On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 16:18:26 -0000, Alan B. Pearce wrote:
>=A0>I'm looking at Agilents' offerings.
>=A0
>=A0AFAIK these all come with monochrome screens, and I personally do not=
 like
>=A0the update rates/methods on them. They do have the largest capture me=
mories
>=A0that I know of at this level though, which is good for zooming in on
>=A0waveforms when you have captured on a long timescale. They do have mi=
xed
>=A0analog/digital models as well, but never used the digital modes on th=
ese,
>=A0although a colleague has one.

I have an older HP 54645D MSO and I love it for microcontroller work up
to about 40 MHz. I don't find the update rates/methods objectionable
but I think that's probably a personal preference thing. I also don't
find a monochrome display to be a big deal -- after all, I used a
monochrome scope for the previous 20 years and it was never a
problem... ;-)=20

I do love the deep sample memory and can't get used to not having it
with any of the Tek digital scopes (I also have a Tek DSO). I have a
semi-permanent RS232 link to my workbench PC for waveform capture so
that's a painless process. The newer Agilent models all have floppy
drives, RS232 ports and CF slots (I think?) as standard equipment.=20

The newer Agilent Infinium ($$$) scopes all have color displays,
although the cheapest model starts at about $5000, I believe.=20
=A0
>=A0>I do like Tektronix products; but I'm a
>=A0>bit confused as to what they currently carry.
>=A0
>=A0Essentially there are two (three) families at the economy end of the =
market.
>=A0TDS1000 (monochrome) and TDS2000 (colour) are 1/4 VGA units, and the =
TDS3000
>=A0series is colour full VGA with a much nicer display IMHO. The TDS3000=
 does
>=A0have the vertical controls muxed between channels, with the currently
>=A0selected channel being the one under control, and the TDS1/2000 has s=
eparate
>=A0controls for each channel. There is also a version of the TDS2000 wit=
h each
>=A0channel isolated from all the others which would be nice for working =
on
>=A0things like switch mode mains supplies.

I borrowed a friend's TDS2024 for a couple weeks and I thought it was a
great scope. For doing mixed signal and microcontroller stuff I'd still
choose the Agilent 2+16 or 4+16 models, all things being equal. I just
find the deep sample memory and combined analog/digital triggering to
be the most useful for the things I typically do. In fact, I have my HP
MSO on my workbench as the semi-permanent scope I use for 90% of my
work.

Matt Pobursky
Maximum Performance Systems

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