Do I need a PhD to work this oscilloscope?

[Pixel]

I picked up a couple of oscilloscopes recently and to my surprise both of them work. (That is one thing off the bucket list.) One scope is a 400Mhz 4 channel Tek 2465B DM, the other a 20 Mhz 2 channel GOS-620FG. No probes came with the scopes and the only probe I have at the moment is from my DSO150. The 2465B DM throws a Test 4 Fail 13 error on startup, which I believe is an nvram checksum error. You can continue on after dismissing that error and all functions otherwise seem to be working. I have been reading about this Tek scope for a couple days now and it still looks like there is still a bit of road ahead. There are a few little repairs and preventive maintenance things to do on the 2465B. I will mostly leave it as is because I don't want to break it.

The GOS-620FG is pretty intuitive (at least to a geek) and is a lot easier to use than the little DSO150 I have been working with. Working with the 2465DM, on the other hand, is like waking up in the cockpit of a jumbo jet and having to land it. I don't expect I will ever become proficient with the 2465B because the GOS-620FG is so easy to use. The Tek is hands down the coolest tool I will ever own.

[R.G.]

PhDs don't use oscilloscopes. They work it out with a pencil.

[glebert]

The 2465DM seems like it is one of those products that is between a dumb analog and a smart digital tool. I think the key to figuring it out is ignoring 2/3 of the buttons for a while. Pick the mode you use on your other scope and then replicate it with the 2465.

[Tom Phillips]

The Tek 2465B is a very fine instrument and has all the capability (and more) than you will need to work on audio equipment. There are multiple detailed discussions about use, repair and restoration of the 2465B in the following groups which I think you will find useful.
https://groups.io/g/TekScopes
https://groups.io/g/TekScopes2
I have found a lot of excellent Tektronix support information in the posts at those groups.
Cheers,
Tom

[mozz]

Yes that is a good scope, well respected in the audio crowd as said. I actually have one here, needs to be recapped, which I may attempt before I attempt a few full size 80's keyboards. Sure you can find the operators manual online.

[Pixel]

I have been reading all I can about the Tek 2465B and am starting down the road of a little maintenance. The nvram battery BT2570 is low and I just happen to have some AA sized LTC batteries on hand. Due to an unpopulated spot nearby I can fit this giant on the board.

Otherwise I found a recapping list and will have a look and assess how far I want to go. There are a few caps that are prone to exploding and a few resistors that regularly fail. Luckily my scope isn't the generation that has the SMD caps that leak corrosives that destroys the PCB.

[glebert]

It's kind of funny, I will fix amps whenever someone lets me, but scopes? Nope. Maybe because I almost got zapped the first time I was messing around in a CRT based scope. Luckily it took out the DMM but not me. Good on you for saving the scopes!

[Tom Phillips]

...The nvram battery BT2570 is low and I just happen to have some AA sized LTC batteries on hand. Due to an unpopulated spot nearby I can fit this giant on the board....

I suggest that you research the battery replacement carefully before you proceed. If the battery supply is lost, even for a short time, the NVRAM will loose all it's memory. This will result in the loss of all of scope's calibration information.

[Pixel]

I suggest that you research the battery replacement carefully before you proceed. If the battery supply is lost, even for a short time, the NVRAM will loose all it's memory. This will result in the loss of all of scope's calibration information.

Thanks for the heads-up. I found a how-to and have put a temporary power source in place. The calibration data may already have been lost long ago, I haven't gotten to the point where I know how to figure that out. I also posed a question to the TekScopes group about how I was planning to place the battery.

[Tom Phillips]

...I also posed a question to the TekScopes group about how I was planning to place the battery.

Sounds good. I also suggest that you take a look at the following long running thread at EEVBlog. Especially if this is your first time inside the scope.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-2465b-oscilloscope-teardown/ Lots of useful info and photos about replacing A5 caps, NVRAM replacement, and anything else 2445/65/67 related.

Maybe the discussion also includes information about NVRAM battery replacement. Early versions of the 2465B had a battery external to the NVRAM. Your scope seems to be in this category. Later versions used an NVRAM with a built in non-replaceable battery. A shitty decision on some designer's part. As we know (and complain about) designers and bean counters make decisions assuming a shorter useful life than the reality for many of us who love and maintain old test equipment.

[Pixel]

Sounds good. I also suggest that you take a look at the following long running thread at EEVBlog. Especially if this is your first time inside the scope.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-2465b-oscilloscope-teardown/ Lots of useful info and photos about replacing A5 caps, NVRAM replacement, and anything else 2445/65/67 related.

Maybe the discussion also includes information about NVRAM battery replacement. Early versions of the 2465B had a battery external to the NVRAM. Your scope seems to be in this category. Later versions used an NVRAM with a built in non-replaceable battery. A shitty decision on some designer's part. As we know (and complain about) designers and bean counters make decisions assuming a shorter useful life than the reality for many of us who love and maintain old test equipment.

I'm going to go ahead with my caveman style battery mod for the A5. The Tek group says I should just stick with the factory battery just because, but I already have the AA sized LTC here. Worst case is I have to back out the change. Not really feeling like spending $50 on a 750mAh battery when I have a 2.6Ah battery staring at me. Here is a pic of how the battery would fit on the board.

[Tom Phillips]

...Not really feeling like spending $50 on a 750mAh battery when I have a 2.6Ah battery staring at me....

Wow about the $50 cost for the stock battery. I was not aware of that. I have a 2465B waiting on my to do list. I am considering an upgrade to a non-volatile memory chip before any needed calibration. For now, however, I continue to use my trusty 465B as my bench scope. I have a better chance of keeping it running and I can do a "bench cal" myself. I have read about the 2465B cal procedure. It is menu driven and seems much more involved than I have had time to pursue. I've got my hands full keeping my test equipment running well because I have a lot of stuff and many items are of the age that need service. I hope that your 2465B goes well. It's will be nice to have the CRT readout and cursor features.

[Pixel]

Wow about the $50 cost for the stock battery. I was not aware of that. I have a 2465B waiting on my to do list. I am considering an upgrade to a non-volatile memory chip before any needed calibration. For now, however, I continue to use my trusty 465B as my bench scope. I have a better chance of keeping it running and I can do a "bench cal" myself. I have read about the 2465B cal procedure. It is menu driven and seems much more involved than I have had time to pursue. I've got my hands full keeping my test equipment running well because I have a lot of stuff and many items are of the age that need service. I hope that your 2465B goes well. It's will be nice to have the CRT readout and cursor features.

I completed the battery mod and the scope is happy with it. The next step is checking the power supply to see if it meets ripple tolerance so I can come up with a BOM. After that I am at the end of the road since I have none of the equipment needed to do even a halfway decent calibration.

I am in Canada and it is rather difficult to source batteries like this here. $50 is about the best I could do after shipping and tax. The suppliers I usually buy from refuse to ship these, so I had to dig a bit to find this item. Some of the suppliers I found are shipping NOS or private label stuff that might be pulls from old equipment. I didn't have to chutzpah to ask them to pull the label up and check the manufacturer and date code.

I am discovering that this scope has a lot of cool features I never would have guessed at. As a 2465B DM it has a digital multimeter and a Counter/Timer/Trigger-Word recognizer. I bought this scope as a lot at auction without any cables at all. (At least it came with the much-coveted front cover.) I am guessing that someone won a junk box full of random cables at that auction that included the scope probes and the special probe for the Counter/Timer/Trigger-Word recognizer.

[Pixel]

The Tek 2465B DM hasn't been touched since I did the battery mod on it because I am afraid to turn it on. Apparently a few caps in it are known to explode. I have been using the other crt scope I picked up at the same time as the Tek.

Research into calibration cost has led me to give up on bringing the Tek back to full spec. Even uncalibrated the Tek works well enough for my purposes.

The Tek restoration will be limited to replacing the few caps that might blow up.