I need a new oscilloscope - 300€?

[Tubetec]

Daves EEV blog has been a firm favourite of mine for a good few years now , l have heard the odd criticism but I think his enthusiastic approach is a real winner ,
Ive seen very little of ,shall we term it 'Gear Slutz Syndrome' there , just like here the vast majority are generous with their knowledge .

 

[Whoops]

Daves EEV blog has been a firm favourite of mine for a good few years now , l have heard the odd criticism but I think his enthusiastic approach is a real winner ,
Ive seen very little of ,shall we term it 'Gear Slutz Syndrome' there , just like here the vast majority are generous with their knowledge .

I used to see a lot of Dave's videos on youtube and found them pretty entertaining,
at some point I got fed up with his voice and too much talk, but like you I also think it's better to be enthusiastic than lifeless.
The forum is quite good and very helpful

 

[RogerAF]

Thought I'd jump in and add my 2 cents (sense?;-). I purchased a Rigol DS1054 4 years ago. It is a 50MHz 4 channel with USB and Ethernet connectivity for data logging to computer. According to various posts I read, the 50MHz BW can be upgraded to 100MHz with a software hack. I haven't needed to do this. My old analog scope from the 80s was 100MHz, because looking at carriers for TV channels 2 & 3 was sometimes necessary. Nowadays I don't do TV. I do audio and embedded programming and I have had no problems with this instrument. $375usd from Amazon in 2019.
And sure, it isn't a Tecx, but I had a portable Tecx for less than a year before it bit the dust. My old Beckman Industrial Circuitmate scope got trundled around in my trunk and hauled in and out of studios for almost 15 years, before it was beyond my repair capabilities. Best $1500 I spent--in 1986!
Try getting a decent Tecx for that. Besides there are now several high quality scopes now, it's hard to keep track. Rigol makes some very high end gear. Then there are Keysight, Rohde and Schwarz, LeCroy, etc. Let yer mouse do the walkin'.
My advice is decide your budget, then what features you need, then what you can get, and finally what you can do without.
I like being able to watch stereo inputs and outputs at the same time, plus all the different menu options for information and math functions. And I like having a full size color screen.
Just thought I'd share. Good luck and good hunting.

 

[FIX]

I have a TEK TBS1052B and a SIGLENT SDS1104X-U, and they are both nice digital scopes that are very similar looking to a tube, not too much noise on the screen...

 

[dmp]

I have a TDS544A that I've been using for years. These are known for having bad caps that leak. Fails calibration and I cannot measure low signals (mV) due to noise. Tired of it and want to upgrade. It's an 8 bit scope and because of the difficulty measuring low level signals, I'm wondering if I should try to get a 12 bit scope (tek MSO), which are expensive, or if a 8 bit will be good enough?
I would like to be able to look down to instrument level signals (10-100mV)

I definitely want a dedicated digital scope, 4 channels, color, low noise, and basic measurements (freq&RMS) - no advanced features beyond that.
The only thing that annoys me with digital is trying to look at a LFO signal (i.e. 0.3-3 Hz), so if there were a digital that could do that nicely, would be great.

 

[user 37518]

I used to see a lot of Dave's videos on youtube and found them pretty entertaining,
at some point I got fed up with his voice and too much talk, but like you I also think it's better to be enthusiastic than lifeless.
The forum is quite good and very helpful

His voice is too much for me as well....

 

[warpie]

I have a TDS544A that I've been using for years. These are known for having bad caps that leak. Fails calibration and I cannot measure low signals (mV) due to noise. Tired of it and want to upgrade. It's an 8 bit scope and because of the difficulty measuring low level signals, I'm wondering if I should try to get a 12 bit scope (tek MSO), which are expensive, or if a 8 bit will be good enough?
I would like to be able to look down to instrument level signals (10-100mV)

I definitely want a dedicated digital scope, 4 channels, color, low noise, and basic measurements (freq&RMS) - no advanced features beyond that.
The only thing that annoys me with digital is trying to look at a LFO signal (i.e. 0.3-3 Hz), so if there were a digital that could do that nicely, would be great.

I believe an 8-bit with low noise front end would be sufficient. Siglent scopes are supposed to be quiet and they can go all the way down to 500uV.

If you decide to go with a 12-bit scope, both Rigol and Siglent have 12-bit scopes at "reasonable" prices.

 

[Bo Deadly]

Oscilloscope bit resolution has nothing to do with the dynamic range of the inputs. It just refers to the display. With an 8 bit scope you have to change the vertical scale more to see the same information whereas with a 12 bit scope you can see more detail without changing the vertcal scale.

 

[user 37518]

Yesterday I had to help my brother at his factory. They have an ultrasonic machine that seals plastic packaging, anyway, long story short. The operators said that the ultrasonic power supply feeding the actuator was dead. It turns out it wasn't, their lousy multimeter with a maximum 600V AC rating and infinitely small bandwidth wasn't able to measure the 800V @ 20kHz output signal, which I was able to measure with my Keysight 1282. I wanted to take a look with a scope but when I measured such voltages I quickly realized that it wasn't a good idea to use a conventional scope connected to an AC outlet. That was probably the first time I've ever wished I had a handheld scope.

If you care to know how the story ended, it was actually the actuator that was dead and was sucking too much current from the supply, which went to overcurrent protection mode.

 

[Gold]

I just noticed and ordered one of these for an Analog Discovery 2. I had cobbled something together on veroboard but this will be much neater, cable wise.

https://digilent.com/shop/analog-discovery-audio-adapter/

 

[pinebox]

I just noticed and ordered one of these for an Analog Discovery 2. I had cobbled something together on veroboard but this will be much neater, cable wise.

https://digilent.com/shop/analog-discovery-audio-adapter/

I have had one for many years. It is pretty cool I must admit. I started to build it into a box with XLR and TT I/O for studio repairs, but I lost interest halfway through when I went from a laptop to an iPad in my kit. Really wish they would make an app for it, I would be a perfect small footprint tool.

 

[Gold]

I have had one for many years. It is pretty cool I must admit. I started to build it into a box with XLR and TT I/O for studio repairs, but I lost interest halfway through when I went from a laptop to an iPad in my kit. Really wish they would make an app for it, I would be a perfect small footprint tool.

You could run it on a windows tablet. The microsoft surface is pretty nice. I use one as a standalone meter in the studio. I had that ancient macbook air available. Waveforms is the only thing I run on it.

I would prefer a good ipad app too. The studio six digital stuff could be great with a few tweaks but he isn’t interested. If someone made one I’d buy it.

 

[DB_]

Thanks for this info Jaco. I know I can't use it for any practical purpose, but one of our younger members may be willing to carry the torch...

Younger member checking in here .

I’ve got an XMOS board, XTAG debugger module and I can make it do anything given the pinouts and datasheets.

I don’t have a suitable ADC chip/board for taking measurements and won’t be getting around to that for some time, but right now I do have an old RME ADI-8 Pro (limited to 48kHz) which I could use for a proof of concept.

 

[Gold]

I’ve been running the Waveforms software on an old Surface with this mini bluetooth keyboard/trackpad for about a week now. It’s working well for me. The touchscreen on the Surface is a little small to reliably use it for things like drop down menus. This little keyboard takes up little bench space and was $30. If it gets destroyed I can just get a new keyboard without having destroyed the computer.

 

[gar381]

Last week I was chasing down a problem with a piece of
audio gear when my trusty old Tek 456 died. Pulled my very old
Tek 453 out of the store room that had a bad channel 2 but
channel 1 helped me fix the problem !!

Both of these scopes were old eBay purchases. I owned
my 453 for 20 years at a cost of $125. I owned my 456
for 10 years at a cost of $150. I just eBayed me a Tek 2235
that came with brand new original sealed probes for $175
with FREE shipping.. Works like a charm. Maybe this guy
will last me until I meet my maker.

Just can't beat eBay Teks.

Gary