I recently bought an old (about 1975) service manual for a Tektronix
scope. I ended up giving it to a guy when I gave away the old scope,
but the manual was a thing of beauty. It had complete schematics with
many voltage test points labeled with max,min, and typical voltages.
Even had typical scope waveforms for various relevant test points.

There were also cute little cartoons drawn in the schematic (which was
hand-drawn but of exceptional quality), sorta like "Easter eggs"
hidden for the reader to find.

There were also many pages of circuit operation description.

I have never seen anything like it for a modern product. The closest
thing would be the 3rd party service manual I have for my 2001 Honda
Accord, which is a joke by comparison with the old Tek manual (i.e.,
it is full of errors and doesn't address some rather obvious
questions).

On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 9:02 AM, apptech <apptech@paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>
> Part of the awesome aura of the long ago & then great Hewlett Packard was
> that their manuals included highly detailed circuit diagrams of their
> equipment complete with detailed BOMs. Memory even suggests they may have
> had a circuit operation description. And for arcane magic the HP hournal
> described in great detail what they did and why and how. "Copy us if you
> can" seemed to be the challenge.
>
> Alas, those days are gone and HP are just another bunch of consumer
> exploiters. Not terrible products, usually, but the glory days have gone.
>
>
>
>          RM
>
>
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