As far as i understood 1200USD is the whole budget to acquire scope (maybe with decoding functions) and and signal generator, so the amount for the DSO should be lower.
All my previous statements were based on that.
@ teamSMITHusa :
- could you more specific about what are you doing with your setup ?
- are the signal generator and the decoding functions a "must to have" staying within 1200USD ?
First off...
Each and every reply has been awesome. You are all great and the replies are hugely appreciated. I value each and every one. The debate back and forth helps more than you know.
What I want to do with my new setup? (I am actually upgrading most of my old equipment, this will be my first Digital Scope, but not my first scope (i had an old analog years ago)).
I do the basics, troubleshoot and engineer switching and basic power supplies, troubleshoot and engineer logic circuits and timing circuit, OPamps, custom ICs, design simple circuits (some micro-controller, legacy CPU, and ROM based) and PCBs, troubleshoot basic computer peripherals and computers (mostly legacy computers), etc. BUT, I also want to LEARN more! and advance my skills over the next 5 years, hence the 'not gonna buy another DSO in the next 5 years' in the OP (so that i'm better than Dave by then
lol!).
The $1200 USD budget is primarily for the scope (see original post). But after lots of research, I found that perhaps getting the Rigol DS2072A at $839 USD would allow me to get a few other items that I need to upgrade. I didn't see a HUGE advantage of spending it all on a scope and by doing so gaining a huge amount of features or quality. Sure some of the scopes debated here have some better quality if i spend the full $1200, but I can live with some quirks. I just refuse to buy junk, at any price. I'm good with an entry level scope, but I would say an 'enhanced' entry level scope (thus the DS2072A over the DS1000 series). Whoever said the MHz upgrade hack was a big selling point for intermediate users is right. My heart was set on a 100MHz flavor scope minimum, but a native 100MHz eeked above $1200 (and I refuse to go a penny over $1200 since my first budget for a new scope was $600). LOL! funny how I do that to myself.
At this point im thinking of getting the Rigol DS2072A ($839) and the Rigol DM3058E Bench DMM ($469). That's about $1300 for both. My current Bench DMM is a $150 MasTech MS8040 (ProTek B4004), which was good to learn on and use in my early days and a beginner, but is basically poo poo for my now intermediate level of skill (and its aging).
So i will have to set another budget (
) for a new function generator and frequency counter in a few months (my current old heaps of poo will get me by until then).
So yeah! upgrading my old stuff to new stuff for the next 5 year period.
Hope that helps answer that. More comments would be awesome!!! and thoughts on that Rigol DM3058E DMM? Hmmm???
Thanks again! You are all fantastic!