Oscilloscope for the 'financially challenged'

You've gotta have a scope!

found:

How much are you willing to spend? That determines everything. Buy the looks of that one I'm going to assume you are currently looking around the $250 mark?

That sort of money gives you these options:

1) A decent high bandwidth reconditioned/2nd hand name brand analog scope (e.g. a 100MHz Tektronix) 2) A cheapie single channel 10MHz brand new 10MHz analog. 3) A PC based cheapie DSO like you the one you've looked at. 4) Possibly an older 2nd hand name brand digital scope, but sample rate and memory are going to be low.

Stretch your budget to $500 and you can get:

1) A cheapie brand new digital bench scope like this: 2) Possibly a decent modern name brand 2nd hand bench digital scope 3) A cheapie brand new dual channel analog scope.

PC-Based scopes are OK, and have come a long way, but their usability still leaves a bit to be desired. I'm sure many people will want to argue this, but the fact is a bench scope that turns on instantly, is fully self contained, and is portable is just a heck of a lot more usable than a PC based scope. However, the advantage of a PC based scope is that you can potentially get a lot more bang-per-buck in terms of performance/memory/sample rate etc for your dollar. E.g. The one you listed and the one I listed are roughly similar in specs, but the bench one is twice the price. Also, if your "workbench" is your computer desk them a PC based scope is a good option.

Also, I get the impression you've made up your mind on a digital scope rather than an analog? If microcontroller design/troubleshooting is your primary interest then a digital storage scope is likely going to be more useful to you.

Dave.

Hi, and thanks much David.

Much appreciate what you've said, and I may have to go for the more expensive (standalone) option.

Thanks again for your ideas, and you've given me at least an idea of which way to go.

Cheers, Phil.

**I have a couple of nice CROs available. All analogue. An Iwatsu SS 5711, 4 channel jobbie. Made in Japan, delayed sweep, 100MHz, full instruction/service manual available. $300.00. A very nice and more recent Hameg HM1005. Two channel, made in Germany, 100MHz, delayed sweep and full instruction/service manual provided. $450.00. Personally, I'd go for the Hameg, but if you need 4 channels, the Iwatsu is hard to go past. BTW: The 2 of the 4 channels are limited in their capability, but would be fine for digital work.

I can freight, but, given the fact that they are CROs, Sydney pick-up would be smarter.

Trevor Wilson

Hi Trevor,

Thanks for posting. And yes, I don't require much in the way of features nor 4 channels so the Hameg looks good. I'll do a bit of searching to check both of 'em out regardless.

I'll have save some bickies first and hope you still have one of them sitting around for later. And no, I'm not just saying this. I do follow up if someone takes the time to help.

Cheers, Phil.

The Hameg's are really nice scopes, can't go wrong there. The HM1005 is actually 3 channels, two normal plus one with variable gain. If you do stretch your budget to closer to $500 you really have some excellent options available. Well worth saving for.

Dave.

**Quite right. I should have looked more closely at the front panel. I haven't used the CRO in some time. **Indeed. Nothing new, though. Just rubbish at that price.

Trevor Wilson

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

Define rubbish. You can get a brand new OWON digital scope for around $500 delivered, as I posted earlier. If Phil is after a digital scope than that is unbeatable value for money. And it's brand new with a 3 year factory warranty. Brand new dual channel analog 20MHz scopes can be had for $400 new. And of course there is always the second hand market that is one big ball game.

Dave.

It was interesting to read this thread. As a student I've been seriously wanting to get an Oscilloscope but I don't know what to go for. There are a lot of scopes going cheap on Ebay, and I have a budget of $500 so I thought that with this budget I could aim for a "high end but old" analogue scope.

However I have just seen a Tektronix TDS210 (similar to what I used during work experience) on ebay.com.au, and it's less than $500 at the moment. Does anyone think that this would be a really bad purchase?

Thanks,

Regards,

Ross..

I think "at the moment" is the key word here, as far as I can predict it will be more like $800 (+/- $100 error) at the end of auction. Personally I'd like to have it for under $500.

Tom

Yep it got close to your prediction :). I think I'll just try to find an analogue one, tired of not having a scope..

Regards,

Ross..

be more like $800 (+/- $100 error) at the end of auction. Personally I'd like to have it for under $500.

The TDS-210 can be had for under $500 on Ebay if you buy from a US seller. Postage usually isn't that expensive either as it's small and light.

Dave.

No, it definitely wouldn't be. But once again, it does depend on your end use. But for a general purpose scope, the TDS-210 will serve you very well indeed. I have a TDS-210 at home and it's terrific, and performance is ok for general use. If find I reach for it a lot more often than my analog scope, in fact, almost all of the time these days. The 2.5KB memory and low resolution screen can be limiting sometimes though, but it's streets ahead of an analog scope in this respect that has no capture capability.

Dave.

Might be worth considering the OWON unit at around $450 delivered:

And you might like to get yourself a DSE 10Mhz analog for $88 as well:

Insanely cheap, and useful.

Dave.

Ross, Just posted to another thread about the Rigol 1052E scope available on eBay. Only just over your budget but still

This one is going for $US364 which is about AU$465. At that price, I reckon I'll get one myself.

dmm

That's about AU$535 delivered. That is insanely cheap, compared to just a few months back when I wrote on here about the dramatic price drops to $680 or so. So that new lower price almost smells fishy. Quite a few of us on here bought through the eBayer HappySeeds at the time, he still sells them but for substantially more. Official Australian rep price is $880+postage.

Dave.

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Maybe with the economic crisis, they have excess stock that isnt being sold, and HAVE to move it to raise $$ ?

new model coming ?

.

Happyseeds still sells them, for a little less than $680. What suggests that he sells them for 'substantially more'..?

Regards,

Ross..