Yeah, I have liked it. It has been nice to use, and it's probably better than the HP, too.
Btw, do you know if this some sort of "preventive maintenance", such as changing electrolytics is recommended for this model?
Useful repair info for the 2445 etc. range at this site Condor Audio |
Yes, that's the site!
Thanks!
There's another one also that has some good pictures and disassembly tips. I'll try to find that and post it later.
mlloyd1
Thanks!
There's another one also that has some good pictures and disassembly tips. I'll try to find that and post it later.
mlloyd1
I know this thread has been and gone, but I thought I would write to defend the HP 54600 Oscilloscope. I actually have one as well as the Tektronix 2445, and others like 2465, TDS754, TDS2024, etc. Hitachi VC6525, Philips and more, including some Rigols at work.
1.) The HP 54600 probably has the best user interface of any of them.
2.) It has a base 20MS/s, but that extends to 10GS/s on repetitive signals and most audio signal are repetative for test purposes and in most cases <22 KHz ?
3.) It's far more responsive than most other digital scopes with a very fast screen update rate. with over 1,000,000 points per sec.
4.) it was designed as a direct replacement for analogue scopes and whilst not perfect has a fairly good implementation of persistance (for its day) , which shows well varying signals, almost as good as an analogue scope.
5.) The waveforms are plotted at 255 x 500 resolution, on a large display, which is better than most Rigol/ GW Instek etc.
6.) Yes it is 8 bit, not 6
7.) The automatic measurements work better than any other scope I have tried and don't slow down the acquisition and display rates.
8.) It is designed to meet military perfromance specs. and is compact and quiet in operation.
9.) Its software is bug-free.
you can read about its development here:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1992-02.pdf
I bet Rigol don't put in a 1/10 of the thought and design effort into their offerings.
1.) The HP 54600 probably has the best user interface of any of them.
2.) It has a base 20MS/s, but that extends to 10GS/s on repetitive signals and most audio signal are repetative for test purposes and in most cases <22 KHz ?
3.) It's far more responsive than most other digital scopes with a very fast screen update rate. with over 1,000,000 points per sec.
4.) it was designed as a direct replacement for analogue scopes and whilst not perfect has a fairly good implementation of persistance (for its day) , which shows well varying signals, almost as good as an analogue scope.
5.) The waveforms are plotted at 255 x 500 resolution, on a large display, which is better than most Rigol/ GW Instek etc.
6.) Yes it is 8 bit, not 6
7.) The automatic measurements work better than any other scope I have tried and don't slow down the acquisition and display rates.
8.) It is designed to meet military perfromance specs. and is compact and quiet in operation.
9.) Its software is bug-free.
you can read about its development here:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1992-02.pdf
I bet Rigol don't put in a 1/10 of the thought and design effort into their offerings.
Well, you can pick up an HP 56400 series for under GBP £ 100 on ebay UK. If it's lasted 20 years, there's a good chance that it will keep going a while longer.
Most Tek scopes after the analogue 465 also have proprietary unobtanium chips, and hybrid circuits (popular in the 90's) particularly for the input amplifiers, and quite a few of them (HP included) use Dallas NV RAM with a sealed in battery with a 10 year design life. If that dies on the Tek scopes, you need to have made a backup of its contents to get the scope back to life. However, on the HP 54600 scopes, you can run a simple auto-cal routine, as they have a built-in calibrator for 90% of the adjustments. (Of course, all assuming you have replaced the NVRAM with a new Dallas unit or equivalent).
I just wanted to mention all this because, like many, I had written-off old HP scopes in favour of Tektronix, but having recently aquired one or two, I now see what I was missing. The HP 54600 were lower-end scopes, but their desgn shows great attention to detail, including great ease of use.
I work with power-electronic systems and, most of the time, signals are repetitive and below 250 kHz. So, lots of old scopes to chose from.
Most Tek scopes after the analogue 465 also have proprietary unobtanium chips, and hybrid circuits (popular in the 90's) particularly for the input amplifiers, and quite a few of them (HP included) use Dallas NV RAM with a sealed in battery with a 10 year design life. If that dies on the Tek scopes, you need to have made a backup of its contents to get the scope back to life. However, on the HP 54600 scopes, you can run a simple auto-cal routine, as they have a built-in calibrator for 90% of the adjustments. (Of course, all assuming you have replaced the NVRAM with a new Dallas unit or equivalent).
I just wanted to mention all this because, like many, I had written-off old HP scopes in favour of Tektronix, but having recently aquired one or two, I now see what I was missing. The HP 54600 were lower-end scopes, but their desgn shows great attention to detail, including great ease of use.
I work with power-electronic systems and, most of the time, signals are repetitive and below 250 kHz. So, lots of old scopes to chose from.
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