Basic scope requirements except need to see ~10 ns pulses

[2N3055]

I doubt the OP gives a hoot about these points; quite right too.

If you read a bit more carefully to OP quote I included, you would see that it was in direct response to his sentence...

And it is relevant.

Because there is large portion of T&M market that is not covered by A brands anymore.
And they became irrelevant in that segment.

More than decade ago, A brands started outsourcing these segments and simply rebranding manufacturers we know today as Rigol, Siglent etc...

To the point that Keysight makes no modern scope in that segment anymore (all their scopes are 10 years old designs, repainted black), R&S has no scope for less than 2000+€ except 15+ year old HMO1000 Hameg rebranded R&S. LeCroy entry level is rebranded Siglent.

So you go to brands that actually serve that segment.

[tggzzz]

I doubt the OP gives a hoot about these points; quite right too.

If you read a bit more carefully to OP quote I included, you would see that it was in direct response to his sentence...

And it is relevant.

Because there is large portion of T&M market that is not covered by A brands anymore.
And they became irrelevant in that segment.

More than decade ago, A brands started outsourcing these segments and simply rebranding manufacturers we know today as Rigol, Siglent etc...

To the point that Keysight makes no modern scope in that segment anymore (all their scopes are 10 years old designs, repainted black), R&S has no scope for less than 2000+€ except 15+ year old HMO1000 Hameg rebranded R&S. LeCroy entry level is rebranded Siglent.

So you go to brands that actually serve that segment.

I was referring to my points.

[Performa01]

I would not stumble from one extreme to the other – any sub 500 $ DSO isn’t the right choice to replace a 15 k$ Tek.

My recommendation is the Siglent SDS2354X HD, which is a 12 Bit / 350 MHz / 4-channel MSO with deep 100 Mpts/Ch. Sample memory and extended analysis capabilities, switchable true 50-ohm inputs, providing a VSWR <1.5:1 up to >1 GHz. The actual -3 dB bandwidth is more like 460 MHz.

This scope is reasonably responsive and does not pass out for several seconds as soon as it has anything more demanding to do.

Attached is an example, tailored towards your use case.


SDS2504X_HD_PR_Pair_W10ns_RT1.5ns_d4ns

The signal consists of 10 ns wide double-pulses with 1.5 ns rise time and 14.28 ns period (~4.28 ns spacing) between the individual pulses; the burst period is 100 µs.

The main window shows 4 such double-pulses to illustrate the before mentioned 100 µs period.

The Zoom window shows a detailed view on the pulses and the automatic measurements are pretty spot on with regard to pulse width and rise/fall time. The Rising edge Overshoot measurement ROV reads ~3.2% on average and is not entirely stable, as can be seen at a glance in the measurement statistics (high peak to peak variance and standard deviation) as well as the Histogram Icon (which could be enlarged into a separate window for closer inspection.

The instrument provides an always visible 7-digit trigger frequency counter and the time base has 1 ppm accuracy.

[2N3055]

I doubt the OP gives a hoot about these points; quite right too.

If you read a bit more carefully to OP quote I included, you would see that it was in direct response to his sentence...

And it is relevant.



Because there is large portion of T&M market that is not covered by A brands anymore.
And they became irrelevant in that segment.

More than decade ago, A brands started outsourcing these segments and simply rebranding manufacturers we know today as Rigol, Siglent etc...

To the point that Keysight makes no modern scope in that segment anymore (all their scopes are 10 years old designs, repainted black), R&S has no scope for less than 2000+€ except 15+ year old HMO1000 Hameg rebranded R&S. LeCroy entry level is rebranded Siglent.

So you go to brands that actually serve that segment.

I was referring to my points.

Ahh, my apologies for misunderstanding. Mea culpa.
Best,

[tggzzz]

Ahh, my apologies for misunderstanding. Mea culpa.

Fortunately I have never ever made such a mistake.
...
...
...
Oh.
 

[2N3055]

Good advice.

I would like to add fact that scope also have segmented /history mode that you can use to capture many individual events and than analyse them one by one.
You also have search to automatically find certain signal parameters.

[stephencox]

Thanks, everyone. I am going to chat with some former collaborators before making a decision, but I am now leaning toward the Siglent option.

The topic of the different focuses of legacy and budget or upstart brands is definitely an interesting one! I live in different market segments for different types of equipment, so it comes up a lot. For example, I think my needs are in the mid-range for lasers, electronics that aren't part of the mass spectrometers, and microscopes. Unfortunately for microscopes I don't think that market segment exists, so we're wasting money because we can't tolerate the budget equipment. Also there are some egregious monopoly practices with proprietary software and camera compatibility, etc., but that's a digression . . .

[Fungus]

I would not stumble from one extreme to the other – any sub 500 $ DSO isn’t the right choice to replace a 15 k$ Tek.

If all the Tek was doing was look at 10ns pulses then why not?

[2N3055]

I would not stumble from one extreme to the other – any sub 500 $ DSO isn’t the right choice to replace a 15 k$ Tek.

If all the Tek was doing was look at 10ns pulses then why not?

Because it was 500MHz Tek with proper 50Ω inputs with good SWR etc.
Simple in processing as those were, they had serious signal integrity, those old scopes.
They were not toys, but serious machines.

So for a modern replacement you need to replace with same quality front end.
That excludes lower end. For instance, although in processing functions SDS800xHD is way more powerful than OP needs, we would need to go to minimum SDS2000x+ class.
Rigols first level would be DS7000 or DHO4000.
It is shame they don't have anything in between like Siglent's 2000 class (8/12bit).