P6015/Repairs

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Possible replacement gas filling

For the P6015 non-A version, a replacement for the CFC-114 filling gas that is no longer available is needed.

Several options have been suggested:

Mineral oil

Compensation range may be insufficient - see below; tbd

Low-viscosity silicone

Dow Corning Xiameter PMX-561 has been suggested (R.E.Beverly III and associates AN-108, Dielectric Replacement in Tektronix P6015 HV Probes). The compensation circuit needs to be adapted to allow for the higher capacitance.

Butane (lighter gas)

Dielectric strength may not be sufficient, and obviously the gas is flammable.

HFC236-FA

https://groups.io/g/TekScopes/topic/30956868:

HFC236-FA has almost precisely the same characteristics as R114 (boiling point and vapour pressure), is environmentally friendly, and is used both as a refrigerant (a R114 replacement) and in fire extinguishers. So it should be a perfect solution to keeping the P6015 up and running.

R144 has a permittivity/dielectric constant of ≈2 as a liquid and near 1 as a gas.