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WTB: Oscilloscope

tsteele93

tsteele93

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I'm starting to get more interested in the electronics side of things and would like to get a decent oscilloscope. I missed a nice Tek here on the forum a short while back and I am kicking myself for it.

Not only am I looking to buy one, but I am also hoping to pick your collective brains on what I should be looking for, what to avoid and what to pay...

ANY advice would be greatly appreciated.

I was looking into this...

Mixed Signal Oscilloscope - iMSO-104 | Oscium

for my ipad3 and realized that there are full blown scopes for less than that. I also don't know if that is a good solution or not. I'm not against going the iPad route if it looks good - but I have no idea if that is a decent solution.

Thanks in advance for any help!

:)
 





I am also in the market for a scope (purchase pending employment) and wanted to let you know there are certain minimum specs you need to consider if you don't want to waste your money.

1) bandwidth/sampling rate: divide the frequency by 10 and that is the highest frequency you can accurately measure. For example: a 10MHz scope can accurately display/measure a 1MHz signal, but no higher.
2) channel number: a single channel scope is great to see if an oscillator is working, but you won't get a whole lot of troubleshooting done with it. For that you really need two or more channels.
3) beam and trace number: a beam for every channel is ideal as there will be no skipping in the trace drawing, but it isn't a neccessity unless you are planning on working at the top end of your scope's frequency. In a 2 channel 2 trace 10MHz scope, a 1MHz signal will appear to alternate between the two traces as it is drawn across the screen. In a 2 channel 2 beam 10MHz scope there will be no degredation of display.

Btw, it seems it's hard to find a good calibrated used scope above 10MHz for less than $250, but over that amount it isn't hard at all. What is your budget?
 
Don't buy that ipad toy, and don't buy a Rigol. Tek and Aligent/HP are really the only good scope manufacturers out there, but I guess it all depends on one simple question; How much are you willing to spend, and are you willing to put up with cheap crap if you're spendthrift?

I have a few tek digital storage scopes that could find greater love elsewhere, but I'd need to first know whether you'd be willing to spend $600, $2,000 or $12,000 on one.
 
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Oh and that reminds me, Tekpower is NOT the same as Tektronix (the good stuff).

Likewise, the "DSO nano" and its brethren are really just toys. I know they're cheap and approachable, but they're really no good. The only thing they're useful for is scrapping the firmware and converting them in to a MCA (multi-channel analyzers - a type of radiation detection/measurement equipment).

Hey Gren, got an old analog CRT clunker to sell perhaps?
 
tsteele93 said:
I'm probably looking to stay under/around $300. I really am kicking myself for not grabbing the Tek that was up for trade earlier! At the time I didn't realize what it was and that I would be wanting one.

Thanks for the good advice.

I definitely don't want to get into something that is a mess and needs hundreds of dollars worth of calibrating and such.
Click to expand...

You and me both. (Both for the price range and the /kickself on the mentioned scope.) I didn't have the money at the time for it though so I don't kick myself too hard. I completely understand not wanting to grab a cheap clunker off eBay that could need repairs and calibration. I've found a few sellers who sell nothing other than refurbished and recalibrated Tektronix scopes at our price level though, and that is what I had intended on going with, should nothing else present itself. If you want I can PM you the eBay store links.

I seem to always hear from various EEs that "people are near giving away great old scopes" yet I never see it happen. I can't help but wonder if they only see it because of their connections in the field, and that being an "insider" is a must.
 
You're seeing it now, LOL.

I have one of these...

http://laserpointerforums.com/f61/tektronix-2430-oscilloscope-48888.html

Not sure if its worth resurrecting or not.

Its has simular fails as this...

Tektronix-2430A-2-channel-150-mhz-digital-oscilloscope-pic-1.jpg
 
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If you decide to spend money on a scope, make sure you buy a digital storage one; they are invaluable for recording transient waveforms.
 
You're in still by the grandfather clause. They changed the password because of a troll.
 
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And I thought we had finally gotten rid of tsteele in the vet section :crackup:


JK! :beer:
 
So is TJ's scope worth messing with? I'd like a decent scope, but I don't want to end up with a heavy box sitting in a corner that I never could get to work right...
 
For an uncalibrated scope, yep. For a calibrated one it's a steal, but they haven't connected a probe to the test source so I can't tell...
 
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