tessaperry•2d agoProlific Poster

Spent $150 on a used oscilloscope from eBay last week...

The seller said it worked fine but the trace is wavy on all ranges and I can't get it to calibrate. Has anyone else had luck fixing analog scopes or should I just eat the loss?

3 comments

3 Comments

wader712d agoMost Upvoted

Bought a used Tek 465 last year for about the same price and had the exact same trouble. Wound up being a couple of bad electrolytic caps in the power supply and a dirty switch. Fixed it with some contact cleaner and a basic soldering iron, took about an afternoon watching YouTube videos. Might be worth poking around the insides before you give up on it.

hannahcraig2d ago

Funny timing, I actually picked up an old HP scope at a garage sale for twenty bucks a few years back. Turned out the horizontal sweep was all mangled because some kid had been poking at the front panel with a screwdriver. A quick look inside showed the main timing cap was just loose on the board, reflowed the solder and it came right back to life.

alicer532d ago

Man that's rough, I've been there with eBay scores that weren't quite what they seemed lol. For $150 though it's worth cracking open just to check the power supply caps or dirty switches like the others said, those old scopes are usually fixable.