineers 



greetings
Martin

[tautech]

hello friends, I am back 

It always gets me worried when you are so long absent.

Now see a old glowing Tek what can sniff in the UHF area

.
 

[med6753]

How did I miss this thread? Fantastic! 

[dom0]

What are those three metal cans that look like a massively enlarged HC-49/u crystal? 

[Howardlong]

What are those three metal cans that look like a massively enlarged HC-49/u crystal? 

Hip flask? 

Also what are those two blue things just below?

As always, some gorgeous retro nerd porn, thank you.

[Martin.M]

What are those three metal cans that look like a massively enlarged HC-49/u crystal? 

Tek-Caps.  Mostly 2 or 3 Caps in a common case, Tek made them also self.
The quality of them is timeless, I never found a defect one.

greetings
Martin

[Martin.M]

Also what are those two blue things just below?

In each of this cases are 2 nuvistor triodes, a selected pair. In that case they are thermal coupled to have always the same temperatur.
This pairs are the the high sensitive input stages of the differential amplifier. That is made so complicated in respect to a very low offset.

The both cases are mounted on a small sheet what is soft mounted, hanging in rubbers, to reduce microphonic effect from any vibrations of the case.
The little tubes inside handle µVolts on the gates, with extremly low noise.

greetings
Martin

[Radio Tech]

Martin.M
You sure know your way around these old scopes. Beautiful work.

What do you do about tubes? As far as cleaning them. I work on lots of vintage stuff and the silk screening on the tubes rub off without using cleaner.

Anyway, keep the outstanding work coming 

[Martin.M]

I clean tubes also with windows cleaning fluid, except the printed area, this only dry, without pressure.
When the printing on a tube is removed I will not reprint that, important is the tube is original and allready working.

[Martin.M]

from 1973 to 1987 was the µTek time 

the most often problem of this little scopes:


But they are made without smd parts, it`s possible to make some restoration...

Tek 214 storage oscilloscope.

2 channels, .5mc , and a storage CRT inside.
Restoration: 2 battery packs, recharchable each with 5 cells of AA size, all in all = 12V,
cleaning , complete adjust and calibration of all, special the storage part what was far away from useful.
This little Tek is now full working.


















The new family picture from the out of house service team 



greetings
Martin

[FlyingHacker]

Love the vintage Tek! The uTek is way cool.

I am in the process or restoring a 564 myself. I am about to place an order for some caps. It generally work well already, but has some ripple I need to quell.