Which type of oscilloscope

[kamalakary]

For low price best quality with 3 years warranty owon is best and they introduce every year 2 new models. in range of DSO, MOD and PDS, AMP TRONICs is sole agent for owon oscilloscope in india.   hhtp://www.amp-tronics.com

[solutions]

This will do everything you need (for now) for less than a hundred quid:  http://www.hobbylab.us/

[LabVIEWguru]

I bought a Tek 2230 Digital Storage O'scope about 15 years ago. 100 Mhz. Best piece of equipment I own. I've seen them on Ebay in working condition for $150 USD. Keep in mind a good set of probes will cost you about $100.00 USD. If you are serious about electronics, you need a scope. Ultrasonics are in the 40 Khz range, so unless you are running a *screaming* microcontroller, 100 - 250 Mhz will be good for any hardware hacking you might do. Digital storage is a necessity.

[otter]

Given a choice I would go for the 'best' digital scope you can afford. Some of the early Tek 2 channel 200-400mhz digital scopes must be available like TDS380 ( some on ebay at the moment for £200) would be an excellent start. I still have one that gets used sometimes that I have had for 16 years. Make sure you get the proper probes with it; the proper ones can be expensive to replace and using cheap ones can cause lots of problems if you are looking at signals near the bandwidth of the 'scope. If you deep pockets get a LeCroy, but that's another discussion.
Otter

[lillbear]

I have tru oldie sony-tektronix 335 Oscilloscope -> Analog 35MHz. Still working like a trains toilet

yours

[MAXPAYNE]

Does anyone have experience with this scope ? I wan to use it for SMPS circuits.....

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&nid=-536902796.536880783&pageMode=OP

200MS/Sec

60MHZ Bandwidth

[flyback]

I have a 54622d which is practically the same as the 54621a (difference: 100MHz and with 16 dig channels). I strongly recommended this 54621a: 60MHz is enough, the megazoom have been upgraded to 4M (older 54645d have only 1M) and is much easier to use than Tek scope.The trigger is rock solid, and there are advanced trigger features (pulse width ....). OK, you don't have color and have to live with a slow floppy to save waveforms. On older units, you may have to adjust the magnet around the CRT neck for a perfect display. I hope that you got a good price.

[MAXPAYNE]

I have a 54622d which is practically the same as the 54621a (difference: 100MHz and with 16 dig channels). I strongly recommended this 54621a: 60MHz is enough, the megazoom have been upgraded to 4M (older 54645d have only 1M) and is much easier to use than Tek scope.The trigger is rock solid, and there are advanced trigger features (pulse width ....). OK, you don't have color and have to live with a slow floppy to save waveforms. On older units, you may have to adjust the magnet around the CRT neck for a perfect display. I hope that you got a good price.

Is the sample rate 200 MS/s is enough for observing ringing (without snubber) at the MOSFET drain
what is the current price of this scope ?
Is it possible to see the current (I) waveform on this scope ?

I saw in the agilent site that this oscilloscope is discontinued. Is it ok to buy that scope ?

[flyback]

Hi Maxpayne,

I think that 200Ms/s is good. assuming you are observing a 20MHz ringing, each cycle will be sampled at least 10 times, enough to reconstruct the signal. The input stage offers a very fast overload recovery, and the refresh rate is fast. The sensivity is down to 1mV/div.

To observe current, you have to add a current probe. An AC probe is enough for SMPS work (AC+DC probe's price is almost out of reach). Unfortunaly the 5462x doesn't have a channel skew compensation (only for 6464x model)

I bought my 54622d practically new (with all probes and manual) for about 1000usd. Of course it's discontinued, giving us a chance to afford such instrument. I think that, with a bit of luck, you can find a 54621a at around 500..600usd, depending where you are located.
 
Hope that helps you

[MAXPAYNE]

Thnks a lot flyback,

wht is channel skew compensation ? for what it is required ?

[flyback]

On a high speed scope, when you apply a same signal to both channels, the display exhibits a small delay (skew) of some ns between channels. This behavior is much pronounced when a current probe is in use. The skew compensation (up to +/- 100ns) simply realign the 2 waveforms on the screen.
This is particulary useful when you have chan1=Voltage, chan2=current, and use the multiply function to see the resulting power P=V*I.   

[MAXPAYNE]

Before you buy an oscilloscope, rather than the use of terms used in the future I see the conditions that support 4-channel model 250MHZ to buy what you?

I now use two channels to 500MHZ, but although I use? 100MHZ frequency range below, but more because of the frequency range of this design when the new hardware without having to replace the equipment can be used as it was good.

But now I regret that the two channels is to buy. 4-channel digital signals is increasing because it is checked. Hope a good choice.

I can't understand what u r trying to say.

[epilot]

I myself used to use PC USB based Oscilloscopes, they are small and some times have more features than those real ones.of course they are inexpensive too when compared to those ereal ones.

For instance did you ever have seen this one?!:
http://www.synchrotech.com/product-usb/usb-scopes_01.html
http://www.teampctechnology.com/product_detail.php?id=463

[MAXPAYNE]

I myself used to use PC USB based Oscilloscopes, they are small and some times have more features than those real ones.of course they are inexpensive too when compared to those ereal ones.

For instance did you ever have seen this one?!:
http://www.synchrotech.com/product-usb/usb-scopes_01.html
http://www.teampctechnology.com/product_detail.php?id=463

both of them r only of 50Msa/sec. u can't do smps work with these scope.....

[epilot]

I do know that, But they are rather cheap and handy for some works which is good specially when you need a portable device.

[flyback]

These small scope are nice to have in the laptop bag. and the software is well done.
but I saw some drawbacks:
the vertical attenuator is just x1 x10 x100 so not as flexible as 1-2-5 sequences normally found on conventional scopes.
the trigger is quite basic (no HF, LF rejection ....) and missing the 'LINE' trigger, which is useful for power supply work, in my opinion.
 

[MAXPAYNE]

Hi Maxpayne,

I think that 200Ms/s is good. assuming you are observing a 20MHz ringing, each cycle will be sampled at least 10 times, enough to reconstruct the signal. The input stage offers a very fast overload recovery, and the refresh rate is fast. The sensivity is down to 1mV/div.

To observe current, you have to add a current probe. An AC probe is enough for SMPS work (AC+DC probe's price is almost out of reach). Unfortunaly the 5462x doesn't have a channel skew compensation (only for 6464x model)

I bought my 54622d practically new (with all probes and manual) for about 1000usd. Of course it's discontinued, giving us a chance to afford such instrument. I think that, with a bit of luck, you can find a 54621a at around 500..600usd, depending where you are located.
 
Hope that helps you

Hey, I got an opprotunity to buy a 6 month used unit on 285 usd without probe. Should i buy it ? what do u think ? what will be the extra cost for the voltage probe ?

[flyback]

I think it's a good price.
For the probe, you can find them as low as 13.95USD (including shipping) on eBay. I've used them, they are not so bad. Just search for "HP probe 100MHz" on eBay.
You can also download a free Intuilink from Agilent, for uploading waveform to your PC, via the build-in rs232.
Bests

[MAXPAYNE]

I went through the manual and found that 150 Mhz 1:10 probe was included with this 60 Mhz oscilloscope. Will it be ok buying a pair of 100 Mhz probe for this osci ?

[flyback]

Sure, the 100MHz probe is OK for your 60MHz scope.
If I remember well, HP supplied only 1 model of probe (HP10071a, 150MHz) for the entire range of 5462x scopes.

[MAXPAYNE]

Sure, the 100MHz probe is OK for your 60MHz scope.
If I remember well, HP supplied only 1 model of probe (HP10071a, 150MHz) for the entire range of 5462x scopes.

Hey ! Its not HP ! Its Agilent.........

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-536902796.536880783&cc=IN&lc=eng

[flyback]

Sure, it's Agilent. But for oldtimer like me, it's always Hewlett Packard. Agilent is a spin off of HP on 1999, to continue all test equipment business (HP developped test equipment since 1939!), and left HP focusing on computer & printer business.

Just go to Agilent website, search for 54600-90915 (the service manual of your scope), download the manual, then scroll down 2 pages, it's was a Hewlett Packard product.

Hope you enjoy your scope.

[carbontracks]

Funny story, about a week ago a guy from Rigol came in advertising their scopes to our design lab.  Rigol, in essence, is a chinese company whose entire business model is based around reverse engineering agilent products.  The spokesman who came in worked for agilent before rigol hired him, and he literally said they just crack open agilent products and copy them as verbatim as possible (making cuts here and there).  Funniest thing was, he had the audacity to wear an Agilent employee shirt while doing this.

I see Rigol scopes all over catalogs and sometimes ebay, but never used ones.  They seem like an attractive option for people who want slick, new scopes without going broke, but I don't think I would risk it myself.

[flyback]

According to this article, low cost scopes from Agilent are simply designed & manufactured by Rigol !!!

http://mightyohm.com/blog/2009/11/agilent-dso1000-firmware-update-confirms-rigol-connection/