WaveSurfer 4054HD vs mdo3054

[javigali]

Hi there,

In my university lab we are planning to buy a new scope... we are thinking of any of these two, the LeCroy WaveSurfer 4054HD vs the Tektronix MDO3054...
Both are in the same price range, 4 channels, 500MHz... then the LeCroy reaches up to 5Gs depending on the channels while the later is only up to 2.5Gs... also the LeCroy is 12 bit and the other only 8bit... Everything looks like the LeCroy would win the bet.... what do you think?

The main use will be research in physics where the signals to be analized are mainly random pulses above a noise floor without a very periodic pattern...

Thanks!

[2N3055]

Hello,

Out of those two, WaveSurfer 4054HD is much better scope and much better for proposed use...
It is very low noise (half the noise of MDO3054), 12Bit ADC etc, ..
You will like histicons on measurements, good math, etc..
Physics lab is LeCroy's natural habitat... :-)

One other option is new Siglent SDS6000A... That pretty much looks like a twin brother of WaveSurfer 4054HD.
It is only 8 bit, but also very low noise. It has MUCH more memory than the both of them. 4 Math channels..
It is VERY new (officially released only few days ago) so many improvements will be happening in months to come. You would be early adopter, with all the bad and good coming from it.
You can shoot an E-mail to one of the Siglent distributors or Siglent Europe (sigelnteu.com) and see if they can organize a demo.

Best,

[nctnico]

Hi there,

In my university lab we are planning to buy a new scope... we are thinking of any of these two, the LeCroy WaveSurfer 4054HD vs the Tektronix MDO3054...
Both are in the same price range, 4 channels, 500MHz... then the LeCroy reaches up to 5Gs depending on the channels while the later is only up to 2.5Gs... also the LeCroy is 12 bit and the other only 8bit... Everything looks like the LeCroy would win the bet.... what do you think?

The main use will be research in physics where the signals to be analized are mainly random pulses above a noise floor without a very periodic pattern...

The latter sounds like a great place for a Lecroy. Be aware though that you might need an optional math package to get all the analysis functions. I have an older model Lecroy myself and the amount of analysis features it has is staggering. OTOH don't expect it to be a good daily driver though; with great power comes a lot of work to get it going.

Another option could be to get a Picoscope USB oscilloscope. Forum member 2N3055 seems to be very happy with it especially for signal analysis. Again, from my own experience likely not the best daily driver oscilloscope because you need to control it from a PC but good for signal analysis.

[2N3055]

Hi there,

In my university lab we are planning to buy a new scope... we are thinking of any of these two, the LeCroy WaveSurfer 4054HD vs the Tektronix MDO3054...
Both are in the same price range, 4 channels, 500MHz... then the LeCroy reaches up to 5Gs depending on the channels while the later is only up to 2.5Gs... also the LeCroy is 12 bit and the other only 8bit... Everything looks like the LeCroy would win the bet.... what do you think?

The main use will be research in physics where the signals to be analized are mainly random pulses above a noise floor without a very periodic pattern...

The latter sounds like a great place for a Lecroy. Be aware though that you might need an optional math package to get all the analysis functions. I have an older model Lecroy myself and the amount of analysis features it has is staggering. OTOH don't expect it to be a good daily driver though; with great power comes a lot of work to get it going.

Another option could be to get a Picoscope USB oscilloscope. Forum member 2N3055 seems to be very happy with it especially for signal analysis. Again, from my own experience likely not the best daily driver oscilloscope because you need to control it from a PC but good for signal analysis.

Picoscope in that class would be something like  6424E.. It would have even more memory, slightly less sample rate at some settings, 2mV/div max sensitivity, up to 12 bit res (with slower sampling).
It also has very good libraries to write your own analysis applications. Like Nico says, it is a PC based USB scope with all the pros and cons that come from it.
Price vise would be comparable to Tek And LeCroy.

[javigali]

Thanks all for the Info!
Let's see what we can get from LeCroy!

[darkstar49]

don't forget the WaveSurfer series has some limitations in terms of options, compared to WaveRunner's and WavePro's.
In particular am I thinking of the XDEV, XWEB & XMAP options, which can be pretty useful... but those are maybe no longer relevant with the latest software versions... to be checked with LeCroy.
In the past, there was also a limitation in the number of distinct grids that could be displayed, etc...

Now, if you have no need for the RF part, why an MDO ?? (and the MDO3K is no real MDO anyway, as there's no way to correlate time- and frequency data).
An interesting scope that is sometimes offered by Tek at seriously discounted prices (10-12K with full warranty), is the MDO4104C(-SA6). That is a real MDO, with amazing capabilities (see the review by The Signal Path), if the RF part is relevant for you.

But if math is the point, no hesitation... those old PowerPC scopes (MDO3K, 4K) can't compete with a modern Intel CPU !

[nctnico]

don't forget the WaveSurfer series has some limitations in terms of options, compared to WaveRunner's and WavePro's.

Forget about the Wavesurfers! Get a real Lecroy.

In particular am I thinking of the XDEV, XWEB & XMAP options, which can be pretty useful... but those are maybe no longer relevant with the latest software versions... to be checked with LeCroy.
In the past, there was also a limitation in the number of distinct grids that could be displayed, etc...

Now, if you have no need for the RF part, why an MDO ?? (and the MDO3K is no real MDO anyway, as there's no way to correlate time- and frequency data).
An interesting scope that is sometimes offered by Tek at seriously discounted prices (10-12K with full warranty), is the MDO4104C(-SA6). That is a real MDO, with amazing capabilities (see the review by The Signal Path), if the RF part is relevant for you.

But if math is the point, no hesitation... those old PowerPC scopes (MDO3K, 4K) can't compete with a modern Intel CPU !

Well, it is not like the software on the Lecroy scopes is working very fast. I find my Wavepro 7K pretty slow where it comes to doing math versus the amount of processing power it has under the hood.

[2N3055]

Thanks all for the Info!
Let's see what we can get from LeCroy!

Seriously, look at the Picoscope too.  Especially if you're going to feed data into your analysis code on regular basis. They have good, well documented API, with direct drivers for Matlab, Labview, Python and general programming languages.
Also, math on a standard Picoscope application will be more advanced than on entry level LeCroy 4000HD.
You can send E-mail to support for pre-sales consultation. They have a very good applications support team.
Shoot an E-mail to them, it costs you nothing...

[darkstar49]

Well, it is not like the software on the Lecroy scopes is working very fast. I find my Wavepro 7K pretty slow where it comes to doing math versus the amount of processing power it has under the hood.

True, but I believe the software itself is not the only culprit in these older scopes... 1) I think there's a lot of (probably partly unnecessary) synchronisation with the acquisition hardware going on -  2) the interface device driver itself is awfully bad -  and 3) on these models, the multi-threading is very limited and/or not supported (probably partly also because of the device driver).

Personally, I saw a huge improvement with the PCIe-based acq boards (Magellan and newer), with identical or similar CPU power.

[Sighound36]

Being  Lecroy guy after going through numerious other makes, I can understand your position, both suggestion of the Picoscope and the new Siglent are very valid alternatives.

I do find the Maui OS to be be the most inutitive and easy to fly plus the real deal on quiet front ends tool boxes are the best out there no question at all. I am a bit biased but once you use them you will understand.

For the outlay your thinking of howabout a quality used Lecroy 6000A with these option, spotted this yesterday it looks minty

It has some quality options plus the fully digital probe package.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294472604387?hash=item448fef5ae3:g:nagAAOSw6H1hbRle

TBH I might even go for another one for the home lab.

Good luck with your pursuit