Buying First Scope - Advice?

[Yael]

First off, I hope I posted this in the right section...

I am at that stage in this hobby where I have come to the conclusion that I need to buy an oscilloscope to do the kinds of projects that I want to do. I have narrowed it down to a few instruments that I am considering and am hoping that some of you guys can lend your opinion to which would be the best choice for a first scope. My budget is roughly $1000USD. Also I want to go with a new instrument, rather than take a chance with eBay.

1) Rigol DS1052E http://www.rigolna.com/products/digital-oscilloscopes/ds1000e/ds1052e/

2) Tektronix TDS1001C-EDU http://ca.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Tektronix/TDS1001C-EDU/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtlgkI5U25OijlJN9WsUMJRRYPDSASh%2fiY%3d

3) Tektronix TDS2001C http://ca.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Tektronix/TDS2001C/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtlgkI5U25OigrtVhteobaKYZGcky1IlFg%3d

4) LeCroy WaveAce 101 http://ca.mouser.com/ProductDetail/LeCroy/WaveAce-101/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtlgkI5U25Oipu08tI9f6UIRuS1FCxjRtk%3d

[EEVblog]

No contest, the Rigol wins hands down with its deep 1M memory.
The others are poor value for money with their pathetically small memory.
But with a $1000 budget you'd get the 100MHz DS1102E at $399 of course.
I'm not sure you'd get better bang-per-buck than that under $1000. Save the rest of your money for other gear, like maybe a PC USB logic analyser and other stuff.

Dave.

[IanB]

I've been exploring my Rigol and it's not been very clear how to make effective use of the 1M memory. The user guide devotes about 1 sentence to it as passing reference and says nothing at all about when or why to use it compared to the normal 16k memory that is the default setting.

I thought perhaps it might be used to acquire a long stream of data that can be exported for later analysis, but other than that I don't see what to do with it.

[DaMaDo]

I was between the Rigol DS1102e and Owon SDS7102 and chose the latter b/c I didn't know the difference in anything else except the larger, nicer screen on the Owon heh Hopefully it won't disappoint. Here's a review of it if you want to add it to your list.

[Yael]

Thanks for the responses, I think I am going to go with the 100MHz Rigol.

[larrwill]

On the issue of memory depth, how much is enough or needed to capture a signal in some different scenarios?
I.E. Capturing the bounce of a mechanical switch or capturing an entire I2C command?
Can the Rigol DS1102E accomplish these two examples?

Thanks

[slashguitar]

you can capture I2C and switch bouncing