Year 2013 Oscilloscope Choices...

[rf-loop]

It was only some explanation why just Owon was previously one  wanted scope. This time when Owon was launched, what was Siglent in this time?

But Siglent have done good work and develop themselves (and products also of course) fast.
Still there need long march and deep hard work for develop better working culture,  services and products. But they really try. And they have good base for jump higher.

Siglent is good scope in this price class and  for many peoples it is good selection.
I know well also example Rigol DS1000E series. Previously I have sold these and also Hantek.
Also iSiglent  UI and features are ok. Not perfect but - if look money and what get...  not bad even if look with professional eyes for some kind of needs.
There is some stranges in FW but what do not have? My Digibox have much more bad FW and my neighbourg car have even more bad FW, real nightmare.

And as always - what is good, what is ok, what is not acceptable and what is not suitable - all depends just individual user needs and also other aspects.

[Orange]

Is there no automatic grammar checker on this forum?

[Hydrawerk]

Owon has good memory and ADC. But the acquisition speed is about 33 waveforms per second, which is bad. Owon also has no delayed sweep (zoom) mode. I would go for Siglent.

[Legit-Design]

Is there no automatic grammar checker on this forum?

To properly understand Finglish you need to be finnish and know english.
Google chrome can point out spelling mistakes, but not grammar mistakes.

[stormbr]

I bought one rigol ds2072 on the Tequipment.

The rigol ds1074z (4 channels) is a good choice too imho, or wait by the new releases of owon 4 channels.

[xtv]

Hi everyone,

I'm not experienced with oscilloscopes, but I'm willing to get one (affordable) for some time.. After playing around with RF converters, I decided that I need a device that can measure frequencies up to 150MHz (up to 200MHz would be a nice plus).
I get what Samples/sec means, makes perfect sense to me. But not Bandwidth.

Now, my questions are:
- Will the Owon 7102 give me a reasonably correct format of a 150MHz wave? (heard here that its bw can go up to 170MHz)
- My first option before seeing this thread, was the Siglent SDS1152CML 150MHz 1GigSa/s 2Mpt memory. Any good/bad recomendations about it?

My other option was the Hantek's 200MHz, specially for the "hackable" Linux firmware, but after seeing Dave Jones pointing such inaccurate measure in this video (which may, but doesn't seem to be caused by a bad firmware), I've discarded it. Btw, anyone knows if this have been fixed?

Thanks a lot!

[Hydrawerk]

Dave's Hantek scope was a faulty model. Others should work better.

[alm]

- Will the Owon 7102 give me a reasonably correct format of a 150MHz wave? (heard here that its bw can go up to 170MHz)

No. If the bandwidth goes up to 170 MHz, then this means that the amplitude is at most -3 dB (-30%) down at 170 MHz. So a 170 MHz 1 Vrms sine wave will appear as a 170 MHz 0.7 Vrms sine wave on the screen. This is for sinusoidal signals. You can tell that there is a signal at this frequency, and its amplitude within say +/- 50%, but that's it.

Let's take the other extreme: a 170 MHz square wave. As shown in this video by w2aew, square waves are composed of multiple sine waves. The frequencies of those sine waves for a 170 MHz square wave are 170 MHz, 510 MHz, 850 MHz, 1190 MHz, and so on. The first harmonic will be 30% down. Imagine how much the higher harmonics are attenuated? Only the first harmonic will be visible, so the 170 MHz square wave will look pretty much identical to the 170 MHz sine wave. I.e. you can't even tell if your signal is sinusoidal or square, never mind its amplitude, distortion or rise time.

For a decent representation of the signal you might need say 5x more bandwidth than the fundamental frequency of the signal. A 1 *GHz scope would at least have shown the four harmonics, which allows you to tell that it's closer to a sine wave than to a square wave. You will probably need more bandwidth for square waves and pulses with fast edges, as you might encounter on digital signals. A 1 MHz pulse train from a micro or logic gate might still have a rise time of about 10 ns, requiring a 100 MHz scope to measure the rise time of this 1 MHz signal.

[EEVblog]

The rigol ds1074z (4 channels) is a good choice too imho, or wait by the new releases of owon 4 channels.

I had a play with the new Rigol 1000Z scope, and it seems pretty good. Awesome bang-per-buck for a 4 channel scope. Incredible what you can get for the price these days.

[Hydrawerk]

It seems to me that those 1GSa/s ADCs are never gonna be cheap. You can have long memory, serial decoding, large high quality LCD, good waveform update rate... But you will not get 4×1GSa ADC.
On the other hand, TDS3054C is bloody expensive (13000USD!!), because it has 4×5GSa/s ADC, that is quite impressive... It is the most expensive part of the scope... But it is obsolete anyway.


Well, I am looking forward to the review. This DS1000Z scope might be very good for I2C debugging, because you do not need 1GSa/s there. And the signal generator is also impressive. I think that it is better than that generator in Agilent DSOX4000.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-ds1104z-s/

[olsenn]

I had a play with the new Rigol 1000Z scope, and it seems pretty good. Awesome bang-per-buck for a 4 channel scope. Incredible what you can get for the price these days.

The cheapest DS1000Z-Series DSO seems to be not much cheaper than the cheapest DS2000-Series one, and with keygens available, the freely pimped out DS2000 completely kills the top-end DS1000Z. I aggree that those extra two channels are nice! However, it has a higher noise floor, fewer waveform updates/sec, a lower sampling rate (250MSa/s per channel isn't that great) and it seems to be a cheaper build quality.

[echen1024]

The rigol ds1074z (4 channels) is a good choice too imho, or wait by the new releases of owon 4 channels.

I had a play with the new Rigol 1000Z scope, and it seems pretty good. Awesome bang-per-buck for a 4 channel scope. Incredible what you can get for the price these days.

I really want a review of it, so I can see if the 1 vertical knob for 4 channels actually works out.

[alm]

Why wouldn't it? It's not like it's the first 4-channel scope with shared vertical knobs. Some people dislike the idea of shared knobs, others don't care.

[EEVblog]

I really want a review of it, so I can see if the 1 vertical knob for 4 channels actually works out.

It's works, just like it does on any scope.
It's not as convenient of course, but it works.
You don't have a choice on such a small unit anyway.

[stormbr]

Did you make a review of 1000z series  ? I wanna see a comparison between 1000z and 2000 series.

I wanna bought the ds1000z in the future.

[Hydrawerk]

Well the shared knobs are good if you want a small and compact scope. BTW LeCroy and Hameg also use shared knobs at most models... Well, I rather do not like it. But the DS1000Z-S series is a good value for money, I think.

[echen1024]

Well the shared knobs are good if you want a small and compact scope. BTW LeCroy and Hameg also use shared knobs at most models... Well, I rather do not like it. But the DS1000Z-S series is a good value for money, I think.

Exactly 1000Z series is EXCELLENT value for money.

[EEVblog]

Well the shared knobs are good if you want a small and compact scope.

Shared knobs are pretty much mandatory for a small scope like this. It was even that way for the two channel DS1052E, now the 1000Z has 4 channels. Saperate knobs on that?, pretty much impossible.

[casper.bang]

It was even that way for the two channel DS1052E, now the 1000Z has 4 channels. Saperate knobs on that?, pretty much impossible.

Of course, the DS1052E also did away with a "Single shot" button, which is painfully annoying. The DS1074B/DS1104B/DS1204B (why do people refer to these as 1000Z?) thankfully does have a dedicated "Single shot" button. Btw. I still think Rigol should come out with a 2-channel version, they would totally own the newbie hobby marked if they did.

[Wytnucls]

Single shot set-up on the 1052E requires three button presses instead of one. While it may be a small inconvenience, it is hardly a deal breaker. Triggering will stay in that mode, even if the scope was turned off.

[iloveelectronics]

The DS1074B/DS1104B/DS1204B (why do people refer to these as 1000Z?)

The DS1000Z is a new series, which may not be available in many parts of the world yet. I own one: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-ds1104z/

[sync]

Shared knobs are pretty much mandatory for a small scope like this. It was even that way for the two channel DS1052E, now the 1000Z has 4 channels.

But they could made it better. I hate how it's done on my DS1052E. There is no good indication which channel is selected. Only the tiny channel symbol on the screen. They should use bi-color leds on the channel button and highlight the selected one with a different color.
And i often accidentally switch a channel off instead of selecting it because it was already selected. There is already a dedicated off button. The channel buttons should not switch off, only turn on and select.

[quantumvolt]

I unexpectedly got a tax refund, and before my wife and children get it all, I will buy a scope. I now use an external sound card from fleabay (USD 6.99  ) that I have modified with a DC level shifter and buffer/amplifier.

I have to buy from fleabay or China factory (I live in Thailand - only one of the Chinese brands represented here - and expensive). I am doing analog and transient stuff down to milliseconds. Also serial, I2C, SPI, some waveforms and other repetitive things up to a few hundred kHz, and 16 MHz micro controller (but want something faster) .

I only have a few wishes:

3-400 USD
Big display
USB
(GPIB)
(VGA)

These threads are too big to read through. I just want a scope. What do I buy?

EDIT I saw forum member 'marmad's video and have decided for the Owon SDS7102. Has anyone bought from eBay aidetech_us USD 420? And is the 3 year warranty valid for international customers?
Thanks.

[echen1024]

A Rigol DS1074Z for US 585 if you can afford it. 4 channels for an AMAZING price. Otherwise, get a Siglent. Solid FW, decent build, god features, etc...

[Zbig]

[..] Otherwise, get a Siglent. Solid FW, decent build, god features, etc...

Which button does that? I wouldn't mind one or two of those