choosing an oscilloscope

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The Scum
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Post by The Scum » Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:37 am

The Tek 465 is the 1990 Ford Taurus of scopes. They're fundamentally solid, they were in production for a long time, you can get service documentation for them, and there are a lot of them around, if you need to cannibalize one for spare parts.

The 466 is sorta the Mercury-branded version, with factory Leather, AC and Cruise. Same basic thing, with added features.

If you can swing it, Tek have some off-lease scopes for sale. They have a TBS1072B-edu for $513.
http://www.tek.com/buy/used/tektronix
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Post by floid » Wed Sep 16, 2015 7:34 am

So I ended up getting a 466 with the DM44 option. It came with 2 10x probes, though one registers as a 1x - think there's something wrong with it, or should it be okay? DM leads, temp probe, a few other goodies. I think I'll track down a pair of 1x/10x probes. Have a function generator kit on the way, already have a couple of bench supplies (0-30v and 0-450v with filament supply) though I'm looking for a +/- type.
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Post by Drone » Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:02 am

The 10x is recognised by contacting an indicator ring around the BNC input jack, some non Tek probes don't have it, but they are still 10x probes.
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Post by floid » Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:41 am

Ah. You would be referring to the pin in the plastic BNC shroud? Yes, it is missing.
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Post by Drone » Wed Sep 16, 2015 10:55 am

That's what tells the scope it's a 10x probe. I forget how it may be a short, or it may be a resistor, don't short it out in case I'm wrong. I've been out of the scope cal business 15 years or so now. :mrgreen:
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Post by dfuruta » Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:29 am

floid wrote:So I ended up getting a 466 with the DM44 option. It came with 2 10x probes, though one registers as a 1x - think there's something wrong with it, or should it be okay? DM leads, temp probe, a few other goodies. I think I'll track down a pair of 1x/10x probes. Have a function generator kit on the way, already have a couple of bench supplies (0-30v and 0-450v with filament supply) though I'm looking for a +/- type.
Very nice! I have a DM44 on my scope too.

If you're just getting started with this, Tek wrote two very nice application notes worth reading: "ABCs of Probes" and "XYZs of Oscilloscopes". You can find them via your favorite search engine, and they explain everything one needs to know.

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Post by floid » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:13 pm

Thanks for the search tip. I've been watching a few things on YouTube and playing around getting a feel for it - think i've got the basics figured out. the ones we use in class are digital auto-ranging and my instructor's a big fan of the auto button. So this is a bit different of an experience but I think a better one. Replicating a few of the experiments we've done to see if I can dig a little deeper.
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Post by Drone » Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:29 am

Start of at the maximum voltage range, and click your way down until you see the signal you like.

For most cases you'll have the timebase set somewhere in the ms range and triggering on P-P Auto

Auto-ranging is only something I remember on those weird Philips scopes :mrgreen:
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Post by The Scum » Fri Sep 18, 2015 10:23 am

My "daily driver" scope is a Tek TDS2024c, a modest 4-channel digital scope.

The only time I ever hit Autorange is by accident, when I'm hunting for features buried in the menus. Sometimes it's an OK starting point, but it's not a substitute for actually knowing how the machine works.
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Post by floid » Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:28 pm

We're using TDS2014's. I try to get extra time in when they're out. Right now he's often concerned with just making sure everyone has a stable display. Gotta say, when auto selects different ranges for each channel, it can be a bit misleading to us newbs.
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Post by Drone » Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:32 pm

It's amazing how light those digtal ones are when your used to a cathode ray one.

Tektronix made a two channel scope interface for your PC as well, a digital scoe without a screen or buttons, might integrate well for some.
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Post by rwc » Mon Nov 16, 2015 12:52 am

I like my Rigol DS1102E. I know, it's cheap, and digital, and blah. But it works, and has a lot of cool features that make my life easier. You can see it in use in a video I did here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDIq43D6bAs
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Post by Reverend Bow » Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:52 am

rwc wrote:I like my Rigol DS1102E. I know, it's cheap, and digital, and blah. But it works, and has a lot of cool features that make my life easier. You can see it in use in a video I did here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDIq43D6bAs
I agree with this.

I have been using a Rigol DS1102E for 6 years for Audio through HF Frequencies (I'm a Ham Radio Guy as well), works great. SOOOO Much smaller than my old CRT Scope, and being digital, you don't have to do the math 8)
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