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| Questions on some older used Scopes and Probe Rec's |
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| Fulmir:
I'm putting together a home hobbyist/enthusiast electronics lab and I've been poking around at Oscilloscopes. It seems like there are some decent deals around at the moment so I'm looking at picking something up but I wanted some advice and input on value for money and what actually makes sense to buy at this stage. For some context, I'm currently messing around with digital signals in the sub-50MHz range, but I also have a strong tendency to chase shiny ideas and projects right out of the capability of my current equipment (no matter what the project is, not just electronics... ;D), and often it ends up where if I can't do the next thing I lose interest entirely for a while, so I'm looking at something with some leg room to take on more ambitious projects. Budget is $500-ish, color screen is pretty much a must, and I'm looking for good price to performance. For example I started out looking at older Tek scopes, but it's either $2-300 for a fairly basic 100MHz scope, or over $500 for a 1-200MHz scope with only decent-ish features and probably something failing self-test. So Tek is sort of out, barring a fantastic deal. I'm also not looking for anything I have to crack open just to get working barring very simple parts replacement or cleaning. Project equipment can come later, for now I want something that more or less just works. (like, I don't want to replace every SMD cap on an old Tek scope...) I've been looking at older Lecroy scopes, since if you're willing to replace some knobs and/or broken plastic bits they seem pretty good value for money, and a great big color screen with customization options, which is great for my poor addled eyeballs and brain. Specifically I've found some good deals in my area on an LT342 and an LC554DL, the former comes with one PP006 probe and is in great physical condition, the latter comes with itself, a cracked bezel, a broken floppy drive, and two missing knobs. Both are barely within my (rough) budget. Obviously the LC is a lot more Scope, but also no probes and while both are guaranteed to have basic functions I don't have a ton of info in either one. Also I'd have to buy probes to test the LC scope in case it has some issue. Anyone have any other recommendations for Scopes to look at besides the older Lecroy models, or recommendations on either of those two models at ~$5-600 USD? Any big used TE sites/vendors to avoid for this sort of thing? (I already know that stuff listed on the Bay is Buyer Beware a lot of the time, but I know what to look for there) Also, any recommendations for used/budget probes to grab, for a Lecroy or otherwise? Not really looking for active probes at the moment, but recommendations for decent general use passive probes for various applications would be great! I've tried digging through various searched up threads on probes but while there's a lot talking about specific probes, or probes in a specific frequency class, I haven't found much in the way of "this is a good probe/probe class to have on hand" EDIT: Yes, I've already looked at the options for buying new under about $500 and I'm not really that interested absent a really compelling case that I won't need anything more for the next 5+ years. Yes I know they can be hacked, yes I know they come with probes. I'd rather get something a bit better used, even if it's a bit old now. Besides there's something kind of satisfying about a beefy piece of equipment that you can crack open and fix if needed. |
| bayjelly:
Honestly I'm not sure old scopes are worth it. From what I have seen they tend to be not that much cheaper even though technology moved on significantly since. A scope is one of the primary tools in electronics. You can definitely find something new, decent in the $500-$600 range, and you can get something really good if you adjust your budget to, let's say, 3-4x as much. I personally started out with a $300-$400 Siglent scope as my first digital scope, this one, which fit my student budget at the time. That was 10 years ago or more (as you can see it's not available anymore), but even back then that got me a great tool that was perfectly adequate for what I was doing at the time. 70MHz, 2 channels. Years later, I started to hit the limits of my scope. 2 channels wasn't always enough (although I have to say, the majority of the time it still is), larger memory would have been nice, as well as a better FFT function (even better if it can also do Bode plots including phase), protocol decoding, a graded intensity display (I would really miss that now)... so I got an R&S RTB2004 instead, packed with options since there was a bundle at the time at least. It did make a difference. The scope is a joy and I regularly find myself using features that I didn't even really know about before purchasing it. It's not just enhanced capabilities, it's nicer to use, too. And even though in a lot of situations my old scope would still have been sufficient, in the plenty cases where it would not be, or only awkwardly so, it's very nice to have a higher class scope available. But again, the $300-$400 scope did its job fine for years, and looking at eBay I could apparently still resell it for at least close to the original price (but I'm giving it to a friend who's learning instead). I guess what I'm saying other than to already consider a higher class scope if you can afford it, have you considered looking at what's available new given your stated budget? |
| EE-digger:
Lecroy's I've used (later Wavesurfer 3054Z) had poor interface, arrogant support (from tech mouth: "it's a low end scope, you can't expect much") Tek fan for decades but major Agilent/Keysight convert. Older Tek digitals (i.e. 3xx, 4xx) were garbage. TDS784D or the like are powerful but the UI is long in the tooth. Later Teks, I don't like a common knob for many multiple functions. Keysight is still keeping position, scale controls on a per channel basis but may have changed on latest offering. Lecroy probes - orphans Tek probes - bargains for their active probes (adapter available for Tek to Agilent but not cheap), some good passive probes (500MHz passive workhorse, the P6139) Agilent/Keysight probes - expensive in the used market, frequently large and clumsy next to their Tek equivalents (like the 1.5GHz P6245 active v N2795x is like $190 vs > $1k) For your budget, best bet is probably the Rigol 1054Z (check the model) with function gen and serial decode. I've bought about 8 of them in the past for lab techs, mostly very happy. Screen is on the small size for my aging eyes. Get your budget up and you can target a Agilent/Keysight DSOX3014A, simple hack gets you the function generator (wavegen, which is a function and arb generator), and all other options. The Keysight 3000A or T support their auto probe (lite version). The 2000A should be avoided if you ever need the auto probe interface. added - almost forgot one HP/Agilent scope which is now cheap and always gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling is the 54622D series. It's an MSO, 100MHz, nice green screen, always gave a good representation. Makes older Tek look like the garbage I mentioned. and well under $500 :) :) :) |
| Fungus:
Do NOT get an old green-screen 'scope. Just don't. With that budget you can get a full featured 4-channel DSO complete with four brand new probes. It will have a warranty and occupy a fraction of the space. I'd choose between: a) https://www.tequipment.net/Instek/GDS-1054B/Digital-Oscilloscopes/ b) https://www.tequipment.net/Siglent/SDS1104X-E/Digital-Oscilloscopes/ The Instek has better user interface, the Siglent is more powerful. |
| EE-digger:
They can be had at very low cost (even $200-ish) but I agree with you on the models you linked to. |
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