Electronics > Beginners
Help with Oscilloscope purcase
MyZirconia:
Hi Dave and All.
I have a question about purcase an oscilloscope, there is a friend of mine who have for sale a used Fluke PM-3384 Autorainging Combiscope for ~120 USD and the
question is: is it a good scope for the money? and he said it had both analog and digital i have looked around on the inernet but cant find any reviews on the scope
is the samplerate good or bad? i would be glad if i get some inputs about my questions.
Thanks in advance
Magnus Carlsson
Sweden
Kiriakos-GR:
Hello Sweden , regards from Greece.
Most important than all , are that this oscilloscope that you plan to get,
to be recently checked if it is healthy ...
The specs has secondary value.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=509.0;topicseen
Polossatik:
If you cannot get a scope for free, like Dave keeps suggesting... ;D,and this is working properly I think it's a rather fair price for this 4 channel scope.
For "hobby" usage I think it will do just fine.
( data sheet here )
saturation:
That model was about when Fluke bought out Philip's test equipment company. Its a model from 1992, so its now about 18 years old. Its a very good one, I'd estimate its more 20 MHz given its 200 MS/s rate, and for $120 US, that's a steal. However, it could die on you any day, or give you over 10 years of useful life. As others suggest, a lot depends on how it is NOW, rather for the specs it was given when it was new. You won't be able to get any scope near that capacity for that price.
http://www.eurekaspot.com/sp.cfm/DIGOSC/FLU/PM3384B-083.html
Note, many good scopes have a self test, so just because it powers up and seems to make a trace on the screen, doesn't mean its really working properly. This scope will boot and do a self test before functioning, so it will signal all is well. The users manual is here:
http://assets.fluke.com/manuals/PM3370B_umeng0000.pdf
Is buying a scope complicated? Not really, but if you buy second hand, like buying a car, you need to know more about a scope or a car, to insure what you buy is really working and not get a lemon. If you buy new at least you know what the spec sheet says is likely what you are getting.
Its one reason why I think those elcheapo 'toy' scopes that Dave maligns are a better deal for newbies, because it will work, its solid state, has less things to go wrong, true it may not have good or any input protection or good specs, but they are used mostly for DC to audio frequencies, general education, and if it breaks, at most you are off $100. If you do move above the DSO nano like scopes, you'll know more about what you want and what the DSO nano cannot do, and will appreciate and be able to choose good scopes better.
http://www.justblair.co.uk/seeed-studio-dso-nano-pocket-digital-storage-oscilloscope-review.html
Finally, true this great scope is $120, near the same price as the el-cheapo toy DSO nano. But the difference is the $120 buys uncertainty in the scope's performance while $100 for a new DSO nano, still under warranty, buys yous less features, but certainty.
--- Quote from: MyZirconia on May 12, 2010, 09:47:49 pm ---Hi Dave and All.
I have a question about purcase an oscilloscope, there is a friend of mine who have for sale a used Fluke PM-3384 Autorainging Combiscope for ~120 USD and the
question is: is it a good scope for the money? and he said it had both analog and digital i have looked around on the inernet but cant find any reviews on the scope
is the samplerate good or bad? i would be glad if i get some inputs about my questions.
Thanks in advance
Magnus Carlsson
Sweden
--- End quote ---
EEVblog:
A 200MHz 4 channel analog scope would be a bargain for $120! but this is the combi-scope which are pretty good scopes, so even more of a bargain.
If it works I say don't hesitate to grab it!
200MS/s & 32K memory is reasonable, so it would be a handy digital scope.
You could even resell it for big profit on ebay ;)
Dave.
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