Buying an oscilloscope, need some advice.

[asgard20032 9]

Just got an internship in an ASIC design company as a tech... So I can buy the 800$ 4 channel ds1000z scope...

 

Anyone here canadian? I can't seem to find a way to get that thing to canada. They either ship to Europa or to US... if i put it in US mode, i need to enter a ZIP, but i have a postal code...

[dpharris 13]

Email or phone them and ask.  There may be a Canadian distributor.   Try here: http://www.rigolna.com/how-to-buy/ and click on Canada.  

 

David

[oPossum 1,083]

TEquipment.net ships to Canada and is reputable.

 

http://www.tequipment.net/RigolDS1074Z.html?v=7401

[Lgbeno 189]

Mention eevblog to tequipment and they will give a discount. That's where I got my Rigol from.

[rcouto 4]

Try TMetrix dotcom for new or select-test dotcom for used.

[PedroDaGr8 33]

The DS1102E is an ancient model. The DS1074Z is a great value, in fact one of the best, but not without its drawbacks. For example, it has a max sample rate of 1GSa/s on all channels combined. Use a single channel you get that rate, use two it drops to 500MSa/s per channel, three or more or drops further to 250MSa/s per channel. Most of the time this is a non-issue but in the rare situation where you need it, its something to know about. That isn't to detract from its value, especially when you consider that it is hackable to enable all of the decode features, bandwidth, etc. Add on top of that the super deep memory depth, digital phosphor technolgoy, etc. and you have a top-class scope at a hobby level price.

Another brand to consider is Siglent. They make the WaveAce and WaveJet series for LeCroy. They have released some models that are very competitive. I don't know as much about them but you can get a bit more features for your dollar. They are not hackable though so that might reduce your values some. One area some models shine, the better four channel ones are capable of 1GSa/s per channel. Basically, it has two 2GSa/sec ADCs, one for channels 1 and 2 and one for channels 3 and 4. So if you use a single channel you get 2GSa/sec. If you use two channels (1+3) you get 2GSa/sec per channel; though if you use 1+2 you get 1GSa/sec per channel because they are on the same ADC. Use three or four channels and you get 1GSa/sec. One thing to note is to keep an eye on memory depth, Rigol excels at this and newer Siglents are better but some old ones, not so much. The SDS2000 is right at the upper edge of your price range but is a REALLY nice series.

As for the Tektronix scopes, if you are not on the bleeding edge Tek new scopes are not worth the money. They haven't innovated in a long time on the lower end. Choosing instead to live off of their name. Many of the scopes are early millennium technology at best. Agilent is a much better deal in this range if you must go name brand. They have some great great scopes, DSOX2000 and 3000 are incredible deals though a bit out of your price range (the DSOX2000 I think is hackable so you can buy the lower end one, at the top of your price range). As an aside, Rigol actually cut their teeth making the DSO 1000 series for Agilent. Keep an eye out on ebay for the official Agilent certified used store. You can often get great deals (they take offers).

[JonnyBoats 40]

I have a used Tek scope that I picked up for less than $100. It is dual channel and 100 MHz analog. It is rock solid and I love it.

 

As they say, your mileage may vary ;-)

[PedroDaGr8 33]

I have a used Tek scope that I picked up for less than $100. It is dual channel and 100 MHz analog. It is rock solid and I love it.

 

As they say, your mileage may vary ;-)

Note I said NEW! Used Tek analog scopes are a whole different ball game. They are typically very reliable and a great starter scope.

[JonnyBoats 40]

Note I said NEW! Used Tek analog scopes are a whole different ball game. They are typically very reliable and a great starter scope.

 

Sorry, I was not responding to your post in particular. My comment was intended to be sort of a footnote for anyone reading this thread and interested in purchasing a "first" oscilloscope.

 

The point being that one can get a high quality used scope for low dollars if one wants. This is not necessarly true for other test instruments.

 

The big differences I see between an older scope and most new scopes are:

 

1) older scopes are generally analog while most new schopes are digital.

 

2) older schopes are generally are just scopes while new schopes, because they are digital, often have lots of other functions like DMM, frequency counters, logic analysers, protocol analysers etc built in or available as options.

 

The thing that makes giving advise to newcommers difficult is that for use with digital circuits and microcontrollers it is all those "other functions" that are the most useful. Scopes are most useful for analog circuits at RF frequenecies (HU, VHF, UHF etc).

 

In my case I have a seperate logic analyser so I don't need my scope to do that, same with frequency counter and DMM.

 

Of course I am a hobbyest with a limited budget. If I were a using a scope all day as a professional debugging things like Wi-Fi routers or cellphones then I would definately be checking out some of those $10,000 + new scopes. ;-)

[Fred 453]

I know this is an old topic but thought it deserved an update. I'm happy with my DS1074Z although I've not had a chance to use it as much as I'd like. However, it seems there's a new "hobby level" version - the DS1054Z at a really good price. Same but 50MHz rather than 70. No idea if it can be hacked in the same way as the DS1074Z (alledgedly) can but if you're considering a low end scope it looks like a good option.

[RobG 1,892]

Speaking of oscilloscopes, which is better:

DS1102D or

DS1102E + Logic 8

[Rei Vilo 695]

Speaking of oscilloscopes, which is better:

DS1102D or

DS1102E + Logic 8

I'd go for the latter because the Logic 8 decodes many different standards.

 

More impressive, the new Saleae analysers feature logic and analog!

[Fred 453]

I initially got excited about the DS1102D but found a YouTube review that seemed to show that the analog and digital signals weren't in sync and that seemed like it would be annoying. Also the DS1000D/E series seems to be pretty much "end of line".

 

There is a MSO1000Z Series (like the DS1000Z but with Logic Analyser) which might be worth considering. For all things scope related EEVBlog seems to be the place for good info.

http://www.rigolna.com/products/digital-oscilloscopes/mso1000z/

[asgard20032 9]

Oh and by the way, I got a ds1074z-s few day ago, from Tequipment. The scope look really nice, but didn't had the time to use it. I tested it really quickly, and I just have 2 thing I don't like about it:

 

- On the -s version, there is a signal generator. The generator is nice, but we can't see the signal we are generating, except if we plug a probe on a signal generator channel, that mean we need a cable that go from the back of the scope to the front, they should have made a way to redirect the signal generator output to a channel without needing us to do it physically with a ugly big cable.

 

- There are so many feature and not enough button/knob, so sometime, it make it less intuitive and less pleasant to use, lot of menu to play...