What is the best mixed signal oscilloscope to buy for 2000 $ ?

[ErikTheNorwegian]

What

[larry42]

Consider the Hameg HMO series, they were running a promo with free digital 8ch probe.

I got my HMO1524 with the serial spi and CAN decode last year.

Laurens (trondheim)



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[larry42]

Oops didnt see your req. For 16ch. I think that's only avail on the higher end HMO series

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[Hydrawerk]

Been looking at Rigol DS1102D since i need 16 Channel Logic Analyzer and a good math and FFT.

Not easy to decide. Consider the MSO2012B... http://www.tek.com/oscilloscope/mso2000-dpo2000. Yes, I know, this Tek series was launched in 2008 and the scope has quite small display... 

[bombledmonk]

I don't know what the current state of the MSO industry is, but I think you might be hard pressed to find something reasonably priced and actually useful in one physical unit.  When I've looked into this in the past, you can buy a MSO for whatever price, but to actually use the logic analyzer to do useful things you need to pay something on the order of $1k to get the serial decode software unlock code.  Otherwise your just looking at bits twiddling on channels that happen to be synced up to your analog signals.

Might be better off going separate with something like the Saleae 16 channel analyzer.  There's a lot of other more expensive ones out there as well.  Just a few from one place:
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/test-and-measurement/equipment-specialty/2294595?k=logic%20analyzer&ColumnSort=1000011&quantity=0

[AndyC_772]

"Best" is rather subjective, IMHO. With your budget, you might be able to get an Agilent MSOX2002A, which is only 70 MHz and 2+8 channels but has probably has the best waveform update rate and best overall quality of display available. If the technical performance meets your needs, it's a range against which I've not heard a bad word said. Dave has done a review too.

[EEVblog]

Mixed signal might be hard under $2K in a decent brand (i.e. apart from OWON or something).
If you don't need the high sample rate or bench space, then an old Agilent is not bad value:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-Agilent-54622D-100-MHz-Mixed-Signal-Oscilloscope-2-16-Channel-/150717094501?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2317705a65&_uhb=1#ht_814wt_1397

The Tek MSO2002B is probably a good buy, but has a small screen.

Dave.

[JoeyP]

The Agilent 54622D is an excellent choice. I used them for years, and they're hard to beat for use up to 100MHz BW. The one down side is that they have CRT's which are bound to eventually wear out.

Before considering the Rigol DS1102D for digital work, you should search the web and pay close attention to the many threads relating to its logic analyzer section. From everything I've read, I wouldn't even consider buying a mixed signal Rigol.

[larry42]

I'll third the 54622D recommendation - they are nice scopes, despite the age their UI is more responsive than my Hameg HMO. Be aware that the sample rate is only 200Msps - I've been caught out by aliases before.

Apart from that they have an FFT mode built int, plenty of memory (1-2 Mpts) to give a useful zoom. They are still being used at my previous company. The CRTs last for a long time, but can suffer from burn-in.

[Hydrawerk]

I would not buy a 200Ms/s scope today... 1Gs/s was even on old Teks TDS220 in about 1997.

[JoeyP]

I would not buy a 200Ms/s scope today... 1Gs/s was even on old Teks TDS220 in about 1997.

The TDS220 does not have any logic channels, so is not relevant to the OP's question regarding mixed signal scopes. It also has only 2.5K samples of storage. Barely qualifies as a storage scope. Ya, higher sample rates are nice, but for a given budget you will sacrifice something else to get them.

The 54622D does 400MHz sampling on a single channel, and also has equivalent time sampling which is quite adequate for repetitive signals within its analog bandwidth. In day to day use, I rarely if ever found its sample rate lacking.

[EEVblog]

The 54622D does 400MHz sampling on a single channel, and also has equivalent time sampling which is quite adequate for repetitive signals within its analog bandwidth. In day to day use, I rarely if ever found its sample rate lacking.

The 60MHz 200MS/s 54621D was my main scope at work for many years. The 200Ms/400Ms was adequate at that bandwidth.

Dave.

[larry42]

I'm with Dave on this one. The 54622D is a good scope. Don't let the CRT fool you into thinking it's too old-fashioned.

The thing feels like an analog scope - I can't find the waveform/s rating, but it claims 25 Mvectors/s, it's faster than my Hameg HMO1524.

Going just on specs like sample rate, would lead one to consider
http://www.home.agilent.com/en/pd-580288-pn-DSO3102A/oscilloscope-100-mhz

Unfortunately that's the biggest POS I have ever seen. An HP rebadged of early Rigol carp. SLLLLOOOOWWW menus. Terrible TN screen (2degree viewing angle). We had bought two for production (to free up the 4 HP 5462x we had), within 3 years one of the 3102A was sold to an employee with the company's blessing. The other was *literally* thrown out. Thankfully I was in a meeting, saw the guy throw it out and rescued it - useful to have a spare DSO, but still a goshdarn awful scope despite the 100MHz/1Gsps rating.

[Hydrawerk]

I'm with Dave on this one. The 54622D is a good scope. (...)
The thing feels like an analog scope - I can't find the waveform/s rating, but it claims 25 Mvectors/s,

Well, I measured the waveform update rate of a similar 100Mhz scope Agilent 54624A.
It was about 360 000 waveforms per second... Is that possible? Quite large number IMHO. The counter connected to Trig out showed 360 kHz, so it should be true... What do you think?

[larry42]

Thanks for checking. Sounds possible, newer scopes have up to a million waveforms per second.

Of course it's only that high at certain time /div settings.


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[mikeselectricstuff]

Even the original HP MSO, the 54645D is a perfectly good unit, with a very responsive UI. The main reason I upgraded from it was to get more analogue channels.
It suffers from a common PSU fault, but it's just a resistor that goes high, so an easy fix.

[free_electron]

54645d or the 622d.

i still have two 645d's lingering around in my garage. perfect for the quick measurement. they are small , light and portable. and have relatively deep memory ( megazoom )

used for when i don;t want to fire up the 'big iron'.

[EEVblog]

There is a 54645d in Oz for $700 with probes. I think that's a good buy for those interested.

 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Hewlett-Packard-HP-54645D-100-MHz-Oscilloscope-w-Manuals-Accessories-Working-/290869775076

Dave.

[Wuerstchenhund]

i bought a used Lecroy Wavejet 324 2GSa/s 200MHz Bandwidth 4 channel oscilloscope for 2000$.

Very nice scope, it's an Iwatsu rebrand (completely made by Iwatsu and just rebadged by LeCroy, unlike the Waverunners which were developed in co-operation between LeCroy and Iwatsu) but that is nothing negative.

Can you do a review (I'm working on one for the Waverunner LT)?

[mikeselectricstuff]

Back to the original question. I just scored a MSO6012A for a client from Agilent's ebay store. It was listed at $2K but they accepted an offer of 1800.
No probes but the logic probes can be improvised.

Free shipping as well as they ship via their normal channel.

Looks like there's another:
 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Agilent-MSO6012A-Mixed-Signal-Oscilloscope-8ML-/190806934357?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item2c6cfac355

[mikeselectricstuff]

You can use cables from old HP analysers like the 1650/51

Check out logic probes:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Agilent-54620-61801-54620-61601-54620-68701-POD-KIT-/121065954283?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3017dbeb

for less than that you can get two sets, and a free logic analyzer ......
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Agilent-HP-1650A-Logic-Analyzer-/390102858290?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ad3f13a32

[Someone]

You can use cables from old HP analysers like the 1650/51

Check out logic probes:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Agilent-54620-61801-54620-61601-54620-68701-POD-KIT-/121065954283?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3017dbeb

for less than that you can get two sets, and a free logic analyzer ......
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Agilent-HP-1650A-Logic-Analyzer-/390102858290?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ad3f13a32

Or a step cheaper again for the lucky forum members:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-hpagilent-logic-pods/

[cloudscapes]

Sorry for the necro bump. At least it's still warm. 

Is SPI/I2S/etc decode in an MSO totally unrealistic in the mid-$1k or $2k range? And $2k is a real stretch, for me.

[larry42]

Sorry for the necro bump. At least it's still warm. 

Is SPI/I2S/etc decode in an MSO totally unrealistic in the mid-$1k or $2k range? And $2k is a real stretch, for me.

Depends - new or used? What are the other specs that you need?

[jpb]

Thanks to everybody for a lot of good info!

I got my hand on a old version of  LogicStudio16 Channel Logic Analyzer for just 55 $ (The seller had it advertice as a "gadget of some kind"..)  so i bought a used Lecroy Wavejet 324 2GSa/s 200MHz Bandwidth 4 channel oscilloscope for 2000$. That is just over the budget but i think i got a nice solution that will do OK for my project.   :-)

The nice thing is that the analyzer can both work a PC and the scope at the same time.

Regards
Erik

I bought a Lecroy WaveJet 334 (new "old stock") and had thought of using it with the LogicStudio16 but I find that the pre-A series WaveJet won't allow the use of the USB port even though it seems wired up and I've plugged mine into a pc with the LeCroy USB driver and it reports no errors.

This means that the analogue signals can't be displayed on the pc. You can still use the logic studio to trigger the scope but the technical support person at LeCroy said that if I did this I must take account of a 100 nsec trigger delay.

Worse still, if I buy the very expensive WJ-LAN interface for the scope (£400!!) Logic Studio won't talk to anything other than USB (though I probably could get around this if I put some effort in).

Then, today, I just noticed the Conrad price for the Logic Studio has jumped from £953 to £1356 !!! Your $55 was quite a bargain!!

I'm generally very pleased with my WaveJet 334 (it cost me less than £1500 including 4 500MHz probes) but my planned expansion via LogicStudio is looking like it would cost me more than the scope.

I'd be very interested in knowing how your set up works - you said your scope was a 324 is that the original series like mine (white) or the A series (black)?