pc base oscilloscope

[smblite]

Hi all,

I am planning to buy my personal oscilloscope but I need an advised since I am new, I need the advantage and dis-advantage both of two oscilloscope.

Which is better to used oscilloscope. PC base oscolloscope or the analog oscilloscope.

thanks.
smb

[Pjotr]

A PC based oscilloscope is always a digital oscilloscope. Both analogue and digital oscilloscopes have both their pro’s and con’s. Depends on what your target is. Is general an analogue oscilloscope is more flexible and general useable, especially if you also do a lot of analogue stuff like amplifiers and so on.

Good second hand ones a plenty available on Ebay. If you want a digital one look for the cheap Chinese stand-alone ones like from Rigol: Rigol Technologies Inc | Products | Digital Storage Oscilloscopes These were intentionally designed for Agilent but they are going now their own way.

[TheSeekerr]

I think it depends on what you learn with - I learnt on an HP/Agilent digital scope, and by comparison I find analogue scopes limited in features and difficult to trigger properly. That said, these were very good digital scopes and a cheaper model might not have been such a positive experience.

[1audio]

Its true that experience will set up your expectations. I started with a Tex lab scope that was very sophisticated for a tube based scope and I find the limitations of digital scopes aggravating when looking at non-repetitive signals. Much more important is learning what to look for and how to get it on the screen. Mt feeling is that a good analog scope is a better investment than n crummy digital adapter. I think the best value is a Tek 5000 series mainframe and appropriate plug-ins from eBay. They go for a song usually. The lower bandwidth units are 5 MHz (enough for most audio stuff) and the faster ones are 50 MHz. There are plug-ins with 50 uV sensitivity that usually go for $20 or so. If you need higher bandwidth you are probably diagnosing fast logic and will need a much different tool set anyway.

[jleaman]

I just bought this one, Like it alot.

UT81B UNI-T scopemeter oscilloscope digital multimeter

can be connected to a pc also