It was 20 Years Ago ... but not today

Having the proper tools is critical to any professional.

It's difficult to believe that over twenty years have gone by since the last time I possessed the proper tools to do a proper job.

Can you imagine a carpenter going twenty years without a table saw? Or a drill?

Yet for the past twenty-odd years, I've been plugging away at my electronics using only a multimeter. Which is OK if all you want to do is measure static voltages, or verify your diodes are working properly.

But the key to any kind of serious electronics design is having the key element in the electrical engineer's toolbox - an oscilloscope.

{An oscilloscope provides a graphical image of the voltage level at a particular point in a circuit over a span of time, thus allowing you to verify the changes in a non-static signal as it travels through a circuit; for example, you can see the audio signal as it travels from the antenna of the radio all the way through to the final amplifier, to pinpoint where the buzzing is coming from, so you can fix it...}

The biggest obstacle to obtaining an oscilloscope is the price. Current models are in the $10k - $20k range. And they generally keep their value, because they are precision instruments. So even a ten or fifteen year old unit can cost $4K - $10K.

My financial priorities have obviously been in other areas for the past twenty years or so.

But ... with all the overtime lately, and the fact that I'm not getting any younger, it occurred to me that it was time to finally do something about this serious lack of engineering capability.

Naturally, I wasn't going to purchase a top-of-the-line model. There's been quite a bit of overtime, but not that much.

So after browsing through the various on-line test equipment vendors, I found one that was willing to part with some old 'scopes for a reasonable price: $199.

Hey, at that price, why not get two?

So I did.

And now there are two new toys in the house!

Which should help out getting rid of the backlog of electronic equipment in need of repair.

Right off the top of my head, the following list comes to mind:

1 - 15-year old 19' color TV with a dying high-voltage circuit
1 - 5-year old receiver with a suspicious hum in the power supply
1 - 20-year old tape player / stereo with bad tape controller circuit
1 - 15-year old VGA monitor with bad high-voltage power circuit
2 - radio control receiver/transmitters with bad components
2 - old VCRs with on-board microprocessors (salvageable)
5 - 10- to 15-year old motherboards with bad components
10 - 5- to 15-year old computer power supplies in indeterminate but nonfunctional state

I can't wait to get started on them!