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Author Topic: Best oscilloscope choice?  (Read 51720 times)

watari

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Best oscilloscope choice?
« on: September 26, 2013, 03:06:50 PM »
Hi everyone.

First of all, I just opend this new topic asking about oscilloscopes because all of the previous ones i've found are too old, is this ok?

Well, here I go. I'm looking for an oscilloscope. A cheap one but reliable enough, I mean, kind of a compromise between these two things. I'm not profesional and i want it to do my own homemade stuff. I did a search in ebay and Amazon and i found those two models (Hantek PC Based USB Digital Oscilloscope 6022BE and  Mini DSO201 ARM Osciloscopio Oscilloscope Digital 2.8 ") What do you think about them? Are they trustworthy?

On the other hand I found a link right in this forum http://www.picotech.com/applications/oscilloscope_tutorial.html

that explains to you some criteria you have to take into account to choose an oscilloscope.

I want it to meassure a constant sine wave that (at least) theoretically does not change neither in time nor it's amplitude. I want to try several frecuencies  (1MHz to 20MHZ at the most and probably also frecuencies in the range of Khz). And never more than one input signal at the same time.

I don't know if all of these things i just told are enough or not for you, but as i said in  previuos posts, I'm a newone in this and i'm stil learning ;)

Otherwise if you have a second hand to sell or a spear one or knows a site where i can find cheap ones, everything will be welcome.

Thanks!!

Paul-R

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2013, 05:59:38 PM »

Could you ask the Physics teacher at your local school if you could bring your project in to test on one of their oscilloscopes?

There are plenty of secondhand 100mhz scopes on Ebay. They might be borderline. You could buy one and sell it if it is not up to scratch.

TinselKoala

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2013, 06:08:13 PM »
For 80 dollars the Hantek will be about your best bet at this point. It even comes with probes, it seems! Of course you need to supply your own PC....

I don't have experience with that particular model but a friend recently gave me a Link 2102m DSO that is very nearly equivalent to the Hantek... and it cost 700 dollars when it was new in 1997. It works well and has nice software, but needed a parallel port to work. I have an old IBM ThinkPad 600e, with Win98, so that is perfect for me.
Your Hantek is USB and has a LabView version bundled with it.... nice.

Yes, you do need two channels at least, even if you think you don't at this time. A single-channel oscilloscope is like a single shoe. Sure, you can wear it and it will protect your foot. But walking any distance will be an utter pain in the butt.

There is nothing wrong with "old" scopes. If you had, say, four hundred dollars or more to spend on scope, an "old" analog scope for that money would be a far better instrument than a new 400 dollar digital scope. For under 100 dollars budget and a low bandwidth requirement, then go for the Hantek.

Pirate88179

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2013, 11:18:18 PM »
I got my Tecktronics 2013 from ebay a few years ago for $100.00.  I had to buy new probes but it has all the manuals and works very well.  I think it was a good deal.

Bill

watari

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2013, 03:16:54 PM »
Hi Paul-R. Your idea of asking about using the one from my local school is good, but I'd rather having my own oscilloscope so if I break something or set something else on fire  ::) it will be just my own properties  ;)

Yeah if i'm able to find a second hand one i'll be great.

Thanks

Paul-R

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2013, 04:32:21 PM »
The teacher might take an interest and turn it into a school project. (You could mention the Bedini SG saga).

Also, sometimes they can have scopes which are VERY good. If there are several, you could get a very useful idea of what you need and what you want.

watari

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2013, 04:36:34 PM »
Thanks for your advise TinselKoala. If i don't find a better choice I'll go for the Hankel. I think i have to confirm if the manuals are with it befoer i buy as well as checking the minumun pc specs required. (and of course, probes too). An good old model sounds like a good option, but I don't know anything about  them so if I find something that seems like a good choice I'll ask you guys before.

One last thing. Can you explain that thing about the two channels? Why do I need tow of them? (as i just said i dont know so much about it)

Thanks!!
 

watari

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2013, 04:41:07 PM »
The teacher might take an interest and turn it into a school project. (You could mention the Bedini SG saga).

Also, sometimes they can have scopes which are VERY good. If there are several, you could get a very useful idea of what you need and what you want.

PAul R. Your idea sounds good. That could be a whole experiment project for students. I'll think about it.

Thanks!



Paul-R

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2013, 04:49:52 PM »
One last thing. Can you explain that thing about the two channels? Why do I need two of them?
I think TK will suggest that you are likely to be wanting to compare two different points in your circuit at exactly the same time.

If you have a slow running project, like a pulsed motor, there is a software scope called Winscope where the probe plugs into your sound card. It is free.

watari

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2013, 05:02:39 PM »
I think TK will suggest that you are likely to be wanting to compare two different points in your circuit at exactly the same time.

If you have a slow running project, like a pulsed motor, there is a software scope called Winscope where the probe plugs into your sound card. It is free.

What I want to do is to built a Hartley oscillator circuit, and I want to check if the real frecuecy of this circuit matches with the thorical one already calculated. It something very simple compare with most of the things I can find in forums abut electronics. So Will I need to channels for that anyway? I guested he meant to compare the signal of my circuit with a given "control" signal. Am I wrong?

TinselKoala

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2013, 06:08:23 PM »
What I want to do is to built a Hartley oscillator circuit, and I want to check if the real frecuecy of this circuit matches with the thorical one already calculated. It something very simple compare with most of the things I can find in forums abut electronics. So Will I need to channels for that anyway? I guested he meant to compare the signal of my circuit with a given "control" signal. Am I wrong?

Yes, for your one specific project you may just need to display a single waveform. And I frequently only need to look at a single waveform myself. I can also get to the store just fine by skipping down the block on one foot!

A scope is a major investment. Money, time, benchspace, learning to use it. And it is the "king" of test equipment. You will encounter many many cases when you want to see the effect of one signal (like a pulse generator output) on another signal (like the response of a RCL tank circuit) or you need to look at two output values like voltage and current simultaneously to determine a power curve. You will find two channels useful in your simple Hartley oscillator work as well. So don't even think about getting a single-channel scope as your primary instrument. It will be hard to find a decent single-channel scope anyway! (I have one, the Tektronix RM503..... it's a classic antique, a precision _low frequency_ oscilloscope that I use mostly for displaying Lissajous patterns in x-y mode).

Another issue is bandwidth. Your scope should have a bandwidth that is comfortably higher than the base frequency of the signals you will be measuring. The reason for this is so that you will see transients and proper waveshapes for signals other than sinusoidal, as they contain higher-frequency components. So if you intend to measure, say, signals in the 5 MHz range you probably need a 20 MHz scope for good accuracy.
The Hantek scope you posted at first will probably fill all your needs for some time, and at the price, under 100 dollars, it isn't too much to risk.

I am sure it comes with all the manuals you will need, and in fact you can download the manual here:
http://www.electronicaestudio.com/docs/Hantek6022BE_Manual.pdf

The ad says it comes with probes and the software including a LabView version. The manual says you need Windows XP/Win7. I've had a look at the manual, it seems clear and complete.

I can't think of a reason why you shouldn't get the Hantek. I haven't seen any customer reviews, but Hantek is a known company and has a lot of products in the field. If your computer can handle its modest requirements.... then Go for it!

And have fun...
--TK

ETA: I found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1WVZf5cuQE

watari

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2013, 07:39:54 PM »
TinselKoala, I think you are right. I mean, you convinced me. I had my concerns and doubts because, as I told at the beginning, I'm kind of lost in this issue. I think you are right and this Hantek one is a good bet for my first oscilloscope. I'll go for it and I'll tell you all guys, how it is going.

BTW, thanks for the manual and the video.


Pirate88179

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #12 on: October 02, 2013, 01:59:04 AM »
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hantek-6022BE-PC-Based-USB-Digital-Storag-Oscilloscope-2-Channels-20MHz-48MSa-s-/271265189899

Here is a Hantek scope on ebay for $68.50 USD.  That sounds like a decent price.  I doubt if my pc could handle it though.

Bill

Paul-R

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Re: Best oscilloscope choice?
« Reply #13 on: October 02, 2013, 03:18:11 PM »
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hantek-6022BE-PC-Based-USB-Digital-Storag-Oscilloscope-2-Channels-20MHz-48MSa-s-/271265189899

Here is a Hantek scope on ebay for $68.50 USD. 
I notice that it is 20MHZ and 48 Million samples per sec.

How do we work out what specification is needed?

watari

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Oscilloscope acquired
« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2014, 10:12:49 PM »
Hi everyone and (late) merry Christmas.

Eventually I got that Hantek 6022be oscilloscope for Christmas ;). Thanks for all of your advice, guys. I think it is a good acquisition. it is very easy to install and the use of its software is very intuitive, likely very simple but for me it is good enough so far, although it has things that are kind of improvable, as for example it shows a constant noise of a few mV.

Anyway, I've been playing with it and the circuit I built (a circuit that generates a signal of 1MHz based on a Hartley oscillator) and i realised about something quite curious.
When I use my Hantek oscilloscope in my plugged laptop, the Hantek oscilloscope's diode shows a patern like this: green-green-green-red (which I still don't know what it means and this is another thing I miss from its manual)  displaying a 50 Hz signal (conected to my1MHz circuit). The first thing I thoughtis that I made a mistake building my circuit. But then I unplugged my laptop and the diode was all green (which I understand as nothing is going to explode) and the signal it displays is less stable and around 1MHz. (Mine! and although it is not very stable i'm proud of it!!)

So, is it possible that when my computer is plugged it establishes a short cut somehow with the current entering into my house which also is 50Hz frecuency?? Which is weird becasue it means I never can work plugged.

I attached to screen shots of those to situations