HP (Agilent) 54600B 100MHz + GPIB - What's it worth

[danfloun]

This? Is it worth £400?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Agilent-54600B-Dual-channel-100MHz-Digital-Oscilloscope-with-GPIB-/281090044012?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item417245b06c

[krivx]

I can't help but think that £400 might get you a smaller, lighter, new scope with betters specs, a USB port and a warranty.

[AndersAnd]

I can't help but think that £400 might get you a smaller, lighter, new scope with betters specs, a USB port and a warranty.

But does the newer scopes have built in Tetris like HP 54600B does?

[danfloun]

Lol tetris... nooooh I'd never get nothing done at work. Or rather, less than I do currently!

Okay. I still can decide, too many scopes.

[AndersAnd]

But in all seriousness, in that price range I would rather spend €535.50 [£450] including VAT and free shipping within EU on a new Rigol DS1074Z 4-channel scope (with colour LCD!):
http://www.batronix.com/shop/oscilloscopes/Rigol-DS1074Z.html
Then you can upgrade it with all extra features and upgrade the bandwidth to 200 MHz with this keygen:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sniffing-the-rigol%27s-internal-i2c-bus/msg324768/?topicseen#msg324768

[danfloun]

WHAT!!! Is the DS1074Z definitely upgradable to 200MHz??? I didn't think it was.
Are you not mixing up the DS2072 hack to 200MHz?

If so that answers my question, as I almost bought the DS1104z.

[KJDS]

That sounds like a high price for that. It may be that the seller finds a buyer where that particular model needs replacing on a production line and it's cheaper to replace like for like than rewrite and reverify the control software.

[rolycat]

But in all seriousness, in that price range I would rather spend €535.50 [£450] including VAT and free shipping within EU on a new Rigol DS1074Z 4-channel scope (with colour LCD!):
http://www.batronix.com/shop/oscilloscopes/Rigol-DS1074Z.html
Then you can upgrade it with all extra features and upgrade the bandwidth to 200 MHz with this keygen:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sniffing-the-rigol%27s-internal-i2c-bus/msg324768/?topicseen#msg324768

I don't think you can upgrade the DS1074Z to 200 MHz, officially or otherwise.
Can it even be upgraded to 100 MHz? Jury still seems to be out on this question.

Also, the keygen page appears to be MIA again.

[Tom]

A few months ago I bought an HP54600B on eBay for $150 (£93.15) It wasn't until I tried the Tetris easter egg that I found that one of the function buttons didn't work. It worked out for the better as I got a free scope from my work around the same time so I did not feel bad about returning it. I did have time to fool around with it, though.

I, personally, think £400 ($644.12) is a total rip off. I'd suggest a Rigol DS1052E and upgrade the bandwidth to 100MHz. £262.80 including VAT. Hell, even if you bought the 100MHz version (DS1102E) it'd still be cheaper than the HP at £342.00 including VAT. And that's just on Rigol's website. I'm sure you could save even more money by searching one of these scopes on ebay.

[AndersAnd]

WHAT!!! Is the DS1074Z definitely upgradable to 200MHz??? I didn't think it was.
Are you not mixing up the DS2072 hack to 200MHz?

If so that answers my question, as I almost bought the DS1104z.

Sorry, I remebered wrong and http://riglol.3owl.com is down atm, so I couldn't check.
But I hav a copy of that web app on my PC so I just ran it locally an you an only add these options (so far)

DS1000z device options:
DSAB - Advanced Triggers
DSAC - Decoders
DSAE - 24M Memory
DSAJ - Recorder
DSBA - 500uV Vertical

But I would still buy Rigol DS1074Z over a HP digital scope series from the early 90's. Or DS1104Z if you need 100 MHz BW, or even Rigol DS2072 if you're willing to spend a bit more.

We got several HP 54600 (model B I think) at work when they were new. They were extremely popular back in the 90's. I think the HP 54600 series was some of the first digital scopes from any manufacturer. But a lot have happened with digital scopes in the last 15-20 years since then. Prices has dropped a lot for entry level DSO's, performance has improved, size (depth) has been reduced a lot with LCD screens, color screens has replaced monochrome screens and a lot of new software features has been added. Interfacing has improved too with Ethernet and USB.

If I was in the market for a cheap analog scope I would consider a used scope from the 90's. Analog scopes was already a very mature technology in the 90's, unlike DSOs which were a new technology back then. So for DSOs, a lot of evolution has happened since then, both with central hardware components like ADCs, FPGAs, MCUs and memory and also for software.

Some Agilent entry level scopes in recent years are even rebranded Rigol scopes, so even Agilent have approved their quality and price/performance and probably realized they weren't able to design their own entry level scopes at the same price/performance point.

[AndersAnd]

Read this recent topic where someone asked is US$ 200 [£ 124] was a reasonable price for HP 54600B.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-54600b-100-mhz-oscilloscope/
Even at that price less than 1/3 of £400 noone really recommended it and said it's only useful for repetitive signals.

Dave himself summed it up like this:

No, don't buy it.
Only 20MS/s and 4K of memory.
Makes it pretty much useless by modern standards.

Buy something like a new Rigol or Siglent/Atten instead.
LeCroy entry level scopes are just rebadged Siglent scopes, while entry level Agilent scopes are rebadged Rigol.

[danfloun]

Okay, thanks all.
Looks like I'll have to try sum up ds1052e hacked vs ds1104z. Price vs function/spec