Only enterprises that don't want problems and educational institutions don't hack their oscilloscopes.
I'm going to call bullshit on that statement unless you can back it up with data (and not anecdotes). Very few businesses, not just enterprises, will bother hacking a scope to save a few hundred dollars and potentially miss out on warranty and support. And many hobbyists will either not know about it or not bother. The people you see on this forum is only a very tiny fraction of the total customer base.
Sorry, man. What's the difference between "business" and "enterprise"? In my mind, any legally stablished, registered "company" is an "enterprise" whose aim is to earn money by making "business". It doesn't matter if the company has tousands of employees or is just an "autonomous" guy. If it's just a guy selling ice cream on the street or thousands of people manufacturing missiles in a big factory, it doesn't matter either. Both cases are legal "Companies" or "enterprises" doing a "business". I would say most layman people in my country would think more or less the same. Perhaps some banksters would know better. I'm afraid my knowledge of english language isn't as good as I would like.
About people in this forum being only a fraction of the total customer base, I stand corrected. OP is here, though, and it looks like he will rather prefer not having to expend 3000 bucks.
While that can happen, it's much more likely to trip a fuse / breaker or destroy your circuit. Unless you are using the scopes for high energy circuits where your average mains powered scope has no business being without some special (high voltage differential) probes that would avoid this problem by virtue of not having a ground clip 
.
Again, you are right. I myself just purchased a MicSig DP750-100 last week. But OP is clearly as lost as an octopus in a parking lot right now. He probably doesn't even imagine that thing does exist and that he will want, sooner rather than later, to do something that probe would come handy for. That's probably the first time he heards about it. We all have read a number of clearly wrong assumptions from him. In these circumstances, very big bad mistakes can be expected, I think.
I will not say the name, but there is a forum member, from the US, far from being a newbie, who got his non-entry-level, quite expensive GW Instek scope destroyed. I have seen that used against him in a derogatory way in some post. I don't think that's fair, everybody can have a very bad day sometimes. Particularly a newbie that doesn't know even the most basic things (yet)
Juan, this is for you:Guys, please correct me if you think I'm wrong, but it looks OP expects to be able to, say, read SDS2350X+ manual while saving the money, then buying it (and probably other equipement), then magically all will work fine.
I myself found quite difficult to make progress just by reading my oscilloscope's manual, even having the oscilloscope on my bench. Just an example: triggering. GDS1054B has quite a few trigger modes. I lost quite a bunch of hours reading the manual, then trying things, then getting confused and frustrated when the expected thing didn't happened. Then turning off the oscilloscope and perhaps letting some weeks or even months pass until next try.
But, after getting the DSO154 toy, things were different. No more manual as thick as a finger. Just two triggers, rise and fall. That makes easier to understand how triggering works. Then you easyly understand trigger level has to be between signal peaks or, well, it won't trigger, "of course". Then you can understand frequency can't be measured unless you have complete cycle(s) into the screen -horizontal timebase adjusts this. That's easier to realize if you have, say, half a dozen buttons than if you have two dozen buttons. Then you understand peak-to-peak voltage can't be measured unless signal peaks are into the screen -of course-. Vertical scale adjust this. Then you understand oscilloscope has 8 bit ADC, so all you have are 256 levels for all the screen height. If your vertical adjustement makes the signal be just in 1/4 of screen height, you are wasting 3/4 of your ADC's capabilities and measurement error will be bigger. No matter if you have a $40 or a $3000 oscilloscope. And so on and so on and on and on. To understand the basics, I think a very simple oscilloscope is
way better. Then you suddenly realize you are able to use your "good" oscilloscope that was frustrating you before. And you are able to see why some oscilloscope is better than another for some task.
Now we are asking OP what to do for he wants an oscilloscope and he doesn't answer that question because he just doesn't know. He doesn't know the difference between analog and digital, I would say. Nor about the hidden dangers in testing a device that is connected to mains, or more specifically, to protective earth, nor that USB could make his device/oscilloscope also connected to protective earth, nor about isolation transformers providing safety in some way but also making GFCIs unable to protect him, etc, etc, etc. Just to mention a few things.
Following OP's current thinking, he will get a $3000 oscilloscope, $3000 signal/function/arbitrary waveform generator, $1000 soldering station, perhaps $10000 spectrum analyzer... and so on and on and on... just to be sure that equipement will be able to cope with "any" task and so, having to cry just once. Even if he doesn't know right now which one that task could be. While saving that money, he will not be able to do any work, yet he expects all the necessary things he's going to read about it in the meanwhile will remain clear in his memory. Then, when the time to begin to use that equipement finally comes, he will be like a caveman that is suddenly put at the driving wheel of a 800HP Ferrari... My bet: he will probably have a crash at some corner. Don't you guys think so? So, I see OP is in for a dissapointment unless he changes his thinking. There are so many things that need to be understood before working efficiently, that OP approach can't possibly work, I think. Big problems have to be solved by dividing them in small steps. So he has a project that looks as purely analogic and low-frequency. Instead of waiting to save 3000 bucks while studying manuals, he would be better getting a cheap oscilloscope and putting hands at work right now. It's just that DSO154 isn't good enough to do useful work after he understand the basics. But DSO2512 will allow him to begin the work and to make his learning easier right now, and to look at things like PSUs at the future (by getting a probe adequate to the task, but this can be put aside until need arise). That while maintaining is "good" oscilloscope apart from mains connected devices, so safe. Being portable as an added bonus. So it will be useful now and in the future, and he will not waste his money by getting it now to begin his journey.
After getting this project done, perhaps he will take on another project, this one having a LCD screen to show, say, temperature. Then he will need to handle digital communication between thermocouple/ADC, microcontroller and screen. He will have to learn how digital signals work. He will know about UART, I2C, SPI. He will know logic analyzer will decode the messages and oscilloscope will show if signals are OK. He will understand why having a 4-channel oscilloscope is a plus. Initial approach could be donee done with a $10, an $100 or an $1000 logic analyzer. Hopefully he will get a $10 one, learn how to use it, then decide if he needs a $100 or a $1000 one in the future. Or a 4-channel mixed signal oscilloscope with a very very big screen.
Same for any other project/equipement. Step by step along his way. Not waiting to have all the real good equipement to do it all at once. Do you think guys this is bad advice?
Juan, you must understand you seem to be in for a long trip on this train. You expect this train to have a diesel locomotive: just turn the key and the train will be going. But you are wrong, this train has a steam locomotive and to raise steam pressure (knowledge) will take some time. You can make the wait shorter and the trip easier by taking small steps and going progresively.
To put your lab up, look for Dave's videos, it has a couple of them about it, one with a normal-low budget and one with a very low budget. To learn to use an oscilloscope, you can get a $500 one to start with, but you'll probably find it too complicated at first, then realize there are tasks where a mistake could make that $500 oscilloscope become scrap. Why do you think I'm looking for an old, used, analogic oscilloscope when I already got a modern, better oscilloscope, and even a $200 differential probe? To learn to use your oscilloscope, the thread were Charlotte learned rstofer mentioned is probably the best way to follow. I didn't, so my bad . And you'll have to do your homework.
Well, I have to mind my own business now. Writing these posts, trying to make them logically yarn, while trying to make my english grammatically and ortographically as correct as I can, is taking too much time from me. I intend to come back to this thread now and then, but I will make my post as short as possible
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