Oscilloscope (and Hello)

For that money you should be able to get a digital storage scope on eBay. I've bought my 100MHz triple-trace scope for ~200. This was a Leader 8103. It has almost all the goodies imaginable in an analog scope, dual timebase, analog delay line (so you see the edge you are triggering on) etc. The only things it misses are the cursors. I love it. A couple of those Teks you've mentioned will go out soon on eBay for 128 or so.

Another option (if you plan for digital also) is to by a logic analyzer/digital scope. I hope others have hands-on experience, but from the specs the HP 1631A/D is one you might be interested in. They sell on eBay for

Thanks for the reply. I spoke to someone at Tektronix and they recommended that I go with an MSO. Is that similar to a combination logic analyzer\DSO?

I've heard nothing but good things about the optascope

It's light duty, but it's cheap (only $180), portable, and plugs into a computer via usb. If you don't want to spend a lot before you learn the basics, this might be a good place to start.

Scopes are a personal thing - you tend to find that the way you approach a problem gets defined by your testgear ! In general it pays to buy the best testgear that you cannot afford

The 475 is a great analogue scope - I've had one for about twnty years. Therein lies the problem - all 475's are now quite old, and if it breaks it will not be economical to mend. If you buy one, bear this in mind !

I use digital scopes mostly these days - they have many advantages, but also some important disadvantages. You need to be sure that you understand the difference between the sampling and digitising flavors. Bear in mind also that the triggering performance and capabilities of a scope are often more important than the raw bandwidth.

One thing that I'd look at in your case would be the pc plugin scopes - the ability to transfer waveforms into other apps could be helpful for learning what goes on, and the pc memory gives you the ability to grab long segments - useful when debugging software !

have fun Dave

Another way to go (which is free !) is to download and use the student version of Pspice. I reckon I've learnt as much from simulations as experimenting !

Buy a good pspice book eg Tuinenga

Dave

Steve,

I have a TEK465M that I got for around US $100. It has been great for me. The "M" has a built in calibration feature that the military used for field calibration, very handy if you don't have access to a calibration facility. It doesn't do high frequency stuff and it doesn't record anything. However, I sure have gotten my money's worth out of this unit.

Jonathan

im a beginner in electonics and am very enthusiastic..can you guys tell me what an oscilloscope is and when do you use it. thanks. ~jim