| Electronics > Beginners |
| Help with buying a first oscilloscope |
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| avogadro:
Hello, I'm a going to be in my second year ee uni in a few months and I was thinking of doing couple of projects over the summer and/or just tinker with components so that I know more than just some theory. Anyway I have a budget of around 600 euros for an oscilloscope and a power supply and I want to spend around 500 for the scope. I was looking at these scopes: Siglent SDS1104X-E, Siglent SDS1202X-E, Rigol DS1054Z. I was planning on doing few things with mcu's and I see that Sigilent SDS1104 has an option of logic analyzer so would that be the best option? What would you recommend me to buy? I dont have much of a lab at home. I have a crappy multimeter, soldering iron and some components. |
| Fred27:
I'd say go for a DS1054Z and a cheap eBay USB logic analyser. |
| Nitrousoxide:
Definitely get a 4 channel scope, you will find the extra channels very useful. All these scopes have some form of protocol decoding, except they are done in software. This means that they don't provide the fastest response (compared to some keysight scopes that do the decoding in hardware). If you're talking about the logic analyser upgrade, there is more value in buying a standalone analyser (possibly Chinese clone). Sure you won't have the time domain synchronisation between logic and conventional channels, but truthfully I have rarely needed all four channels plus extra digital channels to be synchronised (personal opinion, I do audio DSP and embedded systems). Personally, I'd still go with the Rigol (considering the software upgrades). An oscilloscope, power supply, multimeter and soldering iron are a few of the essentials. You can then look into buying a function/AW generator if need be. Get a good multimeter. Get one that is safe. Even though you may not work on high potential systems, it is a good thing to have. |
| ljwinkler:
As the other guys said -> 4 channel is a handy scope. You will use 1 channel most of the time, sometimes 2 (debugging I2C for example) but occasionally a 3rd or 4th channel will save your ar*e :) Once you get one, have a look at Dave's video about how not to blow up your oscilloscope () I found that logic analysers built in cheap oscilloscopes are not that good, fiddly with settings, clunky, etc. Even a Saleae clone for €10 on eBay will beat the scope. And it has 'unlimited' storage memory (it streams the data to your PC, you can have hours of recordings if needed). The above should give you a good starting point with microcontrollers (AVR/Arduino? STM? ARM?), you will see why your hello-world blinky doesn't work (I really hope it won't work for the first time you upload the code -> that's the best way to learn (unless you get angry quickly and you toss the project out the window) :) |
| rsjsouza:
Given your requirements and budget, I suspect the SDS1104X-E is a much better choice - a newer device with potentially more years of support and firmware revisions. Also, one factor that it has quite interesting frequency domain functions (FFT) that will be handy when you see this in your EE course. Check the excellent review from Performa01 about this oscilloscope: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds1104x-e-in-depth-review/ BTW: congratulations on being in the semi-finals of the world cup! :) |
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