#89: Video Tour of my Lab and Workbench - Oscilloscopes and meters and power supplies, oh my! 

Great way to start the morning, a cup of coffee, and a lab tour. I hear the Agilent crickets in the background :^).... Great analyzers! The Nixie counters are a real soft spot with myself as well.... I may have a scope problem too :^/ Thanks for the tour!

Hello from Russia, I am watching your channel, I learned a lot of new things, thank you for turning on the subtitles, I use the translator to understand you for that thank you very much!

3:20 Heh. I started a thread on the beginner's eevblog forum demanding to know why I was having a much easier time with an old power supply with analog control than with a modern discrete level setter. But back in 2013, here was your concise explanation. So for the umpteenth time, THANK YOU.

Nice to see how it’s supposed to be done. ;)

When you turn on everything, you must have an electricity bill the size of the movie with chevy Chase - National lampoons, or maybe you burn of 1,21 gigawatt from the movie back to the furure. Your workbench looks just like mine - orderly and clean , with nothing messy in the way.

who doesn't love a row of glowing nixie tubes?? great lab.. thx for sharing..

Very nice lab test equipment. Tektronix makes the best most precise test equipment. I have a few pieces that I labored over fir months restoring back to useable operation. Knowing how well they are out together gives a body pride of ownership and makes you feel above the herd.

Bought a Tek 485 scope because of your recommendation. It's a joy to use! Thanks

Thanks Alan For taking the time to reply. You are right about the 465b it’s a bit long in the tooth now but I do like the look of the darned thing. Incidentally I was listening to one of your interviews with Dave Jones the other evening and I too started as a TV engineers apprentice in the mid seventies. My first job….cleaning the rotary tuner ‘biscuits’ as we used to call them, brought back a lot of good memories.

Very nice lab. I like to see labs like this

Love those Hp brick power supplies. At the lab RCA I had twenty or thirty available for research use.

Cool tour! You have a Simpson meter! I used them when I worked as a Xerox Field (Customer) Service Engineer. Thanks for sharing your work space and giving so many details about the tools. I just discovered your channel a few months ago, but I appreciate it. Thanks a lot for your work here.

I have the Heath deviation meter. Got it from the guy who built it, at a garage sale in rural Northern Michigan. I don't usually stop at garage sales in Northern MI, usually just a bunch of baby clothes. But when I saw a 60 foot tower with a tri-bander on it and a garage sale sign out front I hit the brakes and pulled in. The meter looked brand new, sitting there among the baby clothes. Never been out in the rain. And it works great. At least it reads the same as my Marconi service monitor does. The guy wanted $50 for it but all I could afford was $20, so he said he'd take it since I was likely to be the only person to stop by who even knew what it was. :) BTW, I also have an HP time interval meter and an HP freq counter, both with Nixies. I like them. I used to work at HP long ago. I'm old. :)

I had a chance to stand next to Jim Williams' bench up at the Linear Tech/Analog Devices HQ about a year ago. They keep it as a shrine to the legend Jim was. Jim's bench looks like an even more messy version of your bench. I think I need to mess up my bench and see if it helps me :). Love your videos! I always learn something useful. Thank you again.

Awww!! Man do I have some great memories with some of the equipment you're showing. Had a 465 for quite a while but since a lot of my work is now high speed digital my lab has become mostly higher end digital scopes and whatnot so I've sold stuff to make room for the new stuff!!. I miss the 'mostly' analog days but it's now a lot of digital & digital SI work for me so that keeps me happy (digital SI being microwave stuff and above - lots of simulations etc).

Third time watching this video... Realy cool!

That is a lot of gear. I am usually on the look out for some cheap equipment in need of repair. Mainly just to tinker with and hopefully get it running right. Secondly because I just love the look and feel of the older equipment. I think they are generally a better build quality than some of the newer equipment. Thanks for the tour.

Very very nice lab dear sir

That Simpson 260 sure brings back memories! It was always the "standard" VOM against which others were compared, in the good old days. But I recently bought, off of Ebay, the BEST VOM ever made (by pre-DMM standards, of course). It's a Triplett 630 NS. It has factory accuracy specs of (+) & (--) 1.5% for DC. But the thing that made it unequaled was its sensitivity. It's 200,000 ohms per volt! I might also add it's an absolute work of art in its appearance & construction. It will share a place of honor next to my Fluke 87.

I love your excellent laboratory ...

Joy! Thank's for the tour!

Wow... Brings back a lot of memories when I was a fresh-out-of-school electrical engineer in the 1970's. Our company (Allen-Bradley) was one of the first in the midwest to get a sample of this thing called a "Z-80" microprocessor from Zilog. Now all you need to complete your bench is an HP-65 calculator (somehow I bet you at least had an HP-41 with the mag card reader...lol) Thanks for the memories... Roger / NQ8RP

I enjoy all of your informative videos. Like you, I also get a lot of use out of my AADE L/CIIb. Thanks for the tour.

Great lab tour! Thanks for sharing!

Great video, and great collection. I bought my 465 in 1974 (instead of a car like my friends). My 465 still works fine. The 485 came out before the 465, the 475 came out after. I think you need to get a Tek 7000 series addiction :-)

Just awesome equipment Alan, thanks for sharing. Love your lab!

It could look like that you have the same mentality as many woodworkers: "you can never have enough clamps" translated to "you can never have enough signalgenerators" :-)

Totally awesome 👌

Thanks for sharing! Awesome setup.

Wow ! Tektronics this and Tektronics that, Simpson, Fluke.... I thought I was in ok shape. I've got a Philips(fluke) 3070 and a Fluke 87. I'm impressed with your lab. Nice going.

Super great Lab Alan. Hope to some day have half as much. Thanks for sharing...

I'd love to hear your decision process in future videos. There's such a variety of test equipment out there it's overwhelming, I know I could use some insight from someone I trust!

You seem to have a lot of function generator/scopes. I am building a small compact electronics Lab..any tips welcome. BTW, I love that analog Multimeter.

Great post (again)! Most of the stuff I got in my lab were hand me downs from a friend who was retiring. I can't get enough playing with them. Almost like an addiction...in a good way.

You speak of new tech....But we just bought a new Tek scope and the USB drive was just as slow saving a waveform as the prior 15 year old scope. It was like all they did was add a driver to save to USB instead of floppy drive.

Great video. Love the variety of test equipment you have/use.

Random thought and question I had about test equipment. Do you normally leave all your equipment turned on, even when not in use? I interned at a lab last year and at the end of one day when I was about to turn off some test equipment that my boss left on, he quickly stopped me and told me just to leave it on. It was a fairly beefy oscilloscope (it even ran Windows XP, wow) however the scope was NOT connected to any system. I was confused as to why he didn't want me to turn it off but I didn't question him at the time as I was only a freshman undergrad. I'm seeing the same thing in this video (all your cool stuff is on) and was wondering if there's some correlation to what I've experienced last year.

Obviously there are some advantages of analog scopes over digital. Maybe this could make a good video.. It seems ham radio techs rather test capacitors for leakage more than ESR. Is it feasably possible to assemble a capactor leakage tracer? A friend who is no longer with us gave me a Tektronics 465B hoping to motivate me in electronics, this is the reason I started watching your RU-vid channel.

I have 11 oscilloscopes, last month I sale one and now I want to buy 2 more. If you know how many scopes you have, it is because you still lack more. Best Regards.

Various switching power supplies like very cheap switching powers supplies will have harmonics of the switching frequency. When the switching power supply is half loaded not fully loaded it will have more harmonics of the switching frequency riding on the +Vcc rail compared to when the switching power supply is full loaded the +Vcc rail will have less harmonics of the switching frequency. Any reasons why the LOADing affects the harmonics of the switching frequency of the power supply?

Very nice collection. I am guessing a lot of lucky snipes on ebay?

Have you thought about getting a test communication set where most of the instruments are combined? I have the old marconi 2955 - but need to watch some videos to see how to use it properly!

Hi there ! Would you kindly tell me how much did you spend in total on your lab tools and test equipments etc ? Nice video 👍

Nice shop!

Superb lab, thanks for sharing!

I agree about using a DMM to accurately measure your supply...unless you pay a LOT for a high end supply. Most of the time, not worth it. I follow the DMM/PSU method at my home lab for sure.

Found your channel via The Amp Hour. Got a bit dizzy whipping round all those 'scopes but it's all good. Looks like I've got some catching-up to do (wrt your videos). Kudos!

I just enjoyed the tour through your lab for the second time, and enjoyed it all over again. I am a hobbyist, and although I have a couple of old Tektronics scopes, I get by very well with them. I still have a Lavoie LA545 tube type scope (the one that caused the lawsuit) a 464, and a 475a. The scope I use the most, is the 475a, although I would like to still be using the Lavoie, because in addition to the dual channel plug in, I also have the diode checker, and a differential amp. My question to you, is that unless I have been lucky enough to find one of your videos that I am searching for, it is difficult, with the way the search algorithms work nowadays, to find exactly what i am looking for. Did you ever publish a list of all the videos you have done? What I have been attempting to find, is anything relating to ground loop isolation. Thanks again for all the great videos. Bob

Nice & cluttered Sir👌

In heaven everything is fine.....

nice lab, Alan! hope one day my 1 desk lab reaches to something like yours

That Leader 8215 Frequency Counter with the nixie tubes looks very cool. Where on earth did you purchase that beauty?

Anyone count the scopes, lol... nice setup ! You mention Dave Jones is that Dave from EEV BLOG maybe ? Love Dave hes a nut...lol Thank you for all the hard work !

Why didn't you mention the nettek oscilloscope hiding behind the fluke?

I don't recall but have you done a video on DSP yet? Now that is an interesting topic sure to take a few hours to nail! Any interest??? 73,

Wow Alan..Trading a car? Is the car still running?? My wife tells me to get rid of my pile of Tek scopes - huh? NICE!!

It looks like you need more scopes to me.

I just got my grubby little hands on a Tek 2467B. One of those dastardly Rifa .068uF caps opened with a puff of pixie dust on the first test, which was a bit.... unpleasant. I've seen posts from people saying that they are happily operating their scopes without them, but I don't think I like that idea. Will any X2 (such as MKP, which I have) safety cap of the appropriate value be ok as replacements? I have some slightly larger value Rifas of the same vintage (NOS), if there is a specific reason, such as ESR (?), that they were spec'd.

Nice to see so many Tek scopes... as we're also in the dhr family we have quite a few of them around the facilities here... I just wish I wasnt drawn to outside the family for a budget digital... .. oh well. I know I should just get a analog and be happy with it... I guess Im just used to the digitals we use. Still nice setup... i dont know why I am getting back into ham radio and ee again... guess cant get away from it

Hi Alan I,ve just watched your Lab Tour video and I noticed you had two of my favourite scopes of all time, the Tek 485 and the Tek 2465a CT. If you had to choose one what would it be?. Incidentally I have the opportunity to buy a Tek 465b and a Tek 2230 at the right price. Would you?. I would value your expert opinion.

looks very cool

Thanks, great stuff! You've got a few scopes, counters, and analyzers - how do you decide which to use when?

Have you scematics for the circuit that applies the video on the oscilloscope? It looks very cool. PS I'm from germany,my english is very bad:)

Where did you get that huge ham radio frequency chart on the wall?

The test equipment that I have will cover anything for Audio to 22 Ghz. I have Scopes that cover Low Frequency, 5 Mhz to 350 Mhz and a DSO 100 Mhz. I have built and designed a spectrum analyzer 100 Khz to 145 Mhz, a HP 8590B, 9 Khz to 1.8 Ghz and an HP 141T main frame, with plug-in from 10 Mhz to 13 Ghz, and with an external mixer I can extended the frequency it to 22 Khz

Great... Love the RF section... Did you run several separate fuses from your panel???

Great show! Do you find yourself using the old 485 or 465 over the other scopes for a particular reason or purpose?

Dude, priceless!

Hi. You have a number of Scopes, that's tell me that you gain years of knowledge. Is there a Book or Manual you can recomend on using the Oscilloscope to Test basic Circuits. Thanks

Beautiful beautiful lab. How long have you been in electronics? I really wonder how big your expertise is if you built that signal generator 25 years ago!! Thanks for all your videos, Im a fan and eevblog fan too.

Why didn´t you introduce the NetTek Y400 next to the Simpson meter?

Weren't the old 2000 series Tek scopes some of the first scopes with digital control and capture?

Do you have a MEGGER? and can you make a video lesson about how to use a megger because to test pcb boards that a populated with components i don't think you can use a megger because meggers output a high voltage but the current is very low. Guitar amplifiers use eyelet boards or turret boards which the boards are made out of a certain material which I'm not sure what the materials they used in the 60's and 70s but over time for some reason when moving all the populated components if you measure using a Megger from eyelet to eyelet on the board you will measure resistance or "leakage resistance" its called. Repair techs call his moisture resistance or corrosion resistance that gets into the pbc material. Its like when a burnt resistance carbonizes the pcb it has leakage resistance.

What is the formula to calculate a component's dissipation? Because wattage is voltage times current equals wattage but a component is a patient is completely different from wattage because when most textbooks say you calculate the current and you double it to get the the dissipation of the component like if the current is a one watt you don't use a one wide resistor you use a 2-watt or a 3 watt you double the wattage to get the dissipation that's just the rule of thumb in textbooks

Wow!

Nice lab!

Thanks !

Alan I have some questions on the Tek 485. Any chance you could email a good email addess for you? It seems your ARRL address is not working.

Nice setup but you really need to invest in a few more O-Scopes!!!!!! LOL Great!!

would be nice to understand how the amplifier with offsets works , on your home built function generator

Nice stuff!. Thanks for sharing. 73. Bert, VE2ZAZ

What happened to the tektronix 4104-6 ?

Good lab and nice video :D

Hello w2 Time for new shelves and reordering :-) the lab

fantastic very good instrument 73 Paolo

intersting very complete. are you a richman?

Posting on the old video but hope to get reply.I need better oscilloscope that I have now and I have a chance to get one they all have the same price 300 bucks but not sure witch one to get Tektronix 2246 4 channel 100mhz. 475 00mhz 2 channel and TDS340A 100 Mhz 2 channel. I like the TDS since it reads the freq. I need a second opinion. PS I will not use it professional it is only for hobby TNX and 73s YU5KBm

what camera do you use?

Leader made decent eqyuipment

Could you please explain me this oscillator ..how it works www.seekic.com/circuit_diagram/Signal_Processing/Stable_sine_wave_oscillator.html its not a wien bridge..i think ...thats

A Great Tour! Trank you for that! DL2YMR

You really need all those scopes

How about new lab tour after 6 years ?!!

execelente!!!

I'm jealous!

Dream land

Ha! Toy story 7 :-)

خداوند تو را و امثال تو را برکت دهد .امین

Ma'am si Angel Mae D. Padayogdog ni ma'am

OLD SCOPE HOARDER LOLOL