What to look for when buying a beginner oscilloscope for hobby (mostly ESP32)?

[crgarcia]

Hello!
I am planning to buy my first oscilloscope, mostly because I started designing some PCBs for home automation (personal use only).
I want to understand better how components work, check signals noise, troubleshoot problems and mostly learn.

My PCBs are mostly:
- ESP32
- I2C
- UBS (not that critical)
- mains voltages (I try to avoid as much as I can, and most of them will be really low current)

Something important to me is that I prefer to spend more money now, than having something that will limit me in 2 months or that it will not be reliable.
For example, I bought some super cheap things in the past (like extremely cheap desolders, etc) and they helped nothing and ended up in a drawer. I would like to avoid that 

Based on that and tons of hours of reading reviews on things I mostly did not fully understand, I was thinking to get:
- freq >= 70Mhz
- Record Length/Deep memory (are they the same?) > 10M
- i2C trigger and decoding
- 2 channels
- digital analyzers (nice to have)
- good known brand
- easy to learn and use

Is that list correct? What else should I look at?

Thanks!!

PS:
My current thinking is: Choosing is really hard, so first I filtered brands. Seems most people recommended IG Instek. Based on that I found these 4 options and I am not sure if the expensive ones are worth it:
Model | Price (Switzerland)
GDS-1102B   | 390
GDS-1104B   | 690
GDS-2072E   | 690
MDO-2072EX | 922

[Fungus]

How much do you want to spend?

You should definitely get 4 channels.

Instek is good if you can get one for a good price but that depends a lot on where you live, eg. they're a lot cheaper in the USA. If you can get it for the price of a Rigol? Winner, winner, chicken dinner. If you're paying the price of a Siglent? Not so much.

Aside from Instek there's the Rigols and Siglents. Both are about the same bang per buck ratio. Both are hackable so buy a base model and hack it.

If you want something a bit more modern and really fast/nice to use there's the Micsig (it's what I own).

If you work mostly on digital and want a beast of an oscilloscope for a bit more money there's the Rigol  MSO5000. The base model is hackable to 350Mhz with signal generator.

[nctnico]

I second the suggestion to go for a 4 channel oscilloscope for development work.

Where it comes to dealing with mains voltage: get a CAT rated high voltage differential probe (and forget about isolation transformers; those are a dangerous can of worms)!

[bob91343]

It's natural for responders to suggest that you spend money.  My take is different.  First, I have two four channel scopes and never have needed more than two channels.  Second, all my scopes were gotten second hand and are very good.  They are HP and Tektronix.  I even got two of them free.

I don't think there is such a thing as a beginner scope.  The fancier the better, although I prefer analog due to its less confusing interface.  It's also less likely to fool you due to the peculiarities of digital scopes.

All my scopes are at least 100 MHz.

[tautech]

It's natural for responders to suggest that you spend money.  My take is different.  First, I have two four channel scopes and never have needed more than two channels.  Second, all my scopes were gotten second hand and are very good.  They are HP and Tektronix.  I even got two of them free.

I don't think there is such a thing as a beginner scope.  The fancier the better, although I prefer analog due to its less confusing interface.  It's also less likely to fool you due to the peculiarities of digital scopes.

All my scopes are at least 100 MHz.

Yet the massive advantage for the scope novice is the ability to take a screenshot and bring it to the forum for advice. Sure you can take a photo of a CRO but often need to compress it to post it here.
Then there's the absence of a Single shot in CRO's an important feature when you need measure infrequent non-continuous events.

That any capture can also be zoomed in on to show greater detail or measurements applied and taken after the event.
It's fine for us that have had the experience from CRO days but for the novice even the cheaper DSO's offer greater capabilities than the old and now cheap CRO's ever did.
Some 15 years back I could see this new world of scopes coming and embraced it, something that seems sadly you never will. 

The OP seems to have a reasonable handle on what they need with a range of basic features they can grow into yet overlooks for protocol decoding 4 channels is the preferred choice as other experienced members advise.

[Fungus]

I don't think there is such a thing as a beginner scope.  The fancier the better, although I prefer analog due to its less confusing interface.  It's also less likely to fool you due to the peculiarities of digital scopes.

OP specifically mentioned i2c. Do your Analog 'scopes have i2c decoders? How much storage memory do they have to capture a signal and zoom in and analyze it on it? (The big advantage of DSOs, apart from taking up bench space)

[Adrian_Arg.]

I have a rigol DS1054z I use it for electronics and arduino projects, esp32 etc, the truth is that it is an excellent companion, to decode I have a Chinese 8-channel logic analyzer.

in spanish
Yo tengo un rigol DS1054z lo uso para proyeto de electronica y arduino, esp32 etc, la verda que es un excelente compañero, para decodificar tengo analizador logico 8 canales chino.

[Traceless]

@crgarcia: Take a look at the Hantek DSO2D15, this could be what you are looking for.

[luma]

My number one favorite tool for desktop microcontroller work is the Analog Discovery 2.  You're almost certainly going to be working in front of a computer anyway, so might as well use up another USB port and now you have a scope, logic analyzer, freq gen, power supply, etc, all sitting on your desk with a device about the size of a deck of cards.  The software is incredible, very functional, 100% scriptable, and easy to dive into.

I have a Rigol 5074 and it's nice for my workbench, and I just got a new HDS2102 for use on-the-go, but when I'm banging on an ESP32 I'm reaching for the AD2 every time.

[rstofer]

My DSO is a Rigol DS1054Z unlocked to 100 MHz - it works well for uC projects.

HOWEVER, were I buying today, it would be the Siglent SDS1104X-E unlocked to 200 MHz.  Details elsewhere...

In any case, 4 channels makes decoding SPI a lot easier because I can see and trigger on CS' so I get the entire transaction.  Yes, I have a logic analyzer but since I already used the scope to verify signal integrity, why hang up the probes to do decoding with a LA?

Yes, used CROs have a place.  I have a really nice Tektronix 485 2-channel 350 MHz scope for those occasions where I need bandwidth more than channels.  I don't use it much since the Rigol showed up.  As nice as the 485 is, it doesn't have anywhere near the capability of a modern DSO.  Not even close!

This topic comes up every couple of weeks and can be found with Search <pick some word>.  I would search for SDS1104X-E.

And don't get confused with the newer X-U version.  You want the X-E version.

[rstofer]

Here is an absolutely epic thread re: first scope.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/what-an-oscilloscope-recommended-for-a-woman-passionate-about-electronics/msg3100087/#msg3100087

It isn't until Reply #150 that Charlotte buys a 2 channel Siglent (likely adequate for what she wants to do) and then things get interesting as she tries out every function in the User Manual.  I had never used a DSO to do numerical integration - fascinating!

It will take a lot of time reading through the thread - it is probably worthwhile because just about everything that can be said is said.  We had fun with this thread!

[rstofer]

My number one favorite tool for desktop microcontroller work is the Analog Discovery 2.  You're almost certainly going to be working in front of a computer anyway, so might as well use up another USB port and now you have a scope, logic analyzer, freq gen, power supply, etc, all sitting on your desk with a device about the size of a deck of cards.  The software is incredible, very functional, 100% scriptable, and easy to dive into.

I have a Rigol 5074 and it's nice for my workbench, and I just got a new HDS2102 for use on-the-go, but when I'm banging on an ESP32 I'm reaching for the AD2 every time.

Absolutely right!  I use my AD2 a lot more than I use my DS1054Z.  At the new, and much higher, price, it is hard to recommend these for newcomers but even at the higher price, it's a lot of test equipment in a single package.  It is especially handy for use on solderless breadboard projects.  And it can do stuff that takes a lot of effort to do with discrete units.  Things like FFT or Bode' Plots.  Yes, the SDS1104X-E will do Bode' Plots but it requires a separate matching AWG (SDG2042X, for example).

The AD2 already has a 2 channel signal generator.

Here's the book on Siglent Bode' Plots https://www.batronix.com/files/Siglent/Oszilloskope/SDS1000X-E/SDS1000X-E-BodePlotII.pdf

The Rigol doesn't do Bode' Plots.