BWD 881 Powerscope 2 - A look at an unusual scope.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- A bit of a look at a very unusual oscilloscope capable of displaying 1000v wave forms.This isn't an instruction video but my experiences "driving" it, it's a difficult scope to drive but an excellent bit of test gear.
That brings back some memories. Had one at each of two different jobs back in '85 and '87 when I was designing SCR soft starters / power savers for 3-phase induction motors. They cost AUD $4200 back then. Made in Melbourne, Australia. You can do neat things with those differential inputs, e.g. clip them across each end of a fluorescent tube that has an iron core ballast and see a 90VAC square wave.
This scope has had a lot of interest, didn't realise that it was that well known. Thanks for dropping by.
Very COoL scOpe! I had no idea (mark time). A quick search and I was able to find.... "Hen's teeth" with no problem. But a BWD scope for the average joe? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So I plan to live vicariously by pretending 'that one' is mine. Thank you!! You RoCk.
Bless you, as you say it's a nifty little scope & hard to find. TFW.
Andy- I have made HV leads from RG58 coax or similar, as that is transmission line for ham radio. Big drawback is it's very stiff cable.
That being said, you might try using the old copper core spark plug wire and shield it with copper braid removed from RG58 coax. The other option in find some replacement anode wire for CRT TV sets and shield that. Your local TV shop likely has a roll of that.
Also they made some copper core shielded spark plug wires for the military. Love that scope though.
Excellent ideas unfortunately I haven't the tool to crimp BNC connectors to cable properly. I've tried in the past to make BNC leads with solderable connectors but had very poor results. Great bit of test gear though eh? TFW.
@@diabolicalartificer If you use the copper shielded and copper center conductor RG58, no crimping needed, just some soldering.
Hia ive got tha 881A it looks mostly same as yours. so on mine that black knob u touch @4:22 selects which channel it triggers
on and i think the 6th position is AC line triggering. took me a while to figure the knob to the right with "level" above is to set what voltage above or below 0v on the waveform it triggers at. another thing i do fr triggering is to adjust the centre (cal) knob on timebase setting (mine needs a firm anticlockwise turn to free it) until it syncs to the waveform on screen. it allways drifts back an forth a bit but it gives me a hail mary option for awkward signals. i agree its a fantastic scope for looking at low frequency high voltage quite the find for a fiver !! apologies if some of my tips are teaching you to suck eggs but i hope may be helpful to a beginner someday 😀
"that black knob u touch @4:22 selects which channel it triggers" brilliant, thanks. Makes sense now you mention it. There's lots of ways to suck an egg, thanks for your contribution, much appreciated. These scopes aren't easy to figure out, hopefully those of us with them can work it out between us. Cheers.
@@diabolicalartificer Glad it helped :) allso if yours has the signal outputs on the back.
There great i link them to my digital scope with right angle bnc RG316 coax leads
off of aliexpris. was about £12 for 4 .
pps beware folks theese scopes come with a few of the devils own RIFFA caps inside ... i had to " Exorcise " mine ;)
That is impressive to have four differential channels. I have one high voltage differential probe that cost more than my scope, the scope is just a cheap Rigol 1054z, but still paying more for the probe felt weird.
Aye, good scope innit? Having a high voltage differential capability is very useful for testing valve amps, TFW.
interesting indeed
Thanks for watching.
Where do you find all your fine bits of kit?
I've collected over years & been lucky, it's also down to contacts, & good friends. If your a vintage Tek nut, there's not many of us but if post on the various vintage tech forums you meet folk, we all help each other out & in the case of Tek 500 series valve scopes not many folk want a 24" x 16" x 13" scope that eats power & weighs 65lb's & takes commitment to keep running. You have to look too at places other than Ebay like local auctions. Lastly I'm a great believer in what you get out, you get back. I get given a lot of stuff but I also would rather give folk stuff for free than make money. If you want a Tek 500 series scope, I have a couple, contact me. TFW.
@@diabolicalartificer Thank you! I did have a couple of Tek 500 series years ago, but due to room constraints, sadly had to say goodbye to them. I retain a fondness for the engineering and functionality of them though. Yeah, I guess I don't use the forums so much, which as you say, is a good place to exchange kit. I hadn't heard of BWD scopes, certainly looks a useful beast for valve amp work.