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| Choosing an oscilloscope |
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| tggzzz:
--- Quote from: Golds on October 12, 2020, 07:19:05 am ---It is not recommended that you choose an oscilloscope that is too old, because you cannot predict that it will suddenly malfunction --- End quote --- Or, to put it another way, which is worse: something working which might break and need to be repaired, or something buggy that cannot be made to work to specification? |
| 2N3055:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on October 12, 2020, 08:25:59 pm --- --- Quote from: Golds on October 12, 2020, 07:19:05 am ---It is not recommended that you choose an oscilloscope that is too old, because you cannot predict that it will suddenly malfunction --- End quote --- Or, to put it another way, which is worse: something working which might break and need to be repaired, or something buggy that cannot be made to work to specification? --- End quote --- Not even worst digital scopes of today have any problems in anything that analog scope can ONLY do.. Even the worst ones will show signals on screen, have functional timebase and vertical channels... Problems, if there are any, are in features analog scopes don't even have... And "digital scopes are buggy" is blown out of proportion... After short time they come out at the market, they get fixed and then are fine.. For instance, Siglent SDS1104x-E, most reported big bug is that it doesn't support spaces in Wifi access point name... As I said many times, advising beginners to purchase 40 years old scope in unknown state is at best naive.. You cannot have 40 year old analog scope as your first and only scope as a beginner. Beginners don't have knowledge, other equipment, parts, to verify, repair and maintain those. Analog scopes is expensive and immersive hobby, sometimes enough by itself. If you have enough money, and like to have analog scope (for whatever reason), make sure to have a primary working digital scope (or another working analog scope) to be able to keep it running. And after you count all the money spent over the years, buying new, working digital scope with warranty will look as good deal.. My advice, if you're beginner, run away as fast as you can from an old analog scope as your first and only scope. If you can get working one for free or very little money, by all means, take it. But don't pay money for it that would buy you new Rigol or Siglent... That is, if you want scope to be tool to serve you, and you can trust it to work as specified.. |
| SilverSolder:
--- Quote from: george.b on October 12, 2020, 07:06:41 pm --- --- Quote from: SilverSolder on October 12, 2020, 02:35:51 pm --- --- Quote from: Golds on October 12, 2020, 07:19:05 am ---It is not recommended that you choose an oscilloscope that is too old, because you cannot predict that it will suddenly malfunction --- End quote --- There is some truth to that - but many hobbyists and professionals use high quality equipment from the 60s - 00s that is still alive because it is repairable. --- End quote --- I find this often-repeated fact of greater repairability with older gear to be, while not untrue, overstated, and therefore potentially misleading. All is fine and well until you run into a defective ASIC, or a very hard to get component. Tunnel diodes, or Tek U800, anyone? Also, playing games like "spot the shorted tantalum" when there are dozens of them spread across 5 different boards gets old real quick. --- End quote --- The nice thing is that the old machines were not engineered or built with planned obsolescence in mind. Finding a shorted tant using a toner, milliohmmeter, or other current tracking tool isn't that hard? And they don't blow as often as their reputation would have you believe... I have seen exactly one blown tantalum cap in my entire pile of old tech, and it was the reason for that particular instrument going cheap on eBay as a non-working unit. It just isn't something I'd worry about. Absolutely you can get in trouble finding parts for an older piece of equipment. But typically, the things that fail in older equipment is not the fancy unobtanium stuff, instead it is the usual drying capacitors, failed power transistors, hot resistors drifting out of spec, bad solder joints, etc. - It can get a bit tricky to find exact matches for old semiconductors, but usually there is an acceptable modern substitute. Worst case, you buy another one on eBay and use for spare parts. It is in any case super useful for fault finding to have a working unit to compare to! :D [Edit: @2N3055 is right above, if you are a beginner just get one of the many excellent and cheap modern scopes. But do buy the occasional old bit of gear just for fun, don't switch it on, take it apart!] |
| Martin72:
--- Quote from: Fungus on October 12, 2020, 05:59:31 am ---It's definitely better than the Rigol now that Instek has added all the serial decoders and other features to it. --- End quote --- Which are ? |
| tggzzz:
--- Quote from: 2N3055 on October 12, 2020, 10:35:23 pm ---And "digital scopes are buggy" is blown out of proportion... --- End quote --- No more so than "all old scopes are broken" --- Quote ---As I said many times, advising beginners to purchase 40 years old scope in unknown state is at best naive.. --- End quote --- Strawman argument. Nobody has suggested that. --- Quote ---You cannot have 40 year old analog scope as your first and only scope as a beginner. --- End quote --- Absolute nonsense. Having taught beginners, they understand them better than to complex modern scopes with subtle and important config setting buried in a menuing system. --- Quote ---My advice... --- End quote --- Is valid from one limited viewpoint. |
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