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Oscilloscope - Total noob

Andy Betts

Taking my first steps into electronics, I've been playing around making guitar effects pedals and posting on my blog the outcomes from those adventures, it's been fun but there is one thing that keeps slapping me in the face..... The lack of advice for newby electronics hobbyists.

 

I fell into electronics as a way of making pedals for myself as I couldn't afford to buy the real thing. However, it's been made quite apparent in previous blog posts that if you're going to have fun with electronics you need the right kit. I seem to have most bases covered except the illusive Oscilloscope. To the uninitiated (me) they look technical, and the sort of thing you see in a NASA control room. However, using one is only one part of the issue...... How do you go around buying one, and what do you buy. Is it safe to buy second hand from that famous auction site, or should you buy brand new? Is there any advantage of digital over analogue? The older analogue scopes look cool and retro but are there limitations? What should the minimum specification be that I'm looking for?

 

This forum is great for electronics enthusiasts, and the amount of knowledge here is huge, but it appears the assumption could be it's for people that already know these things. that's why i'm putting this out there as a newby question. I want to buy an Oscilloscope, i'm on a budget, say a maximum of £200, i'm open to any ideas........ Discuss image

Parents

  • Hi Andy,

     

    Noob questions are fine and people on this forum don't tend to assume anybody already knows all these things already. We all started somewhere image

     

    So, I guess the first thing to ask is what will be your intended use for the oscilloscope? Will you be continuing to do mostly analog audio projects or are you going to branch out into other areas? It really does make all the difference to make sure you get what you really need. My next question, how much space do you have? Will you need to be moving it around often? Old analog scopes tend to be much larger and quite heavy (some are exceedingly heavy!) so if space is tight or you need portability you'd be better with a more modern scope. Do you need 2 or 4 channels? If you are doing mostly analog work then you can probably get away with 2 channels, if you are doing digital work then being able to look at 3 or 4 signals can be very useful when probing things like SPI busses. You can work with 2 channels but its easier with 4, but this will push your cost up.

     

    So here are a few things to consider:

     

    eBay is fine for test equipment but these days you don't always get the bargain you would hope for. Used test equipment seems to hold its price these days and its hard to find bargains sometimes.

     

    Here is an example of a possible reasonable option: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rigol-DS1052E-Digital-Storage-Oscilloscope-2-Channel-50MHz-Bandwidth-1GSa-s/253738588418?hash…

     

    Rigol and Siglent are probably the bet known budget brands for bench lab equipment. Brand new you might get a bottom of the range one of these for somewhere around the £250 to £300 mark. You might be able to pick up these second hand for less on eBay. I know with Rigol (and possible Siglent) if you look on EEVBlog you'll find guides which will show you how to enable all the licensed features and bandwidth of these scopes.

     

    Another option is the Picoscope range of USB oscilloscopes. There are other options around for this type but I think but some of them don't work so well. Picoscope seems like a good option and their software runs cross platform on Windows / macOS / Linux. You can get a 25MHz 2-channel Picoscope from CPC Farnell here: 2 Channel PC Oscilloscope with Arbitrary Waveform Generator and USB Interface - 25MHz - PICO TECHNOLOGY | CPC UK

     

    There are higher spec Picoscopes, take a look at their website and see their range. If you find more budget there are other options from them too but going to 4-channel or adding the MSO option takes you a lot over budget.

     

    If you could go a little over budget to say £250 then there is the Digilent Analog Discovery 2 which from the reviews I have seen seems really good. It's actually got a lot of instruments built into one, 30MHz 2 channel oscilloscope, 16-channel logic analyzer and pattern generator, Spectrum analyzer function, 2 channel arbitrary waveform generator. Again the software is cross platform and it's available from CPC Farnell: 2 Channel Analog Discovery 2 USB Oscilloscope - 30MHz - DIGILENT | CPC UK

     

    If you can help define a bit better what your needs are then we can probably help you narrow down your options a bit better and hopefully find you something which works for you.

     

    Best Regards,

     

    Rachael

Reply

  • Hi Andy,

     

    Noob questions are fine and people on this forum don't tend to assume anybody already knows all these things already. We all started somewhere image

     

    So, I guess the first thing to ask is what will be your intended use for the oscilloscope? Will you be continuing to do mostly analog audio projects or are you going to branch out into other areas? It really does make all the difference to make sure you get what you really need. My next question, how much space do you have? Will you need to be moving it around often? Old analog scopes tend to be much larger and quite heavy (some are exceedingly heavy!) so if space is tight or you need portability you'd be better with a more modern scope. Do you need 2 or 4 channels? If you are doing mostly analog work then you can probably get away with 2 channels, if you are doing digital work then being able to look at 3 or 4 signals can be very useful when probing things like SPI busses. You can work with 2 channels but its easier with 4, but this will push your cost up.

     

    So here are a few things to consider:

     

    eBay is fine for test equipment but these days you don't always get the bargain you would hope for. Used test equipment seems to hold its price these days and its hard to find bargains sometimes.

     

    Here is an example of a possible reasonable option: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rigol-DS1052E-Digital-Storage-Oscilloscope-2-Channel-50MHz-Bandwidth-1GSa-s/253738588418?hash…

     

    Rigol and Siglent are probably the bet known budget brands for bench lab equipment. Brand new you might get a bottom of the range one of these for somewhere around the £250 to £300 mark. You might be able to pick up these second hand for less on eBay. I know with Rigol (and possible Siglent) if you look on EEVBlog you'll find guides which will show you how to enable all the licensed features and bandwidth of these scopes.

     

    Another option is the Picoscope range of USB oscilloscopes. There are other options around for this type but I think but some of them don't work so well. Picoscope seems like a good option and their software runs cross platform on Windows / macOS / Linux. You can get a 25MHz 2-channel Picoscope from CPC Farnell here: 2 Channel PC Oscilloscope with Arbitrary Waveform Generator and USB Interface - 25MHz - PICO TECHNOLOGY | CPC UK

     

    There are higher spec Picoscopes, take a look at their website and see their range. If you find more budget there are other options from them too but going to 4-channel or adding the MSO option takes you a lot over budget.

     

    If you could go a little over budget to say £250 then there is the Digilent Analog Discovery 2 which from the reviews I have seen seems really good. It's actually got a lot of instruments built into one, 30MHz 2 channel oscilloscope, 16-channel logic analyzer and pattern generator, Spectrum analyzer function, 2 channel arbitrary waveform generator. Again the software is cross platform and it's available from CPC Farnell: 2 Channel Analog Discovery 2 USB Oscilloscope - 30MHz - DIGILENT | CPC UK

     

    If you can help define a bit better what your needs are then we can probably help you narrow down your options a bit better and hopefully find you something which works for you.

     

    Best Regards,

     

    Rachael

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