Ed Price wrote:

"John D. Farr" wrote in message
...
It seems that if one owns the equipment, he has a right to the docs for
it.
John

Would that were true! g

Yeah, in days of old, equipment always came with at least a schematic, even
if it was glued to the inside of the wood case.

But along the way, stuff got a lot more complicated. In 1960 or so, when you
bought a Tek 555 scope, you got a full manual too, a couple of inches of
docs. But the pressure builds to trim costs, and by the 70's, you spend $15k
for an instrument, and all you get is an Operational Manual. The two-inch
thick Service Manual, with theory, parts list, diagnostic trees, and typical
waveforms is $100 extra.

If I want the full docs now for say, an HP-8566B or an HP-8471A, I better
bring a cart. There's an Operator's Manual, a Service Manual, a Programmers
Manual, and a Parts List, Spares List & Calibration Manual. And they each
fill a 3" notebook binder!

Actually, the days of big manuals may be gone already. New equipment now is
much more disposable; you don't find a master tech troubleshooting a complex
equipment. Instead, they slap on an IEEE-488 diagnostic cable, run the
factory supplied calibration and diagnostic, and, if it can't be fixed in
software, it likely gets declared too expensive to fix. Junk it!

And if you think that's gonna mean a new golden age of surplus, you're
wrong. Modern gear is more computer than anything else. There's not much you
can do when you see the signal go into a proprietary chip, and nothing comes
out. And the construction is now all surface-mount stuff, with trace spacing
so close it looks like a Moiré pattern. I defy you to probe any ONE trace.
OK, so maybe you like using a microscope. g

Ed
WB6WSN

Fine pitch surface mount isn't that hard to work on, after a little
training. You do need a steady hand, and the right tools to do good
work. I spent four years doing fine pitch surface mount PC board work,
both testing and repairing boards that make a motherboard for a PC look
simple. Because of my poor vision I had to use a stereo microscope to
see the solder bridges and solder joints that cracked while the board
was cooling in the reflow oven.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida