Oscilloscope recommendations

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ecdez

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Never thought I would need one but my recent endeavors have precipitated a sudden requirement to have one. Can anyone recommend a good, small, basic model?

I would try the used route but I have no way to determine if one is good or not, how would one tell that?


Suggestions are welcome.


If you're local and have one to loan, that would be great too :))!
 
Depends on what you are using it for. I have an OTC DSO for automotive work and it works great. It is not color but is a two channel Digital Storage Oscilloscope.

About ten years ago I did have a Fluke color four-channel that I bought slightly used, it was like new condition though. Thought I had a gem, and it was a very nice DSO, however, for automotive/motorcycle work it had too high of a sampling rate and was very difficult to read with any accuracy. I was also just learning to use a DSO and wanted something a little more user friendly to learn on.

I was able to re-sell the Fluke and had enough to purchase a new OTC one with all the nice accessories for back-probing wires etc.
 
Hadn't considered that usage would be a determining factor or I would have mentioned that. I thought they were all pretty much the same.


Seems I bought a lemon of a CNC mill and I need an oscilloscope to check the encoders for proper function.
 
I have a Beckman 2 channel that runs up to 10 KHz so it doesn;t sample too fast and it gives a good reliable steady trace when I want to look at a wave or frequency. Nice little 2 channel that is still pretty basic but it doesn't sound like you need an advanced instrument. Look around you can find them on Ebay and craigs list all the time for about a 100 bucks, And just buy it with a money back guarantee against DOA and fried machines. Look at the last calibration date and make sure it has a manual too. There is a test procedure in the manual that is fairly easy to perform if I'm not mistaken, mine does.

Bob
 
Too bad you're not local to me. I have 3 scopes ready to go.
 
ecdez said:
Hadn't considered that usage would be a determining factor or I would have mentioned that. I thought they were all pretty much the same.


Seems I bought a lemon of a CNC mill and I need an oscilloscope to check the encoders for proper function.
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I'd recommend a digital scope for encoders. Buy used, and only from major brands, unless you want a headache as far as things not really working how you would expect. So Tektronix or Agilent, etc..

High resale value. You can basically buy them used for $700 and then sell it when you are done for the same price and lose only the 13% if you sell on ebay. Lose 0% if you sell on craigslist.

You may be able to get the job done with a multimeter if you are only checking basic phase and presence of signal for the encoders. If you need to watch for strange behavior that only appears at high speed then most likely you will need a digital scope, which is much better at capturing, storing, and displaying transients than an analog scope, which at best may have a storage phosphor setup of unknown reliability since anything like that is going to be 30+ years old.
 
I have always been partial to fluke scope-meters.. if you can find a 192, 196 series for a decent price that is what I would get.. plus if you ever need to troubleshoot a vfd .. having a battery operated totally isolated scope is the safe way to proceed..

rich
 
spaceman_spiff said:
You may be able to get the job done with a multimeter if you are only checking basic phase and presence of signal for the encoders. If you need to watch for strange behavior that only appears at high speed then most likely you will need a digital scope, which is much better at capturing, storing, and displaying transients than an analog scope, which at best may have a storage phosphor setup of unknown reliability since anything like that is going to be 30+ years old.
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This may be a good interim solution. I think I fried my encoders but need to check them to see if I need to replace or not. I have a good one I can use as a baseline. I guess if I get no signal at all, they're toast.



rpmMan said:
I have always been partial to fluke scope-meters.. if you can find a 192, 196 series for a decent price that is what I would get.. plus if you ever need to troubleshoot a vfd .. having a battery operated totally isolated scope is the safe way to proceed..

rich
Click to expand...


I was checking those out, they are nice.




JimDawson said:
Here is the deal of the day for an oscilloscope. http://www.frys.com/product/4279454?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
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WOW, can't argue with that! Looks like everywhere else the prices are way higher. Wonder how they can offer them for that price.
 
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