Let’s Talk About LeCroy Scopes, AKA… the “Wuerstchenhund Holds Court” Thread

[Martin72]

By the way, turning the channel to full bandwith changes nothing on the bandwith when Eres is +3bit on the channelmenu.

Asked lecroy support for this.
He wasn´t sure but he think it´s because of the avaible 20Mhz BW limit why eres in the channel menu is also limited to 20Mhz.
Then a nice explaination followed about the eres filter function, I think I post it here tomorrow, maybe it´s interesting.

[Verticon]

This wiggling (up and down, left and right) trace of the sinusoid signal on the display of the LeCroy scope is exactly the same artefact what I see on my DDA120(LC574-series). The scope has a bandwith of 1 GHz but the wiggling starts already at a few hundred MHz where the signal on another scope with much less bandwidth is absolutely stable. I was wondering about the reason for that and thought that it is probably a defect in the trigger section. But when I see it on an actual LeCroy model one could assume that this is LeCroy specific. It's hard to believe because in general the DDA120 is a very powerful scope.

[Martin72]

If you mean my posts, it´s a 20khz sinewave feeding into a little transformer, scope is on one of it´s secondary outputs.
Scope was a 12 bit lecroy with 350Mhz bandwith.
It´s a very small transformer so I must use micro testleads on his pins and then connect the probe on this leads - probably the reason for the disturbances on the sinewave signal.

[joeqsmith]

LeCroy is niche, or not. They are great for R&D, science folks, test... They are "scopes with analysis lab built in". If you need that, they are first choice, if you don't, than you don't...
I find them logical to setup, but I never was a button twiddler, more of a make plan first before doing something...
We are all different and have different needs..

My personal experience with LeCroy scopes have just been terrible. And yes, I know that LeCroy makes some amazing high end scopes for research but they are in a range of not affordable to normal businesses.

My understanding is that LeCroy oscilloscopes were originally descendant from high speed digitizers intended for the scientific research and nuclear weapon testing.  These applications require high speed, long record length, and unattended operation.  I think this is reflected in LeCroy preferring long record lengths while relying on post processing rather than real time processing during aquision.

I have noticed that modern oscilloscopes intended for use as automated test equipment also usually lack a responsive and easy to use front panel interface, as opposed to oscilloscopes intended for service work where the operator does not necessarily know what they are looking for, so a good interface is more important.

Old thread.   I still own four vintage LeCroy DSOs (7200, 7200A, 64xi & WM8500) and no other scopes.  The SSDs I was told were never going to hold up for more than a few weeks have now been active for 8 years.  Also, the 1G Ethernet card that was added to the WM has never given me any troubles.  I'm still not a fan of the Waveblunder but after 8 years, its starting to grow on me.  Since installing all new knobs, I only had one fall off once.  The plastic case continued to crumble to the point where the front of the unit was starting to fall apart.  My bench it seems is a harsh environment.  I ended up finding some gray plastic that I melted into the original along with a bit of silver paint, that doesn't match, to cover it up.   The electronic design was never a problem but the mechanics looks like it was done by people selling to Harbor Freight.   

The attached were taken from the 1990 catalog which provides some of the history. 

[hpw]

@Joe:  I still own four vintage LeCroy DSOs (7200, 7200A, 64xi & WM8500) and no other scopes.

I am at the same point, as looking for service manual WM8000A & and maintenance to made (cap's to replace, rotary encoders to replace, dust to remove inside, front bezel to replaced, calibration locally ...)  and in addition may adding additional SW options. Even possible to transfer the options them from dead to working DSO or even purchase them??

As they are from good parents so maintenance is as on an old Ferrari 

BTW: Just a warning to purchase them on ebay (and not only) as claimed warranty given but never able to provide, working what is not fully trough and even not cleaned sold at all. As it goes with LeCroy probes as required TIP's missing at all!!

[joeqsmith]

As they are from good parents so maintenance is as on an old Ferrari 

BTW: Just a warning to purchase them on ebay (and not only) as claimed warranty given but never able to provide, working what is not fully trough and even not cleaned sold at all. As it goes with LeCroy probes as required TIP's missing at all!!

I think they had told me that the 7200A that I bought was originally priced at 75.  It was their first PC based scope.  I gave it away but a friend gave me another.  I'm a LeCroy magnet.  I made a couple of videos where I was showing some of the repairs of what they had sent.     

[nctnico]

To be clear: Lecroy has re-used the 7200A model number for a 2GHz / 20Gs/s WavePro model.