Buying an oscilloscope

[atfrys]

I'm thinking about buying an oscilloscope from Fry's.

It's a relatively cheap model ($369). Here's a webpage
describing it:

https://www.tequipment.net/EZDigitalOS5030.asp

What do people think of this scope?

I've only had a number of the basic EE courses and
can't really shell out $2 or $3,000 for a Tektronix right now.

The only thing I don't like about this scope is that there's
no way of getting things out of the scope and into a computer.
It doesn't have a serial port or parallel port or any kind of
floppy/flash storage.

If the experienced EEs here think it's a piece of junk,
please say so. Thanks!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I'm thinking about buying an oscilloscope from Fry's.

It's a relatively cheap model ($369). Here's a webpage
describing it:

https://www.tequipment.net/EZDigitalOS5030.asp

What do people think of this scope?

I've only had a number of the basic EE courses and
can't really shell out $2 or $3,000 for a Tektronix right now.

It's a standard analogue scope, entirely suitable for the vast majority of your scope requirements.

The only thing I don't like about this scope is that there's
no way of getting things out of the scope and into a computer.
It doesn't have a serial port or parallel port or any kind of
floppy/flash storage.

It can't because it's not digital, but an analogue scope is mostly what you need, and 20MHz is more than enough bandwidth for most users - it does everything you need for general servicing on TV's, VCR's , audio etc.

 

[atfrys]

I have decided not to get that cheap scope and bought a Tektronix TDS1002 oscilloscope instead. This costed $1000! Since I'm a student, this is a substantial investment and am hoping that I can use it for a long time!

What do people think of this scope? The scopes at school are all high-end Tektronix scopes and I have found them to be pretty easy to use.

The TDS1002 is a 60 Mhz, 2 channel scope and its interface is very similar to the 200 Mhz, 4 channels scopes in my school's EE labs, but I was playing with it and looking at the RS 232 communication with a small circuit I built a while back.

I'm a little concerned about the relatively low storage of the scope; it is only 2,500 data points. The sampling is 1 GS/s, but 2,500 is such a small number. Looking at the 9600 bps of my circuit, it's not possible to capture much of the communication although I really did like seeing the start bit, data, etc. on the screen.

Is 2,500 of storage a reasonable amount for a $1,000 scope? I still have 4 more weeks to return the scope for a full refund and so any opinions/comments are very much appreciated.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I've never used one (although I'd certainly like one!), but I would expect the sampling rate can simply be reduced?, there's no point whatsoever sampling low frequencies at a high rate - and as you say, it means you can't sample the kinds of things you need to.

As long as the sampling size is a good bit larger than the screen resolution, that's probably all you really need - after all, it's a scope, not a data logger!.

 

[motion]

I recently used a TDS1012 and they are really nice. There are fancy ways of triggering compared to my ageless and analog Tek 2225.

I think you would hardly miss the bandwidth with the TDS1002. I don't know if that means it's 1200 points per channel. But even if you zoom 10X, that is around 120 points zoomed. The screen resolution isn't that fine but usable.

How much is the color model TDS2012? I like to compare its price with one that's available locally.