USB Oscilliscope

[Darren Brumfield]

My employer is willing to pony up $1500 for this oscilloscope.

http://www.usbee.com/dx.html

Are there any better options in this price range? The two analog inputs
are definitely going to be used, but I'm not sure I'll need all 16 digital
channels. Like I said, they don't mind to spend money, I'd just like to
make sure there's not something else out there that's better. The main
features I'll be using are the logic analyzer and oscilloscope, but if
they've got the money, then the more versatility the better. Any
alternatives would have to be portable and USB powered. Thanks.

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[Rich Webb]

On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:08:21 -0500, "Darren Brumfield"
<brumfield47FAKEPART@live.marshall.edu> wrote:

My employer is willing to pony up $1500 for this oscilloscope.

http://www.usbee.com/dx.html

Are there any better options in this price range? The two analog inputs
are definitely going to be used, but I'm not sure I'll need all 16 digital
channels. Like I said, they don't mind to spend money, I'd just like to
make sure there's not something else out there that's better. The main
features I'll be using are the logic analyzer and oscilloscope, but if
they've got the money, then the more versatility the better. Any
alternatives would have to be portable and USB powered. Thanks.

"The USBee DX Test Pod can capture and generate samples up to a maximum
of 24 million samples per second depending on the PC configuration."
This means that the 'scope bandwidth is around 5 MHz or less,
irrespective of the analog front end.

The caveat wording on "up to a maximum" when combined with "streaming
data over the High-Speed USB 2.0 bus to and from the PC. This allows
the PC to perform all of the triggering and data storing" implies that
it's also affected by other traffic on the USB bus.

Run away.

For that price, you can get a nice *real* digital scope. Look at the
Instek and Rigol models over at http://www.tequipment.net/ or any of
several other vendors (probably Amazon, too, by now). Many of these have
battery options and are small enough to be quite portable. For a bit
more, Fluke has a nice line of portable, battery operated scopes that
are smaller than the desktop models.

There are lots of decent USB *logic analyzers* out there, with good
sample rates that do not depend on USB traffic.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

 

[Mike Harrison]

On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:08:21 -0500, "Darren Brumfield" <brumfield47FAKEPART@live.marshall.edu>
wrote:

My employer is willing to pony up $1500 for this oscilloscope.

http://www.usbee.com/dx.html

Are there any better options in this price range? The two analog inputs
are definitely going to be used, but I'm not sure I'll need all 16 digital
channels.

There will always be times when you need more than 2 channels - rarely all 16, but quite often
_some_.

 

[Mike Harrison]

On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:08:21 -0500, "Darren Brumfield" <brumfield47FAKEPART@live.marshall.edu>
wrote:

My employer is willing to pony up $1500 for this oscilloscope.

http://www.usbee.com/dx.html

Are there any better options in this price range? The two analog inputs
are definitely going to be used, but I'm not sure I'll need all 16 digital
channels. Like I said, they don't mind to spend money, I'd just like to
make sure there's not something else out there that's better. The main
features I'll be using are the logic analyzer and oscilloscope, but if
they've got the money, then the more versatility the better. Any
alternatives would have to be portable and USB powered. Thanks.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---

It doesn't look like it has a 'real' analogue scope front-end - only goes down to 100mv/div, so by
the time you put a x10 probe on it isn't exactly sensitive... Doesn't look like it even has a proper
BNC input. Analogue bandwidth also looks pretty poor.

Looks more like a logic/protocol analyser with an ADC tacked on rather than a proper scope.
If you need a protocol analyser, fine. but if you need a scope, this isn't the right bit of kit for
you.