A good digital oscilloscope?

I have heard that the USB and driver s/w for XP is buggy or non-working. Not a problem if you don't want to connect to computer. Plus, they may have got round to fixing it by now.

I have an ancient Tektronics analog scope, which has storage and single sweep, enabled by the press of a button.

Indeed, I should specify "just because it's an analog non-storage scope". They did make storage CRTs, a friend has one.

Tim

I find that I use an analog scope (Tek 465) for analog stuff. Can't get a feeling for noise issues with a digital scope. For pulse amplifier stuff and when you need arithmetic, digital is the way to go.

Same here. I still can't get myself to replace my Tek2230. Its digital and analog and yet very simple to operate.

Nice. Problem is there aren't that many scopes with a Z-input anymore. That Trio scope must be older than 30. Probably like my Hameg 8MHz scope that is now around 35. No trigger, just a "synchronizer".

Judging by the DVD you are watching there I assume you must have grandkids :-)

On a sunny day (Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:19:02 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

Bought it new in 1979 or 1980, that makes 30... Been on 8/6 for many many years, timebase is a 555, replaced it once. Z input is nice to have. Repaired thousands of TVs with it, no kidding. TRIO CS-1562A Lost the diagram unfortunately, anyone has it? Websearch came out empty. Its a nice scope, good TV trigger, dual channel. Graticule is broken...

Here ya go, with manual, pretty much the first web search hit :-)

The schematic is on page 27, typical Japanese style, all crammed into one rather small page:

How did that happen? Grandkids playing too rough?

On a sunny day (Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:44:29 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

Hey, I appreciate that, couple of years ago I spends hours looking for that diagram, somebody scanned it, great, thank you!!!!

Weller dropped on it, I had the scope vertical on the ground, the Weller dropped (transformer part) on the screen from the table. Now it is 2 halves. I have some acryl plastic, maybe one day will I draw a grid on it... But with this diagram I can see if I can fix the brightness control, needs total disassembly for that.... I recalibrated it without knowing what each pot was exactly, but it is close.

You may not have to draw. Could you print onto overhead projector film? The stuff that executives used instead of PowerPoint back in the Neanderthal days. If you put that between the CRT surface and a plastic piece it would look nicer than something drawn by hand.

I find analog scopes confusing. All the traces are the same color.

John

On a sunny day (Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:00:29 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

Yes that could work. With drawing I ment use sharp knife to make grooves in the acryl, and then rub some ink into it perhaps. Yes I have those clear sheets for making PCB layouts on the inkjet printer. That would indeed be nicer, but it would have to stick onto the acryl somehow. Just be studying that diagram, there is an intensity preset pot, good, maybe that is all I need to tweak, (it is too bright, cannot dim it). Could accidently have turned that during calibration...

On a sunny day (Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:28:47 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

You can spatially separate those.

My Tek 485 serves me well. I do have a small assortment of digital scopes for portable use to gather basic data and road trip testing how ever, I find that my 485 still gives me nice results at the bench as long as I don't need live digital storage. It's the only scope I have that I can take full advantage of my active Fet probes when I need them.

I used to have a set from Tektronix for an old scope. A clear plastic piece for the front and then a stash of thin films with all sorts of graticules on there. All this was exactly the size of the CRT frame so the positions were fixed by just laying them in there. First the film piece, then the plastic protector. IIRC it just slid in from the top.

Guess they didn't have MS-Excel in those days and whatever shot you took with the old Polaroid was pretty much it. You couldn't even work with white-out on those, they had to go into the document as is.

Or the wiper could have developed contacting issues.

But the higher end ones with long-delay phosphor glow in the dark. Once I slept here in the lab on a make-shift bed. There was this eerie blue glow from over yonder.

Digital ones are easier with the colors, of course. If they just hadn't picked blood red for the FFT and bonbon purple for Ch3 on mine.

They must have gotten sued by Tektronix. Never heard of 'em.

Tim

Rigol

is

This is a 4FP7 airborne radar display tube, ca WWII. It has a fast blue phosphor that excites a slow yellow one. Blasted with electrons (or a flashlight) it will glow for several minutes.

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/4FP7.jpg

John