Instead scopes

Spell check error.

Title should be: 'Instek scopes'

I suspect that it was right the first time. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I haven't tried that one. We like the Rigols.

I recently acquired a Siglent

It has an up-front DEFAULT button, which a digital scope needs to get you out of nightmare states.

Spelling is over-rated. People used to just spell things any way that sounded right.

Other than the lack of software features, the 200mhz bw for 350 dollars is intriguing.

Cheers

It sounds pretty good to me.

I like the 500 uV/div.

If you want to save the last penny, maybe. But you can get way better scope for slightly more -- Rigol DHO800/DHO900. It is 12-bit, same 550uV/div, has all standard serial protocols decoding, very light and compact, can work from a battery with USB-C power connector, way better than that Siglent that feels like relic next to those DHOs.

I don't have any relation to Rigol, just have DHO924S as a go-to scope on my bench and DHO814 for use as an advanced multimeter wherever I need a portable one. I like them and I can run them in a web browser if needed.

I do have an advanced LeCroy WR640Zi with all options for serious jobs -- it is 40GS/s 4GHz bandwidth instrument with all features imaginable -- but I rarely power it up. It makes a noise like a jet at takeoff (Rigol DHO is very quite) and it is 8-bit so what you get on the screen looks ugly comparing with 12-bit DHO. DHO924 covers 99% of real world debugging so LeCroy is mostly gathering dust...

BTW, DHO924S has built-in Arbitrary Function Generator with 25MHz max and it can make Bode plots using that AFG which is quite useful for SMPS debugging and loop response tuning. Sure, it is not the best AFG but totally adequate for most practical purposes.

We use almost all Rigols at work. My slow bench scope is a 500 MHz DS4034 (upgraded from 350 MHz)

I bought the Siglent as a gift, and I was curious about it.

So is ours! It cost $50K. It doesn't make much sense and there is basically no support. It doesn't make sense to them either.

I also have one, 11801C. Couple of SD-24s, SD-20, and SD-22 heads :)

Yep, all those features are nice but very rarely needed in the real life.

At the original purchase price, adjusted for inflation, I must have half a million dollars worth of sampling heads.

The color grading and jitter measurement is great on the 11801C, but the old B+W screens photograph better.

I'll miss my 11802 when it eventually dies.

The TDR is great. I'm going to give my new kids a lecture on transmission lines, and I'll show them some TDR.

It is apparently possible these days to get an EE degree and be completely ignorant of transmission lines. Or even electricity.

Next to my bench, I have a couple of TDS 784As, a TDS 694C, an 11801C, and an 11802 that JL kindly donated when I went out on my own, lo these fifteen years ago. Also several SD-14s and SD-24s, plus at least one of all the other heads except the SD-32.

I use them all regularly.

My favorite is the 694C—3GHz, 10GSa/s simultaneously on all four channels. It’s 50 ohms only, but I also have the matching 4GHz FET probes.

A 12-bit scope might be useful if the ENOB is anything like that, but I have doubts, especially in a 250 MHz bandwidth.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

The 3 GHz probe sampler, the SD14, is incredible. Its loading is close to zero and in most cases it doesn't even need a ground clip on the probe.

I have a couple of the SD32 (50 GHz) heads, if you need to do something fast.

And one each of the SD42 and SD43 optical-input heads.

Or a least to be able to react to John Larkin's insultingly trivial questions in a way that leaves him thinking that.

Maybe he didn't understand the answers.

How to type c++

One issue here is that it's cheaper and easier to teach coding, than it is to teach electronics.

I walked through the Cornell EE school. I saw about 25 computer screens and one oscilloscope.

It's lot easier and quicker to bread-board a circuit in LTSpice than it is to wire up a test circuit, but what that means is that you need to make fewer real circuits and they are a lot more likely to work when tested.

That, on it's own, is enough to explain why labs look different today than they did in the dark ages.

Except that many recent EE grads don't know how to run LT Spice.

I guess you don't meet many young engineers any more. I do. If they are really smart, I can teach them the basics in about a year. I've got two cases in my new design center.

Today's lecture will be about transmission lines, starting with the Pony Express and Morse and the first telegraphs, and the transatlantic fiasco and Heaviside.

I'll show them an LT Spice transmission line example on our giant new OLED screen, and a real TDR on my 11802.

The ISS and moon landings are super-expensive theatre. Neither accomplishes anything.

Boeing and Microsoft have the same problem, bean counter money-mongers have taken over from engineers.

Spice can be very handy. As Mike says, LT Spice's real function is to train your instincts.

We weren't alowed to use a calculator on exams because it would give an unfair advantage to the students that could afford one.

My HP35 cost $400, a bit more than my Honda S90 motorcycle.