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teravolt

Sat Jan 17 2015, 04:42PM

Registered Member #195 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 08:27PM
Location: Berkeley, ca.
Posts: 1111

2 CH is acceptable for tesla work but I would get 4 CH if you plan to do engineering work like developing your own circuits. I was developing my own QCW tesla and ended up buying a second scope. I bought boath of my second hand Tektronix scopes on eBay for a decent savings. I think that Rigol is a good brand. what is your price range

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Fri Feb 06 2015, 02:18PM

Registered Member #54278 Joined: Sat Jan 17 2015, 04:42AM
Location: Amite, La.
Posts: 367

I dug out an old current monitor that I have had om the shelf a few years. It is made by Gauss Control, Inc. The only spec I have on it is 0.1 V/A. I am attempting to attach two photos of it (...hope I resized them correctly Mads). I was thinking about selling it on ebay but have changed my mind. My primary app. was laser flashtube current monitoring (a slightly field on 4HV), but after joining recently I think it will be active in my coilgun research. I also have a DSO1060 scope. It is still unused but I plan to change that as I will have some large coils wound soon.

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Sun Feb 08 2015, 06:19AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

I just picked up a Tek 2465B 400 MHz analog/digital scope, and it's wonderful. Having cursors is great. So my main bench has a fully capable scope now, replacing the BK 30 MHz scope.

I still love my Tek 2430A, but its on my desk, not my main test bench.

Digital features on a scope is a must! Even if the scope is from the '90's.

Hydron

Tue Feb 10 2015, 05:20PM

Registered Member #30656 Joined: Tue Jul 30 2013, 02:40AM
Location: UK
Posts: 208

Got a DS1104Z at work yesterday. Haven't used all the features yet, but from what I've seen so far it's definitely good value for money (50MHz version even more so, but we weren't going to hack one for work use).
We got it calibrated before delivery (company policy) and one thing of interest was that -3dB bandwidth tested at 183-186MHz (slight differences between channels), so it might be good for a bit over 100MHz when you're only using 1 or 2 channels. Gotta watch out for aliasing when running 3 or 4 channels or lower sample rates though!

Intra

Tue Feb 10 2015, 06:03PM

Registered Member #2694 Joined: Mon Feb 22 2010, 11:52PM
Location: Russia, Volgograd (Stalingrad).
Posts: 97

Look like Hantek DSO5072P ($213) are better and cheaper than Rigol DS1052E ($302)

Picture of mine.
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Wolfram

Tue Feb 10 2015, 06:07PM

Registered Member #33 Joined: Sat Feb 04 2006, 01:31PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 971

Yeah, it's definitely excellent value for money. After having had mine for almost a month, I can reaffirm the recommendation. The deep memory (24 megapoints after the upgrade) and the intensity grading really work well, and they make all the difference in the world for the stuff I've used it for so far. I've attached a photo showing a waveform capture of some instability in an induction heater. Being able to do a single capture like this and zoom in on the individual switching events in detail is immensely useful.

I didn't have a USB memory stick handy so I had to do a crappy picture of the scope with a cell phone camera, but hopefully it gets the point across.

Intra wrote ...

Look like Hantek DSO5072P ($213) are better and cheaper than Rigol DS1052E ($302)

Yeah, the DS1052E is six years old by now, and not really a good deal given all the newer options that have appeared lately. The Hantek price is very good. In that price class there are not many better alternatives, but in my opinion the new Rigols are an even better deal, even if they are twice as expensive. Of course it depends on the individual needs when it comes to features and cost. I know I couldn't live without intensity grading and deep memory after trying it, and four channels turned out to be much more handy than I expected. I never really used 4 channels before, as the last two channels on my 2465B are limited in coupling options and voltage scaling. In the Rigol all channels are fully featured, which makes it much more natural to use all the channels.

...

Tue Feb 10 2015, 07:36PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

I would have to agree, for someone who spends a lot of time looking a scope captures moving from a DSO (like the tek 1000 series, or just about anything costing under $10k in year 2012) to the newer 'Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope' DPO is almost more of an improvement than from moving from an analog scope to a digital one. You get the deep zoom, single shot ability, FFT, automatic measurements, computer connectivity, etc that made DSOs so great and retain the ability to collect thousands of traces at a time and view them in an intuitive way that I find is preferable to even the nicest analog scopes that I have used (tek 2465, 7900 system, etc).

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Tue Feb 10 2015, 08:17PM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

My biggest gripe with the fully digital units is bandwidth, that's why I have the older Tek scopes, and not a TDS3000. I like the new TDS series, but honestly, if I'm going to buy a new scope, I'm going to want 350 MHz bandwidth, but its going to cost me $6000!

I complained to the Tek reps at our in-house trade show they do (yea Northrop gets vendors coming to us... it's pretty cool!) and I had to complain, there isn't a budget scope with high bandwidth!

What's interesting about this is that their marketing has determined that the biggest scope market cuts-off at about 300 MHz, and there is no need for anything faster.

But for someone like myself, who wants to play with RF stuff, and I want an all-in-one package, its just a piss-poor situation. I would really love to see an affordable 500 MHz scope with an affordable 6 GHz spec. ana. built in, just like Agilent is pushing but AFFORDABLE.

I dunno, just me ranting again. I'll buy when I can get my hands on a fully featured scope. Until then, I will still use the old equipment I have, which sadly has more performance, AND...AND I can get digital captures from my Tek 2430A using the Spark Fun board, I just cant do the mega-zoom which is a very cool feature, it would be nice to have.

...

Tue Feb 10 2015, 10:17PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

That is true, unfortunately making quality front-ends with multi-GHz bandwidth is still expensive, as far as I know there is just no way to buy a quality low noise amplifier, programmable gain block, and a/d which is capable of operating at 1GHz+ for the sub-$100 price point required for an affordable scope, an issue which is further compounded by the fact that (like you mentioned) the number of people who are willing to pay for the bandwidth between 100MHz and 1GHz is way less than those willing to pay for the 1Hz-100MHz range. The solution I have settled on in the mean time is to buy a used sampling scope for the high end stuff and a cheap new scope for the low frequency stuff.

This works well because sampling scope technology more or less matured about 20 years ago, so you can get used scopes amazingly cheap for what you get, consider the HP 54120 (about $500 for a used one, similar in cost to the CSA803 series) will get you 4 channels with 20GHz each (even while running all 4 of them) and a step generator for doing TDR measurements of transfer functions/reflections. Of course you have to deal with the fact that it is a sampling scope so you have to work with repetitive signals, and get the triggering figured out (although the built in step generator usually makes this easy enough), but being able to have a fully digital rig which can cover up to 20GHz for under $1k is unbelievable.

Mads Barnkob

Wed Mar 18 2015, 10:22AM

Registered Member #1403 Joined: Tue Mar 18 2008, 06:05PM
Location: Denmark, Odense C
Posts: 1968

I could no longer resist the DS1054Z and have it ordered from batronix in Germany, there is however a 1-2 months lead time due to popular demand.

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