Tektronix Oscilloscope - Opinions Please

[Kazooman]

Watching the video cited above helped push me towards the Rigol. Having a chance to see the build quality in the "tear down" video addressed my concerns that an inexpensive scope might just be made with cheap components. The price even for this model varies all over the place, which is a real surprise. I am more used to camera gear where the competition is such that the big name suppliers tend to be very close in price. For the record, I paid $349 for the standard package that includes two 1X/10X probes.

[drewl]

I used to repair test equipment back in the 80's, and yeah the 485's were more problematic than the very durable 465's.

Guess what guys, these scopes have filter caps that also need replacing from time to time!
And don't rule out high frequency stuff thinking you won't need it.
It comes in handy fixing wireless' etc.

[Steve Conner]

Stan, good point. At work we use a DSP that comes in two pin-compatible speed grades, 225 and 300MHz. I think they're the same chip, and at factory test, the faster ones get weeded out and sold at a premium.

I bet most samples of the 225MHz part would run at 300MHz if they were kept nice and cool, even if they didn't pass TI's official tests to qualify as a 300MHz part. So maybe that explains how the Rigol hack works.

Then again, we'd probably end up using the 300 for everything. The way price breaks work, it might be cheaper to buy 100 of the fast DSP than 50 fast ones and 50 slow ones. A similar argument might hold over at Rigol's R&D department.

[Kazooman]

I guess I should have waited a few hours!

I was providing some information regarding my selection on the Amp Garage forum and I noticed that the place I ordered my scope dropped the price another $20.00 overnight! It hasn't even shipped. I sent them a note. We shall see if they refunded the difference. I am not holding my breath.

Notes added later:

An update on my scope. I sent them a message noting the reduced price and they immediately responded that they would refund the difference. Seems like a good place to shop. Tequipment.net

Also, FYI: I found a nice freeware PC signal generator here:

www.dr-jordan-design.de/signalgen.htm

They have a "pro" version that has more options enabled as well as several other software packages.

The output is continuously variable from 20 - 20,000 Hz. It also has a built in attenuator so you can easily control the output level. The freeware version gives you sine, square, and triangular wave choices as well as white noise. I don't have my scope yet to give you an opinion on the quality of the signals, but the screen shots in the pdf instruction manual make them look pretty good. I have it on my laptop and it seems to work just fine.

With the Pro version you can load a large number of frequency presets so you can change with a mouse click. It also offers sine wave sweeps (variable between two frequencies you set at an adjustable rate. Lots of other bells and whistles.

If I am happy with the performance once I can check it with the scope I will probably purchase the upgrade to support the guy (and for the utility).