Oscilloscope dealers in the US

[Tim Williams]

There are only two types of oscilloscope: Tektronix and Shit.

No, then you haven't used one.

Next...

Tim

 

[Tim Williams]

Which means... their children (or grandchildren) find it in their own
better personal interests to leverage their lives upon those important
durable goods made by a prior generation. It pays them better to USE
the highways, than to learn how to build them. And so there is a time
lag in the response function and a generation loses interest in
"keeping alive the knowledge." Which means it isn't deeply taught to
the new generation. And then a minor or major 'collapse' takes place.
New need is created, people begin to relearn again, infrastructure is
created anew, etc.

And in a wider sense, as the human race -- parts of it at least -- create
ever higher technology on top of the existing technology, even less
knowledge will be demanded of the average person (which does depend on the
average occupation, but it is more and more a service economy, so...).
Which means, in Darwin's terms, the human race needs less average
intelligence to survive, so in the span of perhaps just a few centuries (as
always: assuming the lemmings don't nuke themselves first), the average
human might, for the first time in history, have a reduced mental capacity.
And then the smart people would tend to divide into a seperate class.

But you're probably closer, wars and "collapse of society" will probably
muddle things up a good bit while this is happening and before this process
has much time to work itself away.

Tim

 

[RST Engineering \(jw\)]

Will the smart ones know how to spell "separate"??

Jim

--
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, with chocolate in one hand and wine in
the other, loudly proclaiming 'WOO HOO What a Ride!'"
--Unknown

 

[Nico Coesel]

So, finally it's time to look for a new DSO. Except Newark,
TestEquipmentDepot and Tequipment I haven't found a lot of major dealers
for new scopes and other test equipment. To my surprise I could not find
regular digital scopes at Digikey, Mouser or ham shops like AES. Are
there other major ones? Where do you typically buy?

I don't need it often so I wanted to stay under $2k. Must be 1Gs/sec
single-shot or more, 200MHz BW, plus a USB connection of some kind, and
not too heavy. So far I found:

Agilent DSO3202, pretty nice features but only 4k memory.
Tektronix TDS2022, only a paltry 2.5K memory.
Instek GDS-2202, 25K memory, under $1500.

Don't forget to look at Rigol. Word goes that they produce the low end
range for Agilent.

 

[Tim Williams]

Will the smart ones know how to spell "separate"??

Yes; the spelling will have changed by then. :^)

Tim

 

[Joerg]

The engineers in these large companies design what they're told to
design.

That used to be different in the days when Hewlett and Packard were
alive. I have my doubts that a product such as the trusty HP11C here on
my desk could be designed today. 15 (!) years on the first set of batteries.

 

[Joerg]

Tangentially related, I thought I'd fish for opinions:

At work I've lately been using a Philips 3365. It's a 100MHz bench
'scope,
two channel analog, plus 4096 byte DSO. Now that I've got the hang of
it,
it's quite handy. I mostly use the digital scale for measuring things,
since it automatically does stuff like rise time and frequency.

Anyone else use one, or one in the series? I didn't find much about it
online, at least in English.

Tim

--
Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk.
Website @ http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms


I do not understand this or the other thread at all.

There are only two types of oscilloscope: Tektronix and Shit.

Have you ever done serious analog circuit debugging with a TDS220?
Pretty sure your opinion would significantly change.

They don't make'em like the 7000 series no more.

 

[Joerg]

Don't forget to look at Rigol. Word goes that they produce the low end
range for Agilent.

Yes, but it seems tough to find US dealers that sell their higher end
(200MHz). Maybe Agilent doesn't really want them to. That would directly
cut into their DSO3xxx series sales. Yesterday I ordered the Instek at
Newark but upgraded to the four-channel, the GDS-2204. Pretty good
pricing but you have to be patient because they are shipped from Farnell
in Europe.

 

[Joerg]

Yes; the spelling will have changed by then. :^)

By then it'll probably be "siprit"

 

[John Larkin]

The engineers in these large companies design what they're told to
design.

I know a guy who is a Fellow of United Technologies because he
designed something that nobody told him to design. At P&W headquarters
in Hartford, there's a bunch of framed portraits: Founder, Chairman,
Board, CEO, and him!

John

 

[Hammy]

For the person looking for a review on the Instek. I just purchased a
2102 in May, I bought it from here.

http://www.tequipment.net/InstekGDS-2102.html

I found a cheaper site on the web and they matched, which knocked
another hundred off the price. For the money which was a little over
$1500 Canadian when all is said and done I think it's a good scope.
The sales and tech team at Instek Canada as well as there main site
have answered questions promptly so no complaints there.

I have no professional experience just high school and 4 years of
college to form an opinion on test equipment brands. But I can say in
my final year of college we got a bunch of new TDS2100 and nobody
particularly cared for them, me included. Everyone used the old analog
TEK's and the older DSO TEK.

The Instek scopes use interleaving so when you read 1G/S this is only
obtainable when one channel is active, so if you have both channels
active each channel is capable of 500M/S. This hasn't posed any
problems to me. The sampling rate is tied to the sweep rate, this is
common in scopes in this price range. The TEK I think oversamples at
1G/S irrespective of the sweep rate. If they were to change one thing
that is what I would like to see a manual option to selecting the
sampling rate.The probes that come with it are crap though GTP100A.

There is no question there are superior scopes out there but in the 1
to 2 thousand dollar price range you could do far worse.

Also as a side note I've seen request for reviews on sellers my
experience with tequipment is so/so they forgot to send the free
wattmeter, never returned emails. I still get emails from them asking
me to view there quote online? But in there defence that could just be
a dipshit I dealt with initially, when I talked to someone else
Dominick Rinelli I got better service, so it's a crap shoot.

 

[Hammy]

If you're thinking of one of those wittig scopes well you can read
this and draw your own conclusion. This is a memo sent out to
distributors of there product (DSO's). Just a warning if you see a
used one on ebay.

"Dear Wittig Distributor,

I would like to inform you and your team that I had to file for
insolvency
for Wittig Technologies AG last friday, due to over-indebtedness and
inability to pay.

Because of the predictable financial pressure back in January this
year, we were
forced to ship the product initially with features gray-out. However,
we were
confident that we can update the firmware and make all the features
available to the
customer at a later stage. This was a tremendous mistake, we know
today.

We are working on changing the general conception on how the firmware
is built up and try to improve the product in the coming months.
The product then will become available again later this year with a
concequent
reduction in pricing, to be able to compete on the markets.

We have the following problems with the existing version:
1) Display Refresh Rate is too slow
- We expect to double the refresh rate on the next release
2) Math is not working correctly
- We have improved and will become available on next release
3) FFT is not previewed implement before the end of this year
- We will reduce the price as a concequence
4) 10mV is highest sensitivity in future releases
- We will reduce the price as a concequence
5) Pluse Width Function was not implemented
- We have improved and will become available on next release
6) Hold Off Function was not implemented
- We have improved and will become available on next release
7) Quick Measurements and Average was not working stable
- We have improved and will become available on next release
8) The general interface controls have been completely redesigned
It is now working very stable. However, the user have to learn and
accept our rotary switch behavior.
- We have improved and will become available on next release
9) All the functions have been in generally improved.
10) A reviewed data sheet with new list pricing will become available
as soon as the product is ready for shipment.

We no longer compare our product with respective competitors on the
markets.

As soon as we have found a way how to continue our business, we will
support
you a better way we did in the past. We will definitely replace
against new all
units in the field. We will try to compensate damages to your sales
and reputition
by extra discounts we will offer then.

I will be available uniquely via email for any questions you might
have.
Our phone numbers are no longer in operation neither is our website.

Greetings, Thomas"

 

[Joerg]

For the person looking for a review on the Instek. I just purchased a
2102 in May, I bought it from here.

http://www.tequipment.net/InstekGDS-2102.html

I found a cheaper site on the web and they matched, which knocked
another hundred off the price. For the money which was a little over
$1500 Canadian when all is said and done I think it's a good scope.
The sales and tech team at Instek Canada as well as there main site
have answered questions promptly so no complaints there.

Well, this time Newark had it for a few Dollars less ;-)

I have no professional experience just high school and 4 years of
college to form an opinion on test equipment brands. But I can say in
my final year of college we got a bunch of new TDS2100 and nobody
particularly cared for them, me included. Everyone used the old analog
TEK's and the older DSO TEK.

The Instek scopes use interleaving so when you read 1G/S this is only
obtainable when one channel is active, so if you have both channels
active each channel is capable of 500M/S. This hasn't posed any
problems to me. The sampling rate is tied to the sweep rate, this is
common in scopes in this price range. The TEK I think oversamples at
1G/S irrespective of the sweep rate. If they were to change one thing
that is what I would like to see a manual option to selecting the
sampling rate.The probes that come with it are crap though GTP100A.

Almost all DSO cut the sample rate because they don't want to spend the
money for several ADCs I guess. That's ok though, at least for me.

There is no question there are superior scopes out there but in the 1
to 2 thousand dollar price range you could do far worse.

Especially for a scope you may take on the road a lot. I'd rather not
schlepp around a $10k scope.

 

[SP]

No, then you haven't used one.

Next...

Tim

We've got a DSO6014A here. It seems pretty nice, though I've not used
it much personally.