Hi all,

After my TDS8000 eBay bargain turned out to be a nicely working unit, I’m now looking for the expensive part, a Tektronix 80E04 sampling head.

I know those modules are for sale on sites like eBay, where they for 3K, 4K or even higher, if you filter out the broken ones.. But what do you guys consider a fair price for such a device?

If anyone has one for sale; please please let me know !

If you do a Google search on "TDS8000" ... and click on 'images'... you will see that... about 90%... of those pictures show the TDS8000 frame sans the 'heads"
Now why is that?
I reckon... the heads are way more valuable then the frame.
That's just exactly my experience.
Having some working 'heads' ... it's relatively inexpensive to acquire a frame.
The other way around... not so much.
By the way... what does one do with just a TDS8000... without a 'head?'
One answer would be...if you are cynical... sell it on Ebay.
--
Roy Thistle

Yes I understand and totally agree.

But, that doesn't answer my original question, what would a fair price be ? ;)

Well, one just sold on epay for approximately $5K. The '04 is a TDR
sampler. If you just want a sampler, I suggest you try for the 80E02. The
bandwidth is 12.5 GHz.

(TDR samplers will be more expensive than just samplers b/c they have the
pulse generator built in)



On Sun, Dec 29, 2024 at 11:02 AM Wevie via groups.io <gerbenwevers=
gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

Yes I understand and totally agree.

But, that doesn't answer my original question, what would a fair price be
? ;)

Well, those are expensive birds, mostly because of the hybrid frontends.
But you still can buy a non-functional one for $200 - $500.

A typical 8x00 series plugin contains a hybrid frontend where the actual
sampler is, and supporting backend with sample-and-hold / amplification/
offsetting/ calibration logic.

From my experience one of the common issues is not a hybrid frontend, it is
a burned backend's sample-and-hold/variable gain amplifier/sampler offset
management chip. Similar to the Tek-687/8000 trigger, it is heat-loaded
and contains a heat sink pad which is supposed to be well soldered to the
PCB, which seems to not always be the case. I tried to request it from
Tektronix with no success (of course!). So I just reworked it with a
daughter pcb. It worked, but did not pass calibration; I have to find time
to complete it. Just look for schematics of older samplers, where it is
available, there is not much conceptual difference. Newer 8000 plugins do
not have that chip; they use AD783 sample-and-hold and a bunch of
OA/comparators.

-Andrei