Which scope for me ?

[Otatiaro]

Hello,

I'm developing electronics products for 2 years now, but never really felt a need for a good scope.
Probably because I'm mainly on the digital side, I'm using my logic analyser very often, but used a scope only once because of a power stage issue. And that time I used a DSO Nano which was fine for the job (just scoped the voltage ramp at startup ... never use a Micrel M5209 with big ceramic caps on the output ... fried all my sensors after weeks of use, replaced the LDO for a M5239 and now it's fine).

Anyway now I'm working on another project with a far more complicated power stage (multiple power sources at multiple voltages, battery charger, buck-boost DC/DC, etc, etc) and I feel I'll need a better scope during the "debug" phase.

From the blog and forum, etc, I guess I have 2 options :

- go for the cheapest usable scope, i.e. Rigol DS1052E at about 300€
- invest a bit for probable later needs, then I think I narrowed the choice in the 1000€ range to Agilent 2000X (the cheapest one, they are offering waveform gen and DSO for free these days) versus Rigol DS2072 or DS2102.

Any advice welcome (yes I know the scope choice is a recurring topic, but the answer is different for each use case).

Thomas.

[Otatiaro]

It's fucking crazy ...

Decided to buy an Agilent X2012A, Agilent is currently giving the wavegen and DSO options with it (until end of the year).

- Radiospares has it, seems to be in stock, and you have to put a code when ordering to have the free options ... except the code is not valid, and you can't call them !
- Farnell has 2 références, one without the free options is in stock, the one with options is not in stock, I just called them, if I want the free options, then I'd be delivered mid Feb !!!!!

The other french distributors of Agilent are just too busy to answer my mails/calls ...

Just fucking crazy ...

Thomas.

[Otatiaro]

Finally got someone from Radiospares, and she added the code to my order (they have some issues with code system), I programmed delivery for the last day of the year

Thomas.

[Otatiaro]

Hello,

Finally received the scope yesterday, and received the activation codes for the DVM and WAVEGEN options today, all went well.
Don't have a lot of time to play with it now, but seems good quality and stuffed with usefull options.

I received 2x 150MHz probes with it ... nice. Just need some something to connect to the WAVEGEN now.

Thomas.

[EEVblog]

Let us know how you like it.
I wonder if Agilent are going to drop the free WaveGen option?
Rigol are really nipping at their heels, they need that differentiator now. So would not surprise me if they just extend it or make it permanent.

Dave.

[Otatiaro]

Hi Dave,

The free WAVEGEN + DVM is supposed to have stopped end of 2012 ... I don't care about the DVM option (I think it should be included for free), but the wavegen is nice ... except the arbitrary waveform missing option as you pointed out in the review.

I may consider buying the LAN option in the coming months ... and I'm still wondering if the logic analyser option would be really more efficient than my Saleae Logic (I have the 8 channel one, but may buy the 16 channel one).

Any advice on that ? I like the way the Saleae Logic works, with no loss of information, possibly very long "waveform", and quite interesting protocol analysers.

I bought the 100MHz version - not the cheaper 70MHz version - of the 2000X because of your review, I hope I'll have some use for the extra bandwidth (considered the 4 channel version, which is the only "option" you can't upgrade after buying the scope, but was a bit too much expensive).

Thomas.

[Kibi]

I got my 2002X 18 months ago based to Dave's review. I am very pleased with it and as yet I have not exceeded it's capabilities.

[Neilm]

I made a recommendation to the company I work for that we buy a couple of MSO3024s due to Dave's review. Especially as it had the ability to decode UART / SPI / I2C on the fly. When I showed that to some of my colleagues, the sound of every one saying "Can I borrow it?" was pretty deafening.

So Agilent seem to have had a few sales from Dave's review.

Neil

[EEVblog]

I may consider buying the LAN option in the coming months ... and I'm still wondering if the logic analyser option would be really more efficient than my Saleae Logic (I have the 8 channel one, but may buy the 16 channel one).
Any advice on that ? I like the way the Saleae Logic works, with no loss of information, possibly very long "waveform", and quite interesting protocol analysers.

If the Saleae does the job, then stick with it.
A LA in scope can be handy for mixed-signal triggering, but that's about it. An expensive option just for that ability.

Dave.