What to look for in a used Oscilloscope

W9GFO

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.

Mike Green

What do you want to use it for? What kind of projects would you like to do with the Propeller? Keep in mind that the Propeller can generate signals whose fundamental frequency is in the 160MHz range and can generate complex pulse sequences certainly over 10MHz.

rjo_

W9GFO

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

W9GFO

I can't see myself doing anything very fancy. I just don't want to get a cheap one then find out that I can't use it ( for some reason that I can't anticipate). For now the only signals I could measure are those to drive servos. In the future I will add things like pressure sensors ad accelerometers and maybe something for an OSD. I have a feeling that any scope will work for what I need, but having no experience with them I don't know what brands are desirable and which ones to stay away from.

deSilva

I think there are 4 options:
A: 1 Channel, 50 MHz
B: 2 Channel, 50 MHz
C: 1 Channel, 200 MHz
2 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"...

rjo_

W9GFO,

I have a Hitachi v212, which I have sworn never to use (20MHz, dual channel) it's free for the asking.

Rich

W9GFO

PM sent!

rjo_

looking now.

rjo_

message sent

RinksCustoms

look for an older heath on ebay, i have one i got for $50, it's 4 channel @ 120MHz and can separate TV syncs and adjustable trigger levels, my 20MHz Pioneer, or is it kenwood? has 2ch + trigger ch, and is like new! $20 on ebay. Just make sure their seller rating is above 50 for used electronic equiptment.

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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.

Gavin

Try Chip's Mic to VGA demo, was playing with it last night, even the missus was impressed.
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?

parsko

W(GFO,

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!!!!!!!

Ale

So the Tek 475 is a 200 MHz scope ?, good to know (I just looked if "mine" (read borrowed) was a 475 or a 465 ).

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 !.

evanh

Aside from being accurate, features that I find important are:
- 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.

inaki

The brand Rigol has some very nice scopes and really cheap, at least compared with the well known scope brands. Specially I like the MSO series with give an additional 16 digital channels.

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