Products > Test Equipment
True analog scopes
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: switchabl on December 15, 2022, 05:02:16 pm ---
--- Quote from: H713 on December 15, 2022, 06:50:55 am ---I really like my Siglent scope, and I really like the Tek scopes at work - both the TDS3054s and the new ones (I don't remember the model number) we've gotten recently. That said, I still reach for my 54622A and my Tek 2235 more often than I reach for my newer, higher-performance scopes, and this is because for a good portion of what I do, the 54622A is fast enough, and it is far less likely to annoy me than anything more recent. I actually like the TDS220 series for this reason - it's pretty usable.
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I have an Agilent 2000X for that. As a DSO, it is now somewhat outdated (in particular it has pretty limited memory). But it is an amazing CRT emulator. >:D It responds instantly and basically "just works" with minimal fiddling. I still have a nice analog Tektronix somewhere but I'm keeping it purely for the nostalgia (along with a couple of Hamegs). I can't think of anything that would make me actually want to use it again for real.
I have no love for the TDS220 though. Yes, in many ways it was quite revolutionary in its day (form factor, 1GS/s at low price point). But it was slow and had an awful screen without intensity grading. It was also ubiquitous (particularly in the education sector) and frankly, it gave DSOs a bad name.
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I think they had "a bad name" well before the poor old "Tedious 220".
HP & Tek went "boots & all" into the early DSOs, well before they were usable in anything but "niche" applications, & as I recounted earlier, would try to sell them to people who needed consistent performance, which they were unable to offer.
They were useless at long time/div settings, unless you were looking at sinewaves, so were regarded with suspicion by many of us, who had been "digital friendly" before encountering them.
On top of that, they were all CRT devices, anyway, so either used normal sized CRO style tubes with similar sized display to their analogue counterparts, or TV style tubes with electromagnetic scanning.
At least, by the time the TDS 210 & 220 came along, some of those shortcomings had been addressed.
How many, I don't know, as I have never played with one, but the very small memory size, militates against usability for, say, analogue video.
If I could pick up a TDS220 for, say, $A150.00, I would get one, just for fun, but prices for them on ebay are ridiculous.
baldurn:
--- Quote from: tautech on December 15, 2022, 08:02:13 pm ---
Yet if the chap they hired one from spends a minute getting it to do something rather than be a wall hanging it can become near the centerpiece of the shot:
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Good one. Notice how the actor is _not_ touching the oscilloscope. He appears to be fiddling with a power supply not connected to anything. Can't be trusted not to ruin anything more advanced :-DD
tautech:
--- Quote from: baldurn on December 15, 2022, 11:47:05 pm ---
--- Quote from: tautech on December 15, 2022, 08:02:13 pm ---
Yet if the chap they hired one from spends a minute getting it to do something rather than be a wall hanging it can become near the centerpiece of the shot:
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Good one. Notice how the actor is _not_ touching the oscilloscope. He appears to be fiddling with a power supply not connected to anything. Can't be trusted not to ruin anything more advanced :-DD
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:horse:
Do you not know you're not supposed to inspect advertising too carefully ?
All I got was a ker ching $, thank you very much !
My PSU, scope, AWG, AVO and some component storage props and other stuff too.
Came home with a busted HP1740 as a perk and really can't be stuffed fixing the darn thing as even a cheap DSO will kick it in the arse.
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 15, 2022, 05:22:01 pm ---
--- Quote from: Fungus on December 15, 2022, 05:04:50 pm ---
--- Quote from: TimFox on December 15, 2022, 04:48:19 pm ---I did that search on DigiKey, specifying "active" instead of "obsolete", and it returned only one B&K Precision 2120C 30 MHz unit, lead time 10 weeks.
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Aliexpress has a few, you can even get a round-screen one for real retro effect:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Analog-oscilloscope-oscilloscope-oscilloscope-price-J2459_60008202178.html
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did you look what kind of joke is that? BNC input, peculiar control knobs and marking, 2MHz? forget uV/div, forget cursors for noise measurement, and forget anything mentioned here about whats good in CRO.
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It is a seriously weird device.
At first sight, it looks like my little "Digitech" thing, but that is a 10MHz device, with BNC inputs, uV/div & usec/div switches, switchable AC/DC coupling, X/Y inputs, Auto, Normal, Line (Mains freq), & Analog video H & V Triggering.
"Cursors"? ----they were pretty rare on Analogue 'scopes, apart from HP, Tek, & their direct competitors back in the day.
Mine has the same peculiar knobs (they fall off after a while), but knobs can be replaced.
A bit more serious is that the BNCs have minimal thread length & tend to come unscrewed but are replaceable with better ones.
My Digitech had a "EHT" supply failure, but the replacement of one transistor from my junkbox restored it.
Overall, the "proper one" is a usable, if basic 'scope, which is certainly more functional than some of the silly little so-called "DSOs" appearing on ebay for less than $A100.00.
That said, why anyone would "dumb down" an already pretty basic device is beyond me!
PS--Did I mention it is tiny? (About the same package size as a hp 410C, but a little skinnier, & slightly taller).
I described it once on this forum as looking like something "Cabbage Patch" dolls would use! ;D
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: Fungus on December 15, 2022, 06:42:40 pm ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on December 15, 2022, 06:39:05 pm ---Unfortunately I have heard too many people saying they want a digitial scope solely because of the auto-setup button. On further questioning, they actively don't want to learn what's in a scope, nor its pitfalls and traps, nor how to get the best from it.
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Micsigs have a mode where they continuously adjust the horizontal/vertical scale to track the input signal - no need to press a button! :)
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It is hard to think of a more annoying feature!
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