Oscilloscope recommendation

I need to order an oscilloscope for a sensor project I'm working on.. I have not used one Ina. Good 10 years since electronic class so it will be a learning curve again

Usb vs hardware ones. Any big difference or recommendations for a decent one that won't break the bank?

You're doing it wrong... You need to get your sensor project to a place where there's a scope available. Say, a hackerspace. Or a fellow electronics hobbyist. Or borrow a scope somewhere. Or make do with a very cheap/old 2nd hand one, that's just good enough to finish the project.

If none of the above, consider that purchase a long term investment. Which (as any electronics ppl could tell you) depends ENTIRELY on the kind of projects you'd use that scope for. Or in what place(s) you work on those projects. And your budget... All of which decides how 'needed' certain features / specs are.

FWIW: I consider myself a long-time electronics hobbyist, but never really 'needed' a scope. Just situations where having one would have been helpful. What about that sensor project is it that makes you 'need' a scope? :thinking:

Btw. this is probably not the best place to ask anyway! Consider checking with a forum specialized in electronics.

I'm building some sensor simulators and need to verify they are working as intended

I founds. Few cheaper 100-150 ish 2 Chanel socials cope and logic analyzes. (Usb pc ones. )

Do you think it would do the trick?

to some degree, it depends on what sort of signals you'll be probing on the project. Is it simply low frequency analog stuff? Will you be trying to decode SPI bus data? How many channels?

Once you've figured out how good or fancy the scope needs to be, then you can start shopping around.

I did some shopping recently for scopes for the lab at work. Nothing too fancy, relatively speaking... 500MHz bandwidth, 4 channels, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to find some good LeCroy scopes for about $5k.

Granted, $5k is a lot more than I would pay for a scope in the home lab. For a limited budget, I've been amazed by the Rigol scopes that Dave Jones at EEVblog has reviewed. I think it is about $400?? Check the review at eevblog.com
IIRC, Dave commented that for that sort of price, there wasn't much point at looking at the USB scopes.

I believe its is low frequency analog as its just 12V car sensors

Do you think this one would do the trick for my needs? http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sain...nal-Generator-Logic-Analyzer/32267957747.html

That's a brand that is unknown to me. Maybe you can find some reviews of it?

It took me a little while to find the bandwidth of this USB scope. It lists 6MHz and 60MHz, but doesn't explain why it has two ratings. 60MHz is probably fine, but 6MHz would be pretty poor. I wonder if it depends on whether the scope probe is set for x1 or x10?

I used a really cheap USB scope as part of a class taught by Texas Instruments. It was designed to be a very inexpensive lab for college. It did fine for that purpose, but it really felt limited when compared to even a low cost analog scope.

One area where it is useful to have a decent scope for analog circuits is oscillations. I've had circuits oscillate that weren't supposed to. Without a good scope, I wouldn't have been able to find the oscillation. Well, honestly, I've seen voltage regulators oscillate at 100MHz at low amplitudes that a scope didn't pick up either, but that just shows that there is value in having a well equipped lab!

Personally, I've got a used 100MHz Tektronix analog scope at home, which I purchased for $200. I'm sure that I'd trust it a lot more than a cheap USB scope. If I were shopping for a scope now, I'd probably go for that $400 Rigol. If cost is an issue, then the cheap USB scope might be the right answer. I'd probably want to buy it from someplace that would provide a refund if it failed after a short time.

Looks pretty interesting, what a $100 or so gets you these days. oo: Yet I'd be very hesitant to buy an USB based scope, for several reasons:

• You'd always need a PC (or tablet?) next to the scope, even for the most basic uses.
• The software only works on a few selected OS'es (XP/Win7/Win8 in this case). Will it be updated when Win10 comes out? Is there an OSX version? Is there a Linux version? A version you could run on your iPad or Android tablet? (or even source code). Is the USB <-> scope interface at least documented? Will updates be provided to fix bugs? Will updates be provided to add new features? Will vendor or manufacturer honor regular warrantly periods? (like standard 2 years for most consumer electronics sold in the EU). For a cheap USB scope like this, the answer to most or all of these questions is probably "No". That could be a real problem relatively short time down the line.

Found a link to the software, and just for kicks downloaded it. Most recent file in there is from Oct. 2013. That is for a device that even vendor itself is still actively selling in 2015. No mention of vendor website in either software- or hardware manual. All of this should give you enough clues how manufacturer feels about supporting the boxes they've moved... :laughing:

So like Steve, for home use I'd probably go for a 'low-end' digital scope from established brand like Rigol. Useable stand-alone, better supported down the line.

Not saying that a cheap USB scope wouldn't do the job. But in this case: yes, you do get what you pay for. Perhaps the more useful question to ask here is about your primary motive: are you buying a scope to complete this one project, or are you buying a scope to beef up your electronics tool kit / hobby corner?

Well I ended up getting the usb one for now as I "believe" it meets my immediate need but I have a feeling I will get a fancier one down the road once I get more into circuits and learn the true value of having one

It's always hard to tell how much to invest in equipment when you don't know how long you'll need it or how good it needs to be. I hope you'll give us a review of the USB scope after you've had time to figure it out and spent some time using it.

Will do!

shiftline said:

Will do!

Click to expand...

Only thing I would caution on a low cost USB scope is whether it has adequate isolation to protect the computer you are hooking it up to. Even working on a car you can see 60V transients and as most know, probes have a tendency to accidentally move and touch unintended points. Some of the low cost USB scopes may be limited to 30V. Just be cautious.

Rigol has support in the U.S. now, not sure how good Lecroy/Tek sometimes have sales where there bottom end models can be quite a bit off list. Can't speak for a cheap Rigol, but I have a 15+ year old TEK that still does regular duty because it triggers on hard signals better than its much fancier ... and much cheaper dollar adjusted brother.

Which USB scope did you end up with? It is interesting to find this thread, as I am dabbling with a power supply that can go up to 20 KHz. Should I look for something with a sampling rate 10X higher than the operating frequency - so 200 KHz, or is that way too low?

Some voltages could be as high as 600 V - both AC and DC present.