Oscilloscope Shopping on a $2000.00 Budget

Get a color digital scope, TDS2012 or maybe the low-end Agilent. For capturing transients, or scoping a uP bus, they're miles ahead of any analog scope. Much smaller and lighter, too.

John

That's rather odd. Most people come here asking for advice on a scope with a budget of 100 bucks or so which is a bit limited.

2 thousand bucks leaves you wide open. Within reason you can have more or less whatever you fancy.

A quick ebay look found about 3 or 4 of just about anything you want depending where your interests lie.

Wprk out what you want, then go to ebay. Avoid names you never heard of. Simple rule really.

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I checked out the demo on the Tek site.. Colorrrr....(drooling like Homer with donuts.. :P.... ) Lifetime warranty. ohhhh I'm checking the fine print on that.. Certainly eliminates worrying about dubious Ebay scopes. Low shipping weight for low shipping charges...cool $1690CAN nice...100Mhz 2Ch.... ehhh..good enough...

But how does it compair to Rigol color digital scopes?? I'm currently doing some reading on the Rigol scopes.. Found a price on

$870.00US...(US ..CAN...hardly any difference now...)

100Mhz 2Ch.. Heyyyy... that's a big price difference... D from BC

Very different ballgames. SMPS mostly needs a good analog scope, uC needs digital storage.

That's a good deal but it's probably very tired even if it works. Usually they go for around $300-$500 US. But be prepared that the knobs fall apart. Last time the delay trigger clutch fell apart on me, major dismantling required. But worth it. These were IMHO among the best mainstream scopes Tek ever made. Unlike the TDS series from which I personally stay away after some nasty noise issues. Plus they've got no memory to speak of. 2.5K, pathetic. They should hire some of their retirees back, they know how it's done.

I bought a GW-Instek GDS-2204 a few months ago. So far very happy with it. Plus it got ten times the memory depth of the more expensive TDS,

25K. Heck, even HP only had 4K. Bought it from Farnell UK via Newark, IIRC a tad over $1600 with customs, shipping and taxes. I could look it up if needed.

Probably the best for both worlds would be the Hameg Combo-Scope HM2008. Has a real CRT and I think a whopping megabyte of memory. However, it'll be somewhat above your budget now because the Euro is so high.

Some scopes have a small logic analyzer with eight or so probes built in. Very handy if you have to debug an extended SPI and stuff like that. I do that with the four channels and a dousing rod, or a real logic analyzer but mine is too heavy to carry to clients.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

I guess stay away from the Nagafoogitzosushi scopes :)

D from BC

IMHO scope's the wrong tool for that anyways. Get a PC based logic analyzer. Much much cheaper too.

10years after production stops IIRC. Bet the backlight/display isn't part of the deal either.

I have a DS1102C from Rigol. I really like it, but it's only

400Msamps/second. It's a real nice color display and the built in math functions rival everything else going. I might be wrong, but I don't think the 5102 model is 1Gsamp/second.

On a sunny day (Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:12:33 GMT) it happened D from BC wrote in :

With a 200$ budget, and time on your hands, how about designing and building your own. As others mentioned you perhaps want a logic analyser for the uc too. Le's see:

Grab one LCD (color?) display. Grab a fast large FPGA FPGA has enough I/O pins for analyser and LCD, memory interface. Grab the free Altera or Xilinx soft. Grab a very fast AD, with some very fast SRAM. The fast FPGA may have already a processor. Now input attenuator, some buttons, simple power supply, and perhaps the most expensive the case. Some connectors. Some input protection. Anybody have any design ideas?

I have an old Leader LBO-325 (60MHz, IIRC) that was just great for such work, leather case, etc., but it's lost focus.

Trying to decide repair (pay to have it done) or replace.

I also have a TDS210, but it just doesn't feel right to an analog guy ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
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Stick with the 400Ms/s model. 1Gs/s sounds nice, but it doesn't add anything usefull in case of Rigol. The 5000 series has a tiny 4K memory depth -pretty useless IMHO-. My Tek2230 from 1982 has 4k memory depth... Anyway, with the given budget I'd advice the 400Ms/s model with 16 digital inputs and 100MHz bandwidth.

Otherwise something interesting may turn up on Ebay... An MSO (2 analog, 16 digital) from Agilent should be possible.

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Which analog Tek scope has the best triggering? I'm in the market for a workhorse simple knockaround analog scope that doesn't do do ugly digital stuff and doesn't have menus. 100MHz is good enough, 300 would be overkill. Something that can be thrown into the back of a truck or small airplane without much worry. Didn't some of the old Tek scopes have a fiberglass cover on the front?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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I found a price on that GDS-2204 on Newark

$1552.01US Interesting.. for 200Mhz and 4 channels too.. That's less than the TDS2012 with only 100Mhz BW and 2channels.!! I recall on the Tek demo that the TDS2012 is 100Mhz per channel.. Does the GDS-2204 have 200Mhz BW per channel?

By the way...I was looking up that HM2008 and came across this

Check out the fashion model with the scope waveforms in her eyes.. Sexy ..but cheesy too :)

D from BC

(Arrrgh..ISP newserver is down..I have a posting delay on alternate server) The DS5102CAE is 1Gsa/s The DS5102CE is 500Msa/s

D from BC

Ah...the VS5000 virtual D scope

Googled 1st price example..

$1199.00US

D from BC

I've never used a logic analyzer (except my brain, of course.)

John

Get a digital! Light, rugged, size of a lunchbox. My 2012 will easily fit in my backpack, plus lunch! It's like taking an old Tek portable and sawing the back 3/4 off.

John

your own.

Oh no no no no... Bad enough my projects take up lots of time..

D from BC

Why? I do just fine with a digital, and the infinite persistance and measurements can be very useful, even for switchers.

Really, an analog scope is a primitive, almost qualitative instrument.

The really spiffy one for switchmode and power amps is the Tek with true floating inputs. Just slap that probe g-s onto the highside switching fet!

John

your own.

It's one of those circular things... Like the time I needed a hammer to fix my only broken hammer.

One needs a good scope to make a good scope. :( Oh wait..I'd believe this more... One needs an excellent scope to make a good scope..

D from BC