Good oscilloscope for a hobbist

[joseche]

Hi there,

What is a good oscilloscope option for a begginner ?

My goal is learn and build small gadgets, nothing pro so I guess I don't need a high end oscilloscope. What is a good model to look for on ebay ?, what about digital for begginners ?

Or putting it other way, what do you think will be the specifications that I need to check before choosing one ?

Thanks

 

[Reloadron]

You don't mention a price range?

Anyway a good used Tektronix always makes for a good scope. Depending on the features you want a scope (older analog) in the $100 to $200 USD range can be had. I have an old Tek 2225 sitting here that is a very good 50 MHz analog scope. There are also USB small digital scope add ons for computers like the Pico Scope line. Pretty much a matter of what you want/need and are ready to spend.

You likely do not need more than a 20 MHz older working well analog scope.

Ron

 

[indulis]

Depends what your going to use it for/what you want to look at. If you want to actually see rise times in the nS, 20MHz ain't gonna get you there...

 

[BrownOut]

I bought this scope https://www.bkprecision.com/products/model/2120B/30-mhz-dual-trace-analog-oscilloscope-with-probes.html It's inexpensive and prefectly adequate for most hobby electronics.

Shop around. You can get a better price.

 

[joseche]

how about what indulis mentions ?

20Mhz is not enough for what exactly ?,

The BK Precision 2120B is at 30Mhz, is that good enough ?

 

[crutschow]

I would look for a low-end digital oscilloscope because of it's built-in wave-form storage and single-shot capabilities, and also the calculation abilities (voltage, frequency, etc.), for example one of these from B & K. But be careful of the cheap Chinese brands. I understand some of them are rather poorly built.

Analog 'scopes are OK but it's difficult to observe low frequency (below 10Hz) or single-shot waveforms with them. Once I got my mitts on a digital scope I never wanted to go back to analog.

 

[upand_at_them]

I bought this, and like it:**broken link removed**

It's been favorably reviewed many times.

 

[squishy36]

What's a hobbist? Is that a hobbit with a lisp?

I'm with crutschow -- the conveniences of the digital scopes greatly outweigh some of their disadvantages. My main complaint about the ones I've used is that they tend to be harder to trigger than the good analog scopes I've used. But they're getting better.

The features I use and like the most are:

Being able to press a button and have the waveform saved to a thumb drive. This completely beats out the old method of finding the Polaroid camera, film, and hooking things up, then coating those stinking pictures. You young punks haven't lived until you have to get 50 or 100 waveforms taken, then pasted into your lab notebook. Yeah, it really sucked!

I look at transient stuff a lot and I've never used an analog storage scope I was overly impressed with. The digital scopes really shine here.

I use the FFT and math stuff substantially less than I thought I would (I can look at a signal and have a pretty good idea what its FFT looks like and about the only thing I use the math for is the occasional plotting of real-time power waveforms).

A feature I use a lot is the digital filter on the input channel. It is very handy to be able to e.g. band-limit a signal with a few button presses. This is much cooler than routing your signal through one of those Krohn-Hite filter boxes.

I also use the measurement functions a lot -- I use RMS voltage, peak-to-peak voltage, and frequency the most.

As far as I know, all the inexpensive digital scopes are made in the far east. I've used one or two that I weren't terribly impressed with (and one failed while I was using it). I have a B&K 2534A on my bench currently as a loaner and it's OK for most of the stuff I do. When that scope goes home to momma, I'll go back to my HP 4 channel 100 MHz digital scope, which is still a pretty good scope even though it's about 20 years old.

 

[bryan]

I bought this, and like it:**broken link removed**

It's been favorably reviewed many times.

Me too and I like it very much, great scope for the price.

The only thing I don't like about it is picks up a fair bit of noise on the probes, but I understand that is typical of a digital scope, even some of the very high end Tektronix have the same issue.

p..s
Did you try the hack to increase the bandwidth to 100mhz?

 

[upand_at_them]

Me too and I like it very much, great scope for the price.

The only thing I don't like about it is picks up a fair bit of noise on the probes, but I understand that is typical of a digital scope, even some of the very high end Tektronix have the same issue.

p..s
Did you try the hack to increase the bandwidth to 100mhz?

I've seen Tek probes mentioned on EEBlog for not much money. I don't know how much noise is too much, since this is my first real scope, but it looks clean to me. I haven't done the bandwidth hack, as I have no need of the extra bandwidth...Perhaps after I've used it a while and the warranty is expired.

 

[Hippogriff]

Not being exclusive in any way, but I think that Hobbits should not really be using oscilloscopes. If they must, then I suggest a very small one would be most appropriate.

 

[saturation]

DSO have changed quite a bit in >= 10 years and is worth an updated look into what's good for beginners.

An oft quoted true bandwidth, single channel, between 20 - 70 MHz, sampling rates of between 200-1000 Ms/s, stems from its target market: schools. To take advantage of them you either have or will work in radio frequencies and know how to deal with them [ transmission lines, impedance etc.]. Scopes in this range tend to have controls and functions found in most all DSOs, so the skills in using them are also like trainers for professional life. For Chinese label DSO you are looking at $200-700, and brand names like Agilent or Tek, between $1000-1500. These bandwidth vs price don't include true portable scopes like a Fluke scopemeter or clones.

The prototype for this scope is the $400 60 MHz Rigol 1052e as reviewed at eevblog.com; a lot of testing and performance evaluation shows its a bang for buck. Other scopes of this class have pricing depending on higher or lower bandwidth, screen size etc.,

$30-$200 scopes are either older analog scopes, DSO nano types, low frequency USB scopes, or somewhere in between, such as the Uni-T 81D or the Velleman series of DSOs. The do give basic waveform readings, but they are really only good from between 100kHz to 6 MHz.

If you are just beginning to do electronics, spend as little as possible and use the DSO Nano types to learn about scopes, so you can make an informed decision about the more costly ones.

I often hear recommendations for second hand analogs, they are a true bargain if they work properly, but if you know little about scopes, unless a more skilled person is able to assess its functionality when you buy it, how do you know its working properly once you receive it? Also, you won't learn about the effects of sampling, its artifacts, lack of amenities like automated measurement, screen capture etc., that come with even the cheapest DSOs. Even if you do get a working analog, since its past its working life, being 20+ years old or so, its also due to fail spontaneously even if you bought it working, whereas a new scope will work, and can be returned if not while under warranty.

 

[ghostman11]

what kind of money are you wanting to spend?