Looking for O-scope suggestions / reviews

[Byte_Butcher]

I think I've found a new home here at PB Forums, because most people I know just think that it's old junk.

No. not junk! It's a beautiful old piece of equipment, designed and built with pride to last a lifetime. With good care that thing will last longer than any of us.

Remember the VW in the Woody Allen film "Sleeper"?
Someone will dig that thing up 5000 years from now, plug it in and it'll still work fine after it's warmed up for 20 minutes. They just don't make them like that any more.

If I could buy a new scope with all the "modern day features" (USB and all) and it was built to the same level of quality and durability that your 502 is... I'd buy it. And I wouldn't care if it was 3 feet deep and weighed 50 lbs.

Take good care of that one. It's a beauty. And the signal generator too.


steve

[Byte_Butcher]

Walter,

You ordered your Owon from Saelig?

How was Saelig to deal with? Did they ship right away, no unexpected problems, etc?


Thanks!


steve

[ScaleRobotics]

Hey Steve, yes I bought from Saelig. I think they shipped it within two days of purchase, then it took another week UPS ground from New York. Nothing bad I can say about the experience.

The scope was clean. Lots of plastic, but it feels pretty sturdy for the price. I like the feel of the dials, and all the buttons work!

I think the battery model is exactly the same, only with .... a battery. So if you ever want to use it standalone without AC power nearby, you can buy the battery.

The USB connection is more of just a way to download a gif picture of what is on the screen. It has a "live" mode as well, but it is pretty choppy on the computer. I have not played around with the USB connection too much, except to show a few wave forms on the forum. It also has a way to download the datapoints from the wave form, but I have not tried that.

There is no fan to make noise. The probes are good enough, that I have not been tempted to swap my fluke probes over yet.

[Byte_Butcher]

Thanks Walter. I sent them money this morning. Can probably expect another 'scope review in 10 days or so...


steve

[WOZZY-2010]

Steve,

Did you ever get that new O-Scope?

Bob W.

[Byte_Butcher]

Yep. Got a new scope. Again.

It's been here for a week or more but I've been too busy to fool with it much. It might be another week before I get a chance to spend some serious time with it.

FWIW, I sent the B&K back to Digikey. Their Product Manager had a look at it and agreed that it was junk. It goes back to China.
Digikey refunded my money including tax and shipping. I love Digikey. I almost never have trouble with them and if I do they always make it good right away.

I ended up not getting the Owon. The lure of higher bandwidth and sample rates got me, and I got a Rigol DS1102CA instead. 100MHz, 2Gsa/s.
At $899 it was still inside my budget limit. I ordered it from Saelig and it shipped the same day.

Initial impressions are much better than with the B&K. The window glass was clean, the fan is quiet, and all the controls seem to work smoothly and predictably.
The only "problem" I've noticed so far is that the USB connection doesn't seem to work, but I haven't fooled with it enough to know if the problem is with the machine or the operator...

So far I've only used it to look at the serial data stream between PIC and a graphic LCD display. It seems to trigger reliably and show what I need to see.

Hopefully next weekend I'll get a chance to really put it to the test and get a feel for how well it works. Initial impressions are OK so far.


steve

[WOZZY-2010]

Steve,

I just checked it out on the web and it looks really nice.

Nothing like a new toy...errr tool with lots of buttons to play with.

Bob W.