kjennejohn
New Member
I am always combing the web for "best" instruments, i.e., a test instrument that actually looks to deliver best-bang-for-the-buck. I tend to divide these into impromptu categories. This one would never get put in the "Bench Tech's Dream" category, but to my mind is easily a ready candidate for most any hobbyist. It is a USB-connected, USB-powered, one-channel 60MHz DSO (Digital Storage Oscilloscope) with independent 8-channel LA (Logic Analyzer) and 8-channel PG (Programmable Generator) for $250. No, that was not a typo, I mean $250. I cannot begin to believe all the firepower this thing brings to the user in the software. 100MHz FFT, spectrum analyzer, wizard for programming it, I2C and SPI triggering, with the results displayed as waveforms or state displays... the kinds of things others provide at three to four times the cost. Of course, you usually get another channel, but usually at a lower bandwidth than the 60MHz this offers. Start with the specs at:
**broken link removed**
There is one REALLY major downside: the 1Kpts (one thousand points) of storage RAM for holding the samples. My Tektronix has 2500Kpts per channel and is a constant pain to live with. Slow signals force the user to turn down the sweep speed to the point to where data you want to see long after the trigger point comes after the end of storage space. Bummer.
Then again, if what you want is signs-of-life monitoring and looking at edge characteristics on a pulse-by-pulse basis, you can relax. You can fix stereo amps with this during the day and study cell timing in your serial streams out of your microprocessor at night JUST FINE.
And despite it's "hobbyist" rating, if you're a technician or field engineer on the go, and you have a skinflint boss, this might get in under his radar and find itself in your field gear.
If you can recommend something like this close to this price range with more storage available *I'd* sure like to hear about it!
**broken link removed**
There is one REALLY major downside: the 1Kpts (one thousand points) of storage RAM for holding the samples. My Tektronix has 2500Kpts per channel and is a constant pain to live with. Slow signals force the user to turn down the sweep speed to the point to where data you want to see long after the trigger point comes after the end of storage space. Bummer.
Then again, if what you want is signs-of-life monitoring and looking at edge characteristics on a pulse-by-pulse basis, you can relax. You can fix stereo amps with this during the day and study cell timing in your serial streams out of your microprocessor at night JUST FINE.
And despite it's "hobbyist" rating, if you're a technician or field engineer on the go, and you have a skinflint boss, this might get in under his radar and find itself in your field gear.
If you can recommend something like this close to this price range with more storage available *I'd* sure like to hear about it!
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