Re: TDS 420 Oscilloscope

From: Too_Many_Tools (too_many_tools_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/05/04 

Date: 5 Jul 2004 08:40:36 -0700

Hi Jim,

As I said before, I do appreciate your comments.

I agree with you on this. If any company does not want to carry parts,
that it is their right but not to provide the intellectual property
(schematics, part parameters, calibration procedures, etc.) to allow
long term support is in my opinion inexcusable and is done for only
one reason...to force the marketplace to buy new product. If my
experience is any indication, the majority of old scopes are still in
the inventory of companies. It is very common to see 20 to 30 year old
scopes still in use today in a range of industries. While it is their
right to attempt to manipulate the market, it is also the customer's
right to buy from whoever provides the best value. For my money, that
includes long term reliability and maintainability.

Again, I am interested in hearing from anyone who has recommendations
for digital scopes that have demonstrated a good track record of
maintainability and repairability. Also, any other place I should post
this question?

TIA

TMT

Jim Yanik <jyanik@abuse.gov> wrote in message news:<Xns951B61C0F308Bjyanikkuanet@204.117.192.21>...
> too_many_tools@yahoo.com (Too_Many_Tools) wrote in
> news:2dc6c2d9.0407021614.1b49eead@posting.google.com:
>
> > Jim,
> >
> > I appreciate your comments but a scope is either repairable or it is
> > not.
> >
> > Product loyalty works both ways. When the user is held to the mercy of
> > when the manufacturer will decide whether or not it is convenient for
> > them to have parts on hand and schematics avaiable, then that user
> > should shop with price being the number one consideration. When a
> > product becomes a commodity item as scopes are becoming, brand name
> > means nothing if the product is to be purchased with a throwaway
> > mentality in mind. If I am forced to buy a scope that has an effective
> > lifetime of several years, then I will shop for price first and
> > performance second.
> >
> > The time a company will carry parts is driven by the quantity of their
> > last time buy on components for that product. If they considered
> > reliability important (and customer loyalty), they would make
> > provisions for long time support through third party sources.
> >
> > As for TDS power supplies, when the schematics themselves are not even
> > available then that tells you how little Tektronix cares about its
> > customer base. Something I will keep in mind when I plan for our
> > company's next bench upgrade.
>
> IMO, TEK does not consider hobbyists to be part of their customer base.
> (and I'm not arguing in support of TEK;IMO,they SHOULD include schematics
> and circuit descriptions in their service manuals.)
>
> Supplying custom parts,like any other industry,is a choice that they make
> on their own,though.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: TDS 420 Oscilloscope
    ... > (schematics, part parameters, calibration procedures, etc.) to allow ... > scopes still in use today in a range of industries. ... Make money. ... Go find a schematic for that shiny TFT flat panel display you're sitting ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • need help fixing a Leader scope
    ... regularly fix electronics, so I opened up the case to check it out. ... being used to work on scopes it looks like I?ll need ... at least the schematics to measure it out. ... Anyway to make sure the tube is still good and getting ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Philips & Trio/Kenwood scopes?
    ... no-one could help with the schematics. ... Of the Trio scopes, the 1559 appears completely dead but some poking about ... in the PSU produced brief glimpses of a trace suggesting what looks like a ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Tektronix 2215 - looking for schematic
    ... My old trusty Tektronix 2215 just kicked the bucket, I wonder if there's a source ... of schematics out there somewhere? ... Vertical stage is half dead and won't let me set trace below the top 1/3 of the screen. ... In situation like this you see how crappy digital scopes really are. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Don Lancaster
    ... oscilloscopes being quite commonly available at reasonable prices as ... Scopes are first and foremost ... awkward new ones still in support and old ones out of support. ... There are only two types of Tektronix scopes that are old and out of ...
    (alt.marketing.online.ebay)