Oscilloscope Clock 

Haha. This scope is the size of a coffee table. It also draws as much power as a toaster.

You might even get some heat off it to warm your family.

@@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 Would go broke using that 62 year old scope.

Yes I know. I have 2. One was defective so they sent me a replacement. I blew that one up so ordered the parts and fixed both.

That would be cool. I wonder if it is fast enough for this.

When Sparkfun stopped making them, the original designer made them for a few more years, but stopped and now just has the board plans and a pre-programmed microcontroller for sale. I liked the sparkfun version because it was small, but the DAC had no short circuit protection so if one accidentally shorted the output to ground the chip burnt up. I took a solid state Bell & Howell kit built oscilloscope and installed the Dutchtronix version of the clock. After getting tired of repairing and always having to adjust the original scope circuitry (basic lower end circuitry) I gutted it and replaced it with a deflection amp board that is very small. It works decently enough, but on a lower bandwidth scope (under 5MHz bandwidth) the display doesn't look so pretty which is due to how the clock draws the screen. Lines meant to be drawn are drawn at one speed. Lines meant not to be drawn are drawn much faster so that blanking is not necessarily required, although the clock does provide a blanking signal. I used a DS32KHz TCXO in place of the XTAL for the RTC to make the clock more accurate. Instead of a battery I use a large capacitor (several farads) and a circuit to charge the capacitor to 3Vdc. That powers the RTC and TCXO. The clock is connected to my PC VIA a serial to USB converter so that my PC can set the time and date automatically.

It's fast. You don't see it move. No z control.

I have 1 spare board, that needs the d/a converter chip replaced. When I can source a chip I plan to replace it. The chip is like .25 but digikey has a minimum order, and I only need 1 so I have to find it somewhere else and I can fix it.Then I will probably sell it.

I'd be interested :)

The part is obsolete. I am looking for an old stock unit, but at this point have found nothing. I may just find another cheap scope.

No it's an atmel atmega

+umajunkcollector Actually this circuit only works on analog scopes properly. High end digital scopes may work, but cheap ones no way.That osciloclock was available from sparkfun.Here is the link to the one they used to have.www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/9306This is no longer available, however I do have one of them that I should give away. It has a slight problem that I should try to fix.

+12voltvids How about this kit:? $35USD www.dutchtronix.com/ScopeClockH3-1-Enhanced.htm Edit - Partial kit is still available at this link: www.dutchtronix.com/Essentials%20Kit%20Dutchtronix%20AVR%20Oscilloscope%20Clock%20Hardware%20V3-1.pdf

+Tech Gorilla Yes that is the same one using through hole. The one I picked up was a SMD kit, and yes it was a many times more difficult to assemble considering I could barely see some of the parts. I actually have another board but one of the chips is fubar. I will probably troubleshoot it some day.When I built the first board it was distorted and I contacted the vendor. They asked for a picture of the display, which I sent them and they sent me another kit complete for free probably because it was the last one they had and just wanted to clear the catalog and not carry it anymore.

+12voltvids I've seen that in your video opening and really liked it. One of these days, I will have one of these in my work space. I'm looking for old, broken scopes on fleabay all the time. I'd love to troubleshoot that chip for you ;) Thanks for the content, sir!

How bad. I have a spare.

It was a sparkfun. No longer sold. I got the last 2. First one defective so they sent me the last. Fixed the broken one, so now I have 2.

I don't run this scope much. It is 56 years old. It sits under my bench. I have a little heatkit I run the clock module on, and am looking for another small scope for my other clock board. I have 2 of these modules now that I fixed the second one.

12voltvids It’s a nice oscilloscope.

@@infinitecanadian Still works. A little easier to use then the 2 I currently have set up.

It was a sparkfun kit, however it is a retired kit. I have another one that the D-A converter is buggered up on. Needs the chip replaced which I will do as soon as I can find one. Digikey sells them, but they have a minimum order and I just need 1.

I know how the single part thing goes for sure. The scope looks cool with the clock display. Thanks for the reply.

When I find a single piece I will replace it, and then probably sell it off after I make a video of the repair, as I don't need 2.

12voltvids I understand. Let me know when you repair it and if the price is right, I'll take it off your hands.

Captain K They are no longer available. I have 2 both are broken now due to a bad scope that fired hv into the dac. I have chips on order to fix both and once I have them going I will probably sell one of them. They are very hard to find.

I'm not sure if it's the first clock to have a fan.

Hi'gak Iya Well it won't be left running 24/7.I have mounted it up in my shop on an old CRT TV mount.It draws 152 watts, which at my high rate of electricity is .015 per hour, so it really doesn't draw that much Comparable to a TV. Now I am not guessing at the power consumption, I have a KillaWatt meter, and I just measured it, I also have a digital display in my house that reads the smart meter by the second. It shows real time how much it costs for everything in my house. When I turn the scope on it jumps between 1 and 2 cents per hour, and when I turn it off is drops back down, so I know exactly how much it costs to run, never the less it won't be left running all day and night unlike some things in my house, it will be switched on when I am working in the shop, like when I am making a video, and once I am done I will be turning it off. I mounted it right up over the door out of the way.

Yes a 60 year old crt.

This was published july 25 2015. Not re-uploaded

What the devil!?! Apparently I suck at RU-viding. Sorry.

LOL

Same here. It is now my main scope due to my Iwatsu blowing up. 54 years old, still working.

Yeah I know, I saw that video about your scope. I'm a new subscriber to your channel so I'm going back to see what I missed over the years.

You and me both.

This one will be easier than the one I built, as mine was a SMD kit, very small components. This one is through hole, much easier to assemble,

I really prefer surface mount, even though I'm old and have a terrible time seeing those tiny little things. I tend to build stuff with the slightly bigger SMD components - the smallest ones are just too tiny to deal with.

I hear you there.I never wear reading glasses except for electronic work and fiber optic splicing at work.

I just got a newer Tek 2465 donated to me. Will be doing a video when I put it through it's paces in the next couple of days. Will hook the function enerator to it and look at the waveform.

The clock board moves the image around to prevent burn in. I also don't leave it on all the time.

In this video you said you was going to disable that function and you were not worry about burn in. Guess you changed your mind after this video.

Not really worried about burn in. I don't leave it running 24/7. Since this old scope makes so much noise, and draws allot of power it was more of a novelty. I am looking for another cheap scope, one for the bench, and one to use for my clock board. I might hook up my video display clock to the monitor up in the corner of the shop where the old scope used to live. I put up an old badly burned CRT set for my security cameras, but it would be easy to hook it to my video clock module, which is just a raspberry pi first gen that generates a realistic looking flip clock. That would look cool in the shop. I run it on an ancient B/W monitor in my office as a CRT desk clock.

I had a scope long time ago. Never did use it that much. A good DMM is all I needed for most things. Do you every work on old tubes tv sets. Seems to be a thing on YT. Why I don't know.

I have a number of CRT TVs but they are all solid state I am looking for an old vintage color all tube set but as of yet I haven't found any around. I used to work on many tube sets, as when I got into the industry, and I started my TV training when I was only about 16 in 79 tubes were still very common on TVs. Well into the 80's tubes were still very common, but then people just tossed them. I have a couple of vintage radios I will be working on soon. One is a bare chassis, and the other a Normende console radio. The reason people like to work on tube stuff is they are very simple. High voltages for sure that can kill you in an instant if you are not careful but very simple circuits. Color tube sets were a littl emore complex, but B/W and radios pretty simple. Amplifiers, simple. By comparison to the IC sets that have everything buried in an IC that you can't service. Scopes are not used every day, but when you need one, you need one. I am looking for a newer scope, but because it is something that won't be used every day I am looking for a cheap one, and so far the ones I have found sellers are asking far more than I am prepared to pay. I'll find one cheap soon. When the ham radio flea market comes to town there will be lots of test gear up for grabs from estate sales of silent keys.

On the digital readout you will.