Hi, it's not a real auction score unless you get a bootload of stuff. and that's exactly what I got at an local auction I got a bootload of oscilloscopes and multimeters. Brilliant! Let's haul them upstairs and check out what we got. Well, after hauling all this stuff up here, I think I deserve a smoothie, but it's uh, like over 40 in Sydney today.

So absolute scorcher. But uh, what? have I scored? well? I'll show you the individual art pieces. but basically I've got I Believe Nine TDS 220 tectronics, oscilloscopes three 500, MHz 4 channel uh, TDS 305 fours I think they are I've got a whole bunch of literally a bag of a dozen, uh, high-end tectronics uh 4 and 1 half digigit multimeters I've got a fluke scope meter Um, I've got some retro, uh, a couple of bits of retro up stuff as well. Not nearly as much as I wanted, but um, yeah, there was actually significant bidding on these things.

uh, unfortunately. but yeah, I was lucky to get all this uh, stuff in the end. But woo, here you go. There were like Spectrum analyzers and there were all sorts of stuff.

So ah well. you know I could only get so much because there were so many things you know you had to bid on them at the last minute and and you just couldn't do it. and no, you can't snipe it cuz it wasn't through eBay So really, it was just a logistical nightmare trying to bid on these things and eventually get them. And thanks to Craig by the way for pointing out this auction which I didn't know about and I would have hated to miss it.

There were tons of cool stuff in there and it's all uh x, uh Defense Force Australian Defense Force so you know, fingers crossed, condition unknown they were sold, sold as scrap. so um, yeah, but I managed to see a few of the cow stick on here and it looks like well, they're just out of calibration or something like that. so they you know they're obsolete like the uh TDS 220 scopes for example. So they they? they just scrap them.

Um, anyway, thanks Craig and well, let's check out the booty. First up, I've got uh 12 tectronics DMM 916, 4 and 1 half digigit high-end multimeter and uh so uh, 12 indiv 10 individuals plus uh, two original tectronics cases which I haven't even opened yet. Oh yeah, looks like they're field ones they come with Pros these ones didn't come with probes and uh, let's take a look at these puppies cuz these are really nice. Now you can see that they've got Australian Defense Force branded on here and as you'll see, um, all of the oscilloscopes have that as well cuz you know the Defense Forces they you know they've got a lot of money and they might order.

You know a thousand of these things, you know? or you know, 5,000 multimeters, thousand oscilloscopes or something like that in some huge buyer. So they H get them custom uh branded for them Exactly the same as the model they've just added. uh, some silk screen on there for the uh, custom order. Now Um, these Tectronics multimeters.

I Think this was the last one Tectronics made off off the top of my head, but uh, very nice. Uh, 40. I think it's 40,000 count? Uh, true. RMS multimeter and it works.

It's got batteries in it. haven't checked, Um, any of these yet. haven't checked the Precision calibrated in 09. There's another cow sticker under there is oh yeah, that one says 09 so you know, um, most likely these things work.

So I'm not sure why they uh, scrapped them. Well, I'll find out. Um, but these are really nice meters to search for. not often searched for on eBay and stuff like that.

So if you're after a bargain uh, 4 and a half digigit, you know Precision Top quality brand multimeter. This uh, Tetronics. you can do a lot worse. And also so I got two of these is the older model.

Two of these ones, um, which is the 800 Uh series DMM Uh, 870 Mulm and that's an older one. Scored two of those Uh, these are I think these are this is the top of the range of the 900 series. There is, uh, the only one better than this that Tetronics ever made was the Uh TX line or the Tx3. There's another eBay search term for you and please forgive me for uh doing all this on the floor.

My bench is are completely uh full at the moment. so I just I'm a bit lazy I'm just going to do it here on the carpet um made in uh Taiwan uh, unfortunately, uh, not made in the US and I'm not sure if you know if Tectronics actually designed these or not or if there's some OEM or they're made to well buy and OEM for under you know to Tectronics uh, design and specifications and and U things like that you can see all the uh, the solder Mas removed from those traces I Don't know uh why they've done that for uh well you know you wouldn't think it's for leakage reasons or anything like that, but it looks like this is going to lift out in no, is it no I thought yeah, there we go. it's going to pop out I think Taada? look at that. There we go, we're in.

Lake Flynn Two big HRC fuses. Very nice switch mechanism that looks really good. Oh bugger it. I found some uh, space on the bench I was going to need it anyway.

So um, yeah. Jewel board. uh construction. You don't see that too often these days with the 0.1 in uh headers going between boards and uh, shielded can across.

looks like we got might have a trimmer there. plus the um hybrid resistor uh divider Network and some trim pots down in there. Good oldfashioned trim pots. So let's take this this top board off and see what sort of uh processor we got here.

By the way, the input, uh, they've got these ones are held down by screws. These are solded in these input Jacks they're obviously uh, sense in input jacks on there and uh, there's a reasonable amount of protection in there, but not, uh, a huge amount. What's the cat rating? Yeah, Cat 2 There you go. I Thought it looked a bit, uh, a little bit on the Wimpy side.

It's still okay. but yeah, it's not a cat 3 or a cat 4 rated meter. That's our switch mechanism sandwich between the two boards. I Got to be careful not to cuz it's not labeled.

To get it back in the right position. we've got looks like we got nickel PL in on the contacts there. and there's the top side of it. that, uh, sandwiches in there and we'll take a look.

We've got ourselves an NEC processor there and another another that would be the multimeter chips set down here. Let's take a closer look and that's really interesting. What we've got. Never seen one of these before TC 8129 This is a, um, well, it's a multimeter.

ADC uh, basically. but it's from microchip. Yes, microchip. Pick microchip and I'll link in the uh data sheet down below.

It's one on one of those uh, um, you know, obsolete data sheet websites. But yeah, that's from Microchip. So that's the complete Um ADC And sort of, you know, multimeter functionality. It's not, you know, hugely integrated like some of the, uh, more modern uh multimeter, uh chipsets, that's for sure.

But you know, there's quite a bit of supporting circuitry around this thing, but that's certainly unusual. And by the way, these uh, posts down here: these metal standoffs. metal threaded standoffs. They're actually using those for signals actually going through.

So um, you know they what they do run out of pins on the Uh 0.1 in header there? yeah, probably. And that's an NEC 78063 8bit micro which I haven't seen inside I don't think I've seen inside a multimeter before. so I can't find any other Uh markings on here to indicate that it's an Oem uh or anything like that. So if anyone's got any Uh details on that, uh, please leave it in the comments.

the markings. We've got our Um 870 1f on this board and 2f On The Other Board Sorry, this wasn't supposed to be a tear down, but I just couldn't help myself I haven't uh uh, seen inside one of these tectronics multimeters before? You know it's it's not the best. Like there's no battery compartment, there's no fuse compartment although they're metal threaded insert. uh, screws, you know, so not an issue there.

But yeah, to taint change the Hfc fuses, you got to lift it out. It's not a problem though, you just lift it out and you know Bobs your uncle? Not a problem, but uh yeah, it, it's not bad. Um, it's certainly not a fluke, but uh, it's also certainly not a uh, a one hung low. cheapy either.

So I think these are quite decent multimeters. and of course the uh performance specs are really, uh, quite good too. We're talking. you know, um, 05% or something or Point yeah, something like that I don't know I'll have to link in the data sheet and I don't mind the display on this thing even though it's a little bit small.

Um, it is quite full featured dual display. uh, obviously. so they've got, you know, so you can display Hertz up there, but not your full resolution up on the Uh top display up there. But uh, yeah, it is.

um, a pretty full featured meter that's for sure. And what's the uh, backlight? gold? What's that hold? gold? No? what? What? What's that high? low? no I Want the damn light? Don't know I can't figure out the bloody light Anyway, you can change the number of digits presumably it's faster in the uh, less digit mode and you can, uh, set up various things in the setup here. High Low limits I don't know I haven't uh, looked at this um what this thing is actually capable of. but yeah, it's got some sort of menu system you can set up all sorts of parameters and uh, stuff like that.

It's got low voltage ohms mode which I always like. excellent and uh, continuity buzzer. capacitance goes down to four nanofarads I believe so that's not too bad at all. We can.

uh, I'm sure we can. uh re that out somewhere. there we go. there, we go.

Delta that's pretty stable I Like that and the continuity buzzer. Oh, latching and super quick. Can't fold it? brilliant and check it out. It's got the auto hold functionality.

just like the fluke there it is. Bingo. look Auto hold Fantastic! Works A treat. And for my reference resistor, it's bang on.

Look at that well within spec. Brilliant. And it's also got a center zero bar graph as well selectable. or you can just turn the entire bar graph off I Don't want that bar graph? rubbish.

And I'm not sure what the differences are with the 870 model. they appear to be almost identical I Haven't checked the data sheets exactly, but functionality wise, they look absolutely identical. I Like the range switching by the way, you know it's uh, separate micro amps defaults to DC over here all your amps, capacitors, continuity. it's all just separate.

Very nice. I Like that rain switch dual off position excellent. And this one's the Royal Australian Air Force and this one's the Australian Defense Force. So I've got a grand total of 12 of these puppies plus two of the 87 series.

and uh, you know I'll give them a bit of a cleanup and a check and they they'd be worth a bit. Awesome! Now the other thing I got is Nine Tectronics TDS 220 I've got a a bunch of like half of my think in uh, these original carry cases and the other half just on their own. and uh, if we have a look at the what is on here then uh I don't see maintenance supervisor blah blah blah Rank and name next service due 2012 So this one I mean it doesn't have the dreaded red tag. this one's just got a serviceable equipment so I'd expect this one to be fully working and uh well, that's brilliant.

Let's any accessories in this one. A There we go look. original manual. There's a power cord in there.

Fantastic. Any no probes but uh, we got. oh there we go. Dispatch got all the original dispatch note and all that sort of jazz certificate of calibration.

There we go Pots Point here in uh New South Wales Fantastic Who man having the cow certificate makes it worth a little bit more that's for sure. And let's have a look at this sucker here we go that looks in that looks in pretty good Nick look at that I don't mind that at all. Oh, there's no feed on it. There's no feed I'm sure the 220 came with feed, but there you go once again.

Australian Defense Force Uh branded but it's exactly the same as the original one. Aha, we've got Army Cal ID So it's a belong to the Australi Army and look date je I mean that's a pretty recent calibration. Awesome. Um I'm not sure why it's got these three paint marks on there I don't know, that's the Army for you And uh, let's try and this thing up.

shall we? give it a B? And oh, by the way, it's got, um, fully optioned out with the Gpib, the Seral, and the parallel option. Um, a lot of ones on the market don't actually have those options, so that makes it worth a bit more as well. I mean these are ancient Scopes You know I I bag it these days, but if you want to still a good silent scope, it's got no fan. That's a good thing about it.

Um, there is no fan in these things. You know it's only got like a lousy 2 and 1/2k memory and you know, but it it is still 1 gig sample per second. 100 MHz Dual bandwidth does the job. You know it's as slow as a wet week, but hey, this is booting up just fine.

And as I said I probably. uh, expect this to work. Uh, utility. Here we go.

Got to remember how to use one of these suckers. A log. Let's have a look at the A log number of power. Cycles Only been powered up 169 times.

That's pretty darn good number of Errors zero. So so there's nothing at all wrong with this. um scope. Do a self cow and uh system status Uh English Do self cow press any menu to exit Yep, disconnect.

Do press do self Cal There we go. do self caling prer I Have no doubt this will pass. and the other thing to check out is the Bnc's Have they been worn? You know, are they people just abuse them cuz a lot of fires on these oscilloscopes that you'll find on eBay and other auction places. A lot of the time they will only have.

Oh there we go look, it's Dicky Whoops! So yeah. I Spoke too soon on that one, but it works. A treat. It's a little bit wobbly, but that is absolutely fine.

There's no issue with that at all. And I got some bloody average mode on here. There we go. sample don't want average mode There we go.

Not a problem and uh, so both channels, um, fully working I'm not triggering off channel two there, But yeah, not a problem. So but yeah, as I said, that is often an issue with these they might have. You know somebody's put a bit too much force on the connector and you know that's why they scrap these things. So if you can pick up oscilloscopes cheap, that's a common fault, which of course you can easily get in there, take it apart and replace those Bnc's and I found the til in Baale.

With that, it came in the Box Looks like somebody forgot to put it back on when they put the case back together for whatever reason that they took it apart. I Don't know. Let's have a look at some other ones quickly that I've got this one. uh yeah, got a had a sticker on the front.

It's got a lot of Gunk there and uh, all sorts of uh, stuff. That's the Rand Royal Australian uh, Navy ID there. and uh, the tag on this. look at this.

Uh, nil? No. I um. 48 module fitted equipment superseded, so there's probably nothing wrong with it. It just didn't have the option on the back and uh, and you know that's it.

Unbelievable. So let's power it up. It probably works a treat at the power connectors. Oh, they nice, uh, the Bncs.

They nice and solid. There we go. give this thing a clean up, and uh, that one is going to work just fine and dandy. I Have no doubt there.

There you go the dreaded red tag. but in this case, out of calibration, obsolete equipment? who cares? And probably the only thing wrong with this one is that it has no power button. Taada. It's missing there it is.

Whoop-de-doo You can still get in there and use it. Or 3D print another one if you want. Not a problem whatsoever. This probably works a treat too.

Get in there. hang on there we go. Power switch on. Just stuck a screwdriver in there.

Not a problem. Look at that and this one has nil calibration output presumably the Uh probe compensation on there. Well, let's try that out. It's got no calibration output, but hey, who cares? Both Channel 1 and Channel 2 still work a treat and that one's got a pretty recent Cal on it too.

Nice. So all up I've got nine of those. Uh Tech TDS 220 Scopes And and now I have a nice fluke. Ah, let's have a look.

Woohoo! 105 Scope meter a This looks in beautiful condition. Oh hello I Can see myself ah that barely has a scratch on it. Fluke 105 Scope meter Series 2 100 MHz Bandwidth Beautiful. calibrated October 11 Very nice and believe it or not, I was the only bidder on this one.

Nobody wanted it. Can you believe it? I mean yeah, it's an older model, but jeez, you know it's still got the Uh gigahertz bandwidth sampling 100 mahz and you know, yeah it memory is not that big, but this is still quite a decent scope. and uh I think we've got. Yep, look, check it out.

We got the pros. These things look Barely Used Of course the important thing is to get the Um isolated uh Pro with this thing. so so they look in great condition, sort of hardly used at all. and that's got the banana plug attachment over the scope probe.

Fantastic! And I've got all the accessories and clips as well, including the uh oh look at that long Grabber Oh beautiful and it looks to be nowhere on the BN C's or the jacks or anything. This one's in fantastic condition. This one's a score! I mean I think these things are still going for like 1,000 bucks or something on eBay The only issue with this is it didn't come with the power adapter and it's got one of those pain in the ass deep power adapters right down in there. A bummer.

So yeah, there's no charging, it's been in stores, it had a stores sticker on it, so it's probably been sitting in stores for like a year or two. Oh, it was calibrated 2009 actually due on October 11 And here's the battery p back in it and I think I may have discovered an issue. The tab the charging tab under there was folded up. It's supposed to be folded up and under like that so it makes contact down in there.

but uh to know it's a rechargeable battery pack. but uh, it didn't uh do that and we've got a bit of corrosion on the contacts so I'll clean. it's like it's blue. Anyway, clean that up and I reckon I'd be very surprised if this sucker doesn't work and is you know, fully in cow I think uh, probably something wrong with the battery and they tossed it made in Holland What a Bobby Desler All right I cleaned up those contacts and put four Csize batteries in there and uh, let's see she powers on Hello hello please, please come on I can't get that to power up so I'm not sure what the issue is I'm probably going to have to feed in an external uh Power into it and uh, try and do that.

Oh no, Oh there we go. I Just oh I got it. You saw it. You saw it.

It booted I think it's just a matter of still. got a Dicky contact? There you? you? You saw it. It did boot. You heard it I'm sure I captured that on camera.

There we go. I got it. Don't breathe on it. Don't breathe.

I'm holding the batteries in at the back I haven't put the uh back cover on yet I need to adjust the contrast here, but uh yeah, that I think is a win know folks I Think we've just got a battery issue. That's all okay. I've adjusted the contrast and uh, we should have a close menu. Yeah I don't like the menu on this thing, but uh, there's our scope meter I think it's a winner.

How much of a winner you say? A complete winner? Look at that Channel Two, let's have a look at Channel 2. It just I Love how it just Auto ranges there. yep and finds Channel too Beauty Ah, this is almost brand new. so I think that's a pretty Dar decent score I was the only bit and uh I think it's practically brand new and just give the contacts a bit of a clean and uh, she'll be right so that's probably still worth a pretty penny.

And the Fun's only just beginning folks. Look at this. I Was hoping to score more of these. Um, but there was a bit of a bidding frenzy on them and you can see why.

Tectronics TDS 3054 500 MHz 5 gig samples per second, four channels and uh, this one came with the front cover and everything. It's got the little uh, quick start guide thing inside and let's have a look at it. Look, what's the problem with this unserviceable equipment? The calibration is due with case cover. What? So there you go.

Thank you very much Mr Persal Brilliant! Uh, 27th of the 3 2013 So what? There's absolutely nothing wrong with this thing. Look, look at that. It was only CED in uh March 2012. Brilliant! And it comes with the Gpib and Rs232 interface as well.

Fantastic! No battery uh though unfortunately. and it even comes with the Fft and advanced trigger modules. Awesome! And as for the Bnc's you can have it. You know it's been screwed in a few times, but they are in excellent, excellent condition.

Those Bnc's so this scope hasn't seen much use at all. I'll be a bit shocked if this uh doesn't work. Isn't 100% operational at least Boots come on. Beautiful! I Mean this is still a great scope these days.

I mean you know four channels 500 MHz 5 gig samples per second? Uh with the Uh DPO uh display functionality, all the reays are clicking there it is. menu. Off to proceed. Brilliant.

Haven't used one of these in a while, but uh, let's see, the battery's still in there. There you go. Still got the Uh date and time hasn't been adjusted for daylight savings. Oh no, it's worthless and but uh yeah, let's see if we can go into the utility here and uh, see if we can do some uh.

there we go. We got Advanced trigger, extended video and Fft options plus the Gpib options. Fantastic system config Diagnostics calibration, signal path compensation. We won't run that yet.

Let's just run uh, some dag shall we? Oh okay, confirm run test TDA Everything passes. This is folks. 100% working scope and yes, there's nothing wrong with the B and C's on this. uh puppy E In terms of you know, being loose or anything like that, this is a great score.

Really. So this is absolutely gold. If you can get something like this at an auction, you know, just the ladyy. You know it's like the cow jew is.

you know what I mean That's just crazy and it's a high-end highs speec scope. It's barely got a scratch on it. It's optioned up. Oh man, it's got the cut.

It's got the uh front panel on it. It's got all the tilting Bales Everything looks. You know it's not quite brand spanking new, but jeez, it's not far off brilliant. It's got a little number down in the bottom corner down here, but whoopdee dooo! we can clean that off.

And with the fairly recent uh cow sticker on there I mean technically it's only you know what? Six you know, 9 months out of uh cow. So what you know I mean that this thing's got to be worth a couple of Grand at least. and this is the second one I've got. it's got a bit of dust and stuff on it, but it'll uh, clean up just fine.

Uh, not as recent Cal it is optioned up at last C in 2009, so let's uh yeah. fully optioned up on the back with the Gpib. so let's plug that in and switch it on. and it's boots and well.

I'd be surprised if there's absolutely nothing wrong with this sucker as well. No, it seems I was wrong about that. Um, channel 3 I mean I'm not putting any signals in there at all. and uh, channel 3 is just uh yeah, it's Cactus there's something wrong with that, but curiously, it passes all of the internal testing so well.

Yeah, I don't know. but fortunately, all the other three channels work just fine. So yeah, um, it's you know, even if that's unrepairable on Channel 3, something's gone horribly wrong with the front end. Doesn't matter.

Still worth a pretty penny with. uh, three functional channels, that's for sure. And here's my third one. Once again, got a bit of dust.

It's a little bit, uh, crusty, but uh, no. It looks in very good condition otherwise. But look at why they've disposed of it obsolete. Return for disposal.

Are you kidding me? Bloody hell the Australian Defense Force You going to be me? 500 MHz Four channels 5 gig sample per second DPO Tectronic scope is obsolete. They probably you know they had to spend this year's budget. or you know, um, the the latest budget that they have. and well, the other ones are are obsolete.

Unbelievable 2011 calibration due 2012 and well, I'm willing to bet this one is probably fully working as well cuz the other one with the failed Channel Um, didn't have a tag on it so you know. Yeah, we don't know what the actual uh, you know it wasn't tagged with the fault, but this one is definitely tagged and the only thing wrong with it is obsolete. I Mean jeez, Come on. a lot of people would kill for a scope like this.

In fact, anyone had probably kill for a scope like this. And yeah, that's just fine. And and I'm sure if you plug in the signals, it's just going to work A treat. Like you know, Here we go: Menu off Channel one.

Oh, we'll just hit the auto set button for. you know that's a bit of a wimp cop out, but look at that. I mean not a problem at all. that's just a complete Winner Auto set works on each.

Channel That's a good quick test. Probably the only good thing the auto set's good for. Oh hello, hello hello. This one might have a Channel 3 problem as well.

Channel Oh no, there we go. Oh, it didn't switch it on Bloody Tectronics firmware I don't know something. Something dodgy going on there. but no Channel 3 works just fine and auto set any signal on Channel 4.

Once again, it doesn't like Channel 4 at all. But Channel 4 Works a treat, you bloody. Ripper I've got I reckon at least two fully working. Excellent condition.

one almost. You know, almost as good as new. Not quite. but um, they're worth thousands each.

Beautiful. Even the foldy one with only three channels. Who wants to buy it? And of course no. Surplus Score is complete without a box full of old.

Tada Simpson 260 Analog meters. Look at this: I think I've got like five or two four six Simpson 260 Analog meters. Ah sure, that's bringing a tear to the eye to all those Simpsons fans out there. Calibration on demand do not use for quantitative measurements Ser Number two 4,245 Is that how many of these suckers they ordered? Warning: Will Robinson Zero Vols Detected.

Do Not Install batteries and last calibrated. Brilliant! Look at this I was still calibrating them in 2009. Oh, this poor one failed calibration only at 5 amps and 1,000 volts Ac out of limit. Whoop-de-doo Actually, that one is in beautiful condition I Really like that.

Wow. Nice bit. they've had a sticker on there, but jeez, that's hardly seen any use at all. That is a brilliant Uh Simpson 260 Fantastic! W Like I bought one and last up I Couldn't resist getting this even though it's a of no value whatsoever.

It might make a good vintage tear down, but it's an Avo transistor tester CT 446 Avo 1962 Uh. vintage SO incomplete in original case. Look at this and watch this. This is just old school porn.

Here Folks, this is how you used to test transistors when you had to test transistors. Oh more knobs than you can poke a multimeter probat. Oh, this is just oh man oh man oh man. I Can play with this all day.

Oh catch you next time. Yes, it smells as good as it looks. Oh.