[Wanted, AU] Cheap, basic scope - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 22, 2018, 12:11:05 am
content: I just sawPinnaz's poston two scopes he is selling. I'd like to buy the Tek but I don't trust it arriving in one piece from USA to Sydney.If anyone in AU has an old, basic scope they are willing to sell, please let me know. Scopes are something I haven't really played around with yet but I know the basics from watching Dave's videos. I'd like something cheap just to start out with at home. I'd prefer brand-name stuff as opposed to the one-hung-low brand.

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2018, 07:59:04 am
content: Old teks are nice, but not particularly cheap in Australia. Our small market size is a bit of an issue.Check eBay regularly.There's a tek tds220 on there now for cheap, but absolutely cannot recommend..There's a rigol ds1054 on there for a fair bit more, but it's a way better scope... If it doesn't move much above 400, it's a good price.Apart from that option, I'd say just go for the cheapest analogue scope you can find that claims to be working... At least then you haven't spent too much and you can get playing, then upgrade later... Buy local. You can post CROs, but it's expensive and annoying and you risk damage.

author: dorkshoei
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2018, 05:01:06 pm
content: Quote from: julianhigginson on April 22, 2018, 07:59:04 amOld probably means analog and so large/heavy. Nothing you want to ship, let alone from the USA. Do you have the equivalent of Craigslist down under? Also there is sure to be a maker/hackerspace group in your area, hook up with them.Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2018, 10:02:53 pm
content: Check out Hamfests in your area.There are often older Oscilloscopes for sale amongst the Ham rigs & stuff.The prices are usually quite reasonable.It is, of course, like in the "Rivers" ad----"There may be many, or there may be none."

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2018, 12:47:30 pm
content: I mentioned the tds220 on ebay because it's very similar to the tek in the two scopes for sale thread.I used one of these for years at a job, and I *hated* it.that thing takes a sample, and then just sits there forever (in electronics terms) crunching away, then eventually refreshes the screen, and then decides to maybe become ready to trigger again maybe a second later.. meanwhile you've lost 99.9% of the signal you're looking at, including the rare glitch waveform you wanted to see.. Oh and it only shows one capture at a time, then next capture the old is completely deleted..of course being digital, you could try to capture a "wide" grab of a signal, and then zoom in to look at it and hope something happened in the longer capture.. but TDS220 has so little memory depth that this feature is useless.I spent the whole time I was using it wishing I had an old analogue cro that had decent retrigger time.Newer TEKs (TDS3000, which was actually the serious scope at around the same time as the 220 I think, then the DPO, MSO, and now MDO ranges) got way way better at capturing without a giant pause, and even manage to keep previous traces on the screen as they redraw new ones. (Digital Phosphor is tek's marketing term here)Decent newer cheaper scopes (like the rigol 1000z series I also mentioned a listing of) work this way too.New ultra cheap scopes still work like the tds220, and as far as I am concerned, may as well be landfill, because they are not useful for real work.You are better off with any old CRO in basic operational condition than a slow digital scope.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2018, 02:39:35 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on April 22, 2018, 12:11:05 amHow cheap is cheap ? Like $50 for Tektronix/Agilent/R&S/Le Croy oscilloscope ?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 03, 2018, 07:49:10 am
content: Quote from: BravoV on April 25, 2018, 02:39:35 pmI wouldn't mind even paying a few hundred dollars.