Starting scope (DS2072?) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: ncross
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 18, 2013, 02:25:35 pm
content: I'm new-ish to embedded electronics. I took a couple EE courses in college but the knowledge has atrophied from disuse, and most of it wasn't very practical information anyway.I'm looking to get a scope that will last me 10+ years and allow me to build some of my own basic circuits and devices as well as troubleshoot/hack others. These will probably be small micro controller based designs. I imagine at some point I will need a logic analyzer so I could either get an MSO now or plan on getting a separate logic analyzer later. The Saleae analyzers look like a pretty good deal (Saleae 8/16-ch Analyzer), making getting a good DSO more of a priority than a good all-in-one.I have up to $1750 I could spend on this but I'd prefer something down around $1000. After looking through this blog and around online I've been pretty impressed with the features of the Rigol DS2072. Also, the ability to potentially 'improve' it up to 250MHz bandwidth with logic analysis capabilities is pretty attractive for the price. I've looked around at tequipment.com and on the test equipment forum here and I've seen several people asking if the 2072 is worth the price but not many people looking at a price range above that.Is the DS2072 +hacks really one of the best options until you get up to around $2000?Thanks for your help!!

author: Pinkus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2013, 02:43:25 pm
content: Yes, your choice is very good. Take the DS2072 - this is definately a device you will keep for +10 years.As for a logic analyzer I would suggest the Intronix Logicport as their software is very profound and usable. It will take a day to learn all functions but it is worth it. Do not make the mistake judging a Logicanalyzer only by its speed or memory depth. If the hardware offers sophisticated hardware triggers and hardware data compression you almost never need much memory.Do not try to get a MSO - doing logic analyzing on a scope is a pain in the a**

author: ncross
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 02:32:30 am
content: Thanks, that's helpful advice. Let me know of any other good/better scopes [than the DS2072] in the price range [<$1700] or any other good/better analyzers of similar price.

author: Harvs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2013, 02:37:59 am
content: If you buy the DS2072 for ~$800 now. Then put the left over $950 in a high interest saving account so that in 4-5yrs time when the DS2072 seems totally outdated (like the DS1052E does now), you'll have some money to sell off the DS2072 to a beginner and buy whatever is new on the market.IMO it's not worth worrying about 10yrs time. The lowish end test equipment market is moving too fast.

author: Galaxyrise
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2013, 03:10:43 am
content: It's easy to spend $1750 on all the other gear, like signal generator, power supply, soldering station, multimeters... and that's not counting the projects themselves

author: marmad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2013, 01:19:55 pm
content: Quote from: Harvs on June 19, 2013, 02:37:59 am@Harvs:I think you're being a bit optimistic about how quickly the low-end market is changing - I don't think the DS2000 series will feel outdated in that much time. All of the nice features found in the Rigol UltraVision and Agilent X-series have been around for quite awhile in high-end DSOs - it's just started to trickle down. But the trickle moves fairly slowly - the Agilent 2000/3000 Xs came out almost 2.5 years ago - then it took another year before the DS4000 Rigols came out - and another 6 months for the DS2000s. So I think a 7-10-year plan is reasonable.

author: Harvs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2013, 01:35:43 pm
content: Quote from: marmad on June 20, 2013, 01:19:55 pmYeah I guess, I was just thinking about the DS1000 series. They're only about 5-6yrs old aren't they? And the scopes I was using 5odd years before that, well, digital scopes at the low end weren't anywhere near as prolific.Regardless, I recon the OP could do a lot worse than the 2072 as suggested.