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USB Oscilliscope

My employer is willing to pony up $1500 for this oscilloscope.

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Are there any better options in this price range? The two analog inputs are definitely going to be used, but I'm not sure I'll need all 16 digital channels. Like I said, they don't mind to spend money, I'd just like to make sure there's not something else out there that's better. The main features I'll be using are the logic analyzer and oscilloscope, but if they've got the money, then the more versatility the better. Any alternatives would have to be portable and USB powered. Thanks.

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Reply to
Darren Brumfield
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"The USBee DX Test Pod can capture and generate samples up to a maximum of 24 million samples per second depending on the PC configuration." This means that the 'scope bandwidth is around 5 MHz or less, irrespective of the analog front end.

The caveat wording on "up to a maximum" when combined with "streaming data over the High-Speed USB 2.0 bus to and from the PC. This allows the PC to perform all of the triggering and data storing" implies that it's also affected by other traffic on the USB bus.

Run away.

For that price, you can get a nice *real* digital scope. Look at the Instek and Rigol models over at

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or any of several other vendors (probably Amazon, too, by now). Many of these have battery options and are small enough to be quite portable. For a bit more, Fluke has a nice line of portable, battery operated scopes that are smaller than the desktop models.

There are lots of decent USB *logic analyzers* out there, with good sample rates that do not depend on USB traffic.

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

There will always be times when you need more than 2 channels - rarely all 16, but quite often _some_.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

It doesn't look like it has a 'real' analogue scope front-end - only goes down to 100mv/div, so by the time you put a x10 probe on it isn't exactly sensitive... Doesn't look like it even has a proper BNC input. Analogue bandwidth also looks pretty poor.

Looks more like a logic/protocol analyser with an ADC tacked on rather than a proper scope. If you need a protocol analyser, fine. but if you need a scope, this isn't the right bit of kit for you.

Reply to
Mike Harrison

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