Need help with a Tektronix 2230 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: chipwitch
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 09:53:26 pm
content: Hi everyone,Long time lurker, first time poster. Great forum!First of all, I'm pretty new to electronics. A couple years ago, I thought I could use arduino for a couple projects I had in mind. At that time, I bought an assortment of stuff including a the aforementioned scope. I don't know how to use them, but intended to learn. Long story, short... I got busy with work and electronics got pushed back. I bought the scope used on eBay well over a year ago. I fired it up when I received it. Screen lights, menu... all that. Since then, it's been sitting on my bench, unused.Today, I fired it up, downloaded the manual and googled a couple good tutorials on scope use intending to start learning. After following the manuals initial setup procedure, I was unsuccessful in getting the result I was expecting. I'm hoping someone here can help. My fear is that the scope is bad. One reason I say this is that the "A vertical position" adjustment moves the "trace" horizontally. The "trace" is just a dot or a dash that I can't seem to change no matter what I do. The "B vert" adjustment does move the trace vertically AND produces a vertical line, but again, not what I'm expecting.Attached are some photos of the powered up scope. A 10x probe is attached. I'd be very appreciative for any assistance you may offer. If repairs are in order, can someone please direct me? I don't know anyone locally who knows much about electronics. I'm located in South Florida and would prefer having repairs done locally as I doubt the scope is worth the cost of round-trip postage. Thank you.

author: Spawn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 10:14:27 pm
content: Hi welcome to the forums, could you post a picture like below while adjusting a probe? So we can see how the settings are and try to guide you.

author: Spawn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 10:31:03 pm
content: Better yet, I got a 2221A here with almost same control layout, try to set it like this and make sure scope is not in storage mode and push out the X-Y button:

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 10:56:11 pm
content: It looks like the XY button is pressed in. Press it again to go back to normal mode.

author: tec5c
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 11:01:28 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on March 27, 2013, 10:56:11 pm+1

author: chipwitch
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 11:15:32 pm
content: Hi Spawn, thank you for responding. I'm sorry about the photos. I took them at low rez for faster transfer and didn't realize they were that bad. Attached is a picture of the knob settings when I took the photos in my previous post. The probe is touching the "prb adj" in two of the photos, so I omitted that feature in this photo.<update> I double checked the xy button. It was "in." Now I have a wave! Thank you. It's kind of square with a rounded lead in. Funny, I actually looked for a mention on the xy button in the initial setup section of the manual and couldn't find one. When I pushed it "out," I immediately got a full flat trace. First time I'd seen one on this machine.Anyway, good call! Thanks a bunch!

author: chipwitch
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 11:17:03 pm
content: Thanks for chiming in tec5c and nctnico!

author: Spawn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 11:50:50 pm
content: I am glad it was only thatI think the other guys didn’t see what I wrote above, but that’s the first thing I noticed on the X-Y and took the picture to make other setting clear for you.First try to play around without storage mode and it will act like a regular scope, try to compensate your probes, see the attachment below.

author: chipwitch
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2013, 12:21:28 am
content: Yeah, me too. I was a bit worried. You were a big help. The attachment was good too. All three probes are properly adjusted. Hard saying how long I'd have gone wondering what that anomally was. lol

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2013, 12:36:30 am
content: Quote from: Spawn on March 27, 2013, 11:50:50 pmA picture says more than a thousand words so that can be overwhelming O0 Anyway its good the 2230 shows signs of life. I had one for about 15 years. It was my second scope and although it needed some small fixes it served me very well. Its 4kpts memory allows using it to help debug I2C and SPI problems.

author: SLJ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2013, 10:26:39 am
content: Quote from: chipwitch on March 27, 2013, 11:15:32 pmSounds like you still need to compensate your oscilloscope probe. If you have the manual there will be instructions on how to make the adjustment on the probe to get a nice square wave with no rounded corners.