$200 Oscilliscope, Any recommendations please?

[Azhar]

I need to buy an Oscilloscope, my budget is $200, are there any scopes that you recommend?
I need a simple 2 channel scope that do the basic stuff.
thanks 

[tautech]

This is the cheapest in the Siglent range if you can stretch to a new DSO for a little more than your budget.
http://www.siglentamerica.com/pdxx.aspx?id=26&T=2&tid=1

You can get a EEVblog members discount to buy from Saelig.
Ask for the discount code in this thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/equipment-discounts-from-saelig/

[Muttley Snickers]

The price of $239 on the Siglent seems like a fair deal providing you live in the US, not quite the same ballpark if you need to buy it locally down here though.   

Trio Test/ Siglent.
http://www.triotest.com.au/shop/siglent/2948-siglent-sds1052dl-50mhz-2-channel-widescreen-oscilloscope.html

Unfortunately as far as a new scope goes you probably wont get much more than a toy down here for $200, some of the Hanteks, Attens/ Grattens go for a little over $300 on Ebay but be careful where you buy one because if found to be faulty or dead on arrival then you might have to pay the postage back overseas just to claim a refund, Paypal required me to send a small item back to Asia using the most expensive postage method they could dream up yet it arrived via the cheapest method possible from interstate.

As an example these types of listings below deserve special attention and can be a serious trap for the uninitiated, the items location states Riverwood, NSW, Australia but if the parent Ebay account holder is located elsewhere then that's where the item needs to be returned according to Paypal, this happened in my case with a Hobby King deception so always verify where the item is truly located, where it is to be returned to and any other terms involved even if shipped from what may appear to be a local region.

[danadak]

One way to consider is older Tek 7000 series. You start by getting the
mainframe + amp + timebase plugins.

The advantage is the broad selection of plugins you can buy as necessary,
like high gain diff amp, counter, digitizer, spectrum, sampling....very flexible.

This approach does not have the sophisticated math and trigger system of a modern
scope, but when used in conjunction with a modern scope very useful.


http://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/Main_Page



Regards, Dana.

[vk6zgo]

If your budget is $200,the best general purpose unit you will get will be a secondhand analog 'scope.

The US$400  DSOs often mentioned in this forum get a lot closer to $A700 when you take exchange rates,freight & so on into account.
The days of the "mighty Oz" being at,& above parity with the greenback are long gone!

Unfortunately  many eBay sellers,seeing this increase in cost for new DSOs, have also increased their prices for old 'scopes to quite absurd levels.

There are still some Oscilloscopes on eBay for sensible prices,though,& there are other sources.
Look for Hamfests in your area----they often have a good selection of older test equipment,but  sometimes don't.

The advantage of Hamfests & other such "swapmeet" style meetings is that you can ask to see the device operating.
Don't blow all the $200 if you possibly can find a ;scope at around $150 or under.

[tggzzz]

If your budget is $200,the best general purpose unit you will get will be a secondhand analog 'scope.

Make sure it is a working scope. Ignore any ebay or other adverts that don't show a waveform on every channel. My rule of thumb, here, is £1/MHz for a low end scope.

For debugging poorly controlled digital signals, 100MHz and higher is preferable. A 20MHz scope can be used for simple well-behaved digital signals (i.e. no signal integrity problems), and for mechatronics.

Don't forget that probes are an integral part of making every measurement. Even cheap/grotty probes will cost as much as a low-end scope.

[CraigHB]

Yes $200 is a bit on the low side.  You'd have to go with something used.  I have a Rigol DSO which cost around 400 USD new.  I'm pretty happy with it, though I would like to buy a new once since mine is older and the newer ones have bigger displays.  Probably just get another one in the same price range. 

An analog scope can do most of what you need, but there are some things an analog scope can't do a DSO is really handy for.  I actually had an analog scope for the longest time until I finally got the scope I have now.  Though now that I've been using it a few years I wouldn't want to go back to analog.  A DSO's ability to store waveforms is actually a big help.

[Azhar]

thanks guys, that was helpful

[james_s]

What kind of stuff do you want to do with it? Do you need a DSO or would an analog scope work for you? It's hard to go wrong with Tektronix, one of my favorite scopes is the 465B, it's old now but still a very capable instrument and a nice one should be able to be had for $200 or less. Ideally look for one that includes a couple of probes, those can be expensive.

[rstofer]

I don't know anything about the used equipment market in Australia but here in the US, I bought a used 350 MHz Tek 485 for just $200 about 13 years ago.
In looking at eBay today, the prices are around the same with a few very overpriced exceptions.  I don't know enough scopes to recommend any particular model but you can search eBay for '100 MHz Oscilloscope' and find MANY scopes including some from GW Instek.  But that's over here...

[Brumby]

I don't know anything about the used equipment market in Australia but here in the US, I bought a used 350 MHz Tek 485 for just $200 about 13 years ago.
In looking at eBay today, the prices are around the same with a few very overpriced exceptions.  I don't know enough scopes to recommend any particular model but you can search eBay for '100 MHz Oscilloscope' and find MANY scopes including some from GW Instek.  But that's over here...

The Australian market is nowhere near that.

The population comparison between the USA and Australia is around 15:1 - and the used equipment market would be at least that squared, IMO.  Add to that the premium we pay for being where we are and the chances for good deals on good equipment are vary rare.

I'm sure anybody from Australia visiting the USA that is shown the best places to look, would want a small container to bring back the gear they would like to grab.

[Brumby]

Unfortunately as far as a new scope goes you probably wont get much more than a toy down here for $200, some of the Hanteks, Attens/ Grattens go for a little over $300 on Ebay but be careful where you buy one because if found to be faulty or dead on arrival then you might have to pay the postage back overseas just to claim a refund, Paypal required me to send a small item back to Asia using the most expensive postage method they could dream up yet it arrived via the cheapest method possible from interstate.

I know it's an older post - and I don't know when you had to do the return - but did you know of this?...
https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/returns
It was introduced as a trial mid 2015 IIRC and was made permanent later that same year.

Seems it's still active.

[lordvader88]

If you are lucky, u can get a decent 1980-2000 era 1,  working in good shape from ebay for >200.

I sort of did, for 200 CAD, at the time maybe 170USD


Without having read the above, I say hold and save your money. Then buy a 500-1200 scope

I would like a ? can't remember, but it will cost me +1200, perhaps this summer.

[lordvader88]

hEY ALSO FOR $18usd, i JUST ORDERED A DSO138 oscilloscope, from ebay.

It's a MINI / POCKET OSCILLOSCOPE,  so will go very nice next to my DMMs. So it will very nicely provide a VISUALIZATION of stuff under 200kHz(and really less but thats fine)

My 2nd hand, ch1 broken, $200 scope still lays in pieces

I worry because I never labeled all the screws, so I have a few I'm not sure where they will go

[Brumby]

hEY ALSO FOR $18usd, i JUST ORDERED A DSO138 oscilloscope, from ebay.

It's a MINI / POCKET OSCILLOSCOPE,  so will go very nice next to my DMMs. So it will very nicely provide a VISUALIZATION of stuff under 200kHz(and really less but thats fine)

I got a kit version of that and made it up.  It works - but don't expect too much from it and you might be OK with it.

[daybyter]

http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?t=107