With so many cheap oscilloscopes out there, the market for old units isn’t what it used to be. But if you have a really old scope, like the Heathkit O-10 that [Ken] found in his basement, there is vintage cred to having one. [Ken’s] didn’t work, so a repair session ensued. You can see the results in the video below.
You can tell this is in an old scope — probably from the mid 1950s — because of its round tube with no graticle. Like many period scopes, the test probe input was just 5-way binding posts. The O-10 was the first Heathkit “O-series” scope that used printed circuit boards.
The device looked pretty good inside, except for a few dents. Of course, the box has tubes in it, so every power up test involves waiting for the tubes to warm up. [Ken] was very excited when he finally got a single green dot on the screen. That did, however, require a new CRT.
It wasn’t long after that he was able to put a waveform in and the scope did a good job of reproducing it. The unit would look good in an old movie, but might not be the most practical bench instrument these days.
These Heathkit scopes and their cousins were very popular in their day. The $70 price tag sounds cheap, but in the mid-1950s, that was about a month’s rent in a four-room house. While primitive by today’s standards, scopes had come a long way in 9 or 10 years.
Used to see those Heathkit units at the larger flea markets, rather often.
I think some of them were eventually tossed by the dumpster on Sunday and then someone else just grabbed it for the next weekend. Ad infinitum. Thus I probably wasn’t seeing as many as I first thought. People wanting 50~80 dollars for them.
Sometimes crusty/ashy, looked like they had been stored in an idled poultry barn or leaky trailer. Gotta love those Craigslist/Flea market guys that will scrub anything with “purple/green cleaner” and then spray it with tire & wheel shine.
I’ve got one I scored from a hamfest, a bit older than the one here but a 10mhz Heathkit. Came with free cobwebs and dead spiders!
I have one sitting on my shelf. I have opened the case to look at the wiring and tubes. it needs a cleaning and there is at least one wire which needs to be replaced. It runs through the whole device and is very very corroded.
I rescued one of these from the trash. The great thing about them is that their calibration is as good today as it was when they were new.