Author Topic: WTB (EU): Used budget function generator  (Read 465 times)

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Offline ChatzoTopic starter

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  • Country: es
WTB (EU): Used budget function generator
« on: May 19, 2022, 02:51:46 pm »
Hi, I am in the process of looking for a my first function generator.
I was thinking of buying a used one from Europe (Living in Spain so the closest the better).
As i am a hobbyist i donĀ“t have any particular specs in mind other than budget (<150E) and it being an instrument of half decent quality.

Thank you for your time  8)
 

Offline theHWcave

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  • Posts: 156
  • Country: gb
Re: WTB (EU): Used budget function generator
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2022, 09:25:52 pm »
Welcome Chatzo,
I recommend you post this question in the beginners forum asking for recommendations. There is a much higher chance of success.

Pricing depends a lot how high the frequency goes and how many simultaneous channels are needed, so maybe give that a thought.

It would also help if you can indicate what you think you are most interested in.

Example if you are a radio amateur you need more RF gear and AM/FM modulation capabilities. If you are mostly looking at amplifiers you probably need very clean sine waves at only relative low frequencies. If you are playing with digital stuff, maybe pulse trains are your thing and you are looking for  just rectangular waves.
Lastly, many function gens have a frequency counter built-in that can be used to measure external frequencies. Maybe indicate if that would be important to you.

I  my self have a Feeltech FY6600 50MHz 2 channel (I modified its power supply to run cleaner) which serves me well. There are lots of complaints about Feeltech on the forum and yes there are some issues and their customer service is terrible but I had never a problem with my generator, except its power supply was too noisy. The FY6600 can do an amazing number of things for very little money (including measuring frequency). It took me years to have even tried all what it can do.  I also have several old function gen from the 1980-ties from eBay that I restored  to learn about the electronics they use. For audio work, I have a Leader LAG160 Sine/Rectangle generator (not a function gen but a true oscillator for the cleanest sine waves). I have also an OWON HDS272S handheld 2 channel scope which has a reasonable multimeter and quite a useful function gen built in. The HDS272S doesn't set the world on fire but I find it very useful, especially because its battery powered (2x18650) and extremely portable. Lastly, I confess that I never used any other wave forms than sine, rectangular, pulses, and triangular. Most function gens including mine can do all kinds of exotic wave forms but I don't find any use for them in practice.
 


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