Oscilloscope MHz recomend

[Normnet]

Am looking into purchasing a 1st Oscilloscope and am curious what MHz others
use for pic related projects?

It seems most interfaces to micro's require timing.

Would an ebay 100 or 200 MHz be good or would an older (<$) 400 MHz be
advantages?

I have seen the sites with technical descriptions of MHz required but would
like to know what others are using?

Norm

[Melanie]

My Lab contains equipment good to about 1.5GHz. Despite that, I prefer to use a good quality dual trace 20MHz scope. The number of times I've needed to go beyond that in the last four years I can count on the fingers of one hand - and then it was only because the faster scopes had the ability to display on-screen wave analysis statistics rather than the need to actually display a fast waveform.

Ultimately, it's all down to what kind of applications you're playing with. I know I'd rather have a scope that is in-calibration and I can rely on to tell me a resemblance of truth, than one whose results can't be trusted. There's more to chosing a scope than raw MHz on the timebase.

[Acetronics2]

Hi, Normnet

Great truth from Mel's post ... my favourite osc is just an old 2 x 20 Mhz ( Hameg 203 - 4 !!!). as a first scope, it's perfect.

For 20 years ... ( yess, right ! ) the only things I did not do with it, is to catch vicious glitches ( sometimes helpful , then ...) and look at HF signals > 35 Mhz - OK to verify if a Pic Clock is running...

The next model will be a 2x50 Mhz ( no more ! ) , but W/ memory as I noticed the most difficult signals to observe are ... very slow or non cyclic !!!
cursors are also convenient for measurements ...

Hameg 507 ... may be. for no more than ~ 1200 $ ( brand new ...)

Alain

[Luciano]

Hi!

- How much are you willing to spend?
- Second-hand or new?
- Have you ever used an oscilloscope?
- Going to be used for hobby, profession or future profession?
- Used mostly for microcontroller-based designs?


At home I have two oscilloscopes:

Tektronix 465 Oscilloscope, 1974 model.
http://www.amplifier.cd/Test_Equipme..._other/465.htm

I got it for free in the year 1991. The oscilloscope was in a Bank
as part of the on-site maintenance equipment tools for 5 large hard disks.
The oscilloscope was dismantled together with hard disks in 1991.
After 30 years the oscilloscope is still working and is still like
new. (Used only after 1991).

=================================================

Agilent 54622D Mixed-Signal Oscilloscope. (Formerly Hewlett-Packard).
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/hp...s/hp54622d.htm

I bought it new in the year 2001. (My wife did not approve).
Great equipment, I use it all the time.

The Agilent 54622D 2+16 channel, 100 MHz Mixed-Signal Oscilloscope (MSO), with two scope channels and 16 logic timing channels, uniquely combines the detailed signal analysis of a scope with the multi-channel timing measurements of a logic analyzer. It lets you trigger on and view the complex interactions among your signals on up to 18 channels simultaneously. The 54622D is ideally suited for CPLD and MCU based applications.

Features:

- Unique 2+16 channel MSO model
- 100 MHz
- Patented high-definition display with superior horizontal resolution
- 4 MB of MegaZoom deep memory mapped to 32 levels of intensity, 25 million vectors/sec.
- Powerful, flexible triggering including I²C, SPI, LIN, CAN and USB
- Standard built-in floppy, RS-232 and parallel ports, FFT's
- Quick Help in 11 languages


Best regards,

Luciano

[NavMicroSystems]

I think there is not much to add.

A good dual channel 20MHz scope would be good to start with.

I got my first one (including two good probes)
second hand at $100,
(a great bargain)
and it is still doing a good job.

Check ebay,
there are many HAMEGs (and others)
in the $150-$250 range

As Luciano has already mentioned,
is is a matter of what you can afford to spend.

My second scope is a Fluke 123 which I really like.

But to be honest, more than 90% of the time I use the "old" 20MHz analog scope
as it has a fixed place on my bench.

[mister_e]

i agree with the old analog too. It also gives you one more advantage. If you need to, you can use those one with a simple circuit to have a 8-16 or more channel scope. This can be handy in some case. You can't do it with a digital one.