Oscilloscope Recomendation

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Greetings,

I want to buy an oscilloscope and I need your help. I know there are so many oscilloscope recomendations on the internet but non of them helped me.

1-1000 euro budget
2-Upgradable(For example bandwith upgrade)
3-Serial decoding
4-MSO or MSO upgradable
5-2 or 4 channel
6-minimum 100MHz
7-Not a PC oscilloscope
(Do I want so much thing for 1000 euro?)

2

Multi channel can be worth the effort.
I have a dual channel. but on occasion wish I had more.

You do however have to lay out the tasks you want to accomplish both NOW and future wise.
That will help you narrow down a list.

Almost all scopes can do serial decoding is some fashion so I would not consider that too much.

What bandwidth do you expect to use as that will be another deciding factor.

Your budget is great for both a stand alone or a USB based scope and you should be able to come out of it with some change is you are careful to avoid high brand names.

3

Thanks for the answer. I will write the bandwith I want,in my first post.

4

An oscilloscope is a great tool, but to be honest I’ve gotten more use recently out of a relatively inexpensive multi-channel logic analyzer.

google

logic analyzer

and

logic analyzer vs oscilloscope

if you need to know more.

1000 euro, yeah, you should be able to get both at a decent level of quality.

I like real instruments and have a collected bunch over the years cough!, but the USB style tools available now make a great deal of sense for obvious reasons.

a7

5

Thanks for the answer,

I will look both of them.

6

I use a couple of 'scopes at work but I don't have one at home. Occasionally I've "lusted" for one but I've never really needed one and I've got too much "stuff" already. :smiley: Once, or maybe twice, I've brought a home-project into work to use the 'scope.

One of my work 'scopes is 2-channel and one is 4-channel. 99% of time I only use 1 channel and I've NEVER used 4 (at least not at this job). In fact, I currently only have 2 probes total. :frowning:

I don't remember if I've ever actually used a logic analyzer or if I've only watched someone else using one... I don't have one where I currently work. It's often a "better tool" for microprocessors, but BOY they are a pain to hook-up!

I've never heard of upgradable bandwidth. Does that exist? Even if it does, products change and the upgrade kit might not be available in a couple of years.

Personally, I wouldn't consider a "USB-computer" 'scope. If I was buying one I'd want "real one". But a USB-based logic analyzer might be OK.

7

Thanks for the answer.

Rohde n Schwarz has scopes that you can upgrade its bandwith up to 350 mhz.

8

Some of the SDSO's are open source and have also been upgraded but tend to suffer just slightly at the bandwidth edges.

9

Something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32968759169.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.1b567b74FHA9jJ&algo_pvid=89cf2f3c-fb6f-42a6-8a50-d9dd5a9dccd3&algo_expid=89cf2f3c-fb6f-42a6-8a50-d9dd5a9dccd3-47&btsid=0b0a556316204086394587260ea89e&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

I have a cheaper version but wish I had got the Hantek one now as there are lots of open source firmwares for it.

Best of both worlds and a good bandwidth to boot !

10

Thanks for the answer,

I want that feeling when you press the scope button so I don't want a pc oscilloscope.

1 Like
11

Well, like always, it depends want you want to do, but with the 1000€ budget you can get a lot. Or you want to a have a Tektronix - then you need to look for refurbished ones :wink:

About MSO capabilities there is in fact quite a lot of opinion out there, and I think a separate logic analyzer is better. You may challenge the need for an MSO ... I remember that the guys from eevblog said that for non-proffessional applications the times of chasing glitched logic levels are gone....

Nevertheless, I have answered all those questions for me just recently and ended up with a Siglent SDS 1104X-E, together with Siglent Arbitrary Waveform Generator SDG1032X. Both together allow creation of bode plots. I do a project for which I intend to use it to test my analogue hardware - but I'm not at this stage yet.
The oscilloscope is 4 channel, 100 MHz, 1Gs/s or 500Ms/s depending on which and how many inputs are used. The 200MHz-version is said to be not worth the extra money (at same(!) sample rates). And, what needs to be considered, you enter frequency range in which the good old radio is running - to think about what you want to do.
I like the 4 channels. The usage comes with the availability. The scope is fine by far to, e.g., measure the duration of very short interrupt-routines on a ATmega328p@16MHz by toggeling an I/O at start and end of interrupt-routine...
The scope has MSO capabilities by accessory , you may check.

Other prefer Rigol-Scopes but they do not fit into my visual taste.

12

no luck looking for a USB scope for Linux. you would thing Windows 7 -10 is the only OS out there.

13

Thanks for the answer,

I want to use it with my STM32(180mhz).

:joy:

14

Look at the Siglent SDS1xxx and SDS2xxx series, an optional logic analyser unit is available, and they have serial/I2C/SPI/CAN/LIN decoding, bandwidths upto 350MHz. I've been using one for a few years now and am pretty happy with it.

15

Thanks for the answer.

16

Also there are a lot of reviews of entry-level 'scopes on Youtube out there, EEVBlog is
great place to start for this.

17

Why has Rigol DS1054Z not been mentioned yet?

18

Ok, but I'm quite sure you don't want to put the probes on the die of the STM32. So it depends on the peripherals you attach to the STM32 - and with what "speed" they are fed by the STM32.

Sure, the STM32 will be able to provide pulses with pretty short rising and falling time - but are you interested in them? Measuring them with a 100MHz oscilloscope they will not look as sharp as they are ... you may add a "0" to the desired bandwidth, and you will be out of budget.

As MarkT mentioned, have a look at the Siglent SDS1xxx and SDS2xxx. And make you mind about channles (2 or 4), bandwidth, and required sample rate. As said, driven by what you want to measure.

19

Thanks for the answer,

Not really.

I looked both of them and made my desicion. I will buy a Siglent SDS1104x-e. It has serial decoding free. Also I could buy logic analyzer and 25mhz function generator in the future. Only disadvantage of this scope is I can't upgrade its bandwith in time.

1-1000 euro budget :white_check_mark:
2-Upgradable(For example bandwith upgrade):x:
3-Serial decoding :white_check_mark:
4-MSO or MSO upgradable :white_check_mark:
5-2 or 4 channel :white_check_mark:
6-minimum 100MHz :white_check_mark:
7-Not a PC oscilloscope :white_check_mark:

Thank you all for helping me .I really appericiate it.

20

After 45 years experience with scopes, 2 channels will be used 99.9% of the time.

200Mhz+ bandwidth if you can afford it.

If you find that you need more channels for digital work, the get a logic analyzer later on, example: Saleae logic analyzer.