Back in the late '70s and early '80s, I used a particular oscilloscope,
a "TYPE 304 H" "CATHODE-RAY OSCILLOGRAPH" from "ALLEN B. DUMONT
LABORATORIES, INC., PASSAIC, N.J., U.S.A." (all quotes come from the
front panel markings). It worked fine then.
After sitting idle for years - probably at least a decade - I've got my
hands back on this 'scope. It doesn't quiet work, but appears to be
close.
It's an entirely vacuum-tube design; even the power-supply rectifiers
are valves rather than semiconductors, and all the wiring is
point-to-point, with terminal strips used as necessary and most
components self-supported by their leads. (I mention this to give some
idea of its age.)
When I turn it on, it appears to power up. All the filaments light as
far as I can see (the one I can't see is the CRT, and since I get some
light on the screen under some circumstances, I infer its filament is
working too). But I can't find the beam. I've set both X and Y
selectors to "off", which (based on my past experience with this
'scope) should give me a single stationary dot. If I crank the
intensity all the way up, I get vague shadowy patterns of light on the
screen, but no matter how I play with the X and Y position controls, I
can't get anything definite. The Y position control does something;
the X position control does not, as far as I can tell from watching the
screen.
What memory I retain (which may be wrong) indicates that this display
syndrome is typical of a beam which is far off-screen in one direction
or another, but doesn't give any hints for what to do if the position
controls don't work.
Any thoughts? I googled, to no avail. Since the wiring is
point-to-point, I could trace out a schematic. I will if I have to,
but I'm hoping that the above symptoms is enough for someone to point
me in a useful direction to look for the problem.
Unfortunately I have only minimal test equipment available - a
moderately-decent electromech voltmeter is about it.
Since the X position knob does nothing, I speculate that that pot has
gone bad and is, in terms of the circuit it controls, always hard over
against one margin. Does this sound plausible? I may try to find the
deflection electrodes and apply the voltmeter to them, if it has a
suitably high range (I'd not try it unless it has a range of at least a
kilovolt). Yes, it'd load the driving circuit more than it's designed
for, but glassfets are mostly pretty resistant to that sort of thing,
and the loading alone may well bring the beam back on the screen if
that's what's wrong.
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