Servicing A Mid-'50s Heathkit Model OL-1 Oscilloscope

[@markmarkofkane8167]

I'm glad this is on. Something to watch on a dull Saturday.

[@bigalsmallengines]

I had a great time watching. I like the old test equipment. It may not be as good as the modern stuff, but I just like the looks of the units. They are like works of art to me. Cheers! 🍻

[@tarstarkusz]

The post office is one of the very few things the government does that it is specifically authorized to do in the Constitution.

[@daleburrell6273]

...that's the TRUTH...

[@chrishoffman6537]

TVRPN, some of us listen just to hear you in an irritable mood

[@BrianG-x4u]

Brian is down on the flippers. I bought a old scope on ebay it was just thrown into an old cardboard box with some wadded up newspapers. Probably it was bought by a flipper just to make a fast buck.

[@kd5ozy]

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@LanceHall]

RadioTVphonoRant

[@danielknepper6884]

Bryan​@@BrianG-x4u

[@dh-_1011]

I’ve bought a bunch of those old Heathkit scopes over the years. Most had Mullard AX7’s, AT7’s etc. I thought the same as you, goldmine!

[@r.dsvintagetuberadiotvsand3140]

heathkits are always fun to work on

[@billmyke746]

$40 is a good number for that radio.

[@Radiowild]

There's lots "O" old test equipment here in "Joisey", but no one seems to care about preserving it. Great video!

[@radio-ged4626]

These old scopes are ideal to convert into a curve tracer for testing the reverse breakdown/avalanche point of semiconductors.

[@tarstarkusz]

The whole electronics repair industry was doomed in the early 1960s. The problem is there was always too much wage and currency differences between america and Japan. Stuff that was made here was expensive and so repairs were worth it. Stuff made elsewhere was cheap and not worth repairing. You could pay to get your radio repaired at the repair shop, or at a slightly higher price, buy a brand new one. This is precisely why nothing is repairable today. It just costs too much money because the repair shop has american costs. American salaries. American taxes. American utility costs. You buy a TV for 150 bucks. It fails 3 years later and a brand new TV is 129 or you can pay 60 bucks to have the 3 year old model, which will fail again, or just buy a new one.

[@hestheMaster]

If you are going to replace the 6X4 tube with a solid state rectifier configuration then put a proper fuse in it. Not a fan of reforming old electrolytic caps. They just tend to be a short term fix. Don't ignore checking the resistor's either as they were bought cheaply by Heathkit!

[@senilyDeluxe]

Long story short don't use reformed caps in anything that you don't have immediate access to. I got pretty decent luck using reformed capacitors long term. Of course it doesn't always work or keep working, but there's a few monitors at my local arcade museum running on 50yo NOS caps for over a year without trouble. YMMV. Once I had to fix a 1952 tube radio (with FM!) where the mains filter cap was leaky at 5V, but I could hear it reform. I slowly brought it up to 30V with my lab supply which took a couple minutes, after that it was fine on 5V and had decent ESR. So just for fun I hooked it up to mains through a resistor and a diode. It took two friggin days to reform. But it came out great! Virtually no filter hum and it stays stone cold.

[@davidhamm5626]

Very interesting repairs. I have a few cera-mite .1 mfd, 2k volt caps that I could put in the mail for you .

[@tomthackston1442]

I know that Fred Sanford likes ripple.

[@wdavem]

This is much like the Eico 430 I was given by my tech mentor when I was starting out as a kid. I had only that for 4 or 5 years, I did about everything that could be done with it, including wave forms for music videos. Then the busted Navy tektronix was bequiffed to me for $200 as a half off sale. I really should get that working right 20 years later. It's storage screen took a hit, rogue wave maybe!?

[@tomthackston1442]

That sounds juicy!

[@steveedwards4868]

do you still have that hallicrafters sky chief in your shed i would like to see that radio --thanks for your great vids

[@tarstarkusz]

Do you do any cabinet restoration? I cannot remember ever seeing you upload a cabinet restoration.

[@hestheMaster]

Bryan has poor eyesight and doesn't drive a car . We are lucky to get electronics repair videos from him alone. Happy just for that.

[@tarstarkusz]

@@hestheMaster I'm just asking, not criticizing.