Analog Hameg 1003-4 vs Digital Rigol DS1054Z

[Caio Negri]

Hi, I am on the market for an entry level oscilloscope and I've came across this used Hameg HM1004-3 scope. It seems to be in perfect conditions and the guy even sent me a video showing most features working. Problem is I don't know if the price is right, he's selling it for just over 1/3 of the Rigol price.

Anyone have experience with this scope and can tell me if it's a good buy? How much would you pay for decent brand fully functional analog scope?
Thanks!

[Fsck]

Brazil huh. 1/3 the price of a DS1054Z would be like 125$, a tiny bit pricey for an analog scope, but you'd have to know what your budget is, and the availability of analog scopes in your region.
I'm assuming you're starting out if you don't have a scope, they're really useful tools.

I would rather have a DS1054 than an analog 100MHz scope even at 3x the price. Fully functional now may not mean fully functional later. Someone in another thread said 1USD/1MHz scope was a decent price but of course that depends on region.

The biggest question is, can you afford a DS1054Z? If you can't get one and at least own or can purchase 2 multimeters, buy the analog scope.

[Caio Negri]

Thanks Fsck. I'ts kinda hard to communicate prices since every piece of test gear here in brazil is seriously overpriced, but with my budget I cant either buy just a new Rigol scope or a used analog scope + power supply + multimeter. For comparison, here are some of the used analog scope offers i found:

• Meguro Mo-1252a 25mhz 2ch - R$ 600.00 (looks alright)
• Hitachi V-422 40mhz 2ch - R$ 750.00 (rusty BNC connectors, yellowed plastic frame)
• Hameg HM1004-3 100mhz 2ch - R$ 1250.00 (looks brand new)
• Meguro Mo-1255 100mhz 2ch - R$ 1300.00 (yellowed plastic, buttons seem fine)

A new Rigol DS1054Z is R$ 3000.00

[Fsck]

If you're doing electronics, you can use the AN8008 or 8009 fairly safely, though it's strongly recommended you have at least one mains-capable meter.

You don't really need to buy a "real" power supply if you're starting out. You can use a wallwart/laptop charger and break it out to either the cheap ebay power supply modules or build your own. Unless of course, you find something like a tank for real cheap. (The HP 662x series come to mind as awesome, cheap, loud and super capable. The 663x are also nice.)

I have no idea how much importing would cost you, but could you field say a UT61E and 3 AN8009s (You only "need" 2, but I really don't see life without 4 meters) and still have enough for some ghetto power and a DS1054z? If you're very, very cautious, you could even just field AN8008/8009s.

[Caio Negri]

Import tax here is around 80% (on top of shipping too).
Right now I have a cheap multimeter and a "guetto" power supply like the one you described. My priorities are an oscilloscope, a second (hopefully better) multimeter, a signal generator and a decent power supply.
My idea is to buy some cheap gear to get my lab started and save enough money for a 2000 series digital scope later on.

Edit: Yes I could buy a rigol + a couple of cheap MM with all my budget.

[Adrian_Arg.]

I bought one in tequipment, in the usa, the price of the dollar in March was u $ s1 = $ 20.50 Argentines
Student price $ 330.0
Shipping u $ s 110.0
Argentine tax rate 50% = u $ s 220.0
total price = u $ s 660, the cost of the same equipment in Argentine on 03/03/2018 = u $ s 878 plus u $ s 30 of shipment.

[G0HZU]

I've got a Hameg 1003-4 scope here although I don't really use it. I salvaged it from the skip at work during a brief moment of compassion. It was bought for a specific task at work, used a few times then was unused a few years before it went in the skip. So like yours it appears as new and has probably only been powered on a handful of times in its life.

The good points are that it has 100MHz bandwidth, it is small and light and it has onscreen cursors and text and you can control it remotely via RS-232 and I think it has the classic Hameg component tester built in so you can look at caps, diodes and transistors in XY mode.

The bad points are that the CRT trace quality suffers a bit when the onscreen text/cursor mode is used. Turning the text off really isn't much of an option because if you look closely at the front panel, the timebase and vertical controls don't have scaling numbers next to them. This is a by product of the remote control capability. These controls are just rotary optical encoders with no V/div or ms/div markings. You absolutely have to have the onscreen text/cursors or you can't tell what the scope settings are (unless you are controlling it remotely of course)

Also, the various front panel controls have strange operation with shared modes on a push switch so it isn't an intuitive scope to use for a beginner. Some people will like it (especially because it is so small and light) but I don't like it at all. If I were you I'd forget the Hameg scope unless it was really cheap. I got this one for free but I think it was quite expensive when new and probably has a decent resale value because of the remote control feature. Some companies will be using these scopes with ATE software so I guess they will pay a decent price for one if they need one for production support.

Should you buy one? Only if you are really desperate for a 100MHz analogue scope and there are no other choices. Otherwise, I'll quote Father Ted...

"Run Dougal... run quite fast!" 

[Ovi4]

@ GOHZU, hi there, since you have that HM1004-3 that you said you don't really use it and that is quite a strange construction I wonder if you somehow have the schematic diagrams for it, please? I just acquired a scope recently and do not have the right kind of schematics for it to fix it. I asked R&S (UK) via email but no answer after 2 months of waiting. Se my problem is that I have a scope that is newer edition than the original 1996 model. Mine is 202 and all boards have stickers on them with revisions vastly higher. for instance, my PSU is revision 2A and the schematic I have for it is revision 1 and is vastly different so I cannot use it at all. Searching high and low on line did not yield any real results. My real and primary (suspect) problem is the readout board. The scope has no screen or controls whatsoever. At the startup, it flashes a few LEDs on the panel and Bips a couple of times and that's it. When you switch it off there is a brief flash on the screen. Looking at the rear part of the CRT I can see that the filament is lit. measuring the voltages coming out of the PSU  they are all within the ballpark (according to the silkscreen). On the readout board, there are 2    6.8 ohms resistors that look burned but test ok and a TL082C op-amp that is really hot to the touch but replacing it did not make any difference whatsoever since the new one gets hot as well. but see...without a proper schematic diagram I'm actually lurking in the dark here and might doe more damage than good.  Do you still have the scope?  Thank you.    Regards