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| Budget ($150-$400) scope recommendations? |
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| kissel:
First off, electronics is just a hobby of mine, and a relatively new one. Once or twice before I've run into situations where a scope would be nice, but I've never needed one (nor have I ever used one). However, my largest and most recent project involves some fast DC switching and I need a scope to figure out why my ICs keep blowing up. I've been doing some research on scopes, and it gets overwhelming FAST with how many different options there are. Since I have never used a scope, I have no idea what I will actually reasonably need in terms of specs. I believe in spending the money to get quality tools that will last a lifetime, but I don't know whether I'll spend enough time doing advanced electronics projects over my life where I can drop even $400 on an oscilloscope and feel good about it. I can't see myself using a scope more than 50x over the course of my life. I'm definitely a believer in buying older well-made tools secondhand, but going down that rabbit hole has only confused me more. This would probably be my preferred route, but people really seem to bemoan older scopes not having features such as USB. I was hoping I could get your thoughts on a few options I've found repeatedly advocated. Feel free to comment on these or make your own recommendations. $150: Agilent 54622A The CRT is wicked cool, it's cheap, people seem to say these old Agilent machines are very well built. On the downside, it doesn't seem $150 is a great price. It also only has two channels, and people seem to find this limiting. $200: Hantek DSO2C10 It's cheap and modern, but people seem to hate the interface and say it's buggy. Plus, still just two channels. $414: Instek GDS-1054B I saw this recommended a fair bit. Not really sure what's special about it other than that it has four channels. 50MHz is notably lower than the rest, and I really don't know if the price is worth it for me. $420: Rigol DS1054Z This gets TONS of recommendations because a firmware flash can give it 100MHz bandwidth and some other fancy features. It also has four channels. Again, price is a bit steep for me. I think I'm really leaning toward something used as I could always resell it down the road if I found myself losing interest in the hobby or if I wanted to upgrade. |
| rsjsouza:
--- Quote from: kissel on July 08, 2022, 01:00:54 am ---First off, electronics is just a hobby of mine, and a relatively new one. Once or twice before I've run into situations where a scope would be nice, but I've never needed one (nor have I ever used one). However, my largest and most recent project involves some fast DC switching and I need a scope to figure out why my ICs keep blowing up. --- End quote --- Usage and budget are quite relevant datapoints to make your decision, which would be greatly helpful if you could develop this further: do you work with analog electronics (amplifiers, radios, small electronics such as dimmers. Timers, etc?) If so, probably a two channel oscilloscope will be more than enough, which becomes especially attractive with the incredibly capable high bandwidth oscilloscopes such as the SDS1202X-E or the DS1202Z-E for around $300. If, however, you are using digital circuits, a two channel oscilloscope is still very useful but a four channel can bring much more flexibiliy, especially when you factor digital decoding of serial busses. Both the Instek GDS1054B and the Siglent SDS1104X-E use a very similar underlying platform that obfuscates the model from Rigol - the Instek is much cheaper than the Siglent, which is another advantage of it (although I think it has some limitations in the serial decoding). The used route is also an option, especially the 54600 series of HP oscilloscopes which are a joy to use. However, this exposes you to a much higher probability of failure, where you will usually need another oscilloscope to repair your original one. All in all, good luck with your purchase! |
| kissel:
Thanks! It is hard to anticipate my usage, but I expect to primarily be working with digital circuits. However, I don't expect to work with any high-speed buses; for example, I am working on reverse-engineering some digital comms over my car's diagnostic link, but it's slow enough that I can even use an Arduino. If I were okay with the chance of failure, would you say $150 is worth it for the 54622A? |
| Fungus:
If you're not using it much then 2 channels could be enough. 2 channels can do anything that 4 channels can do, it just wastes time and isn't as easy/convenient when you're trying to look at 3 or 4 signals. Rigol, Siglent, etc. make 2-channel versions of their 'scopes. That would save you a bit of money. --- Quote from: kissel on July 08, 2022, 01:00:54 am ---I think I'm really leaning toward something used as I could always resell it down the road if I found myself losing interest in the hobby or if I wanted to upgrade. --- End quote --- You can resell new things, too. The Rigol would be really easy to resell and will keep it's value well. The Instek is better than the Rigol in every way except bandwidth. 50MHz may not be a limitation that affects you in practice. But... we don't know what types of things you'll be using it for. |
| Fungus:
--- Quote from: kissel on July 08, 2022, 01:54:10 am --- I expect to primarily be working with digital circuits ... it's slow enough that I can even use an Arduino. --- End quote --- 50Mhz is plenty for "Arduino". If you're going to ARM/STM type chips then 100Mhz may not be enough. 4 channels is a must-have for "digital". --- Quote from: kissel on July 08, 2022, 01:54:10 am ---If I were okay with the chance of failure, would you say $150 is worth it for the 54622A? --- End quote --- Give what you said above? No, I wouldn't get something with 2 channels and small memory. It will be extremely limiting on what you can do with it compared to a modern DSO. The 200MSamples/sec. is also much too low for a 100Mhz oscilloscope. |
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