Recommendations for an Oscilloscope

As you are working with raspberry_pi and beagle bone , I assumes that you need scope for embedded system prototyping....

Here is my suggestion...

OscilloScope Tektronix  TBS1052BTBS1052B is low price tek's 2 channel 50MHz scope Its very reliable and low cost too It will be help you out for measure up to 50MHz analog signal and voltage range is about 300V with 10X probe supplied with probe Any way you can blindly trust any Tektronix scope

for digital side of embedded system you need logic analyzer with serial protocol (UART, SPI, I2C) decoder... here I suggest "Analog Discovery" board with inbuilt Signal generator, oscilloscope up to 5MHz and 100MSPS logic analyzer and many more...interesting features...

this both product together cost you <600$..

If you are tight in budget first go for Analog Discovery , as it will satisfy all needs of embedded system test and measurement requirements..

Forget the war of USB or Not USB, many of the highgrade solutions use USB!

Take a look at QA100 https://www.quantasylum.com/content/Products/QA100.aspx

I have used this scope for more than a year and it is a dream to work with it.

In embedded MSO you dont need 600V probes, often is the reality -10V-+10V and the scope are made to share clock with the other instruments.

" The QA100 is a PC-based oscilloscope for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 8 and later. This means the PC is used to collect, display and analyze your data. The connection to your PC happens over a USB High Speed link, and the high-speed transfer rate (up to 480Mbps) means screen update rates rivaling video games are possible. It also means you are looking at data on a high resolution desktop monitor in 32-bit color instead of a low-cost LCD panel that can display limited resolution. And best yet, your mouse and keyboard can drive the user interface and accomplish tasks in a fraction of the time it takes on a standalone scope. Sharing data has never been easier, with the ability to display comments directly on the screen fixed at a certain point in time. Add a note to the capture, copy the screen, drop it in an email and explain the problem to other engineers in less time than ever before."

You will find an overview of all oscilloscope manufacturers including USB scopes on the website http://www.oscopes.info/

Please look for the "Market" tab.

This oscilloscope information platform provides also many links to websites explaining how an oscilloscope works, how to use it and how to do simple measurements.

Thanks for that it looks interesting ..however I did worry when a Lecroy was on the front page

I have bought an Analog Arts model SA925 a USB type oscilloscope (www.analogarts.com). I bought the device mostly for its spectrum analyzer capability. For about $300 it was the price that initially attracted my attention. Although it has about 200 MHz bandwidth, I hardly need that level of performance. Overall, I am happy with its performance. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend to you to meticulously read the specification of any device you planning to buy. So you do not fall victim to marketing gimmicks.

Hi Bernard,

About the specifications: this scope has a max sampling rate (single shot) of 125MHz, it advertises as 200MHz "real" sample rate, an "effective sample rate" of 100GHz (which means you're taking more samples of a signal, with a variable trigger delay. The signal should be repetitive) and an analog bandwith of 200MHz.

To me those numbers do not compute. For a single shot trigger the analog bandwith can be no higher than ~50Mhz, taking Nyquist into account without safety margins.

I think that these guys also let the marketing misuse the specs....

BTW: someone mentioned the Rigol DS1054Z, I bought it and received it two weeks ago. Haven't used it much yet, but it's certainly worth its money!

Hi Vsluiter,

            Well, If you are talking about the criteria imposed by the Nyquist theorem, who could argue with that. However, for a repetitive signal that criteria can be manipulated. Analog Arts oscilloscope correctly displays 150 MHz sine-wave in my set up. If you wish I can email you a plot of the signal. Now, that you mention it though, I do find it quite impressive. I am not quite sure how they do it. I am familiar with different methods of signal reconstructions, but none of them could work for really high frequencies since you need to generate extremely small delays, which are impossible. The application engineer, whom I talked to, was not open about how they do it, stating they have a patent pending on their technique. He did mention they somehow calculate the frequency of the signal (to .1ppm) before it is reconstructed. Anyway, for the money I paid, i am quite happy with the unit. For a lower price, I am getting higher bandwidth and spectrum analyzer feature.

The way it works is well documented (known as equivalent time sampling). It is useful in the circumstance that the signal is repetitive as you say, which is a limitation.

The spectrum analyzer feature is offered on many oscilloscopes nowadays.

Thanks for that link! There's also an explanation here: http://www.signalrecovery.com/Support-Center/FAQ/FAQ-Hardware/Effective-Sampling-Rate.aspx

Still, the numbers do not compute well to me; a single shot update with a different sample rate than the "real sample rate"? And what about undersampling / aliasing? The analog bandwiith will allow signals to pass that cannot be correctly visualized on screen, and you won't be able to see whether you're undersampling or not.

To be honest: I haven't checked my own scope's data so thoroughly, but I found these numbers to be raising some questions.

Hi Victor!

I read an article a while back (sadly I can't remember where now) but basically although equivalent time sampling is highly useful, doing it well is a hard thing (requires very low jitter from the delayed periodic signal (generated from the input signal) which will cause the ADC to sample. And, as you suggest, there is the risk of misinterpreting the output when the signal actually isn't periodic, or only has some periodic elements - the resultant waveform display quality could look wrong for any of these cases (jitter, non-periodic or periodic with non-periodic components) and probably others too if I could remember it in detail.

Fpga4fun (terrible site, I can't recommend their products because they have expensive "development" boards that they do not supply the entire schematics nor entire source code for) have a design using a 100MSPS ADC which uses equivalent time sampling to achieve higher than 50MHz waveform capture. They have a block diagram showing the periodic output from their ADC boards (no schematic of course..).