Which Scope? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Supertechster
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 05, 2013, 10:26:30 pm
content: This forum rocks! I have been looking at the DS_Range for awhile but as I had previously bought Chinese/Malaysian IT-Related gear and had issues with them that required breaking the seals.. I have been less than impressed with the quality, color and texture of the soldering done by the 12-15yr olds on the factory lines there. That said, there have been some really good bits of gear that I got via Ebay from that part of the world that have been fabulous.My fav is a No-Name Function Generator which has 0-40Mhz (20-turn fine tune pot) capacity, 0-15v drive (ditto on the output fine tune), 15 possible waveforms and 110-240 50/60Hz worldwide operation. Has never let me down... others not so much.OK.. So I am going to Bangkok in Mar and will look hard at DS of this and other types while there.Any of you have a particular model/choice and can tell me why it is?A bit of background; I am an EE, and IT Engineer, was all over Europe in the 70-90's hopping site to site fixing anything that was even remotely part of a computer/data/network installation. This required excellent planning, scheduling, technical and customer service skills and I loved it.At the time, I could bench or field repair ~1300 items of Mainframe, Server, Client, Copiers, Scanners, Monitors, Printers, Plotters, Floppies, HDD, CD/DVD, Power Supplies, Cards, Mainboards....and LAN/WAN/MAN fiber and 10-base networks, switches, routers, hubs, viper-taps, etc.(I still can)In the late 90's I changed companies and as a result of the loss of contract and forced 'merger' was required to also do ADMIN on PC/Server for my customers as well. So I studied for tested for and PASSED the A+, Novell 4.1 CNA, MSoft NT4 MCSE, Cisco CCNA, Banyan Vines certifications... etc O0 and after passing all that THEY MADE ME UNPLUG MY SOLDERING IRON and PICK UP A CLIPBOARD.I have since become very good at taking care of Servers, serverfarms and any Laptop, Desktop or PAD device... but SMD and proprietary chips make everything alot harder... anyway, I want to get back into design, layout, route and etch of PCB and making gadgets and gizmos again, so I am building a 24" x 36" CNC machine.. But this will also be used to cut, etch and mill small metal, aluminum, fiber/phenolic, delrin and plastic parts as well for another major project I am doing for my wife.My problem is that the 4-motor all-in-one controller I bought from China for that initial project (for my wife) is giving me fits. All axis 'work' but the motors all vibrate and get really, really HOT despite having the proper 1A/phase current limiter set and verified. At first I thought it was messy/noisy power from the 24v/8A Switcher I bought with the kit, but I can only measure a modicum of ripple, and the DC to the board and wiring to motors is all shielded and looks clean (I don't have a scopehence my looking for and finding you guys (and gals if applicable) So the X, Y motors work OK, but when not stepping (holding) they get too hot to touch and smell - takes ~10min to get there - so I shut it off and let it cool off. She can hardly use that for 3-6hr projects can she? I contacted the MFGand they say I am the only(?) complaint they have had and to try this, or this, and that and let them know what I observe. So I tried 1, 2 and 3 and as before no change.Another CNC forum posted similar issues with the selfsame board and reports success (changed the clock to a lower value) but I know if I go off in that direction and start removing parts and swapping values on others, the MFG will never take the board back.. so for the past 3 weeks I have been awaiting MFG reply.Besides the fact that I need a scope, any ideas what the heating problem might be?The board is the TB-6560AHQThe motors are 23HS8610 (Nema 23, 8.6V, 1A/Phase)Board info and Datasheet for the TB_chip is attached :-)Any help or Advice appreciated.ST

author: FenderBender
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2013, 01:45:25 am
content: You really can't go wrong with a 1052E as you've said. It's excellent bang for the buck.However, if you are mostly doing analog stuff, a cheaper analog scope can be obtained from eBay for <$100USD. I, for instance, have a Tektronix 465M that I purchased off of eBay for $90 shipped. There are plenty of deals like that. It works very well.