Hi,

can anyone give me advice on finding scopes that fit my very particular requirements?



Definite No-nos:
1. Old commercial scope: I want to be able to interface with my PC, tinker, and fix etc. easily





Must haves:


1. Analog bandwidth >= 2MHz

2. Open source Hardware and software (for two reasons. First I want to be able to fix it myself and two I want to be able to have access to a lot of software resources)

3. PC interface

4. Sensitivity of 10mV/div to 5V/div

5. Cost less than $300




Nice to have:

1. Multiple channels

2. A screen (not necessary if PC interface available)

3. USB interface (rather than RS-232)

4. Powered by PC and/or battery

5. BNC connectors




Scopes I'm considering so far:

DSO Nano, DSO Quad, and Jyetech DSO 062. But none of them have the BW I'd like as far as I can tell

Thoughts? Any other scopes that anyone would recommend? I've googled around a fair bit and they're the 3 main ones I've found. If I can't get open source, a fair amount of hackability would be nice

 

I have a RIGOL DS1052E: http://www.rigolna.com/products/digital-oscilloscopes/ds1000e/ds1052e/

It meets almost all of your criteria. I've been very happy with it so far. You won't confuse it with higher end scopes, but at $350 I think it was a phenomenal deal (you may be able to find it for < $300 used or on promotion.)

The PC interfacing capabilities were a big selling point for me.
The scope comes with software that allows you full control over the scope from a PC. Also, the scope supports the SCPI standard and NI has LabVIEW drivers for the scope.

I don't know how open the hardware is, but there are videos/sites that show teardown of the scope (and hacking of the firmware to support 100MHz BW operation.)

 

Thanks for the pointers peeps. I like the look of the Rigol scope but not only am I put off by the (possible) lack of tech support, but I've had bad experiences with Chinglish manuals (does that count as racist as far the forums go? I've nothing against Chinese people, just to clear any confusion up). Also, I'd prefer something as open as possible (in kit form perhaps) so I can replace the parts myself in the (not too unlikely) case of a break down.

 

Hello,

For open source take a look here:
http://opencircuits.com/Oscilloscope

Bertus