FAQ- Electronics - Make your first oscilloscope a DSO scope

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Richard Hull
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FAQ- Electronics - Make your first oscilloscope a DSO scope

Post by Richard Hull »

If you get serious in using NIM modules, creating your own neutron counting system or are planning on a lot of electronics work, as with an Arduino or other microcontroller, you will need an oscilloscope! It is important the you obtain only a modern DSO type scope, (Digital Storage Oscilloscope), that can communicate with your computer via a built-in USB port!

The old non-signal capturing CRT oscilloscopes of the 50-90's are dead meat in today's world where digital signal pulse capture is a must have feature.
Most here will never need more than a 100mhz bandwidth scope, nor more than 1giga sample per second resolution. Most will never make use of even a 50mhz scope! However for 200-300 bucks you can own all of this in a modern brand new scope that blows away most $5000 dollar CRT scopes of the 1990's.

As for using the scope, you will learn in stages as you use it, referencing the manual as needed. Of course, if you are here for the long haul, you have the right stuff to master the use of an oscilloscope.

Rather than blather on, I will supply a bunch of images below.

The first image is the kind of scope you are looking for. It is all new and fully capable of any electronic task you might force upon it.

The follow on images show how I spent a fortune to get my first critical DSO in the mid-1990's when they were just coming into the fore. They also show subsequent super deals found at hamfest as I bought DSOs in used but fully functional condition.

I hope this FAQ has helped and whether you seek a new or used DSO, I wish all the best.

Richard Hull
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This is the type DSO of modern vintage that you want to get.  These cost between $200 and $300.  See my tale of massive expenditures back in the 1990s as I struggle to to be on the "bleeding edge" of my profession.
This is the type DSO of modern vintage that you want to get. These cost between $200 and $300. See my tale of massive expenditures back in the 1990s as I struggle to to be on the "bleeding edge" of my profession.
TDS310 first DSO.jpg
TDS310 interface modules.jpg
TDS210 lunch box.jpg
TDS210 interface module.jpg
TDS340A.jpg
TDS340A interface group.jpg
TDS460A.jpg
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Dan Knapp
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Re: FAQ- Electronics - Make your first oscilloscope a DSO scope

Post by Dan Knapp »

It is indeed amazing what one can get in a digital scope these days for a relatively low cost. I would suggest for work in the radiation pulse counting field, get a scope that has pulse width discrimination capability. With this type of scope, you can count fat pulses in the presence of large numbers of narrow noise spikes. They don’t cost significantly more. You just have to dig into the specifications to find if they have this capability.
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Richard Hull
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Re: FAQ- Electronics - Make your first oscilloscope a DSO scope

Post by Richard Hull »

As an addendum to the original. Don't go nuts over bandwidth unless you are a real high frequency expert. In the last image above, the 400mhz scope was a deal and had 4 channels. (its major draw for me)

Common, good scope probes are great for this and all scopes...provided your work is mostly conducted under 100mhz!

If you want to go over 200mhz, as in the case of the 400mhz gem I show in the last image, you are doomed to purchase active probes!

These use the printed circuit board contacts seen in a careful look around the 400mhz scope's BNC inputs. 4 active probes at $500 each add $2000 to my $200 fabulous buy. Needless to say I will never purchase them, but use standard probes for all my work. I have seen packages of brand new, serviceable, common 100mhz, 1X/10X, Chi-Com scope probes for $20 at hamfests and used genuine Tektronix 100mhz probes for $25.

Don't spend money getting bandwidth in a scope if you don't have a need for it. 100mhz will serve most any electronics person and many professional engineers and technicians!

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Jerry Biehler
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Re: FAQ- Electronics - Make your first oscilloscope a DSO scope

Post by Jerry Biehler »

I picked up this guy at the Tektronix company store a couple years ago. $275, all that was wrong with it was a bad BIOS battery, it runs Win XP and forgot how to talk to the LCD. Does all sorts of neat stuff, serial decode, spectrum analyzer, FFT, eye diagrams.

The old TDS340 series scopes are great and you can get them for $100 or less now. I had been wanting a new portable scope, I had an old TPI 440 but its kind of obsolete and I picked ip one of the OWON HDS242S handheld DMM scope. Its actually really nice, dual channel, 40MHz, 125MSa/s, has a built in ARB. https://www.amazon.com/Oscilloscope-Mul ... B09C1DZP9Z $160 but I have seen them down to about $140.


ImageLeCroy WaveRunner 64xi by Jerry Biehler, on Flickr
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