Electronics > Beginners
Best Oscilloscope for complete beginner?
David Cutcher CEG:
Exactly!
Course will be up on Udemy on July 1st.
Those who take the second module will either use
the freeware, and probe that they make (1 M ohm : 100 k ohm voltage divider, input no more than 9 volts)
or
the Owon VDS-1022 if they choose to purchase.
I might be able to help those who have varying 2nd hand stuff, but for the number of problems that can happen, I will limit my responses to those who choose to use other devices.
David Cutcher "Certified Evil Genius"
rstofer:
Clearly, it will be difficult to deal with all the myriad scopes students might use. But there are tutorials all over the Internet so pushing the problem off to Google seems like an adequate response.
There will be a gigantic difference between the GUI interface of the Owon and the physical knobs of a real DSO.
I take the counter position on the Auto button (where fitted) because I might not remember how I left my scope the last time I used it. Same for a student, they don't have a clue how the settings were left. With the benefit of power-on using the last settings, the scope could be in some truly bizarre state. Suppose they had labeled it "Reset" as in reset the settings to something reasonable.
Although I have a Tek 485, I take the counter position on buying and trying to maintain an analog scope. Sure, they're cheap enough but if it breaks, a newcomer is in no position to fix it. And shouldn't even be working inside the case!
I don't know what to think about the Owon and the isolation feature available at significant additional extra expense. For the purposes of a course, I think I would go for the low bucks solution and skip the isolation. Although I would constantly worry about frying my computer... I need to think about this!
Down the road the student will be better served with a real DSO.
rhb:
The best scope is whatever they have or can afford. The Rigol DS1000E series is fairly cheap, but in the bang for the buck category the Siglent SDS1202X-E looks very good. My Owon XDS2102A is great as a DAQ, but rather wretched as a bench instrument. At the moment I like the Instek GDS-2000E line best, but it's a lot more money. I'm going to be getting a Siglent SDS1000X-E for a head to head comparison of Rigol, Siglent, Owon and Instek entry level DSOs.
I'm old and cruel. I will be trying to break all of them.
0culus:
I guess the ideal situation is that the student has a mentor who can help them pick out and maintain their analog CRO. I do strongly agree that beginners ought to have "first contact" with an analog CRO if at all possible. Decent CROs are very intuitive to use as mentioned above and will teach them a lot more about running a scope manually. However, students on their own probably are best served by avoiding the pitfalls of old test equipment.
If it were me, I might couch something along the lines of "We recommend getting your first scope experience with an analog scope <and here's resources on how to find one to either buy or use, e.g. local hackerspaces etc.>, but do not open the case or attempt any sort of repair because there's voltages that will kill you in there." Then provide recommendations of modern equipment for everyone else.
Gyro:
--- Quote from: rstofer on April 20, 2019, 01:10:11 am ---There will be a gigantic difference between the GUI interface of the Owon and the physical knobs of a real DSO.
--- End quote ---
Who knows, in the future we may find that the knobs become an anachronism (particularly if they keep using cheap Chinese encoders), and GUI becomes the norm when they start fitting them with decent sized screens, tablet style. Everything else seems to be heading that way.
--- Quote ---I don't know what to think about the Owon and the isolation feature available at significant additional extra expense. For the purposes of a course, I think I would go for the low bucks solution and skip the isolation. Although I would constantly worry about frying my computer... I need to think about this!
--- End quote ---
From my review, I think the isolated version is worth the (not so significant on ebay) difference. Yes its purpose is to break the ground loop rather than floating at elevated voltages (although the isolation components have decent rating). Trashing your PC isn't the best way to experience early stage learning, although they will have to understand the issue / danger of ground loops at some point. It also usefully reduces noise levels in some circumstances.
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