Products > Test Equipment
Are 'premium' scope brands still justified?
tautech:
--- Quote from: tszaboo on April 13, 2024, 09:33:29 pm ---I have the MSOX 3104T at work, Siglent SDS824HD at home. The Siglent is surprisingly good, and it can do things that the MSOX cannot. For example the 12 bit and zoom makes it almost work like a low speed power rail probe, that would be 5x the price of the scope just for the probe. I used Siglents before they between Ok to Meh. These HD models are good. And the entry price is very low.
But the reverse is also true. The MSOX is a workhorse, and I think every serious engineering company deserves to have one.
--- End quote ---
This.
Just to dabble with a SDS802X HD for only $340 as a test bed gets you to experience the same UI used in the PC based 16" screen 3&4 GHz SDS7000A.
Martin72:
--- Quote from: AndyC_772 on April 13, 2024, 11:21:41 am ---I'm interested to learn from anyone else making their day-to-day living with a scope. Are these newer models still just plasticky junk, and a "real" scope is still a 5 figure investment? Or have the 'big boys' been caught napping, and are now about to find you can't charge £10k+ for obsolete hardware any more?
--- End quote ---
Yes, you can get the impression that you don't have to spend a lot of money to get the same result, but that's not always the case.
Cheap and good scopes haven't been around that long either...
I started working in the test field a little over 20 years ago.
That's where I first came into contact with DSOs, before that I only knew analog ones from schools.
I was faced with a mix of DSOs, analog and "hermaphrodites", such as Philips with digital displays on the CRT.
I soon took the DSOs from Tektronix and Lecroy to my heart, at that time a Waverunner LT with 350Mhz and 1GSa/s was the best we had.
The prices were astronomical from a hobbyist's point of view, but the company had only ever bought oscilloscopes when the order situation was good.
Privately, the choice was between Tektronix, Hameg and Philips, all analog scopes that were reasonably affordable second-hand.
In 2006 we bought a cheap Wavesurfer model, it had Windows XP as OS and 200Mhz bandwidth.
Then, in 2009, the first "really cheap", 4 WaveJET scopes, each around 4000€.
They couldn't do anything, but they were small and cheap.
In 2009, someone had also brought a cheap scope from Uni-T, which was a disaster.
I had bought something similar privately and was just as disappointed.
The idea that only expensive branded goods are good remained for the time being.
Then later came various rigol ds1000Zs, which we only used for decoding, because our other scopes couldn't do that.
I also bought one privately and was satisfied at the time because I didn't do that much at home.
But even that couldn't hold a candle to our oldest lecroys, so there was still the idea that only scopes from "A-brands" were the real deal and therefore unattainable for hobbyists in terms of price.
Unless you were lucky and could buy one cheaply second-hand.
Then, almost at the end of the 2010s, two things happened.
The R&S RTB2000 series came out, followed by the Siglent SDS5000X plus.
In retrospect, these were real game changers.
Scopes under 10000€, which were fully usable and definitely gave a "pro feeling".
2020 then the SDS2000Xplus series from siglent...
That was another game changer, albeit rather quietly.
What you get for 1400€ was simply sensational.
I noticed it immediately, as I had been used to working with "Pro" scopes for years.
I would say that for everyday tasks, the scope is in no way inferior to other, much more expensive scopes - that's why we now have 6 of them in the test field.
90% of all conceivable tasks can be done as well with it as with scopes that cost 10x or more.
For the "rest" we now have scopes from lecroy that correspond to the current state of the art.
They have a right to exist, because despite all the enthusiasm about the fact that you can get good quality for (relatively) pocket money, such scopes will never become completely superfluous.
As always, it depends on the task at hand.
A word about bugs:
I only really came into contact with them with the cheap scopes - before that they were foreign to me.
In the meantime, they are also appearing in the "brand scopes", preferably in the cheaper models.
But if they are recognized and confirmed, they are also eliminated, at least at Lecroy and Tektronix.
And at Siglent, so there can no longer be any talk of a "B brand".
AndyC_772:
I've ordered an SDS804X-HD.
If it's useful, gives me some meaningful insight into signals I can't currently see with my older scope, then that's a win, and a cheap one at that.
If I decide I actually like using it, then I can look into getting a 2000X-HD to be my new everyday workhorse.
I'm not sure I can see much benefit to the 3000X-HD series, other than the greater bandwidth and sample rate, which I don't really need.
Comparing like-for-like in terms of bandwidth (300M), the 3000 is about another £400 - not a huge increase - but there's no corresponding options bundle (logic analyser, wavegen, serial decodes) to match the current offer on the 2000 series. That makes the 2000 much better value right now.
Worst case, I've spent £355 to learn that I'm still using the right tool for the job, and try again in another 5 - 10 years.
Thanks for the insight everyone, much appreciated. :-+
Martin72:
It's a good idea to start "small" to see if it fits at all.
The software/operation is almost identical to the other touchscreen models, so at least in that respect you will know what to expect with the larger models.
I would keep the previous workhorse.
We haven't retired our old horses either, there will always be a situation where they are needed. ;)
Electro Fan:
AndyC_722,
That is a very thoughtful, logical, and commendable approach. Plz keep us posted on your learnings when the scope arrives, or any other thoughts along the way.
:-+ :-+
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