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Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

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med6753:

--- Quote from: Specmaster on June 02, 2018, 07:28:22 pm ---Thanks for sharing these with us, its nicely laid out but I'm not so sure I approve of the BNC socket being mounted directly onto the PCB, get a sticky plug or a ham fisted person, I can see that coming asunder.

Its shouldn't be a surprise to see it responding to 50MHz input, it is a 50MHz scope after all?

--- End quote ---

Keep in mind that's a fast rise time square wave. I would have expected considerably more roll off at 50MHz. I did hit it with 100MHz and it looked almost like a sine wave. That's what I thought would happen at 50MHz and it was a surprise at how good it looked.   

tggzzz:

--- Quote from: Neomys Sapiens on June 02, 2018, 02:45:35 pm ---I have to comment on the ongoing CRO vs. DSO discussion.
My first scope was a HM605 60MHz analogue. I could do some audio, power and digital, and the component tester was a very useful feature in repairs.
But the lack of the possibility to see one-time events left me stranded in many questions. The techniques needed to make those events recurrent were much later aquired by me, I had converted to a DSO before.

--- End quote ---

It was easier before there were DSOs. I, like others, instantly structured the design/implementation/debugging style where events were forced to be recurrent :) There was simply no practical alternative, except for those "lucky" people with ASOs.


--- Quote ---And they cannot be applied universally, for example, you can't do that with inrush currents and other power related problems.

--- End quote ---

Yes, that is indeed a key use-case for DSOs or ASOs.

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: Specmaster on June 02, 2018, 07:28:22 pm ---Thanks for sharing these with us, its nicely laid out but I'm not so sure I approve of the BNC socket being mounted directly onto the PCB, get a sticky plug or a ham fisted person, I can see that coming asunder.

Its shouldn't be a surprise to see it responding to 50MHz input, it is a 50MHz scope after all?

--- End quote ---

But that's a 50 MHz square wave being input. Of course one expects a 50MHz sine wave to show up cleanly (at -3 dB), but you need at least decent 3rd harmonic response to resolve something like a square wave and ideally still significant contribution from the 5th harmonic.

BravoV:

--- Quote from: bd139 on June 02, 2018, 01:53:35 pm ---Sod terminating RG8 like that on anything other than N/PL259 though. I’d probably have used RG174 and lost a few dB to be lazy :)

--- End quote ---

Missed this, it will be on N type and I have these freshly acquired as well. Sigh, RF plumbing miscellaneous thingies are expensive aren't they ?  :'(  :palm:

Mr. Scram:

--- Quote from: Specmaster on June 02, 2018, 09:37:36 am ---I don't think that anyone is claiming CROs are better, both CROs and DSOs have advantages over each other. Apart the obvious like the higher cost of a DSO over a 2nd hand CRO, and the size and weight differences, there are differences in the way that they work, screen size etc.

DSOs are good at capturing signals, storing them and allowing them to be displayed /examined in many ways which most CROs cannot. CROs in the main are live only devices with smaller screens and earlier ones do not have screen cursors and wealth of information they can provide unlike DSOs which all have them.

Fact is however that a CRO is more likely the way that beginners will be learning their scope manship on purely on the grounds of cost alone. What makes transistion to DSOs harder is that the interface is so vastly difference with many functions tucked away behind many levels of a menu system requiring multiple pushes of a button to reach.

Fact is that in reality a good electronics bench really needs both of them to accomplish different tasks.

I just wonder if the DSOs of today will still be around on say 20 let alone 40 like so many of the CROs are?

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

--- End quote ---
This is why I'm asking. We see the same statement in different permutations made over and over. CROs have advantages over DSOs. A good work bench needs both. They both have their qualities. However, what's been discussed so far doesn't show that. Proper industry labs don't buy them any more. Half decent manufacturers don't develop them any more. There may be some still in use, but they're definitely on the way out in any industry type setting. Nobody buying a new oscilloscope for the company lab is making a report on which is the more suitable choice.

If there would be a property where the CRO has a distinct and practical advantage over a DSO, this should be reflected in their development and manufacture. We all know development is dead as a dodo. I think the only difference in favour of the CRO that has been discussed here is them being less noisy, but considering we're not seeing special low noise CROs being developed or sold it seems DSO technology has advanced to a point where it simply isn't an issue. As I've said before, the electronics industry is one where niche devices with very specific uses thrive, yet there's no high end low noise CRO market.

Don't get me wrong, I understand where some people are coming from. Because it's a technology that's on the way out, you can get what once was cutting edge black magic voodoo technology for what's essentially chump change. That's fun stuff to play with. The lack of modern features also have a certain charm. It's fun to occasionally write a letter on an old typewriter too. But it seems the romantic notions of some people are getting in the way of their common sense in a bid to justify the equipment they buy and spend their time on.

If you have the room and cash to spare to add a CRO to your collection, by all means. Having a historic perspective never hurts. But it seems that's about as far as it goes.

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