LeCroy oscilloscope info

[vaualbus]

Hey guys what do you abot the LaCroy 9370L oscilloscope. It is good? How is the maximum to spent for a working unit?
For me it is a great machine.

[free_electron]

uff da.... a few 100 $. no more. old clunker , no spare parts, no schematics , old picture tube often badly burnt-int ... 16Kpoints of memory , shared A/D ( turn on 2 channels and it falls to 500 Ms/s and 8k points..

[nctnico]

Sure about that? Here it says 2Mpts per channel:
http://www.frankcollyer.com/samples/bigsamples/LeCroyBrochure.pdf
And it has peak-detect. All in all not a bad scope!

[dr.diesel]

For me it is a great machine.

Sounds like your already in good shape, keep on keepin on!

[grumpydoc]

uff da.... a few 100 $. no more. old clunker , no spare parts, no schematics , old picture tube often badly burnt-int ... 16Kpoints of memory , shared A/D ( turn on 2 channels and it falls to 500 Ms/s and 8k points..

OK, no spare parts** - agree on that one, CRT display which can, indeed have burns but you'd be unlucky to get one so bad that it wasn't usable even if the screen burns are readily visible with the power off.

No schematics? Well the 9374 manual is on ko4bb and the 9370 is essentially the same 'scope but with two channels instead of 4.

16k points of memory? - no the 9370L is 2Mpoints per channel. Even the base model 9370 is 50k points.

Shared ADC? - well, you're right that it's either two channels at 500MS/s or one at 1GS/s but the ADCs are separate and then interleaved to give the higher sample rate (ok, ok , splitting hairs ) Oh, and 4M points with the two channels combined.

The 9370L is a perfectly good 'scope. I have a pair of 9354's and they work well. Not up to modern 'scopes I agree but for what I paid I'll stick with the LeCroy's for now.

Edit: ** Actually, not quite true - I just remembered I got a quote from LeCroy for a new front panel for one of mine. OK it was about 3x what I paid for the whole 'scope but I suspect they have other parts if your pockets are deep enough.

[vaualbus]

So maximu 500dollar is ok?
I know it is a good scope like dave say int the top 93x model the 9384.
From hp what is a good digital scope with this charateristics?

[vaualbus]

PS: I see that on ebay there still crt for the unit, if anybody is interested.

[digsys]

I love my older LeCroys, and will also buy more. Absolute bargain. For $500 you may pick up something a bit better, maybe 4 channel?
There are a lot of 2nd hand ones available, many with FULL options !!. Why did you settle for that particular one?

[vaualbus]

Because I love the yellow display!!!!

Not for a LeCroy I have see all the 93x4 that are the 4 channel models and all are more 1000$!! Any HP good 4 or 2 channel oscilloscope for less thean 1000$?

[Wuerstchenhund]

Hey guys what do you abot the LaCroy 9370L oscilloscope.

1GHz analog bandwidth, 500MSa/s in four channel mode and 1GSa/s in single channel mode. The 'L' variant (for Large memory) has 2M per channel which in single channel mode can be combined to 4M.

It is good?

Yes, the 9300 were very good scopes at their time. However, these scopes are now close to two decades old, and their processing is very slow (old Motorola 68k CPUs). In addition, while these scopes were generally very reliable, at this age the PSU might become a problem, as does the screen (most of the 93xx Series on the market have very bad burn-in marks, replacement CRTs are available but add to the overall costs). If it has the printer then it is prone to a capacitor failure which then prevents the scope from powering up. The encoders for the rotary dials often need replacing as well, spares are available from Mouser and are cheap but it's a lot of work to do. And if there's any problem with the ADC section then it's usually just 'game over'.

How is the maximum to spent for a working unit?

Depends on price, condition (most of these scopes seem to be beaten down), and what options it has (you want at least WP01, WP02 and WP03), and if it has the rare HDD option.

It also depends on what CPU board it has. There are two variants (actually three), two slower ones which can take less RAM (one if flash upgradeable, one isn't), and a faster one (CPU3 IIRC).

I guess the absolute limit for me would be somewhere around $500-$600 if it is in very good condition and has all the options.

For me it is a great machine.

It's still a great scope, albeit a bit slow, and with all the options still much more capable than most new entry level and even midrange scopes.

But it's still a almost 20 year old unit, and if your budget allows it I'd probably pay a bit more and get a LC 300/500 (CRT), LC 600 (LCD) or LT Series (LCD as well). Much faster processing, more/better options and the color screens make working with the advanced analysis capabilities much easier than the monochrome display of the 9300 Series. And especially in case of the LC 300/500 Series there are much more sellers than buyers at the moment.

[Wuerstchenhund]

Not for a LeCroy I have see all the 93x4 that are the 4 channel models and all are more 1000$!!

Yes, that's what most sellers are asking. However, this is not the price the scopes will eventually sell.

Some sellers are very un-flexible, stubborn and ignorant in terms of market laws or what 'dead capital' means, but often enough a seller can be convinced that his asking price is simply unrealistic and a more reasonable deal can be negotiated.

Also keep in mind that people looking for a LeCroy scope mostly focus on the 9300 Series. However, it may be easier to strike a deal for a LC Series scope as there's generally a lot less interest.

Any HP good 4 or 2 channel oscilloscope for less thean 1000$?

HP 54542A: 4Ch, 2GSa/s on all channels independently, but only 32k memory per channel, and while it has todays standard set of features like FFT, Peak Detect, Persistance mode, and so on, it's no match feature-wise for a LeCroy 93xx.

But it's still a very good scope, even today.

[vaualbus]

Thaks a lot for the information.

[vaualbus]

so this hp for 200$ is good?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Agilent-infiniium-Osciloscope-used-good-condition-43-/360621995228?_trksid=p2045573.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D6587003602451605730%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D221192539563%26

[nctnico]

Not for a LeCroy I have see all the 93x4 that are the 4 channel models and all are more 1000$!!

Yes, that's what most sellers are asking. However, this is not the price the scopes will eventually sell.

Some sellers are very un-flexible, stubborn and ignorant in terms of market laws or what 'dead capital' means, but often enough a seller can be convinced that his asking price is simply unrealistic and a more reasonable deal can be negotiated.

Also keep in mind that people looking for a LeCroy scope mostly focus on the 9300 Series. However, it may be easier to strike a deal for a LC Series scope as there's generally a lot less interest.

I agree. At least the LC series has a disk drive so you can transfer screendumps to your PC without special software or cables.

[Wuerstchenhund]

I agree. At least the LC series has a disk drive so you can transfer screendumps to your PC without special software or cables.

The Floppy drive which was standard on the LC Series can also be found in most 9300 Series scopes, but I'm not sure its still a useful way to transfer data in this day and age, considering that Floppy drives have become out of fashion in desktop PCs for almost a decade now. A serial connection is more convenient, albeit slow, and GPIB is probably the favourable option unless the scope has the HD01 option.

[nctnico]

You can always buy a USB floppy drive and if you use high quality disks the transfer is pretty much painless. Recently I bought a pack of brand new TDK disks for that purpose. Which serial cables, GPIB, etc you need extra software. If a scope has a floppy drive it can usually write images and CSV files which can be imported directly. Those are much easier to handle than having to mess with (obsolete) software.

I also tried a floppy-disk-drive to USB converter (this emulates a floppy disk drive and writes the data on a USB stick) but that was too tedious to use.

[Wuerstchenhund]

You can always buy a USB floppy drive and if you use high quality disks the transfer is pretty much painless. Recently I bought a pack of brand new TDK disks for that purpose. Which serial cables, GPIB, etc you need extra software. If a scope has a floppy drive it can usually write images and CSV files which can be imported directly. Those are much easier to handle than having to mess with (obsolete) software.

I don't know. LeCroy ScopeExplorer is free and far from obsolete (works fine under Windows 8, too), and a serial cable costs just a few bucks. ScopeExplorer allows remote controlling the scope or accessing the hard drive (if it has that option) file system to transfer files to/from the scope. It can also update the scope's firmware (not that there will be many new updates for the 9300 Series).

And then there's also ActiveDSO...

I also tried a floppy-disk-drive to USB converter (this emulates a floppy disk drive and writes the data on a USB stick) but that was too tedious to use.

I also looked at the floppy emulators but I couldn't see much use in emulating a mere 1.4MB storage medium when serial or GPIB is much more flexible.

[marshallh]

Hey guys what do you abot the LaCroy 9370L oscilloscope. It is good? How is the maximum to spent for a working unit?
For me it is a great machine.

Spend up to $400

There is a guy in the Lecroy yahoo group that will mail you an option gal for $20 that unlocks all the sw features of the scope.

Expect to spend $200 buying a couple passive probes that aren't crap. Also get a pack of new 3.5" disks and a usb floppy drive.

[effectivebits]

It's a fine scope, but be sure you can see it first.  These old CRT scopes could get severe burn-in, especially if left on for too long.

Also, it may be tough to get fixed when and if it dies.

Also, do you really need 1GHz, or would you be happier with a lower bandwidth oscilloscope for the same price, like an slightly older Tek/HP/Agilent or off-brand scope for the same price but a lower bandwidth?  If you don't have active probes, it's not 1GHz anyways.