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<p>I have lots of hours (thousands) on scopes, specifically Tek
scopes so I'm biased there. I sure wouldn't mind having fully
loaded Series 5 or MDO3K/MDO4K but those are outside my budget. <br>
</p>
<p>Anyways I'm a fan of digital scopes, I have 2 analog scopes that
rarely get used any more, my Rigol 1054 works just fine for me.</p>
<p>With a digital scope you have:<br>
* Buffered acquisitions and persistence (not waveform,
acquisition). So you can trigger on something and it will still be
on the screen.<br>
* You can set the trigger point anywhere in the acquisition so you
can look at stuff at, before or after the trigger.<br>
* With long acquisition buffers you can trigger on something and
look at what happened fairly far out.<br>
* Digital measurements. No more need for counting graticule ticks
and doing math.<br>
* More and more things have uCs and serial buses (SPI, I2C, I2S,
CAN) which digital scopes can decode. Sometimes looking at serial
buses in the analog realm will help with bus contention issues.<br>
* More stable as far as calibration (at least Tek scopes are).<br>
* Most digital scopes have the ability to be controlled with GPIB
commands over USB or network. Some even have websites built into
them or PC apps so you can control them via network or USB. Want
to do some processing of an acquisition, download it and process
it on your PC.<br>
</p>
<p>I think there are two fields that scopes are used in. First
engineering where they are more of a debug/troubleshooting tool
and in science where there are more of a measurement tool. Being
an engineer I view it as more of a debug/troubleshooting
instrument. Digital scopes will be more accurate with time
measurements than voltage measurement. Acquisitions (timing) are
done with accurate crystal oscillators but most digital scopes
only have 8 bit ADCs. In general if you hook a scope up to a
circuit and measure stuff I'd say you're about 10% accurate for
measurements. When you get in and start optimizing your
measurement then things can get to things down to 5% and if you
really know your scope (and it's a decent calibrated one) and
tweak things further you go lower than that.</p>
<p>A good, calibrated analog scope can give better voltage readings,
timing maybe. But the thing is those are calibrated scopes. I bet
there are very few people here that send there scopes out annually
to get calibrated so their measurements aren't probably up to
snuff. So if you buy used send it out to get calibrated and if
they say it's calibrated get the calibration certificate with it.
You'll also have to add the calibration cost into the scope cost.
Analog scopes need to get calibrated every year (or more) if you
want to keep them accurate. Digital scopes still need calibration
ever so often if you want accurate measurements. Tek DPO/MSO/MDO
2K/3K/4K scopes have factory calibration and user calibration.
Factory calibration needs to be done at a service depot and user
calibration I'd do weekly or even daily depending what I was
doing. And scopes are like VCOs, let them warm up fro 30 minutes
before you calibrate them.<br>
</p>
<p>Jay S.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/1/2020 11:47 AM, Amos wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAFfX4PEgAGJXihxffVN6SZo8pti2GN_oASsOJpZdG50gGZr+5w@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">Hi folks,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I suspect this is a group that includes folks who keep up
with things like, what low-end scopes have custom firmware in
circulation that unlocks advanced features, or what chinese
off-brand DSO gives you the performance of X at a cost of
<<X, etc...</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm more looking for cheap and cheerful than highest-end,
but Very Nice scopes for merely Nice prices are relevant too.<br>
<br>
Do you have a favorite budget scope, or one you'd recommend
for equipping a low end lab / repair bench? Thanks!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-Amos</div>
</div>
<br>
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