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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Looking for Digital Storage Oscilloscope

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Jan 14, 2011
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Hey everyone -

I finally sold off all of the lasers I was planning on selling, so I figure now I have the funds to buy a decent digital storage oscilloscope.

Really, these are just for the sake of testing my drivers - always useful to be able to test the circuit live so you can see where the ripple comes from, etc.

Anyway, I have a budget of around $400-$500 or so. Looking for a digital storage oscilloscope that can be used to read off start-up spikes and has a good resolution even when the circuit is oscillating at around 3MHz.

Anyone have any pointers? Any deals on eBay? I am looking for a used one obviously - no need for a brand new one with all the fancy do-dads.

Let me know if you have one for sale or have a place where I could buy one.

Also... didn't want to put this in BST because I am not necessarily buying from a member... so yeah.

Anyway, thanks all!

Wolfy
 





Things

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DX have a few Rigol DSO's that have had good reviews, I believe one of them can even be overclocked from 50Mhz to 100Mhz with a simple software hack: Rigol - Free Shipping - DX

Have a look for some reviews on those :)
 
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So I got the Rigol 1052. Got it from Amazon - about the same price and one-day shipping. Also, more recourse with Amazon than with DX :p

Anyway, it looks like it'll be a good model, so I am super excited! Thanks for the advice, Things!
 
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I'm sure you have seen the video to hack it to its bigger brother as Things had pointed out, right?


Have fun with the scope!
 
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Yes I have, actually! May not even be necessary for me though. We'll see when it arrives.
 
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That's a nice DSO.... If I didn't already have a 100mhz
Tektronix I'd probably go for that one as well..


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics
 
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I got one of those Rigols from DX about 1.5 years ago. There was a huge backlog for those at DX some months before I got it; so I was pretty surprised when it arrived relatively quickly. The scope pretty decent, but had a firmware too new to flash to 100Mhz at the time. I don't know if it has changed, but I don't need that bandwidth yet; so I haven't updated it yet. Overall the Rigol is a nice oscilloscope, and even has a nice screen capture system you can save to a USB. I do wish those oscilloscopes had touch-screens; the menu navigation is pretty clunky. The scope is also pretty loud with its fan.

I've got an old HP digital oscilloscope too. It has one of those green CRTs for a screen. One thing nice about those old ones is just how fast the screen updates. The Rigol feels really sluggish by comparison. Unfortunately, the HP has some noise issues that I haven't worked out (I found some schematics and service manuals the HP people provided though).
 
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I'd be hesitant to try that hack on a new production scope...

That Rigols DS1052E Hack Video was uploaded on Mar 30 2010.
I would think that Rigol was aware of it and that a good way to
negate the Hack would be to upgrade the firmware on present
production models (in 2010) and perhaps use the hack as a way
of deactivating the DSO that uses the new Firmware.
(With an included warning about hacking the DSO's firmware.)

Once the word got out that the hack could deactivate your DSO...
it would soon come to a standstill...

Or they could just use 2 different firmware versions...
One for the DS1052 and one for the DS1102.


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics
 
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So I got my Rigol. It's a great piece of hardware for a hobbyist like me :D

First test was used on an older generation BlitzBuck. Fortunately, the ripple isn't too bad (I had these tested a while back, so I expected as much). It's about 100mA ripple at 2A output, which isn't terrible :D

Also - no start-up spike. I'll need to work out some kinks on the oscope so I can get some better pictures for future threads, but so far so good!
 
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How much of that 100mA is noise in the scope/scope leads? Unless you can find some pattern in it (some fundamental drive frequency) that ripple is probably mostly noise. 100mA seems a bit high.
 
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I have absolutely no idea how much of it is noise in the scope/scope leads. I would have to get a more accurate reading anyway... I was just eyeballing it.

Anyway, I am still certain that BlitzBucks work because of field-testing, so it is probably mostly due to the leads. Doesn't seem to be any recognizable pattern in it - it likes to shift a lot.

I'll examine it more in the future.
 




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