Best Digital Scope for $100

[SixD]

I dont know what the best digital scope for $100 is. So please post good $100 scopes here.

[dr.diesel]

Dave has a TDS220 he might be willing to sell cheap?


 

[Asim]

Dave has a TDS220 he might be willing to sell cheap?


 

Can't you see he is a kid, give him a break

[Bobajake]

Are we talking $100 american? cause the only scopes you can get for that are used analog ones...

[dr.diesel]

Are we talking $100 american? cause the only scopes you can get for that are used analog ones...

Used analog scopes are still very useful, no shame in old analog.

[Bobajake]

yeah in fact i just posted my first post, asking anyone if they wanted to sell me their old analog scope.. 

[Clear as mud]

I'm still making do with an old analog scope that I purchased for $120.  I didn't remember how much I paid for it, but the model is so rare that when I did a recent web search to find information on it, one of the only relevant search results was the ad from the seller in 2001, from whom I bought it.  I read the old ad and said to myself, "Oh yeah, I remember that!"

I would like a better oscilloscope now - I'll to add it to my Christmas wish list.

[Clear as mud]

To address your question: As already mentioned, usually you can only get used analog oscilloscopes for that price.  You might get lucky and find a digital one at a university surplus auction, but a lot of times professional resellers come to those and drive the price up higher than the part-time hobbyist can afford.

I just remembered having seen software that turns your computer into an oscilloscope using the sound card as an input.  I found a couple of threads about it:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/sound-card-oscilloscopes/msg172148/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/pc-sound-card-oscilloscope/msg69517/
It looks like the consensus is that the performance would be horrible compared to a real 'scope.

[edy]

I think we need to understand the application here. There are different tools good for different jobs. The OP needs to be specific on what kind of work it will be used for. Is this to play around during building beginner oscillating circuits, studying power supplies, analog stuff, or digital micro and protocol sniffing? You can get a $100 scope excellent for one application but completely useless for another. Each scope costing $100 but totally different purposes.

[Syntax_Error]

I think we need to understand the application here. There are different tools good for different jobs. The OP needs to be specific on what kind of work it will be used for. Is this to play around during building beginner oscillating circuits, studying power supplies, analog stuff, or digital micro and protocol sniffing? You can get a $100 scope excellent for one application but completely useless for another. Each scope costing $100 but totally different purposes.

Maybe give a few case scenarios instead? Maybe the average budding electronics hobbyist doesn't know the details about what he is interested in, or has fledgling interest in so many areas that it would garner a response of, "You aren't going to find a $100 scope that will do all that. You're being unrealistic." Perhaps an educated opinion or two shedding some light on "common" beginner applications with associated requirements/recommendations. No promise of being comprehensive needed, just a piece by piece opinion. That would be far more than is frequently given.

[aroby]

I just picked up a Tektronix 2225 on eBay for $125 inc. shipping. It works great.  Not as feature-rich as my Rigol DS2072, but fun to use. 

Anthony

[edy]

I'm thinking a beginner today may be doing a lot of digital stuff with Arduino and RasPi and may need more than your basic scope for capturing digital IO. But there is also a lot of analog projects or fun with some simple IC's (timers, shift registers, etc) that may benefit. Then again, if you can afford to have a cheap analog CRO for more repetitive oscillating circuits to form a stable image and a digital scope with capture (which will cost you a bit more I presume) then all the more fun!

[daqq]

Look at Salae logic devices.

[Zero999]

Here in the UK, you'd be hard pushed to get an analogue oscilloscope for that.

There are no good digital 'scopes for that, perhaps a Hantek USB 'scope?

[grumpydoc]

Here in the UK, you'd be hard pushed to get an analogue oscilloscope for that.

$100 is about £60 - you can certainly get a used analogue 'scope for that although getting much over 50MHz bandwidth might be challenging.

Scope prices at radio rallies are generally much better than ebay.

There are no good digital 'scopes for that, perhaps a Hantek USB 'scope?

I don't think there are any new DSO's except the various USB ones and toy "pocket sized" ones which can be had for $100.

At that price pickings are likely to be slim so the best used DSO at that price will be the once you can actually get hold of. That said they can and do appear and sell on ebay UK for that sort of money - eg see this listing for a Gould 1602.

For less than $100 you are likely to be looking at one of the early DSO's  - these usually offer pretty low sample rates and where they have higher bandwidth they will only offer "equivalent time sampling". Sometimes this generation of oscilloscopes had both analogue and digital functionality (which can be useful).

However you need to be aware that digital oscilloscopes of this age are likely to be irreparable if they break. Some failures might be fixable, especially problems with dried out electrolytic caps, however to get even the sampling rates that they do offer out of the technology of the day some resorted to tricks such as fast CCD devices coupled to relatively slow ADC's and memory or had quite cutting edge custom ADCs built out of, by today's standards, odd logic families such as ECL.

If these custom chips die there are no replacements. Also few of these 'scopes had schematics available.

You might get a tek 468, or one of the 22xx series digitals, or a Gould. You will be very lucky to get anything more modern.