Oscilloscope Selection

[Sobakava]

2120b oscilloscope

I'm about to buy a new oscilloscope and reviewing scopes
from different companies.

I reviewed following products. Could you post pricing
information if do you have. I mean not official prices.
Real prices :wink:

Tektronix TDS2024, TDS3034, TDS3054
LeCroy WaveRunner2-350MHz
Agilent 2 channel + 1 trigger 300MHz or faster.

And please describe your opinion and recommendations
about these products or different products.

Best Regards

 

[flatulent]

oscilloscope selection

The Tektronix scopes you list have a residual noise problem that is in the digital section. It will be half a major division at the low signal levels and is reduced to one pixel at the high signal levels. Tektronix knows about this but will not change it as long as the scopes sell. Otherwise I like the 3054 very much and would not exchange it for some other brand.

The agilent scopes do not have this noise problems. They have fewer features and are slightly less intuitive to operate.

A google search will give you discount dealers. The discount is usually about 10%.

 

[bomba]

coupling button on oscope

Flatulent !!!
Is there some document to read about the problem of noise in the tektronix osciloscope?. Especial interest in the tektronix tds1002.

Thank you

 

[ME]

elektor electronics forum oscilloscope

Read Elektor Electronics October 2004, there's a big test of 22 oscilloscopes in all price ranges:
http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/ln/ln.htm
**broken link removed**

Could you post pricing information if do you have. I mean not official prices.
Real prices :wink:

This is impossible when you don't tell in which country you live.

 

[bomba]

hameg-1507

Me!!!!

Could you post the elektor article.

Thanks you

 

[ME]

lecroy 9450 service manual

Me!!!!

Could you post the elektor article.

Thanks you

I don't have it, I just read it at the library. Try to see if your library has it or order it from Elektor. Or maybe another member can scan the article?
All issues from year 2004 are sold together on a CD-ROM when this year finishes.

 

[Bingo600]

lecroy 9450 manual

I have been looking at the Instek GDS-820C

150Mhz 2 chan Color LCD DSO

Does anyone have experiences with that one.

Scope Specs
**broken link removed**

PowerPoint Comparison of Tektronicx and Instek scopes in same class
**broken link removed**

The interesting part is price ... Approx. 1100 US$ in the US

/Bingo

 

[ME]

iwatsu lecroy wavesurfer

Now I have scanned the Scope test article from Elektor Electronics 10/2004.

I have been looking at the Instek GDS-820C, 150Mhz 2 chan Color LCD DSO

The Instek GDS802C scope is also in the test, it's sold under two different brands: Volcraft 6150C and Goodwill Instek GDS820C

The following 22 scopes are tested:

Brand:                                                                     Model:
Volcraft / Goodwill Instek.................................................610-3 / GOS310
Grundig Digimess...........................................................HUC70-01 MO10
Grundig Digimess...........................................................HUC70-02 MO20
Goodwill Instek............................................................GOS620
B + K Precision............................................................2120B
Hameg......................................................................HM303-6
EZ-digital (formerly Goldstar/ LG Precision)/ Dynatek/ Volcraft/ Peaktech..OS-5030 / 8300 / 630-2 / 2035
Hameg......................................................................HM1004-3
Leader.....................................................................LS8105A
Goodwill Intek (also sold as Isotech and Volcraft).........................GOS6103
Volcraft / Goodwill Instek.................................................320 / GRS6052A
Hameg......................................................................1507-3
Wittig Technologies........................................................22-300 (Bench Scope)
Volcraft / Goodwill Instek.................................................6150C / GDS820C
LDS Test and Measurement...................................................Sigma 60-4
Tektronix..................................................................TDS2024
Yokogawa...................................................................DL1740EL
Agilent....................................................................54642D
LeCroy.....................................................................Wavesurfer 424
Tektronix..................................................................TDS7154B
LeCroy.....................................................................WavePro 7100
Agilent....................................................................54843A Infiniium

 

[techie]

peaktech oscilloscope 2035

I have been using Tektronix TDS-210 for many years now. If your application does not include higher freq, then I would recommend this. At $700 or so, it gives the best price/performance ration.

 

[nicleo]

oscilloscope comparison tek agilent lecroy

Any comment on Lecroy WaveMaster 8000A Series? I saw an engineer from Lecroy demontrated the scope in our lab before. It looked good and cool. Like a PC.

Anyone know the price (in US) of this scope?

 

[echo47]

osciloskop hameg 504

Any comment on Lecroy WaveMaster 8000A Series? I saw an engineer from Lecroy demontrated the scope in our lab before. It looked good and cool. Like a PC.

That's not necessarily a good thing. They look so much like a PC that LeCroy provides Norton anti-virus software as an accessory.

 

[ME]

wittig 22-300 software

Tektronix's high-end oscilloscopes are also based on a Intel Celeron PC design with Windows XP.
So it's not only LeCroy that moves to a Wintel platform:

Tektronix OSCILLOSCOPE SECURITY THREAT VIRUS UPDATE
**broken link removed**


But using a standard PC platform makes the scopes cheaper and more powerful than using some propetatary scope design I think.

 

[alex840]

fault trigger on tek 465

from my point of view (mainly analog engineering):
1. it is very useful to have 4 channels.
2. Tek - piece of junk. yeah, ok, it's a good scope to observe what's happening with your clock signal over time, but 15bytes(or even less) of memory without possibility to extend it... For this money(TDS2024) you can buy only some korean scopes. TDS3000 - very strange series. Good set of features and, again, limited memory. Price is less than others with the same bandwidth, but only due to limited memory, i think. Good scopes (i mean good usability) for a simple work. unusable to find one glitch over 10ms if you don't know how the glitch looks like.
3. HP/Agilent - good. Long memory, good syncro, very useful. 54645 - you will be able to work with full speed at 5ms/div. Maybe math is limited and zoom is not comfortable - you can't see original and zoomed signal simultaneously.
4. LeCroy - I don't know why but I like these scopes. ;-) I started with 9304A, then LC334A(you can see 8 traces!), LT224, LT374... The last I've seen - 6050. this one is the best. Excellent big screen, good syncro, long memory, 8 traces on the screen, very useful math.... Disadvantages - it will take time until you get used to it. Old models have quite short memories. New ones - look more like PC than as an osci - w2k, desktop, antiviruses...

 

[sinatra]

wittig 22-300 lcd problem

I'm an old fun of tektronix scopes since I used for the first time an 465.
But in the new models of the tektronix digital scopes like tds3000 or tds5000 I found some serious limitations of the trigger system.
Before buying the model you want ask for a few days demostrations and try to play with the trigger. For exemple test it with very slow repetition, or randon repetition waveforms in normal mode. You may fall into the situation where the scope simple doen't "see" anything at all.
Another remark, if it is important for you check the gpib waveform download. Tek may be very slow in theis area also......
But, anyway I'm still fun of tek
S.

 

[echo47]

20 year old oscilloscope

We have Tek TDS5104, TDS3054, and an older LeCroy 9450 in our lab. They are great when we know what we are looking for, or when we need a precise measurement or documentation. But on my bench is an old Tek 7104 with a stack of plugins. I like it!

 

[bittware]

oscilloscope elektor electronics

The Tektronix scopes you list have a residual noise problem that is in the digital section. It will be half a major division at the low signal levels and is reduced to one pixel at the high signal levels. Tektronix knows about this but will not change it as long as the scopes sell. Otherwise I like the 3054 very much and would not exchange it for some other brand.

The @gilent scopes do not have this noise problems. They have fewer features and are slightly less intuitive to operate.

A google search will give you discount dealers. The discount is usually about 10%.

I own a 3054 either. I found its limitation when I set 24V voltage offset, meanwhile I intended to zoom in voltage ripple in order to find out its detail state. That is to say if you have a relative large DC offset, you can't magnify its AC detail in large display scale. Can anyone could suggest other substitute oscilloscope?

 

[echo47]

wittig benchscope manual

bittware - why not simply press the AC Coupling button?

 

[bittware]

scope wittig 22-300

bittware - why not simply press the AC Coupling button?

Because I can't determine the ripple bandwidth. If you push AC coupling button, that means you possibly filtered out some ingredient that might reside in ripple.
As I know, tek 3045 has only not above three AC bandwidth settings.

 

[bittware]

tds2024 noise issue

from my point of view (mainly analog engineering):
1. it is very useful to have 4 channels.
2. Tek - piece of junk. yeah, ok, it's a good scope to observe what's happening with your clock signal over time, but 15bytes(or even less) of memory without possibility to extend it... For this money(TDS2024) you can buy only some korean scopes. TDS3000 - very strange series. Good set of features and, again, limited memory. Price is less than others with the same bandwidth, but only due to limited memory, i think. Good scopes (i mean good usability) for a simple work. unusable to find one glitch over 10ms if you don't know how the glitch looks like.
3. HP/@gilent - good. Long memory, good syncro, very useful. 54645 - you will be able to work with full speed at 5ms/div. Maybe math is limited and zoom is not comfortable - you can't see original and zoomed signal simultaneously.
4. LeCroy - I don't know why but I like these scopes. ;-) I started with 9304A, then LC334A(you can see 8 traces!), LT224, LT374... The last I've seen - 6050. this one is the best. Excellent big screen, good syncro, long memory, 8 traces on the screen, very useful math.... Disadvantages - it will take time until you get used to it. Old models have quite short memories. New ones - look more like PC than as an osci - w2k, desktop, antiviruses...

I agree.
I always wonder why Tek is so scant of memory configuration. Nowadays, memory is so cheap that it should not be the bottleneck of the oscilloscope system.

 

[echo47]

hp 54645

bittware, those bandwidth settings are for high frequency limiting. They are independent of AC or DC coupling mode.

According to the manual:

Lower frequency limit, AC coupled, typical:
7 Hz for 1 Mohm, reduced by a factor of ten when using a 10x passive probe. 140 kHz for 50 ohm.