PC USB Oscilloscopes

The DIY thread prompted me to look for attached scopes again. I see there are a few self contained scopes I hadn't seen before with ATMegas or ARM processors. Some are very low end, others not too bad. Prices go up quickly with bandwidth.

The attached units I have found seem to be a few no-name devices of varying (perceived) quality and then there are the Hantek units. They have a 20 MHz bandwidth unit for under $100 which seems pretty good. I'd like more bandwidth, but the price goes up really fast. Anyone have a Hantek scope? I get the impression their newer units are designed a little better. How good is the software?

What would others recommend for a 200-300 MHz bandwidth scope? Why do the prices go up so fast? I am seeing prices in the $1000 range for just two channels. Oh yeah, I also want 16 bits of logic analyzer attached, preferably synchronized with the scope.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman
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I recently got a 4 channel 350MHz for $400 including shipping. I don't do much digital so a logic analyzer doesn't matter to me.

Hmm, come to think of it, you pay a premium for analog, too. Tek 485s and

2465s are still up there. 'Course, you quickly pay a premium for digitals with extra functionality, too.

Tim

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Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk. 
Website: http://www.seventransistorlabs.com/ 
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Reply to
Tim Williams

The Picoscopes seem to have pretty good numbers and they have models with integrated logic analyzers.

But, as you say, the price goes up ...

Reply to
Rich Webb

Hmmm, my original post was below your tag line so it auto trimmed... I like that...

What 4 channel scope, a Hantek? Which model? I'm thinking this was another brand as I don't see a Hantek with 350 MHz bandwidth. I would be interested in a PC attached scope at that price. Or is this a stand alone unit? Still, for 350 MHz, 4 channel that is a good price I think.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

BTW, I am using a *really* old T-935 I bought when I was in grad school almost 40 years ago. I think I paid $900 for it and I see they are still fetching $400-$500. Amazing!

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

Because it's like software, you pay for the rights to use it, You don't own it. Scopes are like that, you're paying for the luxury of having it, it's like paying for your freedom.

Scopes like that drop in price very quickly when one comes out at a much lower price of equal performance, and even if they drop the price to equal the competitors, they'll still be making money..

Bet that makes you feel good about free marketing! :)

Jamie

Reply to
Jamie

You might find the info and links on this page useful: Looking at the Wiki history page, it seems quite up to date.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Yeah, the Pico scopes are clearly out of my price range for the moment. Their product line is hard to understand too, like the big boys, the talk about "series" scopes before they tell you what they can do. So you have to click through to half a dozen pages to see what they offer and if you want to compare across product lines you need to go back and forth, back and forth. I think they used to put the prices on a separate page, so at least that is better now, or I might be thinking of another company.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

es

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I bought one last year and it works fine - we'd bought a slower unit when I worked at Haffmans back around 2000, and it had also worked fine and been easy to set up and use.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
Bill Sloman

Oh there ya go, even better deal:

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Tempted to buy it myself, but then, I don't know that I'd sell it at a profit, and I don't have a need for it either!

At a glance I see T-935s for ca. $200? Still rather a lot for a mere 35MHz. Isn't that one of their "logging" scopes? Living in a town like "Beaverton" must do weird things to a company's marketing department.

Tim

--
Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk. 
Website: http://www.seventransistorlabs.com/ 
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Reply to
Tim Williams

I've got a Picotech 12bit scope. 10 years ago the SW was buggy but now it seems pretty stable. I have a 10k USD scope at work (Tek 5000 series), but that scope has a lot of bugs and even HW issues.

Sometimes I find myself reverting back to the USB scope. It even has serial decode, which I would have to pay 1000 USD to get for the Tek scope.

For reports, the USB scope has an advantage, very fast copy and paste from the capture to the word document.

Regards

Klaus

Reply to
Klaus Kragelund

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Logging? You must mean in the cutting down trees sense. It was a field service scope with a handle built into the case. I really like the shape with the tube above the controls and inputs, uses minimal desk space... other than the fact that it is two foot long! lol I generally stand it on its tail and use is next to my chair. But a nice PC scope would be sweet!

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

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That looks like a good deal. I just don't want a big bench scope. But I may have to go for it. I'm not likely to find anything portable with this quality at this price.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman

ATMegas

Prices

They

have

a

do

They certainly have some interesting stuff. Most of it is out of the price ceiling for me as well. But tabbed browsers take most of the flipping down to a mild level.

?-)

Reply to
josephkk

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