Author Topic: Scope below $600 For 17 year old  (Read 12480 times)

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Offline tggzzz

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Re: Scope below $600 For 17 year old
« Reply #25 on: February 12, 2016, 11:11:54 pm »
I know of some gliding clubs near me, and they would make me a better pilot, but right now all my money is going to flight training so i can get my commercial license as fast as i can. Then i may pickup gliding as a hobby haha.

I don't know where you are in your training, but consider that gliding is a very inexpensive way of learning precision flying.

By "precision" I mean good stick-and-rudder control, getting a feel for what the air is about to do to you, and keeping an accurate position 200ft behind another aircraft while it is moving up/down and sideways in turbulent air. Also dealing with "eventualities" such as engine failure, "strange" approaches"[1], aircraft appearing from nowhere and landing in front of you and behind and alongside you while you are doing a "forced" landing.

Once you have all that under your control (ho ho), you are in a good position to move onto the more expensive tuition about how to deal with bits that explode[2] and keep you cool[3].

[1] normal training includes the instructor putting you in a ridiculous position (e.g. over the landing point at 600ft/90kt flying in the wrong direction) and saying "you have control, get us down safely".

[2] my club had a tug that occasionally needed jump starting. In a powered club it would never have left the hanger, but in the gliding club the attitude was "it is only the engine, what's the problem?".

[3] when the big fan stops turning, powered pilots start sweating

I get what  you're saying and i appreciate your recommendations, but gliding will not get me any closer to flying commercially, although it would make me a better pilot. Some time in the future i would like to pick up gliding but as of now all my money is going to powered flight.
The Gimbli Glider crash was my inspiration to do gliding later on :P

Flying skill is necessary but not sufficient. You also need to satisfy the HR-droids and psychologists. Gliding  can help there, as I indicated in an earlier  post. It also demonstrably builds the "soft skills" beloved of such pen pushers. Basically, it gives you a 5% advantage over other candidates, which might be crucial.

Of course gliding isn't the only way of gaining those advantages.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
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Offline jozer12Topic starter

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Re: Scope below $600 For 17 year old
« Reply #26 on: February 12, 2016, 11:15:34 pm »
Analog Discovery is pretty limited. 100ms/s is only really usable under 10Mhz. The analog front end is pretty limited as well. The 14-bit ADC is good for some audio work but Analog Discovery is not really comparable to a real Oscilloscope like a CRO or a DS1054z. USB scopes in general have clunky software. I would not go for a USB scope over a real scope unless you really need compactness, or it's all you can afford. And even then, decent USB scopes tend to actually cost more.

For a beginner, (USB Scope + 1-2 * Multimeter + Good Soldering Iron + Bench PSU)  is better than just a better scope; which was my point.

How many beginners are looking at frequencies > 10MHz when they start?
A lot of SPI communication either happens in the upper 10Mhz range or faster than that, up to 80Mhz + And SPI is fairly common. Fast op-amps may have nano second rise times. There are tons of reasons why 100ms/s is not adecvate today.

Rigol offers 10 times the capability for less than twice the cost. Not to mention it's a proper scope with a real analog front end and 4 channels. It's a far better bang per buck than Discovery, outside of some very limited use cases.

Discovery is great for a student who want to carry it with their laptop and be able to do some bare minimum measurements. But it is a no substitution for a full featured Oscilloscope in my opinion.

Of course you can buy more tools if you elect not to get an oscilloscope. Oscilloscope is the most expensive instrument in most hobbyist labs. Getting something that has 1/10th of the capability for half the cost is not a good bargain.

If you only need it to pass the class get a Discovery. But if you're serious about electronics get a real scope it doesn't cost that much more and it offers tons more capability.

You're missing my point.  If you have $600 to spend on a lab (from mostly scratch), spending all of it on one instrument is ridiculous. 

If you have $600 to spend on a scope, by all means get a DS1054Z, but that's a different question, and I stand by my original statement that:
For a beginner, (USB Scope + 1-2 * Multimeter + Good Soldering Iron + Bench PSU)  is better than just a scope

Hi, i think you may have misread this thread.
My teacher wanted to buy me a scope, he gave me a budget of $600.
I've already got what i think is a pretty decent entry level meter (Amprobe 15XP-B) and the Hakko Fx-888D.
The only thing i'm missing is a scope and a power supply.
Although for now i atx power supplies seem to be working for me in most cases, i would however want to get a variable power supply down the track. Right now ive ordered a few cheap components from ebay like a DC-DC buck regulator and some voltage displays. It only set me back about $10 so even if its useless i havent lost much.
And also the scope is now on its way.
For power supplies depending on your budget, I've had great luck on used (ebay) HP E3611As. They are no frills linear power supplies. Dead silent, fairly compact and offer current limiting (which is really useful in prototyping by saving you from frying your circuits). You can usually find them around $100. And due to their linear nature the power they provide is really clean.

Also at some point you'll probably want a second multimeter, but no rush on that.
The HP's look good, although need to find one in aus or i'm gonna pay double because of shipping
 

Offline NivagSwerdna

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Re: Scope below $600 For 17 year old
« Reply #27 on: February 13, 2016, 10:53:46 pm »
For power supplies... IMHO EBAY does work out well... you just have to be patient and wait for an unloved one to come up on a quiet day.

I bought a very simplistic TTi EL302RD dual supply that works for me (although I wish you could tell it to lock so that nudging the knobs doesn't fry your circuit  ;D)
 


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