Hi, Joe
Re leads
Yes Paul PMed me about my silly mistake, Wasnt thinking! Still purchase avoided.
Ive found some appropriate ones.
Thanks
Before you purchase a oscilloscope, Try watching a few of these videos.
Search his website And YouTube channel, for other videos that you might want to watch. He is an electronics engineer, and seems to be very knowledgeable. he is a good source of information.
My advice is don't jump into the deep end, until you learn how to swim. Figure out what you are going to do first, Before you make any major purchases. Learn what you need, and how it is used. The Internet is a great place to start. And you can go broke buying things that you may never need or use.
Sometimes you can also find nice used equipment to fit the bill. Units that cost $10k and up 10 years ago can be had pretty inexpensively now, and the one-does-all never seems to do anything very well.
I'm under $1000US for all the gear I have acquired over time. The older stuff still does what I want, but tends to be a little bigger/ heavier than the new stuff. Ok, HUGE in some cases, but they are all name-brand equipment.
MarkVK:
, id rather buy stuff thats value for money.
Second hand analogue oscilloscopes can be had for as little as £50.
Decent makes too.
I think i would consider a logic analyser before a DSO these days but they are very hard to find second hand.
Hi Guys.
I spend half of my life looking at stuff on youtube doing research, and a considerable amount of time, making videos of my own to put on it...
Ive watched many videos by eevblog and others and this coupled with a challenge from my wife to control my woodwork table router by WIFI, has got me interested in electronics.
It was eevblog videos that pointed me towards the cheap Chinese 60v 15a power supply that none of you liked! I later noticed hed done 2 videos of the same supply, one went up in flames the other one he was very enthusiastic about.... I think his enthusiasm runs away with him sometimes 
Anyway it was on his recommendation that i get 2 oscilloscopes a digital one and a second hand analogue jobbie. He also recommended that i get a signal generator, which ill be asking you about shortly.
So ive done more than a bit of research, and i will be buying this equipment to set up my lab so that i can have some fun with it all.
Now i know not everything on the interweb should be taken as gospel, which is why im here picking your brains.
So on with my shopping list, a value for money recommendation for a digital oscilloscope is what im after. Something that i can grow with preferably. EEV blog seems happy with the siglent stuff, but theres an awful lot of scopes out there!!
What would you say was the best scope for a keen armature with a probing mind?
Either oscilloscope that you mention earlier will be good. I use a 200 MHz Hantek.
A couple notes on oscilloscopes,
Speed, 100 MHz scope is good but if you can afford a 200 MHz, or faster, go for it.
memory, memory allows you to capture events over a long period of time. The more memory you have, the longer the time you can record. Get as much memory as you can afford.
Number of inputs, minimum of 2 but 4 is better.
Rear USB/serial port is a necessity if you wish to hook it up to a computer, large-screen. a ethernet port is not absolutely necessary. Front mount USB port is. this allows you to update the oscilloscope, and record events.
The price of a digital oscilloscope can range from a few hundred dollars, to several thousand.
Because we don't know what you are going to do with it, nor do we know your budget, we can't really tell you what the best scope will be. Do your homework, and hope for the best. it's very disappointing when you buy something that you think is going to do the job, Only to find out that what you bought is not quite up to the job. You say to yourself, if only i spent a little more money I could of had this feature. Been there done that, and probably will do it again, and again..
good luck on your purchase, and enjoy your new hobby.
Brilliant thanks joe.
This is what I use
https://www.tequipment.net/InstekGDS-2204A.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiN-s6YSr1wIVFbjACh03LAnXEAMYASAAEgIgX_D_BwE
$1667. Free shipping too.
Works great. Mine came with 4 probes.
Made in Taiwan and not China.
Great resolution - down to 1mV/division, 1nS/division.
Little less here if you have probes already, they only list 1 probe. Maybe they mean 1 per channel, could be worth a call.
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/instek/oscilloscopes/gds-2204a.htm
The GTP-250A-2 list for $48 each.
$1570 + 3 x $48 = $1714. + Shipping?
I haven't ordered any of the optional modules that you can plug in. I already had a Saleae 8-channel logic analyzer and that has been plenty for chasing down timing issues. The scope is really handy for looking at things like signal degradation of SPI signals as they go down a chain and figuring out where buffering or terminating was needed.
thats cool thanks and not beyond what i can afford, but its certainly making me think carefully about how much i need to spend!
Should i start with this ?
And maybe a cheap digital scope and see how i get on? should i just try one of the hantect pc based scopes to start with?
As joe has pointed out i dont know what im going to use them for, but i want to learn how to use one and what its used for....
Im getting confused, its time to wind my neck in because the more scopes i look atthe more uncertain i become
Money is not the issue, but im thinking spend a little now to learn a lot, and once iv learnt a lot , i can spend a lot to use it a lot... if you know what i mean! does that make any sense?
That oscilloscope is only 40Mhz. I would try to find at least 100MHz. It's only a 2ch, but that isn't the end of the world.
What the scope is going to do is let you actually see what a signal looks like, and let you watch as you manipulate it with components on the board. If you are really set on learning electronics, it can help you understand how one thing affects another, especially in analog electronics.
For home use, I had a 10MHz single channel scope (about 10 years), it did just fine.
Then I upgraded to 100MHz dual channel analog, have had it for 25 years.
I graduated to a 400MHz 4 channel digital scope a few years back, great purchase.
But, my Saleae logic 16 is the thing I often reach first in digital ccts.
Nothing wrong with a simple logic probe ;).
larryd:
But, my Saleae logic 16 is the thing I often reach first in digital ccts.
I have a 30 yr old 50 MHz Tecktronics scope.
I probably use it once or twice a year these days, very good tool for learning though.
Logic analyser is the thing i most often wish i had.
If i can get off santas naughty list i might buy the missus one for xmas.
If you have the budget get both, not so sure about spending lots on a scope though.
EDIT
Be aware that scope probes can be expensive.
I purchased a scope then binned it once just to get the probes that came with it.
When you buy make sure you get the probes included, new one should , second hand may not.
I happened across an HP 16ch logic analyzer, along with an HP freq synthesizer. Both nice pieces of equipment, but the logic analyzer didn't have the probes. Yeah, they are kind of pricey, but I also got a mainframe logic analyzer in the deal, and was able to pull the probes from it to make the standalone work. Those 3 pieces cost me $200 US. I scrapped the mainframe unit.
Still, an analog scope can still be handy for viewing transition periods, which a logic probe wouldn't see.
Hi All Thanks for everything so far,
s this worth the money? its 100mhz duel channel... i think, and would do to learn with wouldnt it?
Im still researching digital scopes in the sub £500 range to start with.
A bench power supply is an extremely handy bit of kit to have around for electronics hobbyists, but they power supplies can be expensive when purchased new. If you have an old computer ATX PSU lying around, you can give it new life as a bench power supply. But DIY one bench power supply is not for a beginner.