| Products > Test Equipment |
| Need help! Test bench equipment recommendations. $2k+ budget |
| << < (8/18) > >> |
| bdunham7:
--- Quote from: geneonline on March 29, 2022, 01:28:08 am ---Which situations cause it to lag? Is it a lag or just doesnt work at all? For what it can do, I completely ok with a little bit of slowness at times when doing hard tasks. --- End quote --- After 14 or so Red Bulls, some people--the ones that text at 2000 thumbstrokes per minute--blow a gasket if their chosen device of the moment doesn't properly buffer and respond instantly to the 700 tasks they've jammed into it. Those are the people that complain about 'slow' or 'laggy' UIs. Now to be fair, the menus and controls on some of the non-A-brand scopes are a little funky. The most famous are the multipurpose control knobs that sometimes require you to spin them for what seems like 1000s of turns to make and adjustment and then won't hold still while you press them. I see room for improvement in lots of places, but nothing that causes my blood pressure to rise even a little big. But boot-up times don't bother me either while others seem to throw their instruments out the window in a fit of rage if they aren't ready in 2 seconds. So are you twitchy or relaxed? |
| geneonline:
--- Quote ---twitchy or relaxed? --- End quote --- Depends, my pc, internet connection, and most electronics? No reason for there to be any lag at this point in a premium product with todays processing speed. Bloatware and pointless software bogging performance down is a peev. I guess I shouldnt expect much from the scope since it is still considered entry level, but as long is its not taking more than a second for any input to register and normally pretty quick all other times, I could manage. 50/50 with impatience in most other areas. |
| 2N3055:
--- Quote from: geneonline on March 29, 2022, 03:22:58 am --- --- Quote ---twitchy or relaxed? --- End quote --- Depends, my pc, internet connection, and most electronics? No reason for there to be any lag at this point in a premium product with todays processing speed. Bloatware and pointless software bogging performance down is a peev. I guess I shouldnt expect much from the scope since it is still considered entry level, but as long is its not taking more than a second for any input to register and normally pretty quick all other times, I could manage. 50/50 with impatience in most other areas. --- End quote --- "Today's processing speed" is a myth. 2 GS/s scopes can create 8 GB of data every second (they use 16 bit words internally)... Every second. That's 28 TB an hour. For instance, SDS6000A has 4 5GS/s ADC. That is 40GB per second. 144 TB per hour. I would say even the slowest ones a pretty darned fast... Processing that and doing all kinds of mathematical transformations in real time and without even 1 /100th of a second of delay at all times is not very realistic. My favorite is people setting FFT in such a way so its time gate is 2 seconds and then complaining scope is slow because it refreshes FFT display "only every 2 seconds"...... Siglent 2000X+ series does measurements on full buffer. So if you measure frequency, and you have 200 periods on screen, it will measure each one of them and calculate stats on that. That must be at least 200 times slower than what scopes that only measure one period per trigger do ( like Keysight Infiniivision 1000/2000/3000/4000/6000 do). But gets you 200x more measurements from single captured buffer... Slow is relative... And SDS2000X+ is by no means slow.. Only thing that takes a second or two is for it to sort out through the buffer if you set it to 200 MPts (that will need to process 400 MB of data with 2 or more channels enabled), or bode plot or power analysis that needs few seconds to save scope state and restore it on enter/exit because scope needs to set specifically for the analysis. Try working on 400 MB TIFF image on a PC. Let me know how fast it is... |
| H713:
I'm a student as well (okay, victory lap student who's been working for several years). I've only bought one piece of new test equipment (siglent scope) - everything else is eBay and auctions. There are pros and cons to this method, and you have to be patient (you get good at fixing stuff too!), but it's worked out well for me. -I really think the Siglent SDS1202X-E is a great scope in general, and an amazing scope for what it costs. Most importantly, in my opinion it's a very usable scope. That is to say, it's got a good user interface. A four channel version might be nice, but only if it has dedicated knobs for vertical sensitivity on each channel. I have a TDS3054 at work that has one knob, plus buttons for vertical sensitivity, and it drives me nuts. Strangely, however, one of my favorite scopes is an Agilent 54622A. Its specs aren't winning any awards, but it's such a darn nice scope to use, if you can get past the whole monochrome CRT thing. -A good signal generator option that doesn't get a lot of talk is a used HP 3325. These are older, but they're very usable units and you should be able to get one for a couple hundred bucks used. Otherwise, I've used the Siglent arbitrary waveform generator and find it to be usable. -The Siglent and Rigol power supplies are passable. I still think they're more complicated than any bench power supply needs to be, but on the new market they're the best you'll do without spending an insane amount of money. I have a Hameg HM7044 in my lab that I got used at an auction. It's 90% of what I want in a power supply, aside from the current meters. They're digital, and they're so fast that if 90% of the time your eyes aren't fast enough to read them. It also has really annoying banana jacks on it. At work I have a Power Designs triple output power supply (don't remember the model number) that sees more use than anything else. Really one of the nicest, most well-behaved power supplies I've ever used. It annoys me less than most other power supplies, and it's very quiet. I am a firm believer that Metcal / Thermaltronics are the way to go for soldering. Yes, they're expensive, but the short working distance makes SMD soldering far easier. You should be able to get a setup for a few hundred bucks. The rest of your budget goes to more specialized tools that you buy based on what you want to work on. Maybe you need a high-voltage differential probe for designing offline converters. Maybe you want to work on high-voltage systems and you need a P6015 high voltage probe. Maybe you're hoping to do RF projects and need a spectrum analyser and a VNA. Perhaps you want to design analog audio equipment, in which case you'll need a distortion analyzer. Hell, a few of us (okay, maybe it's just me) feels that having a true analog pulse generator is invaluable. It's impossible to say what you're going to want without knowing what you want to work on. You might not know what you want to work on yet, and that's fine. Wait until you do to purchase that specialized equipment. The big tip I have is that it's really easy to spend a crapload of money on equipment that isn't all that great. Just because your school bought it doesn't mean that it's something you'd want to own. I know my school has some test equipment that costs a small fortune and doesn't work very well. |
| geneonline:
--- Quote ---"Today's processing speed" is a myth. 2 GS/s scopes can create 8 GB of data every second (they use 16 bit words internally)... Every second. That's 28 TB an hour. --- End quote --- That is a impressive data capture. With that much, I would hardly ever to sort through that much information . I seem to have over step my bounds and the scopes are vary capable. Thanks for pointing out that about how much data it's actually moving when people are mentioning that it is slow, more than likely user error. I have no futher worries about it being an excellent. Way more powerful than I personally need. Current dilemma is to finish deciding on a decent choice for a soldering iron. Macal seems epic, but too much for my current skill level. I see almost everyone has a Hakko of some sort, many of their products just don't really feel like a good bank for buck. --- Quote ---firm believer that Metcal / Thermaltronics are the way to go for soldering. --- End quote --- Can you point to a specific model you find to be a favorite or a good work horse? Praise is always overly abundant, but when I look at current models for sale, reviews are a mixed bag making it hard to know which to settle. Also, is there a company or kit for tips that work really well? Any suggestions for the desoldering tools or is the hakko fr301 just the gold standard and what is recommended? Comments point out maintenance is the the most tedious part about it all together. Do you find yourself every using the little solder vacuum pumps? Currently reading about all the different soldering stations. Watching various pointers with the different tips to know. I keep seeing poor temp response, solder sticking, and bad user experience all together. From even the very expensive few 100+! Really a mixed bag and just comes down to bad luck, needing to properly calibrate, or personal preference. Least favorite area to read for the wider range of responses and too many products. I believe I spent a few hours geeking over some of the amscope stero mircoscopes to help see. New item on my wish list for later. I'll be ok with my desk magnify glass and helping hands attachment. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |