buying first oscilloscope

[dubiousss]

There's a Trio CS-1559 for $30 on my local ebay, it goes to 10MHZ, single channel, tube. Will this be enough for audio circuits (flangers) ? As a DIYer I really dont want a $500 machine. Theres also a 15MHZ Telequipment D65 for $70 but not sure if its working.

[Taylor]

Although an analog scope for $30 sounds pretty good to me, you may want to check out the scopes in this thread:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=79173.0

More portable, at least. I'm sure the one you're looking at would be perfectly adequate for stompbox use, though.

[dubiousss]

that looks good, but it only goes to 1mhz, and im trying to calibrate this ada flanger, which goes to 2600KHZ, whould this do the job?

[dubiousss]

hmm, i think it was the frequency counter i need to go to 2600khz so maybe its ok

[Taylor]

Well, 2600khz is less then 1mhz...

Am I missing something?

[dubiousss]

isnt 2600KHZ = 2.6MHZ ? , also 2600000HZ?

[Taylor]

Man, I was missing something. Brain falling apart too early...

You were right, sorry. 

[svirfnebli]

I recently bought the USB scope from cuircuit gear. It's been awsome so far. It cost me $180 but it came with decent probes.

It also has a built in function generator AND a network analyzer for those neat freq. responce curves. (Though that is still over my head). I also like the fact it can capture data to the computer, AND I can do screen caps. Digital readouts are just awsome. I had no prior scope experience, but I was able to figure it out in about 1 hour using these three videos online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIfo_-d82Co
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUIgAu3QQWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_KuGEh0PyA

and one 1Meg should be more than enough for any audio circuit

Matthew

[darron]

if it's your first scope then the digital ones are really cool. then can auto display the signal and give you about 15 different readouts for the voltage you are looking at such as RMS, peak-to-peak, AC/DC etc.

not $500 but not cheap either.

a tube scope would be heaps cooler though to look at germanium signals etc. (:

[Thomeeque]

There's a Trio CS-1559 for $30 on my local ebay, it goes to 10MHZ, single channel, tube. Will this be enough for audio circuits (flangers) ? As a DIYer I really dont want a $500 machine. Theres also a 15MHZ Telequipment D65 for $70 but not sure if its working.

Hi!

In this buget area I'd pick propably analog scope now - you see nice accurate fluent curves and controls are more "natural" too. I have PPS10 digital scope, and I would probably sacrifice all pros mentioned by darron for this.

10MHz will be enough for analogue audio circuits (incl. all BBD based), I'd say..

If D65 was working, I'd go for it, second channel is worth those $40

T.

[dubiousss]

well its down to http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=253439161 or http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/digital-storage-oscilloscope-diy-kit-with-panels-p-515.html
pros for analog, looks cooler, 10mhz, can do higher voltages for tubes?
digital, has a freq counter which ill need to buy anyway, smaller,
but i dont really know about oscilloscopes

[Thomeeque]

well its down to http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=253439161 or http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/digital-storage-oscilloscope-diy-kit-with-panels-p-515.html
pros for analog, looks cooler, 10mhz, can do higher voltages for tubes?
digital, has a freq counter which ill need to buy anyway, smaller,
but i dont really know about oscilloscopes

- 1MHz is limitation for use with BBD circuits, you want to see shape of "clock" signals, not only their frequency.. otherwise it's probably OK
- voltage range can be extended (typically by probe with build-in divider) even in case of digital scope (but if the Trio has bigger range or such probe already, it's another advantage) - btw. from this point-of-view I'd advice to use BNC connector for the kit, not that cinch provided, so you can use proper scope probe when you get one
- you can count frequency from the reading at scope (even analog), so if you don't need to measure frequency very accurately and/or at daily basis, you could survive with scope for this task

T.

Btw. I'm not sure what you mean by "looks cooler" , but you can really see "more" on analog scope - small nuancies of the signal (even at higher frequencies than scope allows), which will get lost on cheap digital..

[darron]

but i dont really know about oscilloscopes

then how do you know that you need one? (:

[dubiousss]

well getting one is a fast way to learn, i guess i only need it for a few things like biasing, calibration and debugging...

[cloudscapes]

I just went and ordered an Owon PDS5022S today. A little over $300.

It's a lot of money, but seeing how I'm getting pretty serious about DIY and with microcontrollers, it's worth it I think. The little 1mhz hand Oscilloscopes floating around might be fine for audio, but not for data streams.

[Thomeeque]

I just went and ordered an Owon PDS5022S today. A little over $300.

Oh, that's sweet piece of gear! Shame it costs equivalent of $465 here T.

[robmdall]

I recently bought the USB scope from cuircuit gear. It's been awsome so far. It cost me $180 but it came with decent probes.

It also has a built in function generator AND a network analyzer for those neat freq. responce curves. (Though that is still over my head). I also like the fact it can capture data to the computer, AND I can do screen caps. Digital readouts are just awsome. I had no prior scope experience, but I was able to figure it out in about 1 hour using these three videos online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIfo_-d82Co
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUIgAu3QQWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_KuGEh0PyA

and one 1Meg should be more than enough for any audio circuit

Matthew

Matthew, Are you referring to the CGR-101?

[jrem]

http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16330&cat=0&page=1&featured

that looks pretty cool but it's only a single channel unit (unless I'm missing something).  1Mhz is probably ok for most analog projects.  

I bought a Tech 922 (15Mhz) about years ago for~$50US, it still works great.  I use the dual trace sometimes, it comes in handy for debugging.  Right now it is set on .2ms (so what's that, 500hz?), I was watching bits fly (serial communication, a digital project).  So 1mhz should do it.  Never calibrated it, I'm not that picky, I just use it to know that things are what they should be when they should be.

That digital scope is still pretty cool, though, specially for $50 new.

oh, and 2.6mhz is radio speed, is that flanger really running that fast of a clock?