Tektronix Type 526 Vectorscope 1966 composite video test restore teardown

very cool Tektronix Type 526 Vectorscope is not an ordenary oscilloscope, this one is for PAL composite video, will show all the color vectors since the color information in a composite video image is modulated as phase differerance from a color burst carrier.
19.2kg, 300 watts, 53 tubes includin the CRT, intro in 1959, I think my unit is from 1966, cool to find ONE little PNP transistor inside, and all other features solved using tubes. I was very happy to get this one working after only 2 days in the lab.
now i want to go play with some more video generator colorbar units.
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#video
#tektronix
#repair
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I use auto generated subs, i am sorry there are a few spelling errors,
maybe one day they can do it better..
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[@marcdraco2189]

It's a masterpiece - 1959! Man alive - those guys knew how to do "point to point" (which was still all the range when I was growing and learning the craft). Also, Thomas your attention to detail is just wonderful. I knew a lot of the stuff but I learned plenty. Worth a sub!

[@tommiller1315]

4.4336179 MHz - I remember this frequency from all the chroma PCBs' I worked on in 1970!!! Wonderful machine, thank you for sharing.

[@geoffmorrison3648]

Nope, your memory is failing you. 4.43361875 MHz

[@tommiller1315]

@@geoffmorrison3648 Oh no! My whole life was a lie 😂

[@tommiller1315]

That 0.85 Hz hurts 😁

[@geoffmorrison3648]

The video lab I worked in from 1971 had a Tek 521A vectorscope. Although 521 is a lower number than 526, the 521 was a later unit (possibly 1967). The same console had a PAL RM529 waveform monitor. The head of the unit was on first name terms with the Tek designers. We always had Tek scopes. The only HP item of test equipment was a spectrum analyser.

[@KeritechElectronics]

A thing of beauty, a joy for ever, totally tubular! A lovely piece of gear, I adore the build quality here. I wonder if those terminal strips can be soldered with modern lead-free SnAg or SnAgCu solder. Who would have thought that something very special way back when would become common a few decades down the line. Note that the HV DC (as in >10kV for CRT) parts have leads bent back and placed in the solder lugs in the terminal strips; any sharp protrusions would lead to corona discharge. Sometimes re-seating tubes is enough to get them to work again as it cleans the contact between the socket and the pins. Tektronix instructions manuals and schematics are works of art themselves. Have your eyes peeled for some nerdy humor drawings, Tek was known for that! :)

[@TeardownOZ2CPU]

see at 19:00 the HV is only -3800 for this unit, due to the slow speed of video picture updates, they dont need more

[@gregebert5544]

According to Tek, the 526 was introduced in 1959 so that probably explains why there was only 1 transistor......they were still not nearly as common as vacuum tubes. The fact this still works is proof that Tek did an outstanding job making high-quality equipment. The ceramic terminals were common in Tek equipment; I used a 545B (scope) and 575 (curve tracer) in high school.

[@Dustycircuit]

What a beautiful piece of engineering! I wonder how long it took for the factory to produce one unit. Thanks for a great video!

[@splitprissm9339]

Even more interesting they still made these in 1966 (and I think they made some tubes-mostly scope until the early 1970s) when they introduced 7000 series (full of ICs and no non-CRT tubes) just 3 years later!

[@aviationodyssey1892]

Great vintage vectorscope! Thank you.

[@johnstevens2163]

The one I used in the 70s had a green graticule. It cost a sqillion dollars. Now I can buy an equivalent instrument which fits in the palm of my hand for less than my lunch costs! Not that I have needed to look at a PAL signal for a long time. BTW the frequency is 4,436178.5 Hz!

[@geoffmorrison3648]

No, you have omitted one '3' and swapped the '7' and '8' in that. The correct frequency is 4.43361875 MHz.

[@zebo-the-fat]

One lonely transistor.... poor thing!

[@splitprissm9339]

...they calibrated the scale illumination in photographic terms?

[@ayrplanes]

Yo must use silver solder or the terminals will detach from the ceramic.

[@dipakbhalodia7155]

आप कहा से लेकर आते हैं ये Metter instrument कौनसा लिंक है बताये कृपया

[@TeardownOZ2CPU]

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