Advance Bryans DSO1526 Oscilloscope – Am I on my own with bookwork?

[Chris55000]

Hi!

Does anybody know anything about this Advance Bryans DSO1526 Oscilloscope that I pulled the trigger on this morning, or am I totally on my own regarding bookwork for it?

I've certainly never seen anything like this before – it doesn't look like any repairs are necessary with this, and I'd estimate the Gould OS4000 is going to be the nearest similar type I'll find a book for!

It is totally British in design and appearance, one giveaway is the blue 4 mm Cal Socket of "Cliff" manufacture – it was almost only British T & M manufacturers that used these!

If anybody can point me in the direction of any information it'd give my manual project for this a start!

Chris Williams

[Chris55000]

PS!

I've been through all the known images of Gould Oscilloscopes and it's certainly not a simple re–badge – none of the Advance/Gould DSOs or standard Oscilloscopes have a front panel layout like this, and it doesn't look like anything out of Sandbeck Way, Farnell's T & M birthplace either!

Telford Electronics have nothing for it!

The only thing I did find was a coloured "Tick Reply Card for further details" advertisement page in W.W. magazine, (several issues 1986 and 1987) that said it was 20 MHz analogue or 2 MHz Digital Bandwidth, and that "four models with various plotter output options were available".

Chris Williams

[ortek_service]

If you have a look under 1986 year here, it tells you a bit about the history of Advance-Bryans: https://advanceproductservices.co.uk...s/our-history/

(Who I'd not heard of, but knew of Advance, then Gould Advance).

It seems some of it ended up being bought by Farnell, then sold to APC-USA, who seemed to just close most of it down.
But maybe Farnell Instruments did sell that 'scope for a while
- does yours have any dates on it ?

[Chris55000]

Hi!

I've not received it yet but from the original pictures provided by the seller I can see no dates externally on it!

The only clue I have as to its age is the Wireless World Magazine advert about 1985–1987 where you send off a reply–paid card for further details!

I live in hope that it comes with a manual not mentioned by the seller but I fear that's a pious hope – sellers are pretty good at showing/mentioning bookwork these days!

Chris Williams

[Chris55000]

Hi!

I dismantled the Oscilloscope for investigation today and the first thing to catch my eye was a huge 32 pin white ceramic module with "Intron Instruments DSO–0522–A" printed on it, about which I found absolutely nothing, on the Digital Storage PCB mounted above the CRT, on this are a great many presets, totally devoid of any indication of what they do!

There is the dual Y Channel Signal PCB mounted vertically to the right of the CRT, then three small PCBs with potentiometers and switchbanks fitted to the front panel, and the long PCB at the Rh end of the chassis contains the TB, trigger and some of the X deflection circuits.

The EPROM on the RS232 interface PCB was dated June 1986.

A large PCB in the bottom contains the X and Y deflection amplifier stages, and the toroidal mains transformer is on the rear chassis with a small linear PSU bolted over the iop of it.

Phone camera not working at the moment but this link refers:–

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/intron...scope_dso.html

There's seven pages of schematic shown on the RM page but it's quite obvious even by looking at the tiny "thumbnails" none of the Digital Storage circuits are there!

Chris Williams

[barrymagrec]

I used to pass the Bryans Southern Instruments factory in Willow Lane Mitcham frequently - some history here:-

https://mitchamhistorynotes.com/2016/10/06/bryans/

[That Tall Chap]

Hi Barry,

A long shot but I’m trying to pin down the building that Bryan’s were in in Willow Lane. My father used to work for them and retired around 1982/83, by then they’d been bought by the US company Gould I believe.

Many thanks