Products > Test Equipment

Looking for a replacement general purpose oscilloscope for home use

(1/29) > >>

joeqsmith:

Looking to replace my general purpose scope with something more modern.  After seeing the post:  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/magnova-oscilloscope/   I thought I would toss out what I am looking for.

A few problem with my LeCroy is the poor quality mechanical packaging. I took the dust cover off the WaveMaster a few months back and broke the plastic bezzel. The Waveblunder has a lot of melted plastic inside of it to reinforce  all the areas that cracked.  These are not bouncing around in the back of my truck.  The WaveMaster for example has a very thin area of plastic, right where it broke.  Just poor design and low grade materials.   

Don't get me started on calibration.  You have the trigger set to normal and your waiting for that one event to happen.  The scope is sitting there for 5 minutes doing nothing.  Then, there comes the trigger you have been waiting for...  The scope, well, rather than show you that date, it's going to calibrate.  Your data.... you didn't really want that did you?  Sure you can turn off auto cal... oh wait, you can't...   

100M Ethernet... If the memory is deep, and I want to post process it with a PC, I don't want to wait.  Of course, ideally the scope should do everything internally without a PC connection but I have not seen that yet.

USB...  Sadly there is no getting around how bad USB is and always has been.  I like using the mouse but it's a bad interface to try and use in my lab.....

Outside of these problems, my scope is fairly old. I upgraded it to Windows XP.
 
Using internal math is not very fast.  I want something responsive.

My hope is a modern scope will put my old scope to shame.... 


                            Min     Want
Display Size                10"     14-16"
Display Resolution          1024x768  Maybe higher.   
Touchscreen                 I typically disable this feature and will drive
                            the scope with a mouse and keyboard.
Selectors knobs/switches    What ever is used, it just needs to work.
                            We bought a Siglent Arb with a rotory
                            encoder that skips, reverses direction...
                            This would be a deal breaker.
                            The switch contacts need to last and not get noisy
                            over time.  Like my remote controls that double
                            selects now.
                            My LeCroy has knobs that fall off!  It was a common
                            problem. 

Mechanical construction     This thing needs to be rugged enought to survive
                            I hate plastic parts that crack over time
                            If you require an internal battery, better make
                            it easy to change out!  Don't make me remove 50
                            screws and get my soldering iron out!
                            If your case design is so poor that it places undo
                            stress on the circuit boards, I'm not interested.

Weight                      Not important.  It will live out it's life on a shelf.
Size                        Not too important. Keep the depth under a foot.       
AC power                    Standard USA single phase 110 60Hz.

Interface
Ethernet                    1000BT  Must provide a software interface
                                    specification.  I will most likely be running
                                    it from a PC.

USB                         3-ports Needs to support mouse,keyboard and flash drive
                            Export plots to flash drive.  Various image formats for
                            reporting. 

External monitor port       VGA     HDMI

Internal mass storage       SSD     No mechanical spinning stuff!

Built-in math functions     The more features and complex, the better!!

Built-in decoder functions  SPI, etc,   the more the better

Mixed mode (dedicated digital)      Not required

Trigger                     Edge, missing pulse, glitch.. Min width,
                            max width...
                            the more complex, the better
Trigger Jitter              I doubt this would ever be an issue with a modern
                            scope.   <10ps should be fine..

Channels                            4
Analog Bandwidth @ 50ohms   300     500                      MHz
Coupling                            50ohm DC, 1Meg AC/DC
Connector type              BNC     Need to be able to use standard probes with it.
                                    If propritary interface, needs to include adapters
                                    to support standard probes. 

Input Voltage                       5Vrms@50ohms,  400V@1M
Vertical Resolution         8                                Bits
BW filters                  20M/200M

Memory depth
All channels active         10M     More is better           Data points
Half channels               20M

Single shot sample rate
All channels active         2G      5G                       sps
Half channels                       10G

RIS mode trigger rate       I use this mode typically when looking at
                            ignition signals which can have a very slow
                            trigger rate as well....
                            Current trigger rate is 1,250,000 on my LeCroy

External clock              Would like ability to use an external clock
                            for sampling

Viewing mode update rate    8000                             Waveforms/second
I do make use of their WaveStream mode:
WaveStream Mode - This fast viewing mode provides brightness-
graded intensity with a decay time similar to the action of phosphor
on an analog screen. WaveStream mode operates at up to 10 GS/s
with an update rate up to 8000 waveforms/second for better
capture of higher frequency abnormal events.

tautech:
Budget will determine what we might recommend.

ebastler:
Could you please re-post your key requirements and expectations in a font that is actually readable?  ::)
Thanks!

ycui7:
from what you are asking for and complained about, my recommendation is to take a look at scope listed around $20k-$40k from Keysight (EXR or DSOX series) or LeCroy. but those are not generally meant for home use.

Fried Chicken:
I'm very happy with my Tektronix 2230, but if I could I would have gotten the 2232 or maybe the 2252?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

There was an error while thanking
Thanking...
Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod