Hello All,
Before I begin, I'd like to express my gratitude to anyone who at least reads this post and even more for people who extend their help. My question is regarding the purchase of a cheap oscilloscope. I'm not sure about what to purchase and what would help me the most.
To understand the question, I think it's necessary to know my background and future trajectory. Currently, I am a hobbyist in electronics all self-taught. I am a professional applied mathematician (PhD in Computational Mathematics) and I hope to soon have an electronic engineering job. My dream job would be to design, prototype, and build complex electronic devices or ICs. To be able to do this, I need to learn electronics. So, I've taken to learning in my free time and I hope it won't take very long given my education in math.
I am to the point though that I feel like my studies are being held back because I don't have a bench oscilloscope to visualize signals. I did receive an analog discovery 2 for Christmas though, but because I've never used an oscilloscope before using it for applied applications is difficult for me at the moment.
I've played around with it though. So, I need a recommendation for a good oscilloscope that will carry me through my studies but because I don't have a job...it really needs to be cheap, like lower than dirt cheap. This problem I can probably find an answer to because I'm sure it has been answered before.
The problem though is that I've accepted a job consulting for a very small company and that involves analog video. I can get a video waveform/vectorscope monitor extremely cheap, but as far as I know I can't use that for anything else but video. I believe an oscilloscope will be able to view analog video signals just as well but does the benefits of a specialized device outweigh the usefulness of an oscilloscope at the moment? If a video waveform monitor is the way to go will I be able to view all SD signals? Are there any that can view SD and HDMI output that is very cheap? If need be I can wait (just a few months) to get a video waveform monitor, assuming that using an oscilloscope I can view the lines of the frames. I think I create a circuit pretty easily that will select the desired line and only output that line's signal for viewing.
If an oscilloscope is the best option, then how fast does it need to be to view video signals? I'm not sure if the analog discovery 2 can view video signals and if it does, I'm not certain about how to do that...any ideas? What type of oscilloscope will be best for me to learn with and will carry me through my self-studies? Should I save for a $250 Rigol? Can these things be rented online for the time being?
Thanks,
Rick