>Hey everyone,
>        I am, in the near future (a month or so), thinking about buying a
>oscilloscope, and I was wondering what everyone thought I should get.
>To tell you the truth I don't really know to much about them (very
>little) but, I have seen them used many time in books and articles, and
>they seem to be very useful.  I have had quite a few times where I am
>debugging something that I have put together and thought that a o-scope
>would be helpful in getting it to work.  In buying this the price is a
>important factor (isn't always :), but I also don't want to "out grow"
>it, because I am planing on majoring in electrical engineering (just
>started college).  I have began looking around at different ones and was
>wondering what people think of the ones that work off a computer, such
>as the bitscope (www.bitscope.com).  Besides the obvious reasons
>(portability, and the needing of a computer) what are the pros and cons
>of the standard desktop scopes and the computer based ones?  What should
>I suspect to pay for a decent one (just a ballpark is fine)?  What is
>the difference between a digital storage one and a normal one?  Here is
>a good question...what other question should I ask :)
>
>Or does it sound like I am not ready for a scope?


Hi there, Timothy.

**WARNING**  Heavily biased opinion follows!

I think that a scope is the 3rd most valuable (1= good soldering iron, 2=
good multimeter) and 2nd most used item (1= soldering iron) in my shop.  If
you plan to pursue electronics, you definitely need a scope.

Since you are just starting, don't spend a lot of money.  Your best bet is
to buy a used analog scope from somewhere.  Where, you might ask?  Try ham
swap meets in your area, talk to electronics shops to see if they have any
old scopes they don't use anymore, look in the ads in the back of
Electronics Now or Popular Electronics.  A 20 MHz dual trace scope will do
most of what you need to do.  Make usre that it has triggered sweep and
selectable AC/DC coupling on the vertical inputs (some really old scopes
can't measure DC).  You are looking at a couple of hundred bucks or so.
Dream machine, if you can find and afford it, is a Tektronix 465 (any flavor).

I own a couple of older analog units and recently purchased my first digital
scope (THS720P).  I prefer an analog scope for most of my troubleshooting.
The scope probe is the first thing I pick up - I use the scope to make most
of the voltage measurements in the circuit under test.  I grab a multimeter
only if I have to measure resistance, current, or have to measure or set a
precision voltage.

I bought my first scope when I was 12 or 13 - an old Heathkit single trace
unit that was AC coupled and only good for a few hundred KHz.  Its long gone
now but the techniques that I learned back then have served me til now.

Look around and see what you can find.  When you find something that you can
afford, ask the list for opinions on that model.  TRY BEFORE YOU BUY, if you
are buying something local.

Good luck!

dwayne


Dwayne Reid   <dwayner@planet.eon.net>
Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd    Edmonton, AB, CANADA
(403) 489-3199 voice     (403) 487-6397 fax