Re: The AD2.
Just to be 100% clear: The AD2 is NOT a great oscilloscope, it will never replace a bench oscilloscope.
What it IS is a general purpose electronics tool, it does all sorts of clever/useful things.
It might help to think of it as a "Swiss Army Knife" - they're not the greatest knife in the world but they have all sorts of other tools like screwdrivers and scissors and saws.
Check out all the modules here:
https://digilent.com/shop/software/digilent-waveforms/
Edit: It looks like they forgot the curve tracer...
What is actual performance of it performing stability analysis on a switcher PSU? Dynamic range and complete amplitude range? How well it performs in presence of noise?
I searched and found no real performance figures in real world scenarios ..what is real performance of AD2?
That's completely the wrong way to think about the AD2.
I know it has Bode plot functionality but despite it's nominal 14bit resolution, it has only 2 measurement ranges.
Yep. 5V and 20V ranges.
If you're doing Bode Plots at 100mV (or above) then it'll work just fine.
(maybe even at 50mV).
And maybe not.
Like I said, you don't know. You don't own AD2 and have no knowledge or experience with measurement of Bode plots with it. Your body of knowledge on this topic is "maybe" same as mine. And it is a 400 € device you recommend.
In an article I linked there were problems found with measurements on AD2. Basically, they wanted to use it for serious measurement and found that some of implemented measurements were a bit simplistic and not stable and reliable at higher frequencies. I have no idea if that is fixed or not but that made me think.
Plenty people are recommending AD2 but there is no real performance verification anywhere to be found.
As I don't own AD2 I asked for real data from someone who owns it or link to some real performance verification.
I'm not saying it is bad, I'm saying we don't know...
And yes, only 5V and 20V voltage range is a serious limitation. If you use it with 10x probes it becomes 50V and 200V range.
When you are trying to measure loop stability, voltages are sometimes minuscule (very small). Whole regulation loop is fighting to set error voltage to zero... That is why good sensitivity and best possible ADC is needed.
On Micisg: statistics on measurements is a basic thing. And I miss it all the time on the Micsig and am completely baffled why they didn't make it... Yes I do own STO1104C..