On Thu, 4 Dec 1997 17:02:43 +1300 Andrew Mayo writes: >You get what you pay for. The Velleman scope is pretty limited - >there's >a good review in a recent issue of Electronics Australia which I know >you won't find easy to get up there, but I'll see if I can dig it up. >Tek make excellent gear - and yes, it would be nice to get a scope >trace >into the PC. Various new Japanese or Korean 40 MHz analog scopes can be bought in the $300 range. I don't know if they're any good though. When buying used, you can't go to far wrong with anything Tektronix. The older "modular" models are very inexpensive, but big and heavy. Make sure it has useful general-purpose modules with it (i.e. not the strain gauge amplifier one). You may luck into the novel spectrum analyzer or high-speed sampler modules, but expect to pay more for them than the entire rest of the rig. The "portable" versions of the mid-70s are also plentiful. These are often in poorer operating condition; portable mis-handling having taken its toll in the form of broken switches and intermittent connections inside. Make sure to have at least 1 scope probe, you can usually use a direct connection of the less-critical signal when using 2 channels. I never found much need to transfer waveforms into a PC, unless publishing results, doing automatic tests, or monitoring something for a long time. I certainly wouldn't want a scope that requires a PC to work. My PIC bench just has a really cheap 5 MHz single-channel scope on it. For a while it was a Heathkit, then I upgraded to triggered sweep with a "Bell and Howell Schools" one, which looks a lot like a Heathkit inside. Either one is a lot better than no scope. By designing the test carefully it's possible to not demand too much of the scope.