Hello Everyone,
I am in the market for my first oscilloscope. I have used oscilloscopes before but not really taken to writing down the specs of the device or constructing exactly what I want in a scope. To date I have gotten by without the device, but I now am in a good financial spot and the purchase of a sub-$500 'scope is reasonable provided I obtain some guide. My requirements are rather vague, but can be generalized as a desire to purchase a scope that provides enough data sampling for robotics projects --I currently work with the Raspberry Pi and the Beagle Bone Black. I am confident that the previous curtailment didn't reduce the field all that much, so I reiterate, I am willing to spend ~$500 on a scope, so please no suggestions of thousand dollar scopes. I want something, which in the breadth of product offerings is probably quite basic, but nonetheless I would like to be able to have a scope to test my robotics and embedded Linux boards with...
A friend of mine suggested that I purchase something akin to the Instek GDS-1052-U Digital Storage Oscilloscope, 2 Channel, Color LCD, 50MHz, 250MS/s with USB or a less expensive USB Oscilloscope - MSO-19 Considering his knowledge of what I might be using the scope for, likely an intimacy more than I am expressing in my description for usage, I remain inquisitive for advice. I mention these products and provide links only to better aid my previously vague explanation for my prospective usage.
As a final curtailment, I would really love to get a scope that I could use with Linux rather than Winblow$ as I really only use Linux or OSX boxes these days. I am confident there are products that are not Winblow$ only, but the two scopes my buddy suggests both seem to urge my adoption of a OS that I want not part in!
Thank you for your responses and if I can better explain what I hope to accomplish with a scope please explain to me what I can provide to better resolve the specification I (unwittingly) desire in a scope. I apologizes again for being less than committal or precise, but you have to begin from somewhere and my point of departure is that I would like a scope... thanks for working with me on a request that is perhaps an incomplete formulation.
David
P.S. I did try to search for a discussion on this topic; however, I couldn't find anything within the last year or two. I figure this is a question that everyone has at some point and so why not posit the issue and revisit.
