On 4/29/2017 10:59 AM, Jon Elson via cctech wrote:
On 04/29/2017 12:28 PM, Michael Thompson via cctech wrote:
The RICM just received $1,000 to buy a new oscilloscope. I would like a
four channel. and color would also be nice. The bandwidth doesn't
need to
be high because we usually work on ancient equipment.
What would you suggest?
Really NEW, or just new for your museum? I got a Tek 2465 on eBay
that I am quite happy with, for quite a bit less money. There are
some decent import digital scopes (such as Rigol) that many people
seem to find good.
If you are not familiar with digital scopes, there are some gotchas
there. You can't tell the trigger rate from looking at the screen,
but then they can see what happened BEFORE the trigger event, and can
freeze a single-shot event for you to look at. The good Tek DPO
scopes have not come down enough to meet your price range (yet).
Jon
Right now is prime time to evaluate and snag a HP Agilent 16700 with
digital scope channels and logic analyzer channels to boot. You might
be able to snag one along with a new unit. WRT to old equipment the HP
Aglient 16xxx logic analyzers are pretty much the best for every device
I've ever worked on. I don't know that the glut of really nice hardware
will last a long time.
Another thing to consider is the Saleae line of digital probes. There is
a 16 channel unit with analog capture feature now. That unit if you can
capture at a rate that your hardware can handle will capture trace till
you run out of space on the attached pc support device.
If you attach it to a signal that is serial, every channel on the logic
analyzer becomes a serial protocol analyzer, and will export ascii
serial to a file if you are doing that task, as a side benefit.
I'd budget at most 1/4 of your $1000 for that purchase if the donation
allows that.
i've got the 8 channel unit.
Beware the saleae type units may be 3 v input, be sure to check that, as
my suggestion won't be much use for that case. I've not shopped them
lately, but my older 8 channel unit is 3.3 max only, though I've used it
on 0 - 5 v
thanks
jim
