Scopes

[Enzo]

I stopped by the Michigan State Univ surplus facility today, and they had a couple of nice enough looking Hitachi 60MHz scopes for cheap, like $35. I did not plug them in to check them, but most stuff works from there, if maybe needing maintenance. They do let you plug things in. If you are in the area and are looking for a scope, check it out.

[jbltwin1]

Wish I was in MI. My old scope is coughing and sputtering but I'm cheap! To far for a leisurely drive though.

[Kazooman]

Sounds like a good enough reason to for a new start-up called "Enzo's salvaged scopes". The Logo could be a Sumo wrestler flying off a ski jump.

Just kidding. I live across the state, but I have been to the MSU surplus facility as well as several others that have been established on a temporary basis to get rid of the equipment from facilities that have been shut down (including mine!!!).

Great place to find amazing bargains. The problem is usually that the folks that they hired to go through the stuff to bundle it for sale have no idea of what it is or how it works. They grab a "chunk of stuff" and there it is. The scope may well have been sitting on a nice cart that had drawers that held the manual and several probes. Those items were deemed too problematic to keep with the "box" so they went into the dumpster.

I am a part of a company that arose out of one such closing of a local research site. We have acquired a ton of equipment at very low cost through such auctions. You just need to be aware that what you get may well come without ANY documentation, software, required connecting interfaces, etc. You can purchase a multi-thousand dollar instrument for a good (fair) price only to discover that somebody failed to link the software disks to the hardware. Ooops, you need a new license. MAJOR bucks since you aren't buying an instrument at the same time.

You may get a very cheap older scope only to find that after you outfit it with good probes you are close the cost of a recent model. If you have all of the peripherals then you can find some great deals.

This would probably not impact someone buying a used scope, but it might. Read the fine print. Do you get probes? What kind of probes? If the scope is intended to have a PC interface do you get the software? Do you get any special cables?

[Enzo]

That is why I like to suggest University surplus places, They tend to be an ongoing operation, not a liquidation of one place. Your warnings are well placed though, rare to find any documentation, and scopes rarely have probes attached. In fact they did recentl;y have a couple nice scope carts. And everything is as is, so you better plug it in before you buy it.

So JBL twin look for univs and coleges in your area and see if any have salvage/surplus operations.

We used to have a chain of stores in this area - Highland Appliance - advertized on TV constantly. Sort of a Best Buy kind of place. They folded. They then liquidated the facilities. They had sold a lot of TVs and stereos, as well as the refreigertors an stuff, and had a huge service department. I got there in time to buy a couple RCA isolation transformers at $5, a bunch of other dirt cheap test gear. They were selling the office furniture and a bunch of file cabinets. One guy paid $10 for file cabinet, and as he wheeled it out, he showed me it was full of Sams Photofacts the liquidators assumed was scrap paper. I think my favorite thing was a couple of what I call service carts, a square table with wheels under the legs. I set the amp on that to work on it. The wheels let me just spin it around to get to the other side. $15 for those.

[guitardad]

Yeah we did the same when CC Stores close up their shops.

We cleaned house. Three BK scopes, 4 benchtop DMM's $200.
Best deal was we bought 3 super duty service carts for $50 each. Those ran at least 800 a piece new.
The plastic totes for their shelving (24 large trays) and about 5 super duty 8' shelving units for the shop. The shelving units were $25, the oversized bins (for receivers, small tv's) were $1 each.

I only wished we had gotten there days before all teh benches were sold. That stuff was prime equipment and sold for pennies on the dollar.

[Cygnus X1]

Just bought a Hitachi 20mz V-212 dual channel for $22.00.
Couldn't pass it up.
I already have a Tek 466.
Addictive.
I still like the traces on the Tek a little better but nice to have a backup.