Author Topic: Your Oscilloscope of choice?  (Read 6068 times)

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Offline Simon SpiersTopic starter

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Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« on: March 27, 2018, 06:08:50 pm »
I have used a few manufactures of Oscilloscopes over the years but I think, like me everyone has a favourite.
As a hauder of test gear among other stuff, I own 2 Tek 2440's, a Tec 24445a and an HP 54645a.
I think as I have always used HP scopes at work and know how to drive them with my eyes closed, I always reach for this scope when I don't want to be challenged by the gear i'm using!

I know a lot of the guys from the States seem to prefer Tek gear, and I must admit the 2445a analog scope is really nice to use for audio gear, but if I had to keep only one, it would be the HP.
So please let us know what Make and model is your "go to scope" and why that is?
Oh and before you ask why I have more than one, the others were arepair challenges. :-/O

Offline dxl

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2018, 06:50:07 pm »
Haha, this will be a religious discussion  ;D

Personally i'm using 3 scopes:

Analog Fluke PM3094 200MHz for doing repairs on analog circuits
Tektronix TDS754D for doing Repairs on digital circuits
Lecroy WavePro 7300A for engineering work on digital stuff (because of it's protocol decoding capabilities)

And on very rare occasions i'm using a Tektronix 11801A for High speed stuff in the GHz range or TDR measurement.

So you see that i have no favorite scope - it depends on what i'm doing. If i had to choose and only keep one it would propably be the TDS754D. Simple to use, high waveform update rate, and no annoying self calibration like the Lecroy has.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2018, 06:51:39 pm by dxl »
 

Offline SWR

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2018, 08:54:09 pm »
I've got a Rigol and a GW Instek and prefer the latter.
At work we have Keysight and they're ok, but too little bang for bucks for my personal hobby use.
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Offline james_s

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2018, 03:56:58 am »
I've always been a Tek guy, especially love their older stuff. Part of that may be that Tek is/was based in my home town.
 

Offline texaspyro

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2018, 04:52:20 am »
I have around 50 scopes here   :scared:  ...   the two that I almost always go to first are a Tek THS730 (200 MHz, book sized, isolated channels, runs on battery) or a Tek TDS3054 (500 MHz, 5 Gs/sec, all options, also can run on battery).

I tend to prefer Tek scopes... I have not always been satisfied with HP triggering.

I do usually prefer HP logic analyzers over Tek ones.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2018, 05:51:04 am »
Analog scope aside, if I just want to look at a signal with the least fuss, give me the Keysight X-series, it "just works".
 

Online tszaboo

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2018, 07:20:40 am »
Probably the best scope with no bells and whistles is the Agilent MSOX3034T. It is not fast enough that you need active probes, which also means that it is not crazy expensive. The 4 analog + 16 digital gives you versatility. And sometimes you get it half the price with "refurbished" label on the box, with all the options.
 

Online nctnico

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2018, 07:38:48 am »
At the moment my GW Instek GDS2204E for general purpose work and an Agilent 54845A for high frequency / sub-ns time intervals.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline srce

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2018, 08:45:45 am »
MSOX2024A at the moment.

MSOS204A soon though  :P
 

Offline BravoV

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2018, 08:53:56 am »
The one I can afford.

Online tautech

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2018, 08:55:26 am »
SDS2304X or SDS1104X-E.
SDS5104X.......soon.
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Offline sibeen

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #11 on: March 28, 2018, 09:56:38 am »
Just the three :)

Tek THS 720P. Handheld and isolated goodness, with harmonic capability, great for running around on a site for general fault finding.

Yokogawa DL708. Scopecorder. Low speed 8 channel fully isolated inputs. Great for commissioning work on three phase systems and then getting down to the nitty gritty after the 720P has sniffed out some problems.

Keysight DSOX3024T. A fairly recent acquisition. Used on my bench for nutting out issues. I try not to take it to site as after 20 odd years of using exclusively fully isolated CROs I really have to remember to be careful with this beast.
 

Offline stenbror

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2018, 11:22:33 am »

Well, i have six.......

My favourite is my newest Rigol DS2072A that come with all options included...... 300Mhz not so much, but is included now. :-)

I also like my Siglent SDS2104X with all options  and Siglent SDS1204X-E

I have a few Hantek that is not so good and a Rigol DS1054Z that is maxed up.
 

Offline woody

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2018, 12:04:08 pm »
1 GW Instek GDS2204E
2 CleverScope CS328A
3 Tek 468
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #14 on: March 28, 2018, 12:07:37 pm »
Tek 465.

Has a warmth about it, all controls are physical and positive, no hidden state that disappears when you turn it off, excellent display, excellent service manual, I can calibrate it myself, excellent performance, quiet, easy to maintain, generally very reliable.

Also cheap because you can usually buy them dead for not much and they're trivial to fix.



Have had about 30 different scopes, digital, analogue, computer-based and this one sticks as the best.
 

Offline VEGETA

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2018, 12:53:02 pm »
For me it is this one:

https://www.banggood.com/Orignal-JYE-Tech-DS0150-15001K-DSO-SHELL-DIY-Digital-Oscilloscope-Kit-With-Housing-p-1093865.html

It is just 21$ and works nice. I am in Jordan so shipped scopes will be double the price. I wanted an analog one but could not find one here and couldn't find one who could give away a scope for me, so I settled with that kit which is kinda enough for now. I think it is worth getting for anyone.

Offline joseph nicholas

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #16 on: March 28, 2018, 04:43:35 pm »
The DSO 138 as it works and is the only one I have.

I tried to fix an old Tek 453, I think it was, but it was such a high hours unit that it became an autopsy to see if I could even get it apart without destroying everything.  The boards came out OK, but the frame itself was put together with an impact driver so forget about getting to interior parts.  The bottom board appeared to be a one piece unit with the rotary switches soldered to it.  No easy access there, probability no access at all.

I still have the boards and the crt, the power supply etc.  The knobs on the front which are held on with tiny allan screws had also been installed with such force, I presume by the factory, that it broke all the allan keys it tried.  It looked like a thanksgiving turkey carcass when thrown into the trash.
 

Offline TK

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2018, 05:52:03 pm »
I own and use Keysight MSOX3024X, EDUX1002G that think it is a DSOX1102G  ;), Micsig tablet TO1104 and Agilent 54622D.  All of them just works, so I use the closest one on my bench or the micsig if I am working outside the lab or away from the bench.
 

Offline Dubbie

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2018, 07:08:16 pm »
MSOX3024T
Very nice to use. Funnily enough, the lack of mem has never bothered me in practical use.

The main thing I would like to improve on it is the screen size and resolution. I look enviously at the R&S and the Tek 5 screens.
 

Offline imk

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #19 on: March 28, 2018, 08:40:31 pm »
Tektronix  2236 Opt 14.
Old but gold :-)
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Offline 240_JOLTS

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #20 on: March 28, 2018, 09:31:45 pm »
vellaman HPS-140i used for  fault finding and repair on the bench.

very small and compact  and has a very sensitive 0.1mv range which came in handy for sorting out offset errors on a multi meter caused by dirt and grease on on the PCB traces after a repair.   



 

Offline phaeton

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #21 on: March 28, 2018, 09:34:58 pm »
I'm fairly new to scope ownership, so I can't claim any preferences yet.  Last summer a friend gave me a
.  It has its limitations and to be honest I'm a little bit afraid of it, but nonetheless it's the first thing I've ever dialed up a waveform on.   
   
A couple of weekends ago I went to a Ham Radio swapfest and picked up a dual-trace mid-late 70s
for $20.  Someday when I know more I might pick up a "real" scope, but for now I think these are adequate for my skill level and interests.

 

Offline james_s

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #22 on: March 28, 2018, 10:05:28 pm »
Those old vacuum tube scopes have one big advantage, the input stage is nearly indestructible. If you start playing with Tesla coils and other HV stuff you can reasonably safely poke around, while doing so with an expensive DSO would be very risky.
 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #23 on: March 28, 2018, 10:46:59 pm »
My scope of choice is a Keysight MSOX3024T with a little tweak performed to it - https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/keysight-3000t-scope-1-ghz-hardware-upgrade-mod/
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Offline rx8pilot

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Re: Your Oscilloscope of choice?
« Reply #24 on: March 28, 2018, 10:49:35 pm »
Those old vacuum tube scopes have one big advantage, the input stage is nearly indestructible. If you start playing with Tesla coils and other HV stuff you can reasonably safely poke around, while doing so with an expensive DSO would be very risky.

I am currently looking for a modest cost scope (DSO) to do high risk power supply measurements - saving my fancy scope from damage. A good scope is the best one you can afford to damage.
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