Author Topic: Buying a 2CH vs 4CH Scope  (Read 5889 times)

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Offline maginnovision

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Re: Buying a 2CH vs 4CH Scope
« Reply #25 on: March 29, 2019, 08:47:39 am »

I believe there are some threads floating around on the forum with discount codes for places like TEquipment and other popular equipment vendors. I have heard of people picking up 4ch scopes for under $350. You might even be able to score a used 1054z for under $300 if you are vigilant  on eBay.

That's true. You can also pick up other used scopes for less. My cheapest scope was $1000 in 2005 (that just changed yesterday, 800$ 2019) so I'm not arguing for me, but those who want their pennies. I still strongly recommend 4 channels but if you "can't" do it then don't. I personally prefer 4 + 16 MSO for a primary scope.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2019, 08:51:26 am by maginnovision »
 

Offline NivagSwerdna

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Re: Buying a 2CH vs 4CH Scope
« Reply #26 on: March 29, 2019, 10:14:38 am »
My 2c worth...

A few years ago I bought a Rigol 1052E which I think appeared about the time that these devices had a step change in what you got for your money.  Prior to that I used digital sampling and/or ADC with a micro controller to get some idea of what was going on but it was always a mystery and anything over trivial frequencies was a black box.  Going from zero channels to two channels was a game changer and opened up so many more projects (or actually getting existing projects to work properly).  I have never owned an analogue scope, nor would I want to since having triggers and looking around trigger points is where I tend to go. So... firstly DO get a digital scope, it will make your hobby so much more fun.

The Rigol 1052E was brilliant bang for buck and is two channels.  With two channels you can do a lot of things... specifically you can use one channel as a reference and then vary the second channel across signals.  It can be time consuming (especially if say you are decoding a 20 channel LCD driver) but it is do-able and data can be extracted, put on a USB and later combined into a multi-trace format on the computer.

So.. why not stick with 2CH... 

.. well you can but the incremental cost for a 4CH scope isn't huge now and the 1054Z was the next step change... although you do get extra channels so you can now have one reference and three others (i.e. x3 productivity) you also get extra goodies such as data decoding. As soon as you are looking at a bus which has a clock then you only get one data channel and no spares with a 2CH; with 4CH you get CLK, data and up to two interesting things... game changer.

Although I love my 1052E, I do have 1054Z envy and now it's too late for me as I have invested in my 1052E...

.. so if you can afford it buy a 4CH scope, if you cannot afford it get an extra job and save up for a 4CH and if you cannot get an extra job, buy a 2CH *MODERN* *DIGITAL* scope.... it will make your hobby so much more fun.

PS
If it was my day job then it would be 4+16 MSO all the way
« Last Edit: March 29, 2019, 12:06:22 pm by NivagSwerdna »
 


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