Tek TDS224 Digital Scope ?

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SteveM99

Joined Feb 10, 2011
10
I'm looking at picking up a used Tektronics-TDS224 Digital Scope (100mhz). Is anyone familiar with this model?

I found the User Manual online. Having only used 1970's vintage Analog scopes, does this model have the ability to capture a waveform (like a logic analyzer) for viewing? I don't see anything in the manual.

I would like to take a sample of a analog signal for a period of "xx" seconds, then go back and review the stored signal. Possible with the TDS224? ...or have to go bigger ($)?

Or is this model just the digital version of the 1970's analog scope?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-T...ecialistRadioEquipment_SM&hash=item336de05e29

Just using ebay for the image...
 

ErnieM

Joined Apr 24, 2011
8,377
I've worked with similar TI scopes and find them to be incredibly helpful little devices. They use digital sampling to acquire the input waveforms and these are running all the time, meaning you can see stuff that occurs before your trigger. And since it stores all that info in RAM you can see one single trace as well as a periodic signal. There is a STOP button so you can freeze what is on the screen.

What you can't do is acquire say 5 seconds of waveform then go in and look at some part in more detail. All it captured is the pixel points of the first trace, so you don't get to see what occurs between them. This is not a problem if you zoom in then retrigger to reacquire that portion.

With both GPIB (488) and RS-232 you have two ways to either control this from a computer or get information out of it. I used to have it send a screen shot back to my PC when I was writing test procedures so I could include what the operator would actually see, including time & voltage settings.

The only drawback I ever encountered was how the trigger delay worked together with the time base. Some (earlier) models required more twiddling then later models, though both were very good.
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,282
As ErnieM noted that scope can only capture one screen of information. Some of the more expensive digital 'scopes have a larger memory and can capture more data so you can zoom in on the captured data.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,708
I use a TDS220 100MHz 2-channel scope for all of my work and I am very happy with it. This series has since been replaced by newer models.
 
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