New Scope Advice (Warning: I'm picky)

Community Bar Sport
1

Hi,

can anyone give me advice on finding scopes that fit my very particular requirements?

Definite No-nos:

  1. Old commercial scope: I want to be able to interface with my PC, tinker, and fix etc. easily

Must haves:

  1. Analog bandwidth >= 2MHz

  2. Open source Hardware and software (for two reasons. First I want to be able to fix it myself and two I want to be able to have access to a lot of software resources)

  3. PC interface

  4. Sensitivity of 10mV/div to 5V/div

  5. Cost less than $300

Nice to have:

  1. Multiple channels

  2. A screen (not necessary if PC interface available)

  3. USB interface (rather than RS-232)

  4. Powered by PC and/or battery

  5. BNC connectors

Scopes I'm considering so far:

DSO Nano, DSO Quad, and Jyetech DSO 062. But none of them have the BW I'd like as far as I can tell

Thoughts? Any other scopes that anyone would recommend? I've googled around a fair bit and they're the 3 main ones I've found. If I can't get open source, a fair amount of hackability would be nice :slight_smile:

2

Don't know of many "open source" scopes at all, nor any proprietary scopes with a reputation for being hackable.
That analog front end is a pita, and "official" scopes get calibrated an not "hacked" less you need the calibration service to come in and calibrate it again (at $$$ cost.)

probably any scope with a decent PC connection can have assorted hacks written on the PC side. I'm not sure which scopes will export raw data vs images, though...

3

do you consider multiple scopes also an option?

must it include protocol analyzer? e.g. I2C etc. just got a tip to look at - Logic Analyzers - Saleae -

4

How do you mean multiple scopes? Buying more than one? If it's cheaper than buying a two input scope, then maybe.

I don't need a protocol analyser. I just want to watch analog signals. I can eyeball protocols myself if needs be at any point (I know, it's laborious.)

5

JunkIt:
How do you mean multiple scopes? Buying more than one? If it's cheaper than buying a two input scope, then maybe.

Remember that one of the uses for a two-channel scope is to compare the timing of two signals. This means that both traces must be triggered at the same time, at least. Putting both traces on one scope display makes the relative timing measurement much easier.

6

You might check out USBee. I have their logic analyzer, which I love, and I know they make oscilloscopes too.

USBee RX Mixed Signal Oscilloscope, Logic Analyzer, Signal Generator, Protocol Decoder and Analyzer is a combo but check the rest of their site.

7

I use this one when I need to look at a signal
www.dpscope.com
Sounds like it will fit a lot of your needs.

Or make your own - highspeed A/D converter, sample at 4 MHz/16 bits, store/buffer in dual-access video RAM, send to PC as it comes in. Likely need a faster processer than 8-bit 16 Mhz Atmel AVR tho. Especially if multichannel.
How fast is USB 2 and 3?

8

Thanks all for the help. It was very informative. I decided to go with the Jyetech DSO 062 scope which has 1MHz bandwidth which could be increased since it has a 20MS/s ADC, in case anyone's still interested. Also, it's open source software and (I think) hardware. The schematics are available anyway, but I'm not sure if it's pure open source hardware