[sdiy] Oscilliscope suggestions?

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Thursday 04 November 2004 10:13 am, James Howe wrote:
> I'm just getting started working with DIY synths and I'm considering the
> purchase of an oscilliscope.  I don't want to spend a fortune so I'm going
> to try and find a used model somewhere (eBay, swap meets, etc.).  The
> question I have concerns the minimum requirements for a scope used to aid
> in the construction of DIY synthesizers.  I've never used a scope before
> and I don't want to get something which turns out to be useless, but I
> don't want to get something which is way overkill.  Any suggestions on
> characteristics or good models to look for would be appreciated.

A number of the very early scopes I had were ac-coupled only,  you want dc 
coupling.  They also weren't particularly calibrated at all,  which made it 
interesting to try and measure something rather than just viewing a waveform. 
And they were "recurrent-sweep",  you want "triggered".  Other than that the 
only other consideration is bandwidth.  The early stuff I had was good for 
audio only,  pretty much,  but an inexpensive used scope should be out there 
with a bandwidth of up to maybe 20 MHz without much trouble.

One other thing to look at is the availability of parts and service data.  
Some brands won't have _any_!

You probably can't go wrong with a Tektronix, or H-P, even an older tube 
model.