{"id":3541,"date":"2011-01-20T18:02:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T00:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=3541"},"modified":"2022-12-28T14:54:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T22:54:31","slug":"tips-for-finding-test-equipment-service-manuals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/tips-for-finding-test-equipment-service-manuals\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for finding test equipment service manuals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2009:10:01<\/p>\n

When I buy a piece of electronic test equipment, the first thing I do is turn it on and see if it works. \u00a0This is the moment of truth: was that awesome eBay find the killer deal I thought it was? \u00a0(Hint: If it’s missing case screws and came with no packing material, probably not.)<\/p>\n

Sometimes, everything works out and I have a shiny new piece of test gear for bottom dollar. \u00a0Often, things don’t work out quite as expected. \u00a0Luckily, test equipment is often made to be fixed.<\/p>\n

To fix it, I need a service manual.<\/p>\n

This means that with my luck, more often than not, the second thing I do is try to track down the service manual for my new semi-functional piece of test equipment. \u00a0Even if the it’s not broken, I’ll usually try to get a service manual anyway; often the service manual doubles as a user manual and I need to figure out how to use special features, find specs, etc.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself in a similar\u00a0situation, here are some tips for finding test equipment manuals:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If it’s a fairly new piece of test equipment, chances are the manufacturer will have a manual on their website, usually in pdf format. \u00a0For example, Agilent has lots of manuals online<\/a>, but unfortunately, anything over 20 years old is probably not listed. \u00a0Other vendors are better about archiving old manuals. \u00a0I have had very good luck getting old Fluke manuals on their\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Google<\/a> is your friend. \u00a0Are you feeling lucky? \u00a0Some manuals are easy to find, like this one for the\u00a0HP 3312A Function Generator<\/a>. \u00a0 \u00a0The first link that isn’t an ad goes right to it. \u00a0Easy!<\/li>\n
  3. There are several free service manual repositories on the web. \u00a0These can be very hard to find when you need them (spammy links from manual vendors sometimes derail your search). \u00a0 I have started keeping track of free sources for test equipment manuals<\/a> on the wiki. \u00a0If you are looking for the manual for a fairly common piece of HP\/Agilent or Tektronix gear, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find it for free on one of the sites listed.<\/li>\n
  4. As a last resort, consider paying for an electronic copy of the manual. \u00a0Beware of vendors who are simply downloading readily available manuals for free and selling them to you. \u00a0Use eBay with caution. \u00a0 The wiki now includes a list of reputable service manual vendors<\/a>. \u00a0The only vendor I have used is Artek Media<\/a>. \u00a0They have very reasonable prices and great support. \u00a0At $5-$10 a pop, sometimes it’s easier to just buy the manual than scour the web for hours, so it’s nice to be able to trade laziness for dollars.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Usually by step 3 I have the manual I need, so I rarely have to pay for a copy, but it’s nice to know that most obscure manuals can be had for a few dollars.<\/p>\n

    I hope these tips keep more old test equipment running – remember they don’t make ’em like they used to!<\/p>\n

    If any readers have more sources for manuals to add, please leave a comment or add them to the wiki<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When I buy a piece of electronic test equipment, the first thing I do is turn it on and see if it works. \u00a0This is the moment of truth: was that awesome eBay find the killer deal I thought it was? \u00a0(Hint: If it’s missing case screws and came with no packing material, probably not.) … Continue reading Tips for finding test equipment service manuals<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40,5],"tags":[298,370,223,313],"class_list":["post-3541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-and-resources","category-electronics","tag-hp","tag-service-manuals","tag-test-equipment","tag-wiki"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-V7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2492,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/test-equipment-pr0n-the-hp-3312a\/","url_meta":{"origin":3541,"position":0},"title":"Test Equipment Pr0n: The HP 3312A","author":"Jeff","date":"November 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I purchased an HP 3312A 12MHz function generator for the lab.\u00a0 After living without a decent signal source for years, I figured that it would bepo handy to have a good general purpose function generator around.\u00a0 A quick visit to eBay and a few clicks later,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"HP 3312A Repairs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3972661321_e1b719d909.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2777,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/photos-of-the-black-hole\/","url_meta":{"origin":3541,"position":1},"title":"Photos of The Black Hole","author":"Jeff","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Last May, my brother and I went on a week-long roadtrip across the US.\u00a0 Ambling down the highway in a very large moving truck, we travelled from California to Texas by way of\u00a0 Tuscon, Socorro, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and quite a few rest stops, gas stations, and fast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Black Hole","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3516374199_6467b52aba.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2997,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/getting-settled-in-austin\/","url_meta":{"origin":3541,"position":2},"title":"Getting settled in Austin","author":"Jeff","date":"August 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We made it! \u00a0Driving a moving truck almost 2000 miles across America was no picnic (it gets HOT in Arizona) but ~4 days of travel were relatively uneventful (only one flat tire!). Pretty much everything made it intact, including a few hundred pounds of lab benches and equipment. \u00a0(Note to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"austin\"","block_context":{"text":"austin","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/tag\/austin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Welcome to Texas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/4854209166_17010d5b41.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3522,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/alis-surplus-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":3541,"position":3},"title":"Ali’s Surplus Stuff","author":"Jeff","date":"January 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the holidays I had a chance to visit Ali's Surplus Stuff in Sacramento, CA. This is my kind of place. \u00a0Surplus electronics piled from floor to ceiling. \u00a0Lots of oscilloscopes and useful stuff mixed in with bizarre industrial equipment. Lots of cool rack-mounted equipment here. \u00a0Lots of push-buttons too.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Resources"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Resources","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/books-and-resources\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ali's Surplus Stuff","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/5292042735_4c04635c0e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3655,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/surplusgizmos\/","url_meta":{"origin":3541,"position":4},"title":"SurplusGizmos","author":"Jeff","date":"February 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was visiting Portland last month, I made a quick stop at\u00a0SurplusGizmos in Hillsboro. SurplusGizmos is what an electronics store should be, and it's the kind of place that I love to visit. \u00a0It's also the kind of electronics store that is completely nonexistant in Austin (oh, my beloved\u00a0HSC,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SurplusGizmos","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/5439327183_2955aa7d1b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2476,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/guess-the-cable-length-to-win-stickers\/","url_meta":{"origin":3541,"position":5},"title":"Guess the cable length to win stickers!","author":"Jeff","date":"October 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1: An HP 3312A function generator is connected to an Agilent DSO1014A oscilloscope via a length of coaxial cable.\u00a0 The function generator is set to generate a square wave of frequency 1MHz. Based on the screen capture below, what is the length of the coax cable? The first person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Unterminated Cable","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/10v_unterm.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3541"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15919,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541\/revisions\/15919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}