1970 Vintage Electronics- The CATHODE RAY OSCILLOSCOPE - CRT Tektronix 561A HP 180A

Vintage Electronics Technology 1970: The CATHODE RAY OSCILLOSCOPE (CRT) -- principles and applications are discussed in this excerpt from a partially restored Britannica film. It explains vacuum tube CRT basics and how they are used in multiple applications. Known as "CRT" or "CSO". Oscilloscopes were also used in conjunction with television & radio troubleshooting and in many early computers (including UNIVAC I and II) to monitor portions of the electronic circuitry.
One of the oscilloscopes you will see in this film is the Tektronix Type 561A, made in the US by Tektronix Inc. around 1969. Tektronix Inc., an American company founded in 1946 by C. Howard Vollum and Melvin J. Murdock, produced a variety of test equipment and for many years Tektronix oscilloscopes were considered the best available being famous for their accuracy and reliability. Also shown is an HP 180A oscilloscope, which first appeared around 1966. Uploaded for historical review and comment regarding 1970's technical educational environments.
Tektronix Web Site
www.tek.com/

[@MichiganPeatMoss]

...and now finally after 40 years, I can pronounce lissajous correctly, thanks to this video.

[@richardgray8593]

It's named after a French scientist, and the 'i' should be pronounced as a long 'e'

[@156dave]

Nothing like a CRT much better than the Chinese Handbags Tektronix peddle these days.Loved the HP 180 series scopes

[@publicmail2]

This showed the power of the oscilloscope and it's usefulness, Techtronic's was the major seller.

[@richardgray8593]

This film showed scopes from the two major quality brands Hewlett-Packard and Tektronix.

[@SimonBauer7]

​@@richardgray8593hps scope Division is now keysight btw.

[@MJMC56]

As an electronics engineer in the 70s/80s I used these a lot. Probably one of the last times I used one was to align the read/write heads on those new-fangled 8-inch floppy drives in the early days of digital. Yep, the heads had to be manually set up to read/write floppies correctly. In my collection of junk memorabilia I still have an 8-inch 'alignment diskette' needed for that process.

[@bryanlatimer-davies1222]

I have a 5 1/4 alignment disk, anyone with a 3.5 to complete the set ?

[@Guido_XL]

CRT oscilloscopes are common to me. I grew up with them. I still own a small Hameg and sometimes I even use it (although now, with the high electricity prices, I'd rather not). I'm 58, so, as an engineer of that age, I've seen the transition from analog to digital. Young people nowadays accept the technological status they meet and can't hardly appreciate how it was some decades ago, when we also were marveling at our technology then, as we could not yet imagine how technology would evolve. It was obvious to us in the eighties that digitisation would push through, but we could not predict the scale and size of it.

[@ciprianpopa1503]

"I still own a small Hameg and sometimes I even use it (although now, with the high electricity prices, I'd rather not)" Holly ..., how much is that Hameg consuming?

[@EfieldHfield_377]

Well said. When the LCD replaced the CRT in scopes I was astonished by how quickly CRT scopes went away. Reduction in weight size power and cost spelled the over night doom of the CRT. I personnally have not used a CRT scope in years. Sold a Tek 744 and an hp Logic Analyzer i owned to a friend of mine about 4 years ago, before that they were sitting in my lab for years more as relics than usefull tools. And shout out to the black girl in the video. Doing her thing.

[@Guido_XL]

@@ciprianpopa1503 How much it consumes? I assumed that it would be a lot, but now that I come to actually check it, it appears to be only 23 W. It's the HM 103, one channel @ 10 MHz. In the early eighties, this was what I could afford as a student on a lean budget.

[@drakefallentine8351]

Tektronics was THE BEST.

[@elrickking9293]

@@ciprianpopa1503 probably hes oscilloscope is not transistorized but uses tubes

[@cetocoquinto4704]

Young people today always talk about plasma but never knew this..hahaha..nice presentation

[@rdrgtreer]

Watching this on my personal cathode ray tube monitor. I am intriqued.

[@nasabear]

It's a shame they didn't credit the narrator. He sounds like famous voice actor Vic Perrin. Perrin was the voice in the original Outer Limits TV show opening credits. He was also the voice of the Nomad probe in Star Trek.

[@karlmartell9279]

More shamefull they didn't credit the German inventor of the CATHODE RAY OSCILLOSCOPE, Mr. Braun!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi James, yes, good catch. I do believe the narrator is Vic Perrin. He also had a speaking role in Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror" episode as the alien leader Tharn.

[@drakefallentine8351]

No wonder I immediately thought of "The Outer Limits" when this first started. Vic Perrin also appeared in numerous episodes of Dragnet 67-70, Gunsmoke, and a few Adam-12 eps. Always appreciated his acting ability.

[@aljustal7577]

I was given an ancient Cossorscope in the early 70s. What a joy, and eduction for a youngster! Over the years I bought cheaper smaller better scopes. But I'll always remember the smell, heat and random electric shocks from that old Coss 😂

[@fridaynighthikes]

Worked with O-scopes for ten years in the field. They were your eyes fir troubleshooting.

[@bigwave_dave8468]

I'd love to meet the glass blower who made a pinwheel inside a vacuum chamber. Those demonstration tubes are modern art the likes of which we rarely see nowadays.

[@KarldorisLambley]

"Those demonstration tubes are modern art the likes of which we rarely see nowadays." lol. i see, the old fashioned sort of modern?

[@bigwave_dave8468]

@@KarldorisLambley "Mid-Century Modern" or "Art Decco"?..:-)

[@KarldorisLambley]

@@bigwave_dave8468 Lol, again. I am aware of old art styles like the 2 you helpfully mentioned, for some reason. my comment was merely pointing out the oxymoronic nature of your original statement.

[@lp-xl9ld]

I used one of these in a physics class many years ago; I knew how to work it but I didn't know how it worked. Better late than never.

[@BHARGAV_GAJJAR]

You need to make a Lissajous curve then you would know how it would work

[@renatoamaral8259]

Great video!!! My dad worked with Electronics in his early years. Now he is an admin.

[@user-bo8eq7ki5w]

Наbкруглом микрофоне надпись "weston" ))). Под маркой weston выпускались электроизмерительные приборы в 20е годы в Америке. Autor thanks for the sci-movi from "Tectronics". 73 !

[@drakefallentine8351]

Weston was a major manufacturer of quality meters for many years.

[@bblod4896]

Nice. Thanks for the look back.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

You bet

[@johneygd]

Anno 2022 such old technology is still amezing to watch and think about it.

[@gregdolecki8530]

Nice to know that the rain in Spain still stays mainly on the plain. Those old Tektronix scopes were real work horses.

[@siiv7973]

Чудесен филм . много интересен и полезен за начинаещи радиолюбители. С много интересни експерименти. Направи ми впечатление и учебните осцилоскопи, кото са с високо качество на изображението. Браво. Препоръчвам го да се гледа този фил още веднъж и ще откриете все нещо интересно, което сте пропуснали..

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Google translate says: "A wonderful film. much interesting and useful for beginner radio amateurs. With many interesting experiments. Send me an impression and study the oscilloscope, which has a high image quality. Bravo. For the past years, this time, the tosi file is still very clear and you will still discover something interesting, some of it was missed." ~ Si Iv, thank you for the great feedback on the film. Glad you enjoyed it! ~ VK

[@renatoamaral8259]

Real treasure this video!!!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Renato, thank you for the kind words. Glad you liked it. ~

[@synthc1786]

This is AWESOME! AMAZING! thank so much for documental video, thanks from Lima Peru!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Synth C in Lima! Thank you for your feedback on the video. We are very glad you found our channel! Hope you will continue to explore our other vintage films/videos! ~ Charles, CHAP

[@matneu27]

As an electronics hobbyist I bought back in the 90s a used Schlumberger 2 channel oscilloscope from the French army for an affordable price and used it many years and teached myself with books in time long before KZbin and interwebs. But recently I betrayed my old big block with an handheld oscilloscope and multimeter in one device.

[@JimButler1234567890]

I LOVE THIS.

[@farabielec]

Old is gold 🙂

[@Tag-Traeumer]

I use my CRT oscilloscope to adjust the symmetrical ticking of my pendulum clock (with a microphone) when the pendulum has once again misaligned.

[@kaisykaisy]

Thank you very much for up loading this video, please more and more.

[@labnotes23]

+1

[@jaz5997]

I LOVE COMPUTERS!!!!!!

[@tariq729me1]

Amazing

[@SteveMacSticky]

very interesting

[@mcmaddie]

Must have been one expensive piece in the 70's that scope that could store the waveform

[@Sonnell]

Exactly. I was wondering how that could work, especially that there is a dedicated button for it.

[@Sonnell]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5jVm2eiodFrbbs This explains it. How amazing!

[@mcmaddie]

@@Sonnell Could be something like this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-view_bistable_storage_tube

[@richardgray8593]

That's called a storage scope. Typically they had low bandwidth, sometimes less than 1MHz.

[@thomasmaughan4798]

Yes, very expensive. There's a fine mesh behind the phosphor that once struck by the electron beam keeps the image alive for a while. Then you push a button to erase it.

[@labnotes23]

Nostalgic

[@hisham1269]

Showcasing magic, must have been a sensational time to live through as a scientist. Kinda jealous

[@jenix102]

Кароче напомнили мне мой 1985й год. Хотя сейчас уже 2022-0905

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

PLEASE JOIN US in Preserving Vintage Computer and Technology History with a small contribution to our channel. www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LCNS584PPN28E Your contribution greatly helps us continue to bring you educational, historical, vintage computing topics. Thank you! ~ Computer History Archives Project

[@marioe.4400]

9:30 - Was that how Woodstock sounded when no music was playing?

[@newmankidman5763]

Every technological generation tend to think of themselves as very advanced

[@briantamburelli7573]

People of the future will look at us and say; wow 2022 was very primitive.

[@newmankidman5763]

@@briantamburelli7573, yes, precisely. Sometimes I find myself wishing I could experience the technological marvel of a Million years from now. My consolation prize is watching science fiction films, which I LOVE, and are my favourite genre I was born a Million years too soon

[@richardgray8593]

@@newmankidman5763 We will have long been extinct a million years from now.

[@newmankidman5763]

@@richardgray8593, I choose not to believe so

[@richardgray8593]

@@newmankidman5763 Well, it won't matter to us, one way or the other.

[@sideburn]

Looks like vintage oscilloscope music at the end but I doubt the sound is creating the shapes…

[@ntag411]

That's an HP (Hewlett Packard) scope , I believe. The major brands of that time are largely all gone, only a shell of the entity exists today. The Cold War largely contributed to their growth, end of the Cold War caused a huge equipment surplus market and sharp fall of retail sales. Farming out the manufacturing reduced costs and increased profits. Ultimately, given many years, this causes the major brands to lose market share. Uncle Sam steps in to stop the massive bleeding with protected markets.

[@thomasmaughan4798]

Keysight appears to be the cultural offspring of the instrument branch of Hewlett-Packard. I wrestled for years with whether to get a digital oscilloscope and which one; Rigol's are good and inexpensive but I wanted something just a bit better with a real instrumentation heritage but not laboratory cost. DSOX 1202G also has a built-in signal generator good up to about 20 MHz and can do some amazing things; but I wanted not to give up any analog scope features such as variable persistence and X-Y mode. It can do all that pretty well.

[@trainliker100]

@@camodudeA51 The ones they show in quantity on scope carts in a classroom and for the demo at the very end are Tektronix. The one they use for those demos in the middle is a Hewlett Packard 180. It is the bench version. They also had a rack mount version of the 180 with the screen at the left and the two plug-ins normally below the screen instead to the right of it.

[@EfieldHfield_377]

Tek and Hp now aglient are the traditional high end scopes. The high end is joined by LeCroy and R&S. They have abandon the mid and low end markets to compete only at the high end and with it the high price. I dont buy Tek or Hp for my business they are better but not the price difference better and like most i dont need a cutting edge scope for my designs. I went to school with Tek and Hp, and both brands still push heavy in the school market trying to gain young fans. What i would tell Tek and Hp is engineers will pay more, not that much more and they are more likely to buy on value than nostalgia

[@trainliker100]

@@EfieldHfield_377 I also used some various brands professionally over a LOT of years (military, university, career) going all the way back to the huge tube type Tektronix and HP models. After that, the nice Tektronix 465B was one of my favorites that I used for a great many of my working years. The HP180 was one of my least favorite - it just felt flimsy with chintzy controls. Recently, for my home use, I bought one of the Chinese ones, a Siglent SDS1202X-E 200 MHz 2 channel scope. It is surprisingly decent and sure didn't cost much. It even came with a couple of 200 MHz probes that were also of better quality than I expected, although not top notch. (I have Tektronix probes I normally use.) For somebody looking for good used things, the Tektronix 2246A is quite nice.

[@richardgray8593]

@@trainliker100 I never thought HP scopes felt cheap, but there were a few models that didn't trigger very well.

[@jj74qformerlyjailbreak3]

I would really love to find a service manual for Dumont 2100G. 2ch 1970s scope. I received it with ch2 non functional. I’ve been on every YT channel asking for help. A year later I’m still asking. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. God Bless.

[@WizardOfAtlantis]

My pc doesn't have enough oscilloscopes.

[@svsv9]

I don't know if this the place to ask this question, it would worth if I enroll an associated in electronics (2 years Community college) in the United States?

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Ed, an Associates in Electronics degree might be a good start to several career paths. If it is a good course with some hands on experience and good reputation, that is important too. Higher level degrees like electrical engineering usually help if this is your career interest. Depends on where you want to focus your career. In the U.S., another good career, different but worth mentioning is electrician. They seem to be in high demand and make good salaries. All this is just my opinion. Hope this helps! ~ CH

[@thomasmaughan4798]

A basic or even slightly above basic understanding of electronics is helpful for many activities. It can also be fun!

[@trainliker100]

Whether it is worth it depends on your goals. For example, it could be a step toward getting a four-year degree in electronics engineering to become an electronics engineer. With a two-year degree, you are more likely to have job like electronics technician, engineering technician (work with engineers), test technician (develop automated testing systems), field service technician, telecommunications technician, and so forth. For many years, I worked at a company in California where we hired quite a few technicians from, of all places, a community college in Iowa. It seemed to have an excellent program and every single person we hired was first rate. It is "Indian Hills Community College". They have a very nice web site, and you want the section on "Electronic Engineering Technology". You could check that out, and then find similar schools and check them out, also.

[@drakefallentine8351]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I'll second that....

[@user-nj7tq8ts2v]

ок🏅

[@scratchdog2216]

lol Tests show students learn more with Tektronix scopes than the leading brand.

[@labnotes23]

Wait! Tektronix itself is a leading brand, I belv.

[@trainliker100]

Tektronix was the leading brand then.

[@scratchdog2216]

Yeah it doesn't read right. Didn't feel like fixing it. Film seems like a sales brochure aimed at high schools or colleges and I thought of that line. I had Eico and Heathkit on the brain possibly too.

[@jenix102]

Хаха, прямо 49й осциллограф советский, до 5мгц.;)

[@user-bo8eq7ki5w]

Говорят, что некоторые аппараты "Тектроникс" были примером для наших осциллографов.

[@jenix102]

@@user-bo8eq7ki5w да очень может быть. Одни из лучших аппаратов в то время

[@gustavevilleneuvedehoff-un5459]

Да по-любому через фиников заказали партию, да раздербанили парочку для анализа заморской конструкторской мысли. Ну и потом, целых 5 МГц! Ну вот сами посудите, кому в теории может понадобиться больше? :)

[@YChannelOnlineGames]

This is what they should be teaching kids in American schools. Not indoctrinating kids with a third gender besides male or female.

[@SimonBauer7]

dont they do this? or does american education not contain stuff like this, i know i learned that stuff in school in Germany

[@billgates3699]

The older a video is the more easy it is to understand. Modern crap is just some Alabama red neck acting like a kid at Disney world and still not fully grasping the concept but passing it on as “knowledge”.