A couple of days ago I reported that I’d let the magic smoke out of my Tek 2215 oscilloscope. I was playing around with it last Friday evening, heard some arcing, and then saw a puff of smoke exit the back of the instrument. Oddly enough, the scope still seemed to work, though.
To get some help, I joined the TekScopes Yahoo Group and described my problem. Almost immediately, I got a couple of responses. One guy suggested:
I would take a look at surge suppressor VR901 and line to neutral capacitor C901 at the AC input before the preregulator. Either could have failed without significantly affecting operation of the oscilloscope.
Another said:
I’ll wager that your Tek 2215 has a failing AC-inlet filter. Visit the following site: http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=88137, which discusses failures of Schaffner AC-inlet EMI filters due to a certain type of capacitor manufactured by Rifa…http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=69128
One commentator mentions incompatible rates of expansion between the epoxy encapsulant and the capacitor innards. Another explanation (which I like better) is that microcracks in the encapsulant allow moisture to get into the metallized paper that forms the capacitor’s innards. The innards expand, which applies stress and makes more cracks, and the deposited metallization corrodes and forms conductive compounds with the moisture. Before long…pffffft!
Neither was completely correct, but they both were close. See the photo and schematic below:
It looks like the problem is indeed a capacitor in the filter section, but my scope does not have a Schaffner AC filter, like they used on some of the earlier (and more expensive) scopes. Instead, this filter is right on the main board. I’m guessing that the 0.068 uF cap shorted out,which led to the resistor burning out.
One odd thing about troubleshooting this problem is that while it looks pretty obvious from the photo, it wasn’t that obvious right off the bat. As you can see from the schematic L925 is not on the board. Instead, it’s mounted in a little housing that sits right above these two components. I had to remove that housing before I could see them.
At any rate, now I just have to find a suitable replacement capacitor and solder it all back together.
Tim says
Thanks Mate, Same thing happened to me. Was scratching my head for a while until I read your post. Sure enough, under that transformer…RIFA…classic.
-TIm
Dan KB6NU says
Excellent! Glad I could help.