Tektronix 2246 Repair

Last year I had talked about how I accidentally destroyed my Tektronix 2246 oscilloscope by removing the cover. There was a small dent in the metal bottom panel that while removing it had snagged a heatsink on a Motorola 151-0846-00 labeled TO-39 transistor, specifically Q702 on the A10 main board. This ended up ripping the pins out of the transistor can leaving me with a unusable scope. Unfortunately this was not a common part and trying to locate one is next to impossible. I had attempted to use a 2N3866A with no success, the scope was definitely not happy with that transistor in it, an original replacement part would be necessary.

I did ultimately find a donor board. Late last year I found a complete used replacement board on eBay for around $40 which contained both of the 151-0846-00 labeled transistors. This option was definitely cheaper than a whole parts scope and I would hate to ruin another 2246 which may be repairable just for this one transistor. Once I replaced this transistor in my 2246 it was good as new.

I want to focus the attention now to a second Tek 2246 scope that I own with its own set of troubles. I purchased another 2246 a few years ago for cheap, I think it was only around $100. This scope had a lot more use than my original one, while it was in good cosmetic shape it had some issues mostly related to old capacitors. The display was not stable, the character generated osd and cursors would jump around and upon probing the supply rails you could see there was some noise present. A re-cap would be necessary and possibly some additional caps on the A-10 main pcb if necessary.

The 2246 main power supply is pretty basic, much more simple to work on than the Tektronix 2445B power supply which I have also done. One interesting observation upon accessing it is that all of the caps look to be large axial electrolytics:

Trktronix 2446 Power Supply

The bottom of the board told a different story, and once removing a capacitor and testing it was indeed a standard radial cap with an interesting third lead out the top that wasn't connected to anything. Maybe it was designed for additional stability? I know this scope was a popular portable model so my guess it was just some additional ruggedness built into the design. Interesting regardless, at least I can replace them with standard radial caps which are much easier to source.

Replacement caps were all Panasonic 105 degree C. units which are always my first choice, then using Nichicon capacitors in cases where the Panasonic's were not available. The final rebuilt version looked like this:

Tek 2446 Power Supply Rebuild

Quite a difference in size. For good measure I also replaced all of the high voltage film capacitors on the board, many looked stressed as they did in the 2445B. I left the large primary switching capacitor alone, they are rarely every a source of trouble. Everything else looked okay.

This is where things started to get interesting. After putting everything together and powering the scope back up, I had strange display issues. The entire display was shifted left. I started looking around to see if I had missed a cable or possibly had a connector loose during the reassembly but didn't see anything obvious. This scope was working just fine before the power supply rebuild so this issue was definitely something that I caused. At this time I went to turn the scope over on its side while powered up that the display snapped back into alignment. After some more poking around I realized that if I put pressure on the chassis, twisting it just lightly I could get the display back in alignment. So it must be a bad ground, loose connector, bad solder joint, or some other mechanical failure where putting pressure on the chassis would complete whatever broken connection was occurring. It will just be a matter of tracing down where the issue is at. More to come in part II.

Tektronix 2445B Capacitor Replacement

Due to the fact that my Tektronix 2246 is currently out of commission (although parts are on the way as I did find a parts unit 2246 scope) I have focused my attention to my other favorite Tektronix scope, the 2445B. I primarily use my 2246 as it was the first 'real' scope I purchased about 10 years ago and is a rock solid analog scope. A few years back I came across a 2445B for a good price and have used it mostly for portable use as it is slightly smaller than my 2246. My 2445B also has Tektronix calibration stickers intact from 2002 indicating at least that no one has been inside mucking around with it.

My specific 2445B is the 150Mhz version and is in excellent condition although there have always been a few issues. The on screen display would jump around and not have a clear focus regardless of the focus adjustment and other internal astig calibration controls. When changing volts or time functions there would also be erratic display behavior. Knowing that the scope was over 20 years old and has unknown operational hours, I decided to start with a full capacitor replacement of the power supply. Electrolytic capacitors do go bad over time from several factors, so replacing them is a common step in all old electronic equipment.

The first step is to take it apart and inspect it. I will say the 2445B is one of the better scope designs I have worked on from Tektronix. The design is very modular with the power supply being very easy to access. Once removed, the power supply pulled apart into two boards shown here:

Tektronix 2445B Power Supply

There are quite a few caps between the two boards, luckily most are radial caps and not axial. As I began inspecting the caps themselves I was surprised to see that some were rated for only 85 Degrees C instead of the higher 105 Degrees C rating. I also noticed that some were definitely showing some 'bulging' which is usually indicative of high heat and ultimate failure, although none were leaking. Some other things I noticed were that all of the high voltage film capacitors looked stressed. They had slightly bulged as well and had crack marks on their casings. A few resistors also looked bad including two 15 Ohm ones within the surge protection circuitry in the line level input stage. One had actually blow open and had a physical crack in it.

Additionally looking at the A5 Control pcb I noticed that there were four surface mount electrolytic capacitors on it. I learned how leaky these caps can be after a complete Tek TDS-420 restoration which needed a total of about 75 of them replaced. Looking closely at the board I could already see they were leaking and causing corrosion to traces, so they would be replaced as well.

Tek 2445B A5 Control PCB Caps

Ultimately I decided to replace every capacitor on the power supply boards and the four smd caps on the control pcb. I would leave the caps on the A1 main pcb alone for now as they are primarily low voltage and would be considerably more work to replace. If there was still issues post-recap I would then consider replacing them as well.

For electrolytic capacitors I always go with Panasonic 105 Degrees C units. I will use Nichicon 105 C unit if a Panasonic value is not available. The film capacitors were replaced with Kemet units which were actually also the originally spec'd components. I upped the blown 15 ohm resistors to 3W units. For those interested in re-capping their own Tek 2445B (or variants) here is my Digikey parts list:

Quantity	Part Number	Description
6	P13476-ND	CAP ALUM 100UF 25V 20% RADIAL
2	P13125-ND	CAP ALUM 47UF 25V 20% RADIAL
4	P13123-ND	CAP ALUM 330UF 25V 20% RADIAL
2	P13131-ND	CAP ALUM 220UF 50V 20% RADIAL
1	P13465-ND	CAP ALUM 4.7UF 50V 20% RADIAL
1	P5874-ND	CAP ALUM 3.3UF 450V 20% RADIAL
4	P10769-ND	CAP ALUM 10UF 100V 20% RADIAL
4	493-10252-1-ND	CAP ALUM 1UF 50V 20% RADIAL
2	P15W-3BK-ND	RES 15 OHM 3W 5% AXIAL
1	989-1206-1-ND	RES 270K OHM 3W 1% AXIAL
2	P4639-ND	CAP FILM 0.068UF 250VAC RADIAL
1	399-7494-ND	CAP FILM 10000PF 250VAC RADIAL
2	399-5410-ND	CAP FILM 2200PF 250VAC RADIAL
1	EF2563-ND	CAP FILM 0.056UF 250VDC RADIAL
2	UKL1E101KPDANA-ND	CAP ALUM 100UF 25V 10% RADIAL
2	PCE3777CT-ND	CAP ALUM 33UF 10V 20% SMD
2	PCE3833CT-ND	CAP ALUM 10UF 35V 20% SMD
2	493-1421-ND	CAP ALUM 330UF 250V 20% RADIAL

Most of the Tektronix 24NN family (2445, 2455, 2465, 2467, etc) has the exact same power supply, so the component list above should apply to all. Here are the rebuilt power supplies once all components arrived:

Tek 2445B Capacitor Replacement

Once completed there were about 45 components in total that needed to be replaced. While the large Sprague 290uF caps were probably were fine I replaced them for good measure anyway.

Tek 2445B Capacitors

All completed and reassembled my 2445B has a beautiful display and extremely sharp digital readouts. I don't see any need to replace the A1 pcb caps at this time but will still consider it for the future. With a total component cost of $31 and about two hours of time I would recommend this rebuild for any original 24NN scope.

Rebuilt Tektronix 2445B

Radio Telescope Power Supply - Progress

Today I received my power supply boards for the RF frond end of my radio telescope. Due to the number of amplifiers and the voltage requirements of my downconverter, I needed a supply that provided a stable and clean +5V, +10V, +12V, +15V, and adjustable 8V to 15V output.

Current requirements on all outputs is very small (less then 20mA at each respected output) with exception of the 12V supply which powers the mini-circuits ZRL-2400LN low noise amplifier. It has a 350mA @ 12V requirement so I have utilized the aluminum enclosure to sink some heat off of the 12V regulator. I slightly miscalculated the boards size for the aluminum enclosure I had chosen to use for it. Due to the mounting standoffs inside the case, I was not able to mount the board flush against the side of the enclosure... although it was nothing a band saw couldn't fix. All voltage outputs are passed through the enclosure using feed through capacitors.

There is nothing really exciting about this supply other than the fact that it is now completed. Power supplies are probably the least exciting components of any project to build, even though their importance and stability are critical. Now that it is completed I can install it on the back of my RF frontend and start prepping the actual mount for the dish.

Here is the final assembled board mounted in its shielded enclosure: