Author Topic: Should I keep my current DSO?  (Read 8298 times)

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Offline brainwashTopic starter

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Should I keep my current DSO?
« on: November 05, 2012, 10:44:58 pm »
Hi all, newbie here.
The question might seem stupid but bear with me.
I have an older (90s) Gould oscilloscope with 100 MHz bandwidth and 200 megasamples/s. It's somewhat of a limited edition since I cannot find any info on it, but I have on its lower end brothers. Lower end means limited in analog bandwidth, but functionally identical. I think it has about 1k capture size, not sure though. It does basic math (peak to peak, rms, rise/fall time, etc) but triggering is the most basic you can get.
On the upside it has pretty good accuracy on both the vertical and horizontal scale. Calibration signal is ok for various stuff. Oh, and it has an integrated plotter and CRT display.

I can get a new scope (but preferably under 400E) that I can declare as an expense on my company. This means it would essentially be one third cheaper or so. I could probably sell the old one for around 150-200E, but I might get also stuck with it. The reason for this is that I would like to make this decision by the end of the year, tax season is coming.

To summarize the question: should I keep my old scope or buy a newer (Chinese) model and hope to sell the old one?
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2012, 01:03:30 am »
A modern low end DSO will be a decent step up.
Deep memory, FFT, advanced trigger, colour screen, smaller form factor etc.
I can't see what use you'd have for this one if you get a new modern DSO.

Dave.
 

Offline nctnico

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2012, 01:24:28 am »
Will 400 euro buy a DSO with a high-res screen? Still I'd keep the old scope as a backup. I always have two scopes. One to take with me to customers and the other one for regular use. A scope is too important to only have one.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline poodyp

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2012, 04:03:50 am »
The Owon SDS7102 has a 8" VGA screen, 100MHz bandwidth, 1GS/s, and 10Mpt memory.
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2012, 06:16:28 am »
Will 400 euro buy a DSO with a high-res screen? Still I'd keep the old scope as a backup. I always have two scopes. One to take with me to customers and the other one for regular use. A scope is too important to only have one.

Or one to fix the new one with if it croaks! ;D
 

Offline brainwashTopic starter

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2012, 12:13:51 pm »
Thanks everyone for your replies. While I can afford to spend more on a scope it is hard for me to justify huge investments in this when What I'm really lacking is knowledge not tools.

I have come down to a choice between 1052e for 269E and a (rebranded) hantek dso5062b for 285E.

I can use the rest of the money for a nice siggen or a nicer PSU. I am mainly using the dso for basic debugging of my <10Mhz designs, basic filters and light repairs. I already have a bus pirate for digital debugging. So I am not sure what other new (not SH) stuff I should buy.
I also bought an old but calibrated keithley bench multimeter, a fluke is way beyond what I'm willing to spend and pretty expensive in the EU. Maybe UT61E?
 

Offline peter.mitchell

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2012, 01:51:38 pm »
Nothing wrong with a UT61E if you can get it for the right price, basically anything less than 50 euro is reasonable.
 

Offline brainwashTopic starter

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2013, 01:50:22 am »
Just as an update, I bought the DSO5062B [copy/rebranded] and couldn't be more happy. It has the nice missing triggering features (including Swap), math and FFT out of the box, USB, decent performance and a nice hacking community. Well, actually tinhead is doing most of the work :)

Oh, the nicest thing the one thing I could not live without anymore is the hi-res screen. I can never look at the crappy QVGA resolution of the Rigol DS1102E again or even Tektronix 21xx.

I haven't decided on a meter yet, but I do know I'm missing sub-ohm and micro-amp resolution. Spent five days in Singapore and visited the Sim Lim Square (or Tower?) but except some untouchable Flukes and some overly expensive Mastech there was nothing of importance there. Still hunting and maybe I'll try to exchange the old DSO with some Tek 485/2465/2467.
 

Offline Hydrawerk

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2013, 12:15:14 am »
To summarize the question: should I keep my old scope or buy a newer (Chinese) model and hope to sell the old one?
Well, keep your old scope... It might work for 5 years, or so. Then in 2018 you can buy even better scope than today.
Anyway, you must know if it is comfortable to use your current Gould scope.
Amazing machines. https://www.youtube.com/user/denha (It is not me...)
 

Offline Hydrawerk

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2013, 12:21:31 am »
The Owon SDS7102 has a 8" VGA screen, 100MHz bandwidth, 1GS/s, and 10Mpt memory.
And only 33 waveforms per second, well, it is OK, if you use single shot most time... Then it has no tools to manage the huge 10Mpts memory... Even no delayed timebase. http://www.silcon.cz/img/DSO5062B_front.jpg
« Last Edit: February 12, 2013, 12:24:08 am by Hydrawerk »
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Offline T4P

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2013, 06:51:36 am »
I haven't decided on a meter yet, but I do know I'm missing sub-ohm and micro-amp resolution. Spent five days in Singapore and visited the Sim Lim Square (or Tower?) but except some untouchable Flukes and some overly expensive Mastech there was nothing of importance there. Still hunting and maybe I'll try to exchange the old DSO with some Tek 485/2465/2467.
Upstairs there's a shop called "silicon" in sim lim tower something that sells brymen meters but in any case to try and buy anything is an attempt to rip you off, the 1st floor of sim lim square sells UNI-T and Fluke together but they are also ... quite expensive.
Just get a UT61E from franky, "iloveelectronics"
 

Offline T4P

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #11 on: February 16, 2013, 06:55:45 am »
The Owon SDS7102 has a 8" VGA screen, 100MHz bandwidth, 1GS/s, and 10Mpt memory.
And only 33 waveforms per second, well, it is OK, if you use single shot most time... Then it has no tools to manage the huge 10Mpts memory... Even no delayed timebase. http://www.silcon.cz/img/DSO5062B_front.jpg
It's not 33wfrms.
 

Offline Hydrawerk

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2013, 05:11:54 pm »
OK, it might be less. What wfrms/s value did you measure?
Amazing machines. https://www.youtube.com/user/denha (It is not me...)
 

Offline T4P

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2013, 05:22:30 pm »
OK, it might be less. What wfrms/s value did you measure?
There is a video on the 7102 that shows the 7102 being faster than the Hantek by quite a lot, and it's not slow at all.
Definitely not 33wfrms
 

Offline brainwashTopic starter

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2013, 03:51:09 pm »
Upstairs there's a shop called "silicon" in sim lim tower something that sells brymen meters but in any case to try and buy anything is an attempt to rip you off, the 1st floor of sim lim square sells UNI-T and Fluke together but they are also ... quite expensive.
Just get a UT61E from franky, "iloveelectronics"

Thanks for the comments, it was only for a short visit in Singapore and I'll probably not go this year again. Yep, I saw a nice car/bike pocket multimeter there: BM25 for a cool 25 SGD or so. It's definitely not precision or high-energy work but would have been the only thing to fit into my baggage and not worry about warranty.
Downstairs at the Uni-Trend rep they had a lot of models, including UT61x, but they were charging at least 20-30% extra from what I remember. Taking into account also the Sim Lim 'reputation', virtually nonexistent international warranty and the fact that I can write off equipment purchased here - it does not make much sense to buy overseas. It has to be a margin of 40-50% on the price and decent warranty support.
 

Offline Hydrawerk

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #15 on: February 20, 2013, 03:59:31 pm »
There is a video on the 7102 that shows the 7102 being faster than the Hantek by quite a lot, and it's not slow at all.
Definitely not 33wfrms
Okay, the acquisition speed is revealed here http://youtu.be/eqcEi6ru4ZM?t=26m40s
Amazing machines. https://www.youtube.com/user/denha (It is not me...)
 

Offline T4P

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #16 on: February 21, 2013, 12:15:09 pm »
Downstairs at the Uni-Trend rep they had a lot of models, including UT61x, but they were charging at least 20-30% extra from what I remember. Taking into account also the Sim Lim 'reputation', virtually nonexistent international warranty and the fact that I can write off equipment purchased here - it does not make much sense to buy overseas. It has to be a margin of 40-50% on the price and decent warranty support.
They told me 150 bucks, i was like in my head "ARE YOU NUTZ? 150 BUCKS?!"
Seriously  :-//
 

Offline AndrejaKo

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Re: Should I keep my current DSO?
« Reply #17 on: February 22, 2013, 12:52:00 am »
I don't have my 7102 available at the moment so I can't test, but I think that the video isn't representative of current situation with newest firmware. I remember that using the "trick" from that video, I got higher results. I don't remember the value, but 30ish sounds close to what I got.

Also sorry for off-topicness.
 


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