Need help to buy an oscilloscope.

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victorwang

New member
I'm quite new to this forum. I understand basics about smps, but never actually got my hand on it. Recently I bought one oscilloscope which I knew nothing about it. Later found out the frequency range is 0 to 3MHz. Now I knew it had to be at least 60MHz. Could someone here recommend the cheapest one with the right functionality for me? I live in Dayton, Ohio, USA. Could it possible that someone in this forum happen to know a right oscilloscope available around here? many thanks! Victor
 
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victorwang

New member
Had read before. Re-read it, word by word! Can't wait for my first project. After some research, I'm thinking about buying a digital, max bandwidth 1GHz. My budget is something around $350. Is this reasonable?
 
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wally7856

New member
An oscilloscope is one of the things you will never be sorry that you bought the best one you could afford. I looked Ebay over and it looks like for $350 you can get a good 100mhz digital oscilloscope. 100mhz is a very popular speed, it was the standard for many years. My scope is a 100mhz digital and i paid over $3000.00 for it many years ago. I did see a 150mhz and a few 200mhz scopes for about the same price but i would look carefully at them to see if they are stripped down to meet the price. But for $350 you have many choices for 100mhz

Some things to look for.

100mhz minimum
1Gs sample rate
color screen
7 inch or bigger screen
It looks like all of these scopes have 8 bit vert resolution
Make sure it can save to computer/print waveform
Look at the different trigger types
Look at the different measurement functions
Look at how much memory it has
 
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reactance

New member
Hi

I bought a scope now recently as well i got a SDS1102CML its 100MHZ scope im happy with it as im a beginner and i to hope to build a SMPS as well.

However i wont recommend this scope as speed is not everything as i found out, there are lots of important aspects you need to look into such as update rate, memory and screen size.


MY scope dont look so good when taking measurements the line appears jagged although its a big screen the impression i get its not smooth and can confused one someone's when analysing waveforms :( but part from that the scope is okay and i think for the type of hobby i have it suits my needs well.

cheap scopes. entry level ones i own SDS Siglent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6MdhoV03e4

more mid price scope i would go for this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAY1GQEjrfc

also more important info you need to consider.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImyUB3_n9fw


I had exta money I would buy an Agilent 2000 (you wont be sorry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S62G0F4B1q0

let us know how your shopping went, hopefully you didn't buy your scope yet.
Cheers
 
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victorwang

New member
This really helps! Looks like I need to raise my budget. Perhaps I can skip my travel plan, and save the money for a decent oscilloscope. And, have the time to build a smps :). Many thanks for your help on this!
 
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reactance

New member
victorwang said:
This really helps! Looks like I need to raise my budget. Perhaps I can skip my travel plan, and save the money for a decent oscilloscope. And, have the time to build a smps :). Many thanks for your help on this!
Click to expand...

+1 Vote for ditching travel plan in favour of buying a better scope. :w)
 
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reactance

New member
victorwang said:
thanks a lot for your help. Now I'm basically knowing what I'm going to do next.
Click to expand...

I'm happy to help, I don't want another person to make a mistake I made. Today my scope croc clamp just came loose and it started to show measurement noise as a result of the cheapest Chinese probes that came with it, another pitfall you must look out for, always check what the quality of the probes are they dont have to be the best just not what i have below...

This is what i got with my scope bah!! Not even 4 months old and the probe already shows sign of failure !
 
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