Wow, I didn't expect great advice to keep being added! With every comment and recommendation I've been looking up teardowns, product specifications, prices new and use, and getting to have a better understanding what is available! This field certainly has many wonderful measuring tools and have been around for awhile with a lot to choose from!
I'll post some of the things I've narrowed down and would love to hear your opinions! Last few days, spent a lot of time looking at all of the suggestions regarding DMM's, oscilloscopes, WFG, PSUs, logic analyzers, RF/vector stuff, how to modify and hack many on them, hot air/soldering stations, kits, leads and some other useful tools at hand. The list can go for a long time!
Bedazzled shiny eye'd shopper of yesterday is trying to scrutinizing the finer print and find more usefulness. For the next year, I generally will be needing only rudimentary measuring devices and need to be able to inject simple signals into circuits I create or break down something and understand all the different gates/logic or behavior. Following year will prob begin another splurge for more advanced systems which will enter more of the specialized territory. After spending time with people who's current project is to fully build self piloting rovers with object recondition, tracking, and navigation around a room. Just a lot of hands on work proto typing, soldering, and de bugging. With that being said, here is my list:
For a simple all in one solution temporarily, I will settle with the
SIGLENT SDS2104X Plus. Even though half of me is saying to get the smaller,
sds1000 series. The reason for 2K is the UI experience, screen, resolution, cross functionality, plotting, basic analyzing, waveform gen. Understanding it has many short comings by not being exceptionally great at those areas, I won't need to invest more into those individual devices for a while. Only may run to a few specific use cases which will still have down sides for other equipment at the current budget. I do need this sooner than later for my project due next month
. I'm not going used or older on this due to just wanting a clean interface, ease of use with a pc, recording video, streaming data, and logging work I do to bring back and forth to class to share with other classmates. The crazy amount of programmability for each thing will keep me busy. Easy access for replacement, warranty, and many people already on the platform. Needing warranty or the ability to just simply getting a refund for a different unit if I run into problems over the next few years. (sds1000 can do similar if i add a simple WFG. would be cheaper too). It works, will be good during college, and if it doesn't turn out well, I'm sure somebody would be willing to buy it for a good price will all the extra features unlocked, courtesy of the forum
. A good
Tek, Rohde and Schwarz, keysight, or
lecroy would take a lot more time to land a deal than I current have. Once I make a few more connections, travel a little bit, have more experience in what I really want during intern rotations in two years, I may land on a great find when around businesses with that kind of gear.
I will hold off a little longer on some of the more advanced
wave form generators that are able to sync with external sources more accurately when I actually NEED it. I will still have $ saved for when something pops on the market during the time. The school has all that crazy national lab level stuff for when it counts. Will run the sensitive experiments there, or log the files and bring it home to use with one built-in Siglent's. When I out grow that the oscilloscope's built in one, hopefully prices drop on a lot of gear by then. I also don't really believe I need that kind of high frequency till we begin communications. Any signal gen I can find sub-500$ new doesn't seem to cut the cake. Would be a duplicated purchase later on. Need to still spend a little more time reading about the more advanced uses and environments for that level of specification. A few pointed out I could ending up needing two separate, one for digital and analog
.
DMM: I'm not struggling for a DMM atm. Looking at options between 5-1/2 and 6-1/2 read outs. I feel like this is the least stressful area to find a reliable and trusty measurement. There is a lot of fluke, dk precision, tek, and many other companies in abundance while not epically expensive.
I still have many mixed feelings concerning the
PSU. I stopped the previous order of the
Rigol 832. I do like the idea of having a 3 channel, programmable, extra bells and whistles, but seeing additional voltage spikes even on new units and other brands, while some having the following max over volt protections being slow in software, or none all together, loud, low, high noise, inaccurate readings, bad design not powerful enough. There's always something wrong with everything. I am considering the
KORAD KA3005P to start with for now. It has some major flaws, some have been pointed out and fixed over the years, but its cheap, easy to mod, decent and clean power with the ability to hooked up to a pc for scripts and has more than enough power for anything I'll be working on. I'm fine with something that is stable as I'll be stepping down the voltage and amps with resistors before adding into my circuits and monitoring true reading on the board level with my DMM to avoid disasters. Plus all the professors and tutors are expecting us to fry our projects a few times to learn the hard way. They do say, "Always order multiple parts, use IC sockets, and git gud". Another item to spend a little more time for the right bargain. Expecting modern decent all-rounder felt to good to be true. Korad is a little ugly so I'm also ok if someone can recommend a reliable programmable linear psu for around $300 or less that will feel like it was money well spent and everyone agrees on. I really changed my tune about this for those reasons and I wanted to use that money for the next few items.
Hot Airflow Station:
Quick 861DW. A few really good choices for a little less and more. I found an avg priced unit, extra bent nozzle, and its a solid product that will work great. Fast free shipping/returns if I get a bad unit. This is a little bit of a luxury, but I think this will become a work horse hopefully lasting a long time.
Attn looked solid, but not many vendors are close by. Don't want to go for a knock off of another well known brand. Want less chance of a headache with decent steady heat. I'm curious how my lights will flicker
. Seeing the reasoning being due to pulses being different from similar heaters making it other electronics act weird. If this is a problem when it arrives, I'll send it back.
Soldering station: either
Pace's '
ADS200 AccuDrive® Production Soldering Station with TD-200 Tip-Heater Cartridge Iron & Instant SetBack Tool Stand' or
Hakkos 'FX951'. Pace Has a great selection of tips in TD-200 standard and ultra-performance blue series tips. A little pricer for the machine, but as mentioned earlier in the forum, close working distance, fine pen like soldering iron grip. Similar or better pricing for certain tips, and higher wattage than Hakko. Minor things as Hakko has a lot going for it as well. Hakko has great performance and very respectable heat up time on the FX951. Very close in price when I add up all the extra color grips for tips on Hakko to change out quickly. That plastic blue color though
. I think I could confidently pick either and have a blast when melting lead. Accessories for Pace's professional line are robust too. I really liked the
Pace's ST115 Digital Desoldering Station with SX-100 Sodr-X-Tractor. Awesome video's people using that. I would love that in the future. Not practical as I don't have to do that much precision work any year soon. Maybe
HAKKO FR301-03/P in a year or two if I need to. I am buying a hand held 'solder vacuum pump' that I can bring back and forth. Prob should learn the manual tricks first before getting spoiled on automation.
Macal/JBL was appealing, but too much $$ and the tips are very expensive for each one. I would need to take a few different brands for a run to really know the difference. A lot of knock offs, good brands, and everything in between. Could spend days on this, but another item I need by next week.
Picked out are an assortment of base
tip choices: a conical, curved conical, chisel, and knife to begin with. I already picked out the standard tips for both Pace and Hakko. Curious to know about the performance difference with Pace's ultra-performance line is about. Not many head to head pace vs hakko on the web to make a informed decision from.
I did like J-link's
segger's tracer and
saleae's pc logic analyzer. Will pick something reasonable later when that is more important. Really like what
Sigrok was doing for an easy entry in and inexpensive DIY solutions.
Other nitche area's will be revisited at a later date. I will be using this wonderful forum from now on!
That is the update where I'm at now. Gotta finish adding a few 7-segment displays and find a debouncer part number for a few switches in a binary/digital clock design due tm. Will be lurking and responding when I can.