I am new to EEVblog but got hooked when I saw my first video I watched by Dave. My professional history is in computer/network tech, I started back in the late 90's and repaired boards and such when necessary (Most computer techs I know these days just replace not repair in contrast) Something I like to do in my spare time is build models, I used to do mostly wargame models that I played with but I have not done a lot of wargamming lately for several reasons. Something I have discovered or re-discovered is board level electronics. This is due to my decision to buy some Arduino units. So my love for kits, and building has brought me to look at different DIY projects for mildly usable lab equipment. The idea here is that I would like to basically build kits, or projects that are reasonably vetted units that I can put together and someday MAYBE if I find a need for it use if the opportunity arises, even if that is just tinkering with things for no other reason than to do it. I figure if I have access to it I will find reasons to use it, and if I find reasons to use it I may decide to upgrade it later of course, but I would like something that is at least usable for medium duty projects. That is to say, I am not attempting to do groundbreaking work on anything, or even work professionally on anything with these kits but MIGHT use them to fix something I own some day, but otherwise will just be hobby level relaxation type .... toys?
Anyways this brought me to signal generators, I already have ordered an oscilloscope kit, again nothing I expect to be professional grade or anything. But I wanted to be able to play around with it with a signal generator and started to look into those. I have looked on eBay and found two separate units.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/301725400862?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AITThis has the upside of a sort of enclosure built for it that I can use to give a nice front panel to a full enclosure with a little work. I belive this unit has a range of 0-200KHz with no MHz abilities at all. I have not found reviews on youtube yet for these.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/361307474492?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AITI believe this unit will be harder to encase, but it seems like it has a wider range of generation abilities. And has a dedicated Digital output for 1,2,4,8Mhz square signals Although I don't know how much I will need/use that. Also some reviews have showed these units to be VERY noisy when looked at closely.
I also looked at a more commercial version of a signal generator, and found
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MHS-5200A-6MHz-200MSa-s-Arbitrary-Waveform-Digital-Signal-Source-Generator-2D9S-/311433450337?hash=item4882e15361 This one has some flaws but I was able to find a guy who made a video that fixes a lot of the signal noise by replacing a few of the on-board components, including one of the opamps and the filter.
This one has the upshot of being a half way descent unit (at least verifiable as far as I was able to do in several hours of research into this) as well as being fully built with enclosure. BUT that negates the upshot of being a kit to build and turns it more into a product to repair. It is also more expensive than the other two options, as well as a cost to get the parts to fix the signal noise issues.
Another unit I found that has the upshot of being both a kit and a very polished looking commercial unit is this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261114462307This is much more expensive but gives me all my options plus seems to have a good frequency and amplitude spread. It would cost me around 100usd but would be capable of up to 10Mhz default sine/triangle/square but with the usb seems it is able to possibly do more.
Anyways I hoped to turn to the great community here to see if anyone had ideas on one of those kits over the other, or just not worry about a kit, and go with the commercial product to fix then play with or if there were some other projects/kits out there that I could build that would be better. I am not looking to spend more than 50usd atm so if I can do it for around that great, if not then I will shoot for saving. Like I said in the beginning it is more of a working model to build, but would still like to be able to use it for light to medium duty work in the future with computers, rf signals, other consumer electronics, and Arduino type projects. Whatever I find to tinker with in the future... Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance for your time and patience with all of us nubs... it is greatly appreciated, it is always nice to know of supportive communities that are so often willing to help others in the pursuit in the betterment of there own knowledge and intellect.