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Opinion on tds 460a

 

Was the 460a an improvement over the 460 regarding the leaking electrolytic capacitors? What is the general opinion of the 460a?

Thanks
 

On 2018-06-25 8:23 PM, musicamex@... wrote:
Was the 460a an improvement over the 460 regarding the leaking electrolytic capacitors? What is the general opinion of the 460a?
I REALLY like mine! But I can't compare to any other DSO's; it's the
only one I've used.

I haven't had any problems with it yet, capacitors or otherwise. Touch wood.

--Toby

Thanks
 

Good to hear. Ive read that the 460 is known for leaky caps on the adq
board. I just grabbed a working 460a with a screen that says "passed self
test". For under $100. I wont pick it up till my next trip north.

On Monday, June 25, 2018, <toby@...> wrote:

On 2018-06-25 8:23 PM, musicamex@... wrote:
Was the 460a an improvement over the 460 regarding the leaking
electrolytic capacitors? What is the general opinion of the 460a?
I REALLY like mine! But I can't compare to any other DSO's; it's the
only one I've used.

I haven't had any problems with it yet, capacitors or otherwise. Touch
wood.

--Toby

Thanks






--
Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.

99 times out of 10 a blown fuse is not due to a bad fuse.....
 

On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 06:27 pm, musicamex wrote:


Good to hear. Ive read that the 460 is known for leaky caps on the adq
board. I just grabbed a working 460a with a screen that says "passed self
test". For under $100. I wont pick it up till my next trip north.

On Monday, June 25, 2018, <toby@...> wrote:

On 2018-06-25 8:23 PM, musicamex@... wrote:
Was the 460a an improvement over the 460 regarding the leaking
electrolytic capacitors? What is the general opinion of the 460a?
I REALLY like mine! But I can't compare to any other DSO's; it's the
only one I've used.

I haven't had any problems with it yet, capacitors or otherwise. Touch
wood.

--Toby

Thanks






--
Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.

99 times out of 10 a blown fuse is not due to a bad fuse.....
I have a TDS460A and recently took the case off, just to look at it, fearing the dreaded leaky caps. Mine was a later 90's model from the dates on the CRT and other components and the inside looks great, no evidence of deteriorated caps. It is my understanding that the Caps made in the mid and later 90's were not as big a problem as the earlier ones. This scope seems to bear this out. I really like the 460A and use it as my primary scope , I also have a 360, but find the 460 to be superior in almost every respect. I bought mine for $75 "As Is, needs repairs" and it passes self check with flying colors. Voltage and timing Calibration seems good and everything works as it should.

--
Michael Lynch
Dardanelle, AR
 

]Thanks for the input, Michael. You beat me. I paid 77.99 on ebay. I was
hopeful that the A version of the 460 addressed the cap problem. How many
things fail, often to the point of being discarded, due to poorly made
parts? Leaking alkaline batteries are a pet peeve of mine. We sent men to
the moon decades ago and alkaline batteries still leak? Often ruining what
they are in, in the process? Maybe my new purchase of the 460A with a
"Passed Self Check" screen is a good thing. I hope so.

On Monday, June 25, 2018, Mlynch001 <mlynch002@...> wrote:

On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 06:27 pm, musicamex wrote:


Good to hear. Ive read that the 460 is known for leaky caps on the adq
board. I just grabbed a working 460a with a screen that says "passed
self
test". For under $100. I wont pick it up till my next trip north.

On Monday, June 25, 2018, <toby@...> wrote:

On 2018-06-25 8:23 PM, musicamex@... wrote:
Was the 460a an improvement over the 460 regarding the leaking
electrolytic capacitors? What is the general opinion of the 460a?
I REALLY like mine! But I can't compare to any other DSO's; it's the
only one I've used.

I haven't had any problems with it yet, capacitors or otherwise. Touch
wood.

--Toby

Thanks






--
Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad
judgement.

99 times out of 10 a blown fuse is not due to a bad fuse.....
I have a TDS460A and recently took the case off, just to look at it,
fearing the dreaded leaky caps. Mine was a later 90's model from the dates
on the CRT and other components and the inside looks great, no evidence of
deteriorated caps. It is my understanding that the Caps made in the mid
and later 90's were not as big a problem as the earlier ones. This scope
seems to bear this out. I really like the 460A and use it as my primary
scope , I also have a 360, but find the 460 to be superior in almost every
respect. I bought mine for $75 "As Is, needs repairs" and it passes self
check with flying colors. Voltage and timing Calibration seems good and
everything works as it should.

--
Michael Lynch
Dardanelle, AR



--
Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement.

99 times out of 10 a blown fuse is not due to a bad fuse.....
 

Congrats on your new TDS460A. Sounds like a bargain.

As far as whether a late-90s unit will be free from the capacitor issue, I can only say that my TDS460 (not "A"), with a build date of Nov, 1992, had the capacitor leakage problem. Some traces on the ACQ board were in rough shape, but it was possible to clean, repair, and recap it without too much bother.

If your caps have not leaked, it is pretty easy to remove them and replace them. Once they have leaked, things get trickier. It might be worth doing the replacements now; IIRC the cost for a complete set of new Nichicon caps from Mouser was less than $30.

A couple of other repairs were needed on my scope; they might or might not be something that could show up on your '460A. First, one of the electrolytic caps in the housekeeping supply section of the main switcher went open circuit (no leakage, interestingly enough). This made a couple of the negative supply outputs to go way out of tolerance. An easy fix, as it turned out.

The other issue was that the optocoupler used in the soft power ON/OFF control if the switching power supply degraded to the point that it was apparently trickling charge into the base of its output transistor, so that the coupler never really turned off all the way. That was reflected in erratic behavior of the front panel PWR pushbutton. Another easy fix, after which the scope settled into working reliably.

BTW, I put my TDS460 on eBay a couple of days ago as part of a lab clean-out effort. It is listed with Best Offer enabled, and I would be please to extend a TekScopes discount if a member were interested (item 263779628201; please excuse the plug).

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