What is a digital oscilloscope?

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hkBattousai

Joined: 16 Jun 2007
Posts: 100
Helped: 4
Location: Turkey

23 Jun 2008 14:26 advantage and disadvantage of oscilloscope

I want to buy an oscilloscope. I searched for a proper one on the net. I saw that some of them are addressed as "digital" and the others are "analog".

Can someone explain me what is the difference between a digital and an analog oscilloscope?
And which one should I buy for my general hobby circuits and any possible future projects?

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Bhanumurthy

Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 329
Helped: 102
Location: Subcontinent

23 Jun 2008 15:07 Re: What is a digital oscilloscope?

Hi,
U can connect Digital oscilloscopes in the same way as analog ones,when u r doing experiments and wish to view the waveforms.Digital oscilloscopes provide storage facility.U can store upto 10 waveforms or even more(depending upon the product).U can also connect the oscilloscope to a printer and take printouts for future reference.
Digital oscilloscopes display provide time, frequency, amplitude measurements etc. directly on the display but in analog oscilloscopes u have to measure these manually.Most of the digital one's also provide display info.in various languages.Lotz of other features are also available depending upon the manufacturer.
However, the cost of digital oscilloscopes will be much higher than anlaog ones obviously.Hence for u'r projects itz better if u purchase a analog oscilloscope.
If u think i've helped u, dont forget to press the helped me button...Cheers.
Regards
Bhanumurthy.

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jallem

Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 477
Helped: 67

23 Jun 2008 15:21 Re: What is a digital oscilloscope?

Digital means that the oscilloscope use ADC to collect
data rather than represent directly as in Analog. Has it
advantage and disadvantage but now days almost no one
is making Analog ones due to the cost of digital are lower.
If someone is trying to sell you an anlog one the cost should be
significantly lower since nobody wants one. Go for a digital unles
you have specific reasons to go Analog. As for example very low
cost, low frequency, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope

Or better yet make your own.
There are some examples on the net of oscilloscopes made using a regular
VGA display or even a PC for low frequency very useful to
learn.

http://www.fpga4fun.com/digitalscope.html

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