Anyone have oscilloscope recommendations?

[jamm]

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

But what’s the bandwidth?

If it’s not at least 20 MHz, you won’t be able to use it for nearly any vintage systems and get anything even approximating an actual waveform for most signals. 

I learned this too late after getting one of these adorable little things ?

 

[+DrVenkman]

3 minutes ago, jamm said:

I learned this too late after getting one of these adorable little things ?

 

Yeah, it’s the same basic principle of how fast a sample rate you need for “CD quality” audio sampling, or any signal sampling for matter. It’s all about the Nyquist rate.

 

That’s just the bare minimum to capture a perfectly periodic signal. To catch transients and signals that aren’t perfectly periodic (such as the varying clock cycles in video signals), you want a much higher sampling rate.

[candle]

i wouldn't buy sigilent, hantek or owon oscilloscope - perhaps i'm spoiled, and biased, but in my opinion trigger circuit, or rather software module, they have are no good at all

for rock bottom price i would say suggested tek is nice, especially if you can buy cheap one - here, in Poland you can't

if your desk space is at premium and you would rather go with something more modern and requireing less space to operate - rigol ds1052 should cost you almost nothing

rigol ds1054z is unbeaten for the money it costs, especially if you consider software "upgrades" Hias have mentioned already

what i use for my projects is Rigol MSO5074 with all software options enabled, as i had to pay very little for it - but it has its flaws (ie boot time)

if i had any money to spent i would buy second hand yokogawa dlm2000 series scope, but this is 2800usd expense - in my opinion this is the best oscilloscope for digital signals i've used so far, especially if you're in need in protocol decoding

i wouldn't buy cheaper (still above 1000usd) keysight oscilloscopes, but if it would be older, price was right, and branded with agilent logo i could be tempted

also, logic analysers are valid options, but they have their limitations, and depending on what you're going to do, they might be not of any use for your scenario

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by candle

[Faicuai]

Looks like I am pretty late to the party...

 

...but to answer the question, it heavily depends on the predominant type of work to be done with it.

 

I am convinced that it is definitely not an issue of "if", as in my opinion, it should be mandatory to have one around. But what makes our case interesting is that we also have analog-video thrown in the bag, in the case of our A-8bit fleet.

 

I always like portability, and always liked Fluke. Quite some time ago, I found a decent deal for a "vintage" Fluke 99B (100 Mhz), with the bright, high-contrast screen. It not only a work of art, inside, but what makes it really cool is that it can trigger analog (legacy) VIDEO signals, including NTSC, of course.

 

Want to see how Scan-Line #480 looks like? Not a problem, just set it to trigger NTSC and DIAL-IN the specific scan-line you wish.  It makes it pretty complete for general trouble-shooting work, and still commands TOP-$$$ on eBay (!)

 

 

 

Have lost count how many times I have used it... and it is even capable of operating out of "pump-gas" x4 C-size batteries (!)

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by Faicuai

[+Stephen]

Nice!  I have always loved Fluke gear.  Still rocking my Fluke 73 I bought back in 93, original probes and all.

[Faicuai]

13 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Nice!  I have always loved Fluke gear.  Still rocking my Fluke 73 I bought back in 93, original probes and all.

Invincible!

 

 

[chevymad]

I like that Fluke! I looked hard at those, but ultimately bought a virtual scope from Owon. The 1022i 25mhz. The software was better rated then the cheaper Hantek, but price was between hantek and picoscope. Almost went with the pico though. So far it seems to do what I need as a newbie. I've previously only used scopes in the automotive environment.

[Mclaneinc]

12 hours ago, Stephen said:

Nice!  I have always loved Fluke gear.  Still rocking my Fluke 73 I bought back in 93, original probes and all.

Yeah, fluke gear is just great, we had out own Maplin brands of meter but people paid the deserved extra and got the Flukes instead, I inherited the shops old 73 multi meter and once in that holder it was bomb proof

 

Shame I used it mostly for continuity and the odd voltage check, it could do so much more..

[foft]

This thread is dangerous! After reading it I just bought myself a new Siglent SDS1104X-E. Seems to be the most highly regarded one in it’s price range and it can do 200MHz with a few config changes.

 

So I’ll be selling my picoscope 3205mso, if can work out how! eBay in Switzerland is German only and I only know English and French!!

Edited May 27, 2020 by foft

[+DrVenkman]

21 minutes ago, foft said:

eBay in Switzerland is German only and I only know English and French!!

How is that possible to be Swiss and only know French? My Swiss grandparents could speak Swiss-German, French, a bit of Italian, English and a little bit of Spanish.

 

(I’m just teasing - good luck with the new scope - I’m quite pleased with my Siglent 1202X-E).