I have a Type D54, it's actually the first o'scope I ever bought. I'm cleaning it up and going to calibrate it. It was in my car when a tornado hit in May. Wiped my car out, messed up a bunch of my other test gear that was in the back seat. I pulled it out and I'll be damned, IT WORKS! Gonna use it for audio equipment work. Pretty good technicians scope, if you can deal with a 1MHz to 10MHz (HF) scope.
Sorry to hear about the tornado. Will this unit be good enough to test vintage stereo equipment and modern ones too? I'm eyeing one for 50 buks but I'm hearing that I need one with 50MHz minimum. Thank you should you respond.
There are some of these on eBay for $70 and up. I have had one for almost 40 years. It had some problems, but found the schematic and calibration instructions on-line a few years ago, and decided to fix what I could. Amazing what you can find online these days! I cleaned the pots and replaced a few caps and out-of-tolerance resistors, did most of the calibrations, and it now works very good! Thanks for the video.
Thanks Arty, your videos are a pleasure as always. I work as a tech at a further education college in Liverpool UK & we have a bunch of these boys sat on a shelf that were inherited from a previous incarnation of the college. Will give them some care when I can get back in the building.
I recently got one. There is a much easier way to access a lot of the board components. Remove the CRT and time/cm switch. With mine out of 20 or so resistors I replaced in the power supply and horizontal amp I found maybe 3-4 that were still in tolerance and other components that were replaced with whatever a previous owner had. Mine did come with the paper manual though which had the substituted components struck through and the new value written beside it in pencil. A few transistors were replaced, but those at least seemed to be proper subs far as operation goes. Now D108 in the horizontal amp I don't know its purpose. I removed it as it was one of the substituted parts and I wasn't sure it was right. Horizontal amp seems to work just fine without it. So I plan on replacing the rest of the resistors eventually. Calibration is a real pain as some adjustments you have to go back and forth with multiple trimmer resistors or caps until it is just right. My opinion is that this is a decent dual channel scope. It isn't Tektronix, Phillips, Hitachi ETC... quality but is decent enough for most non-critical work.
I just bought a valve/tube based Duel beam Telequipment D43 recently, mostly as a winter project as naturally it'll need recapping. I used to have a D43 when I was younger and they were great scopes for what they were, plus they kept your room warm and a workout if you ever had to move it!
Thanks for the info! I took all the PCB screws out and the front two knobs and nuts, and was struggling to get the PCB out. I had no idea about the hidden nuts. I am converting one of these into a curve signature tracer.
First 'scopes I ever met were Telequipment at school in early '70s here in UK - I never knew they were made in the Channel Islands - or that Telequipment was taken over by Tektronix in the early '70s - this scope just pre-dates that I guess, inspite of the Tek colour scheme. Nice to see this one rescued - has a nice screen colour too !
You can work the cable back into the rubber strain relief by pinching and sliding the outer sheath of the cable on those . Also those 3.4kV diode packs are usually running low volts or fully open . Mine was a 1970 . Cool video .
Good instructional video. Just managed to buy a broken D54 but on pretty good cosmetic condition @ a reasonable price of E-bay and hope to fox it and convert it into a so called curve tracer tester .Tnx.
I just completed a recap on mine. Also replaced the HV diodes and all HV caps. I'll give you guys a brief summary on what to expect when doing this job. This scope was not designed with service in mind, it is pretty much a nightmare to work on. Getting the main board out is pretty much impossible without almost completely unwiring the scope down to 50%, not something you would want to do. All the knobs and front panel have to be removed in order to move the board to a position where desoldering components can be attempted and even then your soldering skills will have to be up to soldering behind your back or with your eyes closed level. I have never had to solder in such confined and cramped conditions with wires constantly in my way. Several wires have to be unsoldered from the board, both front and back to gain enough room to get your soldering iron in. Forget about solder suckers or wick, it's a heat and pull job on all components. There is a capacitor connected from the board to the EXT TRIG terminal that has to be unsoldered from that terminal, saving you some time trying to figure out one out, one of the reasons the board won't move, and that one as is buried right in there. The five wires from the board to the transformer have to be unsoldered and a few other things. All this will allow you to angle the board away from the chassis about 2", enough room to get your soldering iron in. Oh... the CRT has to also be removed. Before fiddling with the HT lead, ground the anode to chassis to discharge the tube but avoid touching the anode at any time. Once discharged you can slide the red plastic cover back and pry off the wire with a screwdriver. Don't forget C109 and C114 hiding at the front of the board. Replacing components took me two nights and another night to put i all back together again to the point of calibration. There's also three electrolytics to be replaced on the small board, same sort of conditions. Well if you're looking for something to do and having a bit of a challenge, the D54 will entertain you for a few hours.
Just went through all the electrolytics I replaced to check on their states out of curiosity, I'm sure some of the people viewing this video would be curious too. With something of this age I would not bother testing caps before replacing them as it is just a waste of time and I did not this time either. On ESR, testing both with my Dick Smith and an analog ESR meter, results on most was close to nominal. Had I fallen for the trap of testing caps before replacing them with an ESR meter only, I would not have seen the need to replace any of them. Capacitance on 60% of them was within tolerances, the rest read high indicating leakage. I used my BK Precision Model 830B for that. Onto leakage tests using my Heathkit C-3. I did not have to go beyond the "25V" test range on any of them, they all failed badly, best I got was about 1mm of eye opening. So if you have one of these old scopes and intent on using it it's probably a good idea to give it a full service, as eventually the transformer will probably give out on it. Most if not all faults and quirks will most likely sort out after a re-cap and service to the HV section. Mine was pretty much 100% functional although showing some signs of needing an overhaul. It's not something I was using, I bought it as a project and it had been sitting in storage for a couple of years awaiting its turn on my bench.
The serial number is there. Its very faint though. I have a D54 in black, it's a nice if limited scope. Yes they were made in the Channel islands. The sound of the timbase switch is unique to Telequipment. It reminds me of using them at school. It should be a patented sound!
Great detective work there! My long-stored D54 works very well, but only if kept on variac at 80 percent voltage. Any higher and it blanks out. Not sure I want to tackle circuit board struggle!
Arty/ie, from the manual of my Telequipment Type D61, '...the registered trade mark of Tektronix UK Limited'. I suppose it's no coincidence regarding the paint colour!
That's not surprising, as the "Bell System" companies in the US purchased Tek scopes for use in the central offices. Nowadays, if they still have one, they sit idle, as most any troubleshooting & repair is done by "plug in" card substitution instead of signal & component level testing.
In a roundabout way I do. My list of videos can be found at th-cam.com/channels/K5y1jaqmysO9WPszfr3BMQ.htmlvideos I have videos for almost all of the equipment I have. Hope that helps.
It's so cool you can get stuff like that in thrift stores. They're not allowed to sell electrical stuff in charity shops (English for "thrift stores") unless they've been tested by a "qualified" electrician... so most don't sell anything electrical and those who do only sell domestic appliances. :(
What is sometimes done in the US is that the sellers cut the power cord before putting it up for sale. That way they think that they're minimizing their liability to the buyer.
I would love to see a video on this scope AFTER you replace the caps, clean the pots, add the LED lights, and whatever else you do to it. While watching your video, I happened to remember one that I thought you might enjoy and appreciate. Here it is: th-cam.com/video/LhovRIM5xAo/w-d-xo.html
Concerning the CRT clock the CRT in this scope is oval so while it may work for a clock it many not be the best choice unless you don't mind a smaller clock display. Also the horizontal amp bandwidth is something like 1MHz whereas the vertical amp bandwidth is higher. So I wouldn't recommend it for a scope clock unless you know of a clock kit that doesn't require a higher bandwidth scope.
I have a Type D54, it's actually the first o'scope I ever bought. I'm cleaning it up and going to calibrate it. It was in my car when a tornado hit in May. Wiped my car out, messed up a bunch of my other test gear that was in the back seat. I pulled it out and I'll be damned, IT WORKS! Gonna use it for audio equipment work. Pretty good technicians scope, if you can deal with a 1MHz to 10MHz (HF) scope.
Sorry to hear about the tornado. Will this unit be good enough to test vintage stereo equipment and modern ones too? I'm eyeing one for 50 buks but I'm hearing that I need one with 50MHz minimum. Thank you should you respond.
@@arrya5372 Yes it should work great for any audio gear you need to test.
There are some of these on eBay for $70 and up. I have had one for almost 40 years. It had some problems, but found the schematic and calibration instructions on-line a few years ago, and decided to fix what I could. Amazing what you can find online these days! I cleaned the pots and replaced a few caps and out-of-tolerance resistors, did most of the calibrations, and it now works very good! Thanks for the video.
Thanks Arty, your videos are a pleasure as always. I work as a tech at a further education college in Liverpool UK & we have a bunch of these boys sat on a shelf that were inherited from a previous incarnation of the college. Will give them some care when I can get back in the building.
I recently got one.
There is a much easier way to access a lot of the board components. Remove the CRT and time/cm switch.
With mine out of 20 or so resistors I replaced in the power supply and horizontal amp I found maybe 3-4 that were still in tolerance and other components that were replaced with whatever a previous owner had. Mine did come with the paper manual though which had the substituted components struck through and the new value written beside it in pencil.
A few transistors were replaced, but those at least seemed to be proper subs far as operation goes.
Now D108 in the horizontal amp I don't know its purpose. I removed it as it was one of the substituted parts and I wasn't sure it was right. Horizontal amp seems to work just fine without it.
So I plan on replacing the rest of the resistors eventually.
Calibration is a real pain as some adjustments you have to go back and forth with multiple trimmer resistors or caps until it is just right.
My opinion is that this is a decent dual channel scope.
It isn't Tektronix, Phillips, Hitachi ETC... quality but is decent enough for most non-critical work.
I just bought a valve/tube based Duel beam Telequipment D43 recently, mostly as a winter project as naturally it'll need recapping. I used to have a D43 when I was younger and they were great scopes for what they were, plus they kept your room warm and a workout if you ever had to move it!
...and having listened again to Arty's video, I turned that Stability knob to the right, traces re-appeared and now all's well on full mains. Thanks!
Thanks for the info! I took all the PCB screws out and the front two knobs and nuts, and was struggling to get the PCB out. I had no idea about the hidden nuts. I am converting one of these into a curve signature tracer.
First 'scopes I ever met were Telequipment at school in early '70s here in UK - I never knew they were made in the Channel Islands - or that Telequipment was taken over by Tektronix in the early '70s - this scope just pre-dates that I guess, inspite of the Tek colour scheme. Nice to see this one rescued - has a nice screen colour too !
They are great and tough old scopes....I use one all the time...!
You can work the cable back into the rubber strain relief by pinching and sliding the outer sheath of the cable on those . Also those 3.4kV diode packs are usually running low volts or fully open . Mine was a 1970 . Cool video .
Good instructional video. Just managed to buy a broken D54 but on pretty good cosmetic condition
@ a reasonable price of E-bay and hope to fox it and convert it into a so called curve tracer tester .Tnx.
This is like the only video on the D54. I have one. I'm planning on doing a full service. Will try make a video
@Vincent The Farmer hopefully within the next few months.
I just completed a recap on mine. Also replaced the HV diodes and all HV caps.
I'll give you guys a brief summary on what to expect when doing this job.
This scope was not designed with service in mind, it is pretty much a nightmare to work on. Getting the main board out is pretty much impossible without almost completely unwiring the scope down to 50%, not something you would want to do. All the knobs and front panel have to be removed in order to move the board to a position where desoldering components can be attempted and even then your soldering skills will have to be up to soldering behind your back or with your eyes closed level. I have never had to solder in such confined and cramped conditions with wires constantly in my way. Several wires have to be unsoldered from the board, both front and back to gain enough room to get your soldering iron in. Forget about solder suckers or wick, it's a heat and pull job on all components. There is a capacitor connected from the board to the EXT TRIG terminal that has to be unsoldered from that terminal, saving you some time trying to figure out one out, one of the reasons the board won't move, and that one as is buried right in there. The five wires from the board to the transformer have to be unsoldered and a few other things. All this will allow you to angle the board away from the chassis about 2", enough room to get your soldering iron in. Oh... the CRT has to also be removed. Before fiddling with the HT lead, ground the anode to chassis to discharge the tube but avoid touching the anode at any time. Once discharged you can slide the red plastic cover back and pry off the wire with a screwdriver. Don't forget C109 and C114 hiding at the front of the board. Replacing components took me two nights and another night to put i all back together again to the point of calibration. There's also three electrolytics to be replaced on the small board, same sort of conditions. Well if you're looking for something to do and having a bit of a challenge, the D54 will entertain you for a few hours.
Just went through all the electrolytics I replaced to check on their states out of curiosity, I'm sure some of the people viewing this video would be curious too. With something of this age I would not bother testing caps before replacing them as it is just a waste of time and I did not this time either.
On ESR, testing both with my Dick Smith and an analog ESR meter, results on most was close to nominal. Had I fallen for the trap of testing caps before replacing them with an ESR meter only, I would not have seen the need to replace any of them.
Capacitance on 60% of them was within tolerances, the rest read high indicating leakage. I used my BK Precision Model 830B for that.
Onto leakage tests using my Heathkit C-3. I did not have to go beyond the "25V" test range on any of them, they all failed badly, best I got was about 1mm of eye opening.
So if you have one of these old scopes and intent on using it it's probably a good idea to give it a full service, as eventually the transformer will probably give out on it. Most if not all faults and quirks will most likely sort out after a re-cap and service to the HV section. Mine was pretty much 100% functional although showing some signs of needing an overhaul. It's not something I was using, I bought it as a project and it had been sitting in storage for a couple of years awaiting its turn on my bench.
With those just snip the one diode lead. I was going for the capacitor, then you said the word Lucas, of course the Prince of Darkness strikes again.
Great Video and a good job on the scope-Thanks
The serial number is there. Its very faint though. I have a D54 in black, it's a nice if limited scope. Yes they were made in the Channel islands. The sound of the timbase switch is unique to Telequipment. It reminds me of using them at school. It should be a patented sound!
worth every penny! :) Thanks for your videos!
Telequipment was acquired by Tektronix in the early '70s.
Great detective work there! My long-stored D54 works very well, but only if kept on variac at 80 percent voltage. Any higher and it blanks out. Not sure I want to tackle circuit board struggle!
GOOD LIGHTING AND OR CAMERA
I have a DM63 with 4 channels, jeez I wish I could get it to work as nicely as this scooe. Specially the display
Arty/ie, from the manual of my Telequipment Type D61, '...the registered trade mark of Tektronix UK Limited'. I suppose it's no coincidence regarding the paint colour!
I'm curious if the colors were changed after they were bought by Tek, or if they looked like this before the purchase.
That's not surprising, as the "Bell System" companies in the US purchased Tek scopes for use in the central offices. Nowadays, if they still have one, they sit idle, as most any troubleshooting & repair is done by "plug in" card substitution instead of signal & component level testing.
I've been watching your videos for awhile now and was wondering if you have a catalog of test equipment?
In a roundabout way I do. My list of videos can be found at th-cam.com/channels/K5y1jaqmysO9WPszfr3BMQ.htmlvideos
I have videos for almost all of the equipment I have. Hope that helps.
I found one of these; are these worth anything? Mine is fairly clean. What is the oscilloscope’s function?
Worth $20 on a good day. It shows electrical waveforms.
There was a Tektronix facility in guernsey and it was manufactured under different names for tax purposes
It's so cool you can get stuff like that in thrift stores. They're not allowed to sell electrical stuff in charity shops (English for "thrift stores") unless they've been tested by a "qualified" electrician... so most don't sell anything electrical and those who do only sell domestic appliances. :(
What is sometimes done in the US is that the sellers cut the power cord before putting it up for sale. That way they think that they're minimizing their liability to the buyer.
I would love to see a video on this scope AFTER you replace the caps, clean the pots, add the LED lights, and whatever else you do to it. While watching your video, I happened to remember one that I thought you might enjoy and appreciate. Here it is:
th-cam.com/video/LhovRIM5xAo/w-d-xo.html
Lucas diode. That explains why it failed.
Did you know that Lucas holds the patent for the short circuit?
Curve tracer project...?
I was thinking more along the lines of a scope clock.
Concerning the CRT clock the CRT in this scope is oval so while it may work for a clock it many not be the best choice unless you don't mind a smaller clock display.
Also the horizontal amp bandwidth is something like 1MHz whereas the vertical amp bandwidth is higher.
So I wouldn't recommend it for a scope clock unless you know of a clock kit that doesn't require a higher bandwidth scope.
Kind of a pricey clock given what you've paid for it...
First!
87th!