Should I buy a cheap oscilloscope?

Frequently asked questions about tools and instruments used in stompbox development.
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Dr Tony Balls
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Post by Dr Tony Balls »

Instead of hunting and trying my luck on a used scope I just bout a new Owon digital one for like $299. I'm happy with it and it saves a lot of bench space.

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Post by robinbowes »

DrNomis wrote:The new Digital USB Oscilloscopes are cool, you can save pictures of what you see on the screen to your computer's hard drive, so they're worth considering... :hmmm:
That sounds interesting, can you give me a link to one or two please?

Edit: Found this: http://www.bestoscilloscope.com/virtual ... -2090.html

Looks just the job, it it's any good?

R.

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Post by DrNomis »

robinbowes wrote:
DrNomis wrote:The new Digital USB Oscilloscopes are cool, you can save pictures of what you see on the screen to your computer's hard drive, so they're worth considering... :hmmm:
That sounds interesting, can you give me a link to one or two please?

R.
http://www.jaycar.com.au/


They stock the QC1920 10Mhz Single Trace Cathode Ray Oscilloscope which retails for $149.00 Australian, and the QC1922 20Mhz Dual Trace Cathode Ray Oscilloscope which retails for $399.00 Australian.

They used to stock the QC-1930 PoScope 2Ch USB Oscilloscope ($299.00 Australian) according to my 2008 Catalog.

What sort of budget/price range do you have?, or are looking for.. :hmmm:
Genius is not all about 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration - sometimes the solution is staring you right in the face.-Frequencycentral.

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Post by robinbowes »

Thanks - will checkout Jaycar.

I was hoping to keep it under £100, if possible.

Did you see the link I added to my previous reply?

R.

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DrNomis
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Post by DrNomis »

robinbowes wrote:Thanks - will checkout Jaycar.

I was hoping to keep it under £100, if possible.

Did you see the link I added to my previous reply?

R.


Just checked the link out now, the one pictured is very similar to the one in my 2008 Jaycar Catalog, it says it has a bandwidth of 40Mhz which is absolutely fine for audio work, if you can afford it then I think it should suit your needs, I'd buy one too, these devices usually offer more than just the Oscilloscope function, things like a Spectrum Analyzer, which is handy for checking the response of filters... :thumbsup
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Post by Dr Tony Balls »

One thing to be thinking about is the maximum voltage that a scope can take. Do you build tube amps? Will you ever get that itch and want to scope it? If so you'll want a scope that can handle those voltages.

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Post by robinbowes »

Hrm, I never thought of that.

I've actually just bought a Hantek DSO-2100; not sure what max. voltage is, but I suspect it will be ~35V like the DSO-2090.

Damn! Ah well...

R.

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Post by robinbowes »

So, I got the Hantek (Actually a Voltcraft DSO-2100USB). I did a quick test on an old Dell Pentium III laptop I have running Windows XP. Seems to work OK, but is a little slow. Might be better on a more modern machine.

I *would* like to use it with potentially higher voltages in valve amps. Can I get special probes that will enable me to do that? It came with two probes that do x1 and 10x; I guess that means that I can do a maximum of 350v with the 10x (input voltage is 35v max).

Any thoughts?

R.

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Post by DrNomis »

robinbowes wrote:So, I got the Hantek (Actually a Voltcraft DSO-2100USB). I did a quick test on an old Dell Pentium III laptop I have running Windows XP. Seems to work OK, but is a little slow. Might be better on a more modern machine.

I *would* like to use it with potentially higher voltages in valve amps. Can I get special probes that will enable me to do that? It came with two probes that do x1 and 10x; I guess that means that I can do a maximum of 350v with the 10x (input voltage is 35v max).

Any thoughts?

R.

You may be able to get a X100 probe from somewhere.... :hmmm:
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Post by robinbowes »

Hmm, I found this:

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/displayProduc ... ku=1532989

But that's nearly as much as I paid for the scope!

R.

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Post by DrNomis »

That probe should do the job fine, I think my probes were about $60.00 when I bought them..... :thumbsup
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