Which Oscilloscope for a pickup maker?

[belwar]

I've been using this book called "Teach yourself electricity and electronics" to teach myself more about what makes pickups tick, and i've been thinking of buying a basic Oscilloscope.. Im still at the point that I don't know what im looking at, so I need some help in choosing a model. I'm just going to buy a cheapy on E-bay .. Not more than $300. For that I can find something reasonable and calibrated. So here are my questions...

How many channels are needed? Its common to see both 2 & 4 channel..

What frequency.. 60mhz? 100mhz? 400mhz? My guess is ANY of them because we're talking about items in the khz range..

There is a few models that are plentiful on E-bay that seem to fit the bill. They are all made by Tektronix.. The specific models im look at are

Tektronix 2232 , 2246, and 2335

Would any of these be good? Anything I should avoid? Anything else I need?

bel.

[automan]

I'm glad you brought this up. I've been wondering the same thing recently. I look forward to seeing what comes of this thread.

[JoeM]

Some of the later Tek scopes you mention use custom ICs that are just about impossible to find (except maybe from a 'donor' parts scope).

The scope I use the most on my bench is a Tek 453A, (50mhz, dual trace, delayed sweep). Doesnt use any custom chips and seems pretty reliable. I picked up a 561A for $20, that only needed a good cleaning, so there are some deals out there, but you've got to be careful they're in working condition. Actually, some of the cheaper Asian scopes will serve your purpose well (20mhz should be fine for audio).

[Magnut]

Have you considered using a pc based scope? These can be very useful though I have not applied it to a pickup application yet. They will allow you to record and are easy to set up and use. I think you can get them from around $200.

Scopes

[peskywinnets]

I had a h/w scope (a Tektronix 100Mhz). ...but frankly it took up too much bench space - so I flogged it for £110, then bought a Chinese USB scope for exactly the same amount - I'm delighted with it.

It has storage ability that my Tektronix never had...I've won back a lot of space & the screen is now 21" instead of about 6" square!

It's a Hantek DSO-2150....which has about 60mhz bandwidth (more than enough for the average pickup maker!)......

http://www.hantek.com.cn/english/pro...st.asp?unid=63

The support from the Chinese Manafacturer has been superb - I normally get an email back from the actual developer within a few hours (if I send early in the evening UK time). They even embracing my ideas for future versions.

The first versions of s/w were a little buggy...but their latest release seems rock solid.

I'd heartily recommend one.

Edit: Just seen Magnut's link to the same scope!

[automan]

What do you actually use it for in pickup manufacture?

[StarryNight]

I know this link is related to guitar amps but there's some good info here:
Tales From The Tone Lounge: The Idiot's Guide To (analog) Oscilloscopes!

[Spence]

You don't need a scope at all but if you have a burning desire to get one then may I recommend one that will freeze the trace. That way you can at least look at what passed a millisecond ago.

[bulgers]

Well, any scope can do the job. An analogue scope will have a clean display, but can hide some noise as the CRT display is gaussian. They are the cheapest option and eBay/wherever will have loads of cheap old models, and Radio Shack/RS/Maplin can sell new ones for $100 or so. The analogue bandwidth really won't matter for audio, so even 1MHz is enough.

A digital scope does give you the ability to store the waveforms, and long memory means you can sample at a very high rate for a long time and track the gain/noise/frequency response too see if everything is working correctly. However if you just want it to look like an analogue scope, you'll be let down the screen refresh/update rate is usually quite slow, especially on USB scopes. The other issue is that they make the waveform look quite noisy, due to the fact that they are usually only 8-bit digitisers and unless you play around with the vertical gain (V/div knob) so that the display uses the whole grid, you might only be using 4 or 5 of the bits so it's even worse.

There are some really smart features on some new scopes. I got a LeCroy model on demo at work a few weeks ago, it has I2S trigger and decode, can decipher the signals, can graph the data, find errors instantly that would take ages to look for. Really nice, best I tested..... but it should be for $15k!

The two big players in the market are Tek and Agilent, both make some nice instruments but nothing less than $1k, so the USB instruments offer really good value for most people outside of a lab.

[JasonG]

You can buy a lot of scope for 300. I have an el chepo vintage BK it's ok if I ever get another it will be a computer scope for what we do I don't think you can beat them.

[salvarsan]

~$190 gets this one to your doorstep:
Syscomp Electronic Design Ltd.



2MHz bandwidth with a built-in signal generator and software that runs on Windoze, Mac, and Linux is all you'll ever need for audio work.
It does phase+impedance plots, too.
Below is one for an SK P90:



-drh

[automan]

Nice find. I was looking high and low for a good linux box since belwar started this thread.

[-Elepro-]

try to search OWON on ebay......

[belwar]

Nice find. I was looking high and low for a good linux box since belwar started this thread.

Eeeeewww linux!

[automan]

Eeeeewww linux!

It's all I've used since 1999. I get on windows machines now and I feel totally lost. I don't have a problem with other operating systems. This is just the one I prefer.