What to look for in a used Oscilloscope
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I'd like to get a good used Oscilloscope to use with my Propeller and other things. What should I look for? I would appreciate brand recommendations and frequency. I see that generally the lower the MHz the lower the price, What is required for use with the Propeller? The Parallax scope is not one I am considering because I only use Windoze when I have to. Besides, I don't want to have to have a laptop running to use it.
Comments
The first thing I would look for is one that has a "free" sticker on it.
Then I would remind myself that there is an already an oscilloscope in software... just begging to be used.
An approach you could take that would save you some bucks and speed your learning is to ask... .. "can I do 'this' with one Prop or do I need two?"
Rich
A: 1 Channel, 50 MHz
B: 2 Channel, 50 MHz
C: 1 Channel, 200 MHz
Whenever you can afford it, take option "D"; it will most likely be usefull for many years
When you can only afford "A" it will prove helpfull in many cases!
When you have to decide between "B" and "C" I would not like to be in your place... I think I would wait, untill I can acquire "D"...
I have a Hitachi v212, which I have sworn never to use (20MHz, dual channel) it's free for the asking.
Rich
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E3 = Thought
http://folding.stanford.edu/·- Donating some CPU/GPU downtime just might lead to a cure for cancer! My team stats.
Tonight I may feed Chip Seven munks into it, missus did wonder which voice was real and which was the the micro's.
Fast 8 bit A/D to VGA screen.
Proto boards have 16 I/O free, 2 ch CRO?
Lucky I got the 5 pack of protoboards[noparse]:)[/noparse]
16 ch logic analyser?
1ch CRO, 8ch analyser?
I was there about 2 years ago myself. I ended up with 2 tektronix 475 scopes. I think only one channel works in each (I have never really confirmed actually), but that one channel works awesome, and has come in handy SOOOO much in my ucontroller experience.
My only regret, not having some sort of "sample and hold" feature. I find myself looping code I would not otherwise loop for the sake of getting a signal show on my screen. I'm NO EXPERT with electronics or even very good with scopes, so I may be missing something.
Anyway, both my scopes cost me about $150 total, maybe $200, it was a few years ago. One is in storage at home, the other is actively helping me figure out how RFID tags works (used it the past few nights!).
I don't regret my purchases at all.
-Parsko
PS- They are 200Mhz 2 channels. Great for Propeller work!!!!!!!
If you are not going to use Analog signals of high frequency (< 100 kHz, you can get 2Msps with a propeller and some fast ADC, it works very well), may be a logic analyzer is a better solution. They are not cheap, but they have loads of inputs. I got a Logic Port, is a steep 400 or so Euro new, and works (sadly) only with winblows, but is quite useful is some applications, but I really don't use it that much. Something like that with a LCD, and protable, would just blow !.
- Multi-channel (4 is minimum for comparing even basic timing alignments)
- Deep capture memory (10k samples/channel is vital. Greater than that is certainly nice for when you can't get a trigger event or are wanting to examine a long sequence of events)
- Networking/File storage/Printing ability for a permanent record of captures.
As for speed, I find 20 MHz analogue bandwidth is very good for most troubleshooting. And I'd be surprised if even the Propeller will be dealing with external signals faster than that.
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