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USB Scope Reccomendation (low cost)

Hi,

I am looking for a usb scope which is low cost. Low cost as in roughly $200 or preferably below. I came across

1) Parallax USB Oscilloscope
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2) Swordfish

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3) ST16B
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I'm leaning towards Parallax. I read a review on usb scopes where the author was surprised at the capabilities of the parallax even though he thought it was a toy at first. It looks very compact and I like that too and the price is good. The only down side was its low scanning resolution of 100Khz if 2 channels are used and 200khz if just one channel.

The Swordfish a little bit expensive for me and correct me if I'm wrong but its only 1 channel whereas the parallax is 3 channels ?

The ST16B i just happen to run into. Cheapest looking scope of its kind I've ever seen but its only one channel again I think ?

Please give me your suggestions or reccomendation for any of the above or other low cost usb scopes. Nothing more than $250 please.

Reply to
vorange
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I suggest a used Tektronix analog scope. Even a 10 MHz one will give you a lot if service, and they cost less than $100 from eBay. I have 5 or 6 of them.

If you live in the U.S. and would like to have one of mine, I have a couple I've repaired and can sell for less than $200, shipping included.

Reply to
John Popelish

Thanks John, but I don't live in the US. I live in Canada.

I need something portable and preferably digital. Something that takes up as little space as possible would be preferrable.

How big are your scopes and are they analog or digital? How much would it cost in total shipping included to Canada? Last question - how did you land up with 6 scopes !?!

By the way, keep up the good work. I"ve learnt lots from your posts over the months I've been lurking here.

Thanks

Reply to
vorange

They are big and analog, but work wonderfully. I have a 922

15 MHz that I revamped, mechanically, and replaced all the electrolytic caps (since they were 20 some years old) That one has a face about 8" wide by 9" tall, by 24" deep. I have a similar unit that is an analog storage scope (don't remember the model, off hand. I think I have 4 other working units. My all time favorite scope is the 200 MHz Tek 475A, but the 100 MHz Tek 465 (or military version 465B) is also very good and very reliable. You can take a look at many models by browsing eBay.

We would have to come to an agreement via private email, since this group is not for sales.

Every time someone comes to this group and asks about cheap scopes, I check eBay and end up buying 1 or 2. If the picture shows two working traces you can almost always fix any other little problems. I figure that I'll pass them along to someone who needs them. If I recover most of my cost, I'm happy.

Thank you.

Reply to
John Popelish

Oscilloscope

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What is your intended end use for a USB scope?

If it's just general purpose use then you want 8bit with the fastest converter, most memory, and the most analog bandwidth you can get for the money. If on the other hand you want to use it for say audio analysis and FFT then a higher bit (say 12 bit) version with a low sample rate and better low level performance is a much better option.

For repetitive signals a 2nd hand analog CRO will be much more useful than any USB scope.

No one can recommend anything without knowing what your needs are.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

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