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My $150 oscilloscope purchase that turned into a paperweight | Electronics Repairers - Chatter Central

My $150 oscilloscope purchase that turned into a paperweight

Last month I bought a used oscilloscope off Facebook Marketplace for $150. Seller said it was 'lightly used' and worked perfectly. Got it home and the trace was so distorted I couldn't read squat. Spent 3 hours opening it up and found burnt resistors and a cracked solder joint on the power supply. By the time I priced replacement parts and my time, I could've just bought a new budget scope for $200. Has anyone else had bad luck with used test gear from random sellers? I'm sticking to reputable vendors from now on.

3 comments

3 Comments

juliashah3mo ago

Oh boy, here we go again with the "it's a steal if you know what you're doing" crowd. Sure, if you're a wizard with a soldering iron and have time to burn, maybe it's a fun project. But for most of us, a $150 paperweight that needs $5 in parts and 3 hours of fixing is still a $150 paperweight with extra work. I swear, some folks think every broken gadget is a hidden gem if you just squint hard enough. Glad you're joining the "reputable vendors" club - it's a lot less stressful than playing detective with burnt resistors.

victor_jones993mo ago

Fair point, I used to think the same way but you changed my mind.

cora8633mo ago

Nah, you're being too hard on the seller and yourself. $150 for a scope that just needed some basic fixing is a steal if you know what you're doing. Resistors and a solder joint are like a $5 fix if you have a soldering iron already. Sounds like you got a good deal on a quality piece of gear that just needed a little TLC, not a reason to swear off used stuff altogether. Plus, a new $200 budget scope is gonna feel like a toy compared to whatever this thing is once it's running right. You should have bought it as a fixer-upper from the start, not expected a perfect plug-and-play machine for that price.