[sdiy] Scope recommendations

[Richie Burnett]

Tim Ressel wrote:
>
> I'm looking for a bench scope, 2 channels, color lcd screen, 100-200MHz, 
> usb for waveform capture. I don't want a scope that plugs into a laptop 
> for a display. I don't have the room for that.

There's loads of low-end digital scopes in the market now from Taiwan / 
China.

Digimess, Rigol, GW Instek, and Owon come to mind.  They come with bandwidth 
options, features and channel counts to suit your pocket but not too 
expensive.  Several have basic maths and FFT functions too which can be 
handy.  Downside is often noisy 8-bit quantisation on the Y-channels, chunky 
display graphics, noisy cooling fans, and slow UI response.

For a bit more money you can buy something more serious from Tektronix or 
Hameg.  (I've never been a massive fan of mid-range Tek scopes TDS1000, 2000 
etc, compared to others in that price range.  Have always found them a bit 
under-powered and sluggish in response to control changes etc.  Whilst not a 
problem for students learning to use a scope as the response time of the 
instrument is still faster than their thought process at the learning stage, 
it's definitely noticeably slower than the hands of an accomplished scope 
user aiming to make rapid adjustments.)  I was impressed with Hameg's 
low-end offerings after playing with one at a recent trade show though.

Or, If you've got the bucks, then I'd very highly recommend the 
digital-phosphor models from Agilent (HP.)  I've got a 4-channel 300MHz 
DSO6034A on my bench here and it really is worth every penny.  They're not 
the cheapest but I've had it 7 years and struggle to think of one single 
thing I'd change about it. If it's for your business it's easily 
justifiable, but for hobby use the wife might take some convincing.

LeCroy and Yokogawa cover the luxury end of the market for if you win the 
lottery or inherit big!

Hope this helps,

-Richie,