Should I buy a cheap oscilloscope?

Dr Tony Balls · Post by **Dr Tony Balls** » 03 Nov 2011, 01:34

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.

robinbowes · Post by **robinbowes** » 03 Nov 2011, 10:19

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...

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.

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 03 Nov 2011, 10:45

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...
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..

robinbowes · Post by **robinbowes** » 03 Nov 2011, 11:43

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.

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 03 Nov 2011, 13:13

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...

Dr Tony Balls · Post by **Dr Tony Balls** » 04 Nov 2011, 14:22

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.

robinbowes · Post by **robinbowes** » 04 Nov 2011, 15:23

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.

robinbowes · Post by **robinbowes** » 10 Nov 2011, 00:04

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.

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 10 Nov 2011, 00:22

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....

robinbowes · Post by **robinbowes** » 15 Nov 2011, 01:38

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.

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 20 Nov 2012, 23:58

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