selloutdesigns wrote:
> I think I am about cave and pick up an oscilloscope for this project
> (and others!). Any recommendations on a good cheap scope for synth
> projects to look for used?
Any dual-trace scope. One of the good things about oscilloscopes is
that you can pick up a perfectly good older scope for very little, which
will do everything you need.
You don't need digital storage (although it's nice to have). You don't
need 100MHz (nice to have). I bought a nice 20MHz dual-trace Iwatsu for
£40 off eBay - I chose that one mostly because the seller was a little
south of Glasgow so it was 20 minute's drive to go and pick it up in
person (always a good idea with fragile equipment). Don't forget that
although it might say "20MHz" on the front, it doesn't just somehow stop
working at 20MHz, it just becomes less accurate. I've used my 20MHz
scope to align the RF stages of a 70MHz transceiver - since all I wanted
to do was see when I had the strongest signal, how accurately it was
displayed and how accurate the amplitude measurement was didn't matter
at all.
The only thing I would say is make sure you get dual-trace. It's quite
rare to find modern (<30 years old) scopes that are single-trace, unless
they were incredibly cheap or incredibly specialised when they were made.
Gordon.