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Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: Admin on August 24, 2007, 07:07:28 AM

Title: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: Admin on August 24, 2007, 07:07:28 AM

I have like 5 days to spend a large amount of money . . . so I decided to replace my semi-broken old oscope with a better one. But I dont have time to read all the reviews . . .

Anyone recommend a good desktop oscope? Something not crazy expensive, but has the ability to export data, high-ish frequency. LCD screen, only. Brand names preferred for reliability . . . my old one cant read voltage anymore :-\

Color not required but its nice . . .

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: Rebelgium on August 24, 2007, 08:12:43 AM

In oscilloscopes you can just choose in a few brands if you want the good ones.
I'm not saying all other brands are crap, but if you choose out of these few brands you can be confident that you'll get quality... :)

Hameg and Tektronix are the best, then comes Philips and Fluke.

Glad to have helped you for once ;)

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: HDL_CinC_Dragon on August 24, 2007, 01:02:46 PM

I know a guy that swears by all of Flukes devices...

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: Rebelgium on August 24, 2007, 02:48:04 PM

Well Fluke is perhaps the best manufacturer for electronics lab devices  :)
They have most of the equipment you'll ever need as an electronics engineer/hobbyist :P

But Tektronix and Hameg have specialised themselves more to oscilloscopes. And in my experience, they have succeeded :D

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: Kohanbash on August 25, 2007, 08:14:52 PM

The tektronix desktop scopes are nice. But the fluke handheld scopes have a better user interface.

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: Admin on August 27, 2007, 12:40:16 PM

When the prices for the handhelds go down to something I can afford, Ill buy myself one for personal use . . .
(Fluke's features look nice (http://us.fluke.com/usen/products/features.htm?cs_id=31768(FlukeProducts)&category=SCM(FlukeProducts)))

But for now, Im thinkin of getting this one for work:
http://www.tek.com/site/ps/0,,41-12482-INTRO_EN,00.html

prices/features listed on this page:
http://www.tek.com/products/oscilloscopes/tds3000b/index.html

Anyone have a good argument on why I should get above 1.25 GS/s or above 100MHz or more than 2 channels? At the moment I just use the scopes for measuring basic circuits and microcontroller signal like outputs. I keep finding new neat uses for scopes (Im no expert for sure . . .). Maybe in the future I may need something more powerful?

Otherwise I can save some money and just get one of these:
http://www.tek.com/products/oscilloscopes/tps2000/index.html

Thoughts anyone?

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: hgordon on August 27, 2007, 12:48:06 PM

I've always been a big fan of Tek scopes.  100MHz bandwidth with 2 channels should be adequate for most microcontroller projects. 

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: Admin on December 13, 2008, 08:39:16 AM

I ended up getting a Tek.

btw, the older one that stopped reading voltage was also a Tek.

Title: Re: oscilloscope recommendation?
Post by: TrickyNekro on December 28, 2008, 08:59:25 PM

I think Tek has plenty of inexpensive part replacements......
Anyways, a new one is a new one....

I hope I get on by the summertime... they are just useful...