newbie oscilliscope recommendations

[Mike]

Hey folks,

I was reading my latest issue of Nuts & Volts (http://nutsvolts.com), and
they were doing a review on the new Stingray USB oscilloscope, which is
$199. Are these computer add-ons any good? Or are they total crap compared
to a *real* benchtop oscilloscope? If so, can someone recommend a good
beginner's oscilloscope?

If it makes a difference, I have a LCD monitor. I'm not sure how well those
computer add-ons work with non-crt displays?

Thanks!

 

[Bill Bowden]

Hey folks,

I was reading my latest issue of Nuts & Volts (http://nutsvolts.com), and
they were doing a review on the new Stingray USB oscilloscope, which is
$199. Are these computer add-ons any good? Or are they total crap compared
to a *real* benchtop oscilloscope? If so, can someone recommend a good
beginner's oscilloscope?

If it makes a difference, I have a LCD monitor. I'm not sure how well those
computer add-ons work with non-crt displays?

Thanks!

Look around on e-bay for Tektronix scopes. You should find
a good (100 mHz) for around $200 or less. Just make sure it works
right before bidding on it and don't bid on a $50 unit that claims
to work and is selling "as is". The tek 465 and 475 are popular
scopes that were state of the art 20 years ago.

-Bill

 

[Bob Masta]

Hey folks,

I was reading my latest issue of Nuts & Volts (http://nutsvolts.com), and
they were doing a review on the new Stingray USB oscilloscope, which is
$199. Are these computer add-ons any good? Or are they total crap compared
to a *real* benchtop oscilloscope? If so, can someone recommend a good
beginner's oscilloscope?

If it makes a difference, I have a LCD monitor. I'm not sure how well those
computer add-ons work with non-crt displays?

Thanks!

If you have an old Win9x or earlier system that can run real-mode DOS,
and you have a Sound Blaster card in it, you might want to look at my
Daqarta for DOS shareware. You will then have an AC-coupled
audio-frequency scope and spectrum analyzer, with all the bells and
whistles, including signal generation and color spectrograms.
Extensive Help tutorial is built in, and also available for browsing
on the Daqarta Web site.

No, this won't replace a benchtop scope, but its good for lots
of general testing, and the presence of spectrum analysis beats
cheap benchtops for things like distortion measurements.

If you need DC response (which sound cards don't support) you can
build a super-simple 8-bit ADC from a handful of resistors
wired to a printer port and controlled by the LPTX driver. You might
want to do this anyway, if you can't find a Sound Blaster.

Daqarta for Windows is on the way as well, but not for a few
more months. The signal generator portion is called DaqGen
and is available now as freeware.

Best regards,


Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com

 

[CBarn24050]

Subject: Re: newbie oscilliscope recommendations

From: [email protected] (Bob Masta)
Date: 29/10/04 13:29 GMT Daylight Time
Message-id: <[email protected]>

These things are worse than useless, look around on ebay for a real scope.

 

[Clarence]

These things are worse than useless, look around on ebay for a real scope.

You should get more than one opine.
I have three of the Computer add on type 'scopes' and find them very useful and
easy to use.
They also do not take up as much bench space when not in use.
The top of the line unit is a dual trace 100Mhz band width unit, and the
software allows continuous recording.

The other two are single channel, with limited voltage inputs. (No gain
controls) and they are limited to plus or minus 5 volts full scale, but that is
+/- 50 with a 10/1 probe so I have never needed a separate gain control. Those
two have samples of 40KHZ (12 bit Resolution) and 200KHZ 8 bit resolution) and
they get a lot of use.

Never had a complaint except for the need to provide terminators for the two
small single channel units.

Dual channel unit cost abt $700
12 Bit single channel $89
8 Bit single channel $49

 

[Mike]

Everybody that responded -- thanks for your advice.

Mike