Hi There are quite a lot of people who wanted to see an autopsy of this Tektronix Tds 210 oscilloscope which I dragged through the mud. Click here. if you haven't seen that video, it's hilarious. This thing went through seven kilometers of mud and crap and abuse all in the name of a charity and a lot of people wanted to see what would, well, what happened to the thing, what it's like inside and well, let's take it apart.

As I said, this is the Australian Defence Force edition with the which has the carry strap holes in it like this and I think it actually probably survived reasonably well. The mud because I did have the flotation pack and the flotation pack actually covered with the gaffer tape covered all of the vent holes top and bottom. so it probably did a reasonable job at keeping the crap out. and actually you're floating so bit of official mud left on there still.

and yeah, there we go. Check that out. There we go all still lovely caked on them, getting all over my bench. Yum yum yum.

Anyway, let's open this sucker up. and the way you get these RTDs 220s open. By the way, it normally comes with a carry handle here, but when you fit the flotation pack, take the carry handle off, there's two screws up under there. no and the end.

You get a screwdriver in here with the with the handle and then you just like that, twist it and then pull out the handle like that. Um, access these two screws and on the bottom is just some retaining Clips Like that and it should just pop straight off in this Tds 200 series. Um, absolutely phenomenal, groundbreaking scope back in its day and it's probably approaching its 20-year anniversary. it was released in the mid 90s I Can't remember the exact date, but it was absolutely phenomenally groundbreaking to get in in this sort of form factor compact form factor.

You got the full real-time sampling so you got the one gig sample was second hundred megahertz bandwidth and it was just an absolutely phenomenal scope. and basically arm started the trend for all modern scopes to have that ten to one real-time sampling ratio and looked and worked exactly like an analog scope. I Mean that you know it's performance was horrible. If you ever use these things, it's a Slows of Web Week.

The screen is absolutely awful. It's slow waveform updating, you know? but hey, it did. Actually you could actually turn it on and just operate it. Mmm.

there got that muddy feel to them. I Love it. And you could actually operate this thing just like an analog scope. You wouldn't really know the difference apart from the fact that you get the you know, the pixelated digital waveform on there and the slow updating.

But that was a pretty groundbreaking for the day because most digital scopes back then they were using equivalent time sampling and they just you know, didn't look and act and feel like analog scopes. So to finally have a scope, especially in a tiny form factor like this that did look and feel and act like an analog scope. It was a groundbreaking There we go. That's the way to do it.

And up to the and we're in like Flynn and I can see the board's through the vent holes. It does actually look pretty clean. I didn't give it a thorough rinsing. Oops.

Oops. Forgot that a lot of people are probably screaming everyday. Take the knot, take the button out. there we go.

and so I think it's a it's done pretty well. there's actually tada. look at that. Wow That thing could be powered up.

Let's have a look at the case first. Now this is actually not a result of the mud event. All this all the nickel plating inside here I Presume it's nickel plating. There we go.

a strategic finishing incorporated. They're the ones who did this. all the nickel plating inside this. That was all what it was like before the mud run.

So this is yeah. this is a real Krusty example of an old, tedious 220. So trust me, it looks no different now than it did before the mud run because I did take it apart and have a squiz and as you can see, it has very little residue left on those boards. Jeez! I could well as well I was quite worried Ksenia I Thought the mud would be sort of caked on there, but look, we've got around the bottom of these cabs.

We've got the silicon sealant around there so that's nice. and so those caps actually, that's what you've got to be careful. I've especially say the high-voltage cap on the primary here. if you've got you know, maybe caked in under there and that would be now to give you a real fright when you turn that on.

but jeez, it's almost as if I could power this thing up and have it have it work. Really? I thought I'd have to give this another clean up with some isopropanol alcohol. but no. um, if you're wondering what this is, um, it's I think it's just something to keep that board in place.

really. just so like a bit of you know, a spongy material or whatever. But yeah, I don't know why they've used that braid and put it in there. it's rather it's rather strange.

Now this RTDs 200 series did have a very famous recall on it. There was, um, something wrong with the earthing system inside this thing and I don't know if this one's been modded I haven't looked at the serial number the Easter I had a bunch of them at work and we had to send them back for the recall and I can't it had to do with the earthing and this one's actually going over to this board here? I've pretty sure this one doesn't have it, but it was like a serial number range of Units and issue was the impedance from the mains earth terminal here through to the front panel B and C's now this one only goes over to the PCB here and presumably down into the ground plane on there and then the B and C's of course down in there there are directly right angle what's soldered down onto the main board. that's why these tedious to 20s if you ever buying them on eBay always ask does it have the loose B and C's the loose B and C's are the classic failure mode for these scopes and if they do well I'm not sure if you can get back in and resold them I think you can but anyway yep, absolute classic fault with these art scopes. so always ask that before buying them if the seller won't tell you well, don't touch it.

Not that I recommend buying one of these things. I I've sold a bunch of knee baby by myself and they still go for incredible prices. I'm not sure why people like them. The thing is they're silent, there's no fan in them because as you saw, you know and not drawing a huge amount of that power so that I really need a fan.

and yeah, they're just slow as a wet week you know. and this display is awful on them. even was when they're brand new now that they faded and just crap after. you know, 15 years they're just no good.

So anyway so yeah that was the problem they got sidetracked. The mod on it was they had to strap a another wire from here directly down I think it went over the back of the board's right down onto the B and C's right down in there because maybe there was a layout issue on the board and that didn't ever low enough impedance or whatever to go through. So yeah, I'm not sure if this is like an upgraded our board or whether or not you know all new or it's just one that hasn't been modded and all of the latest ones by latest I mean no at least like twelve years old or something more then like fifteen years old will probably have the earth terminal going directly down to the B and C's down in there just so that if you do plug your probe in here and it shorted out. that was the issue is that I believe that if you obviously did something horrible with your ground earth lead here, it couldn't carry the current safely through two mains earth and it could blow this channel and leave it floating or you know, do something dangerous like that.

So they had to recall them all. It was huge news in the industry. me at the time do have want to have a quick look under the Mane's ball because that's what you've got to worry about here Of course you've got to worry about. is there any residue on the back of there? and no, that looks pretty darn clean.

So um yeah I'm pretty happy with that. that's that's not that's not from the mud, that's I think that's a factory original ah, flux residue there. so I don't think there's any dramas in pairing. is puppy up at all and seeing I mean if anything probably the screen might be gone.

but jeez, you know I it's hard to say whether or not the mud or water actually got into this thing. it's almost as if it didn't um at all. So I think we could be on a winner? Yeah, let's pair it up. All right here we go.

I'm gonna switch it on. let's have a look. Whoa. look back Light.

It's working past past past not installed for the factory. It works. It works. Press any button to continue.

Woohoo we got it. It powered up. Unbelievable. Look at that.

Yeah. I don't know if light actually mud got into this thing cuz it did float very well. That flotation pact worked probably too well. I did feel it like so that you know, floating behind it but the damn thing was like face down.

I'm sure if you watch the video again, you'll see the thing face down and there's all sorts of nooks and crannies in the thing for water to get into. so there seems to be definitely water behind the screen and all moisture ingress and all that sort of stuff. But damn it powered up and if you're curious to know how much a muddy, old tedious to tweed roars, well look at that nine. What's there? No problem whatsoever via 18v A.

So there you go. So that gives you a power factor of that, you know? No point. Five. Pretty darn horrible, but that's not much at much power drew at all.

But it's not A, you know, it's really an old-school scope. There's not very powerful at all. Okay, here we go. I'm going to do a self cow.

This is going to be great self calibration in progress. We'll come back when it's done. Oh, here we go. We're starting to get an issue here because this isn't surprising because this scope was not supposed to be fully operational.

This is the original fault I believe it had before I took it through the mud I didn't choose one of my ones that was a fully working and yeah, so I think that I don't I'm pretty sure because it had a label on it, it was I tested these like ages ago and this one had a LCD screen issue and you know all sorts of like data, the screen, screen corruption, and stuff like that. So I think that's what's uh I think that's what's happening there, that's not a result of the mud. oh that's getting really horrible Now look at that. Wow What is that? now? of course, the big fear with anything like this is the insulation breakdown in the transformer.

Of course the Mains Isolation transformer in there. So you know, if this thing's immersed in mud, then you can get all sorts of horrible breakdown and trying to clean it. Yeah, you could you know clean the whole thing in in in a in a clean water or bath or something like that to soak out the container to get rid of the contaminants and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, I mean you know if you did drop this in, you know, a muddy bath, you wouldn't try and recover it.

Really, it would be. geez. You'd be pretty desperate. and you know, just a safety thing like that.

Mains Isolation transformer. That's the biggie, really. And it's working. Look at this.

I Can get Channel 2 I've got the probe compensation signal and you can see the square wave in there. No problems. This, this sucker is alive. So yes, there's the isolation transformer I was talking about there.

so that's responsible for all of your art safety. between all your mains input and the rest of your circuitry being seized. Everything else, so you know, but it is our solidly Mains Earth reference or maybe not with the help the mod in it and the other groundbreaking thing about these scopes is just the small amount of circuitry in them. It's absolutely bugger all.

we're going to. Motorola 68000 processor Absolute classic. We've got our main clock here, we've got Elwha roam over here and we've got a custom part manufactured for Tektronix by our National Semiconductor. that's the Ad Gr3 double to be and I think there's also another one.

Yeah, there's another one under there. you can just see it I think that's the three to one from memory. Anyway, that's it's. basically a to chipset thing.

There's some trigger stuff down in the bottom corner down there, presumably, and just a bunch of you know, miscellaneous analog stuff and this bugger all on the bottom. And there's basically nothing under the shield down in there. Nothing up my sleeve. and that was absolutely.

You know back then to get a dual channel, you know, hundred megahertz digital scope all integrated into this that you know draws ten watts in a little portable package. Just absolutely phenomenal. And that's why it's had such a hugely successful long life and pretty much our pioneered all our portable, modern digital scopes that we take for granted these days. And I know you want to see the rest of it.

So here we go. Here's the front panel. As I said, all this sort of crap would not have been from the mud Run I didn't take I didn't take it apart this far before I took it for the mud run. But as you saw in the inside case before, all this stuff was here.

So all its nickel plating on the front of this thing. It's all just horrible, worn away, rusted with age. And check out the rust in here. obviously it's not, hasn't just gone rusty in the last.

What? 24 hours since the race? So yeah, that's pretty done. Pretty darn horrid. and that screen has definitely seen better days. Look at that.

So mmm oops. Um, check this out. Nice proper burns ones, you know, spared no expense. They've got genuine nut burns in there.

They always had a decent R feel to them and the knobs on the 220 and look I mean you know? look, there's nothing under there. It's gotta be that this thing simply didn't get anything in it I Love the dip packages. look just old school dip on there. What are those things Sim for? HC 405 One 4000 series CMOS Logic for the wind.

look at that. NSA HC 393 Ah. Beautiful Brings a tear to the eye and there it is. Copyright: Tektronix 1995 Made in the United States of America USA USA USA When was the last time a scope was actually made in the USA I wonder.

Hmm. but there you go. In a couple of weeks time, it'll be effectively 20 years old. Wow I Must be getting old.

Geez, So there you go I hope you enjoyed that look inside. The TBS 220 that went through the mud ran as I said I Don't think actually anything really got into this. Yes, there's some moisture in there and and stuff like that, but I think it basically. um, it was, you know, sealed too well.

so with that a floatation pack on the back, all the vents were sealed. I don't think anything really got into it because it couldn't have I didn't wash it thoroughly as you saw in the video I just sort of, you know, sprayed some water on the outside with the hose afterwards and things like that. but I Thought you know some would have got through the front panel controls, but maybe it was all you know. stopped by the rubber membrane.

Maybe that was a fairly effective seal on the front panel controls for example. But as I said, those pots do feel a bit muddy, so they're probably, you know, reasonably self-cleaning that contacts in them though. I wouldn't trust them long term. but yeah, so you know something did obviously seep down into the controls in there.

but the main body and and the PCB and everything else just really survived quite nicely. and it lives there. Go! But this was a real crusty, rusty one to begin with and was just garbage. So I didn't expect it to survive at all.

And as I said, I had that LCD fault on it. So yeah, I didn't take a good one through for those who are whinging about that. Jeez. Anyway, like the video, please give it? a big thumbs up.

And as always, linked to the Eevblog forum is down below somewhere. or up above. so maybe that's another trophy piece to go up on the Eevee log wall along with thee Still God still got it. The Fluke 28 series - there we go Anyone remember that one? It's had a hard life, but that folks is still a winner.

Catch you next time you you.