OT: Oscilloscope Purchase

[PStechPaul]

My Hitachi VC-6025 2-channel DSO that I bought around 1990 has served me well for the past 30 years. It uses a CRT and can operate as analog or DSO. I paid about $2000 for it and now they are on eBay for about $300. It is rated for 60 MHz with 20 MSample/sec. It displays a warning if it detects possible aliasing at higher sample rates on signals with high frequency components.

My previous scope was an HP 130A of late 1950s vintage.


I still like the clean and logically designed front panel controls, and I still have it, although it is need of repair. It has a bandwidth of only 300 kilocycles, but has a very sensitive 1 mV/cm low range.

[J Tiers]

I had a 130 as well. I believe the bandwidth was around 250 kHz........ Made with differential inputs from biological instrumentation, IIRC.

[nickel-city-fab]

I had a 130 as well. I believe the bandwidth was around 250 kHz........ Made with differential inputs from biological instrumentation, IIRC.

somewhat OT but one of my deepest regrets in life was scrapping a working HP 200a oscillator during a need to move....

[J Tiers]

somewhat OT but one of my deepest regrets in life was scrapping a working HP 200a oscillator during a need to move....

I sold mine...... after I got a 200CD.

That 200a SOB gave me the worst shock ever. 450VDC on the ball of my thumb.... blew 3 or 4 little pits in it. That happens when you forget to turn off power.

[Jim Stewart]

I sold mine...... after I got a 200CD.

That 200a SOB gave me the worst shock ever. 450VDC on the ball of my thumb.... blew 3 or 4 little pits in it. That happens when you forget to turn off power.

Once when I was working at Tektronix I got across +450 VDC. Once was enough, much more careful after that.

-js

[Paul Alciatore]

Not sure as to which "that" you are referring to.

My purchase? Ha,ha!

The wait time? Just a joke on my part. I can hardly wait for it to arrive. Promised delivery date is next Thursday.

The included arbitrary waveform generator? It is on their site.

???

why dont i see that on their site?

https://www.hantek.eu/oscilloscopes/
http://www.hantek.com/products/List/3

[nickel-city-fab]

I sold mine...... after I got a 200CD.

That 200a SOB gave me the worst shock ever. 450VDC on the ball of my thumb.... blew 3 or 4 little pits in it. That happens when you forget to turn off power.

I have one of those little holes in my left index finger from a Sony Trinitron HV section (cap on the flyback dumped thru my finger....) after I woke up I didn't care so much about getting the red out of the picture.... I took the whole thing apart for parts.

[nickel-city-fab]

Once when I was working at Tektronix I got across +450 VDC. Once was enough, much more careful after that.

-js

[crowd cheering] B+! B+! B+! B+! B+! [crowd cheering] "... and in the other corner we have Mr Plate-voltage man!!" [crowd goes wild]

[Paul Alciatore]

Well, most ANALOG scopes do have some response beyond their advertised bandwidth. But you must be aware that they usually do not specify anything in that range. So, KNOWING just what you are seeing can be hard. Believe me, I have been there in situations where it did make a difference. There is a difference between knowing that there is a 200 MHz swiggle on your 100 MHz scope and knowing just how large (Voltage swing) that swiggle actually is. And the amplitude can be all important. Or what about it's harmonic content? 400 MHz, 800 MHz, etc.

And digital scopes with their sampling artifacts just gets us into another whole bucket of worms. And digital scopes DO have an analog front end. The signal goes through a LINEAR amplifier either before the ADC or inside of it.

Just saying that a scope can show things beyond it's specified bandwidth does not say that we can automatically know what it is actually showing us.

Most scopes will go way past their rated frequency anyway. I had a 100mhz Tek TDS series and it would do 250mhz no problem with some attenuation. My lecroy is rated for 600 and does 1ghz before attenuation starts to happen. Though that one is rated 10GS/s. Pretty overkill for home use, I don’t know the last time I looked at anything over a couple hundred kHz. At work we have rf drivers on stuff that’s over 100mhz though.

we do use the spectrum analyzers from signal hound, they work pretty well.

[Paul Alciatore]

Sorry, but they are both too late. I have posted them before that I have them beat by a factor of about 100.

[crowd cheering] B+! B+! B+! B+! B+! [crowd cheering] "... and in the other corner we have Mr Plate-voltage man!!" [crowd goes wild]

[rcaffin]

That 200a SOB gave me the worst shock ever. 450VDC on the ball of my thumb.... blew 3 or 4 little pits in it.
Yeah, happens, but 450 VDC is not that much.

I was making up an electrostatic deflection amplifier for an experimental electron microscope long ago. Things got a bit messy.

It was a 1 Million volt electron microscope, and the electrostatic deflection amplifier had a 6,000 V supply. (Those are not typos.)

We were using beam tetrode valves rated at only 600 V, but if you pushed the tetrode grid into fairly hard cut-off you could put 6kV on the plate at the top of the bottle.
So, we wired it up and switched it on. Big flash.
We never found the anode resistors: they were instantaneously totally vaporised. The 'amplifier' had turned into an RF oscillator.

The solution was to put some grid-stoppers on the grid pins, and then stand back some distance. It worked.

Cheers
Roger
(And the resident spell-checker has never heard of 'tetrodes'.)

[dian]

Not sure as to which "that" you are referring to.

My purchase? Ha,ha!

The wait time? Just a joke on my part. I can hardly wait for it to arrive. Promised delivery date is next Thursday.

The included arbitrary waveform generator? It is on their site.

???

i tried to find the hankek dso2d10/15 on the two sites and its not there. i wonder how come and where you got it. is it discontinued?

[dhansen]

I know it is a bit off the normal here, but I am at a point where I must purchase a new oscilloscope and I would like any comments from others who have bought one recently. I don't need the basics as I have used scopes for over 50 years. What I want is the practical stuff on the current range of low end, but not too low, scopes. My budget is $250 to $500 and I want one that is self contained, not a module that attaches to a laptop. I already have one of that sort and it is OK for some things but I need something more convenient. For basic specs, a two channel will be enough for my needs and 100 Mhz seems to be a reasonable bandwidth to find. Some have a built-in waveform generator and that would be a welcomed plus.

I know all about the name brands; Tektronix, HP, and others. They simply are out of my budget so spare me those arguments. What I want and need is some sound advise on the lesser, but still somewhat known brands. I have been looking at Siglent, Rigol, Hantek, and similar models. A couple of models that appear interesting are the Rigol DS1202Z-E and the Hantek DSO2D15. Also the Agilent DSO3152A is a possibility, but it seems to lack many of the features of the other two. Siglent has some nice models, but they always seem to be a bit higher in price.

Any comments about these or other models that I should consider would be appreciated, especially from those who have one.

I have 2 Tektronix 465s that I would sell for $200 plus shipping. I know that one is working but needs some knobs that you could rob from the other one. Not sure about the condition of the second one. I would have to have your advice on the shipping method and packaging so that they would not become damaged.

[Paul Alciatore]

As far as I know, it is not discontinued. I bought it on Amazon. My Amazon card gives me 5% back and they had the fastest, free delivery.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Hantek+DS...f=nb_sb_noss_2


I also found it on Walmart.

https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=Hantek%20DSO2D15


And on the Hantek site. They title the page as the DSO2000 Series.

http://hantek.com/products/detail/17182


The model number starts with DSO, three LETTERS. Not DS0, two letters and one number. Perhaps that explains your failure to find it. I am also anal about using capitals when they are called for. I never searched for "dso2d15". But that usually is not a distinction made by any web advertiser.

i tried to find the hankek dso2d10/15 on the two sites and its not there. i wonder how come and where you got it. is it discontinued?

[Paul Alciatore]

I may have considered that if I had known before. But, as I said, on and around my electronic benches, space is at a premium. So the compact size of the present day DSOs is a very definite plus.

Those missing knobs are likely still available from Tektronix as well as other sources.

I have 2 Tektronix 465s that I would sell for $200 plus shipping. I know that one is working but needs some knobs that you could rob from the other one. Not sure about the condition of the second one. I would have to have your advice on the shipping method and packaging so that they would not become damaged.