colour digital CROs

[bruce varley]

I was considering treating myself and buying a colour LCD screen digital CRO
to replace my 25 year old Tektronix, but the prices have set me back on my
heels.
Well over $5000 for a 2-channel device. Are people really buying these
devices at that price????

 

[David L. Jones]

bruce varley wrote:

I was considering treating myself and buying a colour LCD screen digital CRO
to replace my 25 year old Tektronix, but the prices have set me back on my
heels.
Well over $5000 for a 2-channel device. Are people really buying these
devices at that price????

Check out the new Agilent 3000 series, they start from US$1000. These
are actually (shock horror) a re-badged Rigol unit which is designed
and made in China. The DS-5102 100MHz 1GS/s 4KB colour model under the
Rigol brand name is around $1700 from Emona, slightly higher price for
the Agilent branded unit of course.
I played with the Rigol unit the other day and I must say that I was
impressed with the value for money, better than the equivalent
Tektronix base model unit. The colour screen is large and clear, the
operation intuitive, the response was quick, and it had plenty of cool
features. Stuff like adjustable digital filtering was very nice. The
masking features were impressive, horizontal and vertical adjustment
along with 4000 samples allowing full replay capability.
USB port for uploading to PC, sadly though it didn't support USB keys
for screen capture.
Needless to say with Agilent rebadging it, quality looked very good
indeed.
I was told that Rigol actually roll their own ADC/memory front end
which is why they can meet this price point.

With real-time DSOs what you are paying for is mostly the amount of
sample memory. The base model units ($1500-$3000) have 2-10KB, the next
price bracket (like the Agilent 54600 or 6000 series at $3000-$6000)
have 1MB+ sample memory. The next price bracket again gets you the
insanely high analog bandwidth as well.

There are definite markets for all 3 price points.

For general use, <10KB sample memory is fine, but you can't beat having
several MB of sample memory if your budget can stretch that far.

Dave

 

[Phil Allison]

"bruce varley"

I was considering treating myself and buying a colour LCD screen digital
CRO
to replace my 25 year old Tektronix, but the prices have set me back on my
heels.

** If you are used to using an analogue CRO and need one mainly for
analogue circuit work - then be VERY careful about replacing it with a
digital sampling one.

LCD sampling CROs have a number of drawbacks, some quite serious, that make
them all but useless for normal analogue service and design work - IMO.




............... Phil

 

[KLR]

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 20:51:58 +0800, "bruce varley"
<bxvarley@weqstnet.com.au> wrote:

I was considering treating myself and buying a colour LCD screen digital CRO
to replace my 25 year old Tektronix, but the prices have set me back on my
heels.
Well over $5000 for a 2-channel device. Are people really buying these
devices at that price????

$5000 isn't really that much I recall a very very nice TEK (colour)

one reviewed in EA/SC a couple of years ago, was around the $20,000
mark . It even had a B&W CRT, with an LCD filter over the front
that changed colour as needed, to give a perfect, high resolution
display with no purity/convergance errors etc.

If you have the use for the features of the scope, and it can help you
a lot in your work, or improve your technical abilities then its
worth spending the money on. I was always told when starting out,
that you can never spend too much money on tools of your trade, and I
have never found this to be bad advice . If what you are looking at
is a good quality unit - has features you need and will use and will
last you for another 25 years (as your old one did) then its worth the
money.

 

[The Real Andy]

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:58:15 +1000, "Phil Allison"
<philallison@tpg.com.au> wrote:

"bruce varley"

I was considering treating myself and buying a colour LCD screen digital
CRO
to replace my 25 year old Tektronix, but the prices have set me back on my
heels.


** If you are used to using an analogue CRO and need one mainly for
analogue circuit work - then be VERY careful about replacing it with a
digital sampling one.

LCD sampling CROs have a number of drawbacks, some quite serious, that make
them all but useless for normal analogue service and design work - IMO.

Depends on how much you want to spend Please explain the
drawbacks..

.............. Phil