Hitachi V-1565 Goodness

After watching EEVBlog's Dave Jones "Drive Time Rant" regarding buying a real analog oscilloscope, and then his follow-up video on how easy it is to find a good one on eBay for about $50, I took up his words of advice and landed myself a Hitachi V-1565 100Mhz scope and a JDR 2000 20Mhz scope. Both were a bargain, but the Hitachi really made my heart sing. I've started playing with it and have posted a few videos below showing some basic functions that I'm figuring out as I learn how to use it. Enjoy!

Hitachi V-1565 Cursor Usage with Gabotronics AWG

 

 

Using A/B Timebase options on Hitachi V-1565



Oscilloscope Fun

I managed to pick up some electrical analog "goodness" recently in my quest to learn electronics as a hobby. Inspired by David L. Jones (of EEVBlog) and his video on how to acquire a scope on eBay, I followed his advice and bought not 1 but 2 (dare I say it) analog oscilloscopes or "CRO" as you would call it (Cathode Ray Oscilloscopes) for a measly $135! Now that is a lot of fun on the cheap for an electronics nerd.

The Hitachi V-1565 pictured first is a 2-channel 100 MHz beastie with on-screen cursor display for voltage and timebase readings, two-mode horizontal display per channel and a frequency counter. Total price with shipping (it was a "Buy It Now" item with free shipping) was a whopping $85! This scope normally goes for way more, however it was priced low because it looked beat up and was missing a handle. However, functionally it works perfectly fine. I will post my videos shortly.

 

The second oscilloscope was an "accidental" buy. It is a no-name JDR Model 2000 (Hung Chang rebrand) 2-channel 20Mhz CRO with a built-in component tester. It turns out I bid $20 for it (jokingly) figuring I would be outbid. The shipping cost on it was $30. Well the auction ended and I was the highest bidder! Total cost with shipping, $50! This scope was also listed as fully working, came with original box, practically mint condition. I have the manual and even the purchase invoice from 1987 when it was originally bought!

 

So this second scope is a Korean OEM make which was sold to many electronics and hobby store suppliers which just rebranded it with their name. No less than a dozen variations are known, and there are likely more:

 

Tenma 72-720
Elenco MO-1251
Hung Chang OS-620
Neotronics OS-620
JDR Model 2000
A-1 Electronics
AW Sperry 620C
Tenma 72-320
Dick Smith Q-1240
Aron BS-601
Degem System 112
Ramsey Model 2200

KB Electronics Model 33330