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Iwatsu spectrum analyser sanity check!

Mike P

Mike P

Trade: Pickwell Audio
A couple of days ago the rational part of my character escaped me for a few moments and I bought a vintage Iwatsu spectrum analyser off ebay.

It arrived today but was very poorly packaged and has been damaged. The cast alloy metal frame which makes up the rear part of the is broken in two places, one of the remaining feet has been smashed and the rear panel dented. In fact the whole frame seems to be a bit out of alignment and will need to be straighten out. It has taken a considerable impact :(.

20210212_135220[643] by Michael Pickwell, on Flickr

Also, the trace rotation adjustment is no longer able to get the trace horizontal. In the listing you can see that the trace is nice and horizontal.

Apart from the above it seems to work OK.

I complained to the seller and they've offered me the choice of returning it for a refund or accepting a partial refund to take it in the damaged state.

What do you think? Is it worth accepting a partial refund and trying to repair it or should I bite the seller's hand off at the offer of a full refund and send it back?
 
That's a sad end to a nice bit of equipment.

TBH - these days - my criterion is 'how much do I (you) value spare time?
AKA: once you get to the bottom of the obvious fault(s), what else might lurk as a side effect...

I've done similar / I'm a sucker for wanting to fix things like this - but I think I'd just go for returning it. Sorry.
 
You're probably right Martin.

I'm a sucker for these old 'boat anchor' pieces of equipment. They just ooze quality and like Jez I simply have a preference for hardware over software. I own a Racal DANA frequency counter and Tektronix 'scope and they're both brilliantly functional and a pleasure to use. I couldn't resist the Iwatsu at the price I paid. If only they'd packaged it better! :mad:
 
Marchbanks said:
Mike, for what my opinion is worth (not much, I admit), I agree with Martin.
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Thanks for chipping in. I very much value yours and Martin's opinion.

The seller is yet to respond with his partial refund offer. If it's going to be REALLY cheap I might still keep it.
 
A tough one.... (not the frame of the SA unfortunately!). For me it would depend very much on how big the partial refund is. If you paid say £500 for it and can get £400 of that back I'd be inclined to REALLY carefully examine it, see what else may have been damaged and whether it will be possible to repair the trace control or not. If the damage is mainly cosmetic then I'd likely have it. If the seller will only refund say £50 (whatever) I'd send it back for a full refund.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
A tough one.... (not the frame of the SA unfortunately!). For me it would depend very much on how big the partial refund is. If you paid say £500 for it and can get £400 of that back I'd be inclined to REALLY carefully examine it, see what else may have been damaged and whether it will be possible to repair the trace control or not. If the damage is mainly cosmetic then I'd likely have it. If the seller will only refund say £50 (whatever) I'd send it back for a full refund.
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Thanks Jez, I was hoping you'd chime in on this.

I paid £250 (it was up for £325 but he accepted my offer), which I thought was a good deal. The seller hasn't yet given me his offer with respect to a partial refund.

The trace rotation function moves the trace still but there's not enough adjustment on the pot to get the trace horizontal. I had a similar issue with my Tek scope and it turned out to be some carbon comp resistors that had drifted way off spec.

My worry with the Iwatsu is that they're far less common and I think it'll be a struggle to get repair advice and might even be very hard to track down a copy of the manual for it.

I had a brief poke around it this afternoon and the build quality is (to my eyes) very impressive and right up there with Tektronix, HP etc etc
 
A real shame the delivery fvckwits are at it again. You shouldn't need to package something in such a way as it will withstand being dropped from head height onto concrete but there you go. Great shame as both parties now suffer. Sad.
 
Going against all the rational advice, it's looks like I'm going to be keeping it after all :eek:

So, I've now got three rather sizeable problems on my hands:

1) Explaining to my wife what the hell it is and why I need it in the house.
2) Getting hold of a copy of the service manual (I've been trying already and I can't find it anywhere).
3) Fixing it!!

Wish me luck
 
It looks a great model for audio anyway! I wasn't aware of this Iwatsu model actually... always had a hankering for an HP3580. Mine starts at 100KHz and goes up to 1500MHz so no good for audio but it gets some use for RF and tuners etc.
 
One of the main jobs I want it for is doing the MSB adjustment on vintage CD players with Burr Brown DAC chips (PCM56, 58, 64 etc). This is typically done by playing a 1KHz -60dB dithered sine wave, so an audio frequency range was essential.

I've a horrible feeling that the service manual is going to prove elusive.
 
Mike P said:
One of the main jobs I want it for is doing the MSB adjustment on vintage CD players with Burr Brown DAC chips (PCM56, 58, 64 etc). This is typically done by playing a 1KHz -60dB dithered sine wave, so an audio frequency range was essential.

I've a horrible feeling that the service manual is going to prove elusive.
Click to expand...

Have you tried Mauritron? If they still exist of course!
 
Vinny said:
There are gazillions of Iwatsu scopes and analyser service manuals online, but not any for this one that I can find.

Real long shot - maybe message the seller of this - nothing to lose - IWATSU Oscilloscope Operation Repair Service Manuals & Schematics manual s DVD | eBay
Click to expand...

Thanks Vinny, I'll have a look.

This is an ex MOD bit of equipment and came from one of those military surplus wholesalers. @Tony Lockhart do you think there's any chance in hell of acquiring a copy of the manual via the MOD or is that just a complete non-starter?
 
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