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Author Topic: Oscilloscope advice  (Read 16861 times)

TheOne

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Oscilloscope advice
« on: March 15, 2007, 04:53:43 AM »
I wanted to know what kind of Oscilloscope should i buy on ebay ? for a noob like me?

I see they are range in mz from 10 to 100mz and some higher, i suppose bigger is better :)


gyulasun

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2007, 09:18:23 AM »
Hi,

This link has been mentioned in this Forum by member 'virus':

http://www.picotech.com/applications/oscilloscope_tutorial.html

The older analoge oscilloscopes (one of the best maker is Tektronix) have cathode ray tube as the display and they do not readily have features like the more modern digital oscilloscopes with the LCD display and 'computer' features.
An older Tektronix dual channel analoge scope  at ebay  with 50-100MHz bandwidth is what maybe would serve you best. It certainly needs some table/desktop area to use it.
But read the Tutorial to decide on other features that characterize scopes.

If you wish to make presentations about your tests, a digital camera would be needed to take photos from the analoge scope display while most of the digital scopes (connected to computers) have this built-in feature of making picture files directly from the display.  This may also be a consideration for you, among other things.

Regards
Gyula
Gyula

MeggerMan

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2007, 11:53:20 AM »
I have a Gould 20Mhz analogue storage scope and I have on order a Owon PDS6062T colour LCD 60MHz storage scope, mainly for the PC conectivity.
Beware of buying brand new scopes off ebay as there is no warrantee.
I bought my Gould off ebay but it was second hand and cost me 60GBP, picked up from the factory that was selling it.
There are loads of second hand scopes on ebay, for very little money.
Try and get one with storage, dual input, 20Mhz or greater, quality brand like Tektronics, Gould and so on.
If you have more money to spend you could get a LCD scope from Owon.
They do a cheaper 40MHz EDU5022 for about 180GBP.

Rob

TheOne

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2007, 05:37:25 PM »
I will try for a Tektronics dual channel going to 100mhz then

hopefully i will find a cheap one, i don't need one now but it's something that can be useful when you need to show something to the group. this summer i want to build a generator and i will prob need this to know if my coils are good, and see what is going on on it

thanks! :)

Paul-R

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2007, 10:43:08 PM »
This is a tutorial on the oscilloscope that is worth studying
before you decide what to get:
http://www.picotech.com/applications/oscilloscope_tutorial.html
Paul.

bitRAKE

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2007, 05:05:22 AM »
If you need something compact to carry around with your laptop I can recomend SoftDSP's Softscope SDS 200A USB scope. I was lucky to find one on eBay for $600. The technology is very impressive and compact.

http://www.softdsp.com/product/sds200a_01.htm

niofox

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2010, 08:06:03 PM »
I just got my paycheck and am about to sink it on a scope
So 3 years later I'm wondering if the above advice has changed at all?  New models maybe?
I'm currently between the TPU and some bedini stuff, what would be best for my first scope (might s'plode it or something)  and should I get some high probes?  like 100x and such to reduce the chance of user error causing damage?

At the moment I'm torn between a "New Digital Color Oscilloscope OWON PDS5022S USB FFT" and a "ARM DSO Portable Digital Storage Oscilloscope DIY Kit" on ebay
Please save me from my ignorance if these are bad choices!

Oh, and I can only get international shipping (I'm in Barbados) so it makes it harder to find the really good deals

broli

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2010, 08:27:00 PM »
Don't get the arm dso. Either by an Owon or an Atten (it has high sampling rate than owon for same price) dso. I have an Atten dso and it's truly magnificent.

niofox

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2010, 10:45:25 PM »
Much thanks!  I got the OWON, I'll see how it goes when it gets here

niofox

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Re: Oscilloscope advice
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2010, 04:45:40 AM »
Ok so here we are, brand new oscilloscope and everything's running nice
Now I just have this puzzling thing to figure out ...

When I ground my probe everything reads as normal.  When I don't ground it, I get a sine wave, varying in amplitude based on what I touch the probe to ...

I'm sure this is normal ... but I don't understand what is going on.  Can someone explain?  I put the probe on my hand, no ground, and I get a ~6v sine wave at the 10ms timescale.  I probe any end of a random coil I have lying around and I get ~1v same timescale.  I touch the other end of the coil with my hand and it goes to ~6v

I have a bifilar coil.  I hook up the probe to one winding in it, and touch the 1 of the other windings ends with my hand and 6v.  1v when I let it go again
If I touch the plastic bobbin with my hand I get ~2v

Detaching the probe from everything (its always set to 10x) the scope shows mostly a flatline, saing 80mv to 160mv vMax (I've been reading vMax all this time)

Disconnecting the probe from the scope I get 80mv flatline (Nothing strange since the volts/div is set to 2v it is a bit off 0 of course);  Grounding the probe always flatlines to 0v; 

This is all normal right?