Dual channel vs more Frequency Function generator?

[Zx Spectrum]

Currently i just want to use it to learn basic AC circuit analysis from this book:
Introductory Circuit Analysis  by Robert Boylestad
And later on to learn basic electronic circuits from atext book like:
Electronic Principles  by Albert Paul Malvino

And i don't know which of the previously mentioned AWGs is suffecient to cover the material and experiments in these books

There's nothing very challenging in Malvino for a 5 MHz AWG..........just checked.
I think I have Boylestad too, I'll have to find where I put it.

Thank you for your answer. So i understand from you that no need for dual channel for the material in both books

[RoGeorge]

Since you look eager to buy something (I know that buying fever too  ), then pick the dual channel. Heaving 2 channels available will help with a lot of experiments you may want to try, even if the experiments are not from those books. 3MHz or 5 or 30 MHz, that number doesn't really matter for you, because you will not do RF in that range anyway, and after all, they are almost the same frequency: under 100 MHz.

One more thing. I was looking briefly over the two books. If you want to start from electricity basics and AC circuits just because you want to finally work with microcontrollers and FPGAs, then I don't think this is the right path. Those books are NOT for learning MCUs and FPGAs, in fact they are almost unrelated with digital circuits. Those are books for analog electronics, not digital.

[Zx Spectrum]

Thank you for your answer.
Of course i know that these books don't cove my microcontrollers , fpga or digital design ( i am not that newbie   )
Actually i am very good at ARM7TDMI assembly and VHDL i love digital design and i am good at it.
But you see the thing is that i recently i asked the following question:

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/347387/do-i-need-to-learn-ac-circuits-for-working-with-micro-controller-projects

And everybody assured me that i need a lot of AC skills (honestly i am not very convenced) but it seems like i gotta do what i gotta do so i grabed my old, circuit analysis book and now i am getting ready for some very boring study in the next 10-18 months

[RoGeorge]

I see. TBH, I've never been a big fan of electronics stack exchange.

Indeed, you will need some AC understanding as soon as you want to transmit an edge (in fact, any other form of a variable signal) over a wire.

- I am thinking here mostly about understanding transmission lines and reflections.
Any wire is also a transmission line. When the signal arrive to the end of the transmission line, it will reflect back and forth many times between the two ends of the transmission line. Depending on the impedance matching and the length of the wires, this can be so bad that the digital circuit at the other end of the wire will not be able to distinguish between 0 and 1. Another problem can be when multiple signals are routed together (with multiple transmission lines) for a longer distance, like in a data bus for example. If the transmission lines are not the same, different data bits will arrive at different moment. Some of them might arrive too late and miss the sampling edge of the receiving data bus.

- Another 'must know about' is Fourier, especially the equivalence between time domain and frequency domain. For an EE, this is nothing new, I don't know if a CE is familiarized with that. Roughly saying, any waveform signal can be decomposed to (or reconstructed from) a sum of constant sinusoidal signals (each with its own constant amplitude, frequency and phase). As soon as you want to do DSP, then expect lots and lots of Fourier topics and heavy math.

If you think you know enough AC to continue with the above 2 topics, then the books can be entirely skipped. Otherwise, go ahead with those books, but not too deep. They look to me more like reference books. Way too broad for what you need, they cover almost anything an EE will ever need.

For transmission lines, I found these EE lectures of Greg Durgin as very good:



For AC circuits and learning experiments I will go for a dual channel signal generator rather than a higher frequency. Dual channel will allow experiments about phase shift and signal mixing, experiments that can't be done with only one channel. From my personal experience, a sound card can be enough for the purpose.

Why I keep mentioning the sound card? TBH, I have a Rigol DG4102 signal generator (dual channel/100MHz/DDS), but I didn't use it at all for MCUs or FPGAs design/debug.

[Zx Spectrum]

Thank you for the detailed answer
Don't you think that i will need more than 10 MHzAWG once i wil start studying about high speed digital design
I know that when i will study high speed digital design i will need high freq pattern generator not AWG, but i dont know whether for that later study i will have to simulate high freq sine waves as that what will happend with square signal under high freq conditions
And thus i would need more than 10  MHz AWG.

[RoGeorge]

Don't you think that i will need more than 10 MHzAWG once i wil start studying about high speed digital design

Not at all. 1 or 10 or 100 MHz are almost the same. They are all good enough for learning and understanding AC circuits basics. Once you did that, you can simply discard the signal generator, because it won't serve you much for digital design even if it was 1 GHz.

After all, for digital design, the clock frequency doesn't matter. What it really matters is how fast are the edges. You can have exactly the same problems with a square 100 KHz as with a square 100 MHz. It's all about edges. As a gross over simplification, you can think about digital signals as being nothing more than just edges followed by long periods of constant DC, so edges rise time is critical, how far apart are two edges (that gives the frequency) is not so critical.

Now, if you look at the rise time specifications for a 10 or 100 MHz generator in order to compare the two, you will see that the rise time (how fast are the edges) are basically the same, while the maximum frequency is 10 times bigger.

By high speed digital design I understand GHz range clocks and Gbps transfer speeds. No signal generator in that price range will be of any help in high speed digital. If you think about debugging for high speed, you will most probably use another SERDES from a FPGA anyway.

[Zx Spectrum]

Ok thank you
So i will go for the Siglent SDG 1010
You have benn a lot of help

[Electro Fan]

The SDG1010 sells for about $329.  It has a max output frequency of 10 MHz.  It samples up to 125 MSa/s.  It includes 46 built-in arbitrary waveforms.  It has a 3.5" display.

The SDG1032X sells for about $359.  It has a max output frequency of 30 MHz.  It samples up to 150 MSa/s.  It also offers Siglent's EasyPulse.  It includes 196 built-in arbitrary waveforms.  It has a 4.3" display.

(These are the prices at Siglent America; they might offer a discount for EEVblog members, or perhaps there are better prices somewhere else.  The prices might be different in your area.)

There are probably some other differences you can find in the data sheets and manuals:

http://www.siglentamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2017/10/SDG1000_DataSheet_DS02010-E08A.pdf
http://www.siglentamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2017/10/SDG1000_UserManual_UM02010-E08B.pdf

http://www.siglentamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2017/10/SDG1000X_DataSheet_DS0201X_E01E.pdf
http://www.siglentamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2017/10/SDG1000X_UserManual_UM0201X-E01D.pdf

For about $30 more you might want to consider the SDG1032X.

[tautech]

For about $30 more you might want to consider the SDG1032X.

More than might !
I have it on good authority they can be improved to the 60 MHz version, SDG1062X.

But of course take no notice of me, I'm just a seller and sellers are always trying to up-sell, right. 

IF the OP takes this road he can be fairly confident that he'll never need anything better for maybe his life.

[RoGeorge]

The SDG1010 sells for about $329.  It has a max output frequency of 10 MHz.  It samples up to 125 MSa/s.  It includes 46 built-in arbitrary waveforms.  It has a 3.5" display.
The SDG1032X sells for about $359.  It has a max output frequency of 30 MHz.  It samples up to 150 MSa/s.  It also offers Siglent's EasyPulse.  It includes 196 built-in arbitrary waveforms.  It has a 4.3" display.
...
For about $30 more you might want to consider the SDG1032X.

Indeed, SDG1032X looks like a much better choice.