Electronics > Beginners
Is An Oscilloscope Practical
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tggzzz:
Those are sane comments, cactus.
alsetalokin4017:
Some example scopeshots from the Rigol 1054z in my lab:



Electro Fan:
Lots of good advice in this thread already but here are some more thoughts.

If you are looking to learn and enjoy electronics as part of your retirement you are almost for sure headed for an oscilloscope.  And maybe more than one.  There is another thread about how 19 scopes are what you need to reach “par.” :)

Before you head for multiple scopes it’s probably good to start with one.  My suggestion would be to purchase a Rigol DS1054Z, and to order it from TEquipment.
https://www.tequipment.net/Rigol/DS1054Z/Digital-Oscilloscopes/?v=0

It lists for $375 including shipping and it also includes Rigol’s bundle of software options. With this scope you can do power supply work, other analog work, and also explore some digital work including RS-232, I2C, and SPI.  This doesn’t mean you might not still want a logic analyzer some day but it will get you started with digital which can be useful and fun.

TEquipment offers a discount for EEVers, so it might be closer to $350 all in, and they offer a 60 day money back guarantee.  (Disclaimer:  I have no affiliation with TEquipment other than being a happy customer.)

If you want to save more, TEquipment currently has an open box 1054Z for $265.
https://www.tequipment.net/Rigol/DS1054Z-B/Digital-Oscilloscopes/
•   One thing to check on with the open box deal is whether the bundled software comes with it

Either way, you could spend more on a scope with other features but the 1054Z will get you going and you will have a ton of people here who will be able to walk you through almost anything related to this model.  Some people here will say much the same about the Siglent scopes.  I haven’t used a Siglent scope but I have used a Siglent 2042X waveform generator and it is excellent.  You’ll find plenty of Siglent vs Rigol opinions here.  I have had a couple Rigol scopes and also 3 Tektronix analog scopes and IMO I think you will be able to learn and do a lot with the Rigol 1054Z.

One reason to consider keeping the price down on the scope is that once you get going with this hobby you might find plenty of other items to add to your bench.  Along this line, suggestions would be to include 2 DMMs, a power supply, and probably some sort of waveform generator.  With these plus some breadboards and component parts plus EEVblog, youtube, and rest of the Internet you can teach yourself plenty and do lots of build and/or repair projects – you will be limited mostly by your time and imagination, although possibly to some extent by the budget because it can be an endless journey of more test equipment, components and supplies, and tools.  As soon as you graduate from the breadboards you’ll be soldering - another addition to the budget.  And it can go on and on… microscopes, spectrum analyzers, ham radio, microcontrollers, logic analyzers, etc, etc.  It really doesn’t have to be too expensive, but outside of RF work the scope might be one of the larger budget items and it all adds up.  So leave some room in the budget (and on your bench / in your lab) for growth.  Hard to say what you might run out of first:  time, money, or space - but probably not fun. :)

All of it can be a blast and I'm confident you will very much enjoy using your scope.  Something about visualizing analog and digital signals together on a scope makes a whole lot of concepts and some of the math more tangible and accessible.

Have fun and Happy New Year!!
rstofer:

--- Quote from: tvl on January 05, 2019, 03:11:35 am ---
Although I'm still not sure what I will end up doing, I can't see paying $150 for an old used scope with absolutely no warranty or guarantee that it will function properly when a new DSO can be purchased for just a little more than double that amount ($356 for SDS1202x-E). I'd also like to think it would be much easier to sell the Siglent unit should I lose interest in the hobby and need to dispose of it.

--- End quote ---

Buying a used scope is always high risk.  Even if you decide to return it, you eat the shipping (usually).  In my view, this is an advanced topic.  And fixing a scope generally requires a scope.

OTOH, a dozen or more years ago I paid about $200 for a used Tektronics 485 scope and I have been using it ever since.  Well, right up until I bought the DS1054Z.  It's a great scope with 350 MHz of bandwidth.

I got lucky!

As to LA versus scope, I will go for the scope every time when I'm working on something simple like SPI.  The scope is right there on the bench, I'm probably probing things anyway, I've just looked at CS' framing so I might as well hook up the other two probes and see if the data looks reasonable.

I've got a couple of LAs but the only time I used them is on FPGA projects where I wanted to keep track of the state variable and a few signals.  There's no point in doing that any more because Vivado has the ILA (Internal Logic Analyzer).  It doesn't even need wires!

Everybody comes up with their own processes.

Fungus:

--- Quote from: tvl on January 05, 2019, 03:11:35 am ---Some here have suggested I purchase an older analog scope at a good price and see where my interest go from there. Therefore, I have been searching Craigslist and Ebay for an older analog scope. The issue seems to be that if I locate a scope which the seller indicates has been thoroughly tested and functions properly, the cost runs approximately $150 with shipping

--- End quote ---

Yep. I think the world has reached a point where nobody's dumping analog 'scopes any more and the only people trading them think they're something special and price accordingly.

Plus they're all old and falling apart and maintaining them usually needs a second oscilloscope. If you don't have more than one of them you could end up with a large brick.

As a source of "cheap oscilloscope for beginner", analog isn't the way to go. Not any more.

My advice is to bite the bullet and spend the $350 on a Rigol DS1054Z, or, if you have no absolutely no interest in microcontrollers, a 2-channel Siglent.

These days all the fun is in microcontrollers though. If your aim is to get a new hobby then that's probably the place to be.
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