Golborne Vintage Radio

Even though I have a 3 old analogue oscilloscopes they a big big for my space in the workshop. Is it worth buying a more modern unit e.g. an Owon or Rigol so that I save a ton of space?

I have a Rigol 1054Z which is very useful. Still prefer analogue for video work. When using any scope you need to understand how what you see is only an approximation to the truth.

I've had my Rigol 1054Z for 5 years now. I'm quite impressed with what it can do for the money, and on the strength of that we bought a dozen for work. Having seen them, many friends and colleagues have bought their own. Shame I'm not on commission

All that said, I wouldn't recommend that you bought one. For the analogue/audio work that you do, an analogue 'scope is much easier and intuitive to use.

In truth, I rarely use mine. My "go-to" 'scope is a 20MHz 'scope that is very easy to drive. If I need more bandwidth, I have a 350MHz analogue 'scope that is also very easy to use. I do have other 'scopes, but those are all in the attic - on the bench, I've just got those two analogue 'scopes and the Rigol.

However, on the occasions that I do use the Rigol, it would be near-impossible to use an analogue 'scope to do the same job. So it's definitely nice to have at times. Those occasions tend to be in-depth digital investigation and/or fault-finding. Conversely, I was surprised at how bad the Rigol is for looking at analogue audio waveforms - that's because the update rate is much slower than I'm used to seeing with an analogue 'scope.

If saving space is the concern, pick the best of your scopes and consign the rest to storage or dispose of them. If you have three because no single 'scope gives you what you need, then find another 'scope that will, and store or sell the rest (perhaps keep the next best as a spare if you have storage space). Honestly, dropping the best part of £400 on a Rigol would be the last thing I'd do in your shoes.

BTW, the fan noise will drive you mad

Just realised that I forgot my usual pithy line:

Digital 'scopes complement analogue 'scopes, not replace them.

Personally, I'd hate to only have a digital 'scope.

Ive just dusted off my Tektronix T935a 'scope. Its very good for its age but it just takes up so much room in my small workshop.
One thing I really need to get to grips with is a descent set of probes. I couldnt find my old ones (shows how much I DONT use a 'scope and should) so bought these from Amazon but I'm not really sure how good they are.

'Proster BNC Test Leads 2PCS P6100 100MHz Oscilloscope Clip Probes with BNC to Minigrabber Test Lead Kit 10:1 and 1:1 Switchable High Precision Scope Analyzer Alligator Probe Clip'

I really should get to grips with use a 'scope more to be honest.

Best Regards

Definitely don't buy a DSO then.

Just checking, the T935 is not excessively large for an analogue 'scope. Personally, I prefer the "upright" format - my Telequipment DM63 is that sort of form factor. A lot of analogue 'scopes are less tall, but considerably wider, which occupies a lot more bench space. They're all that sort of depth because of the CRT. Smaller 'scopes exist, but they tend to have compromises.

Those cheap probes are no-doubt fine for the money. Treat them with care and they should last well enough.

If that is a data scope, with interchangable modules then I have one of these too. I always viewed this as too big but it a great bit of kit. I was considering selling it.........now I dont know whether to keep it?

Best regards.

Mine is a DM53

The DM53 is a big beast that's full of valves. Rather different to the DM63... Personally, I wouldn't want a scope full of valves, but some folk enjoy the challenge of keeping them alive.

(12-07-2020, 07:22 PM)Mark Hennessy Wrote: [ -> ]Just realised that I forgot my usual pithy line:

Digital 'scopes complement analogue 'scopes, not replace them.

Personally, I'd hate to only have a digital 'scope.

Indeed X -Y mode doesn't work on cheap ones.
Cheap ones have a useless input attenuator and poor trigger control
You'd want nearly 1GHz sample rate to be as useful as a dual channel 20MHz scope, which certainly will show signals, but at rubbish accuracy to nearly 100MHz if a Tek, not so much if a Hameg. Divide quoted sample rate, not by 2 for Nyquist limit, but by 10, so you know if it's not a sinewave! Divide again by number of channels.

A decent Digital scope to replace a good 100 MHz analogue one might be the price of a car. One of my sons has digital "scope" they bought "ex demo" so as to look at HDMI galvanic isolator performance. A big multinational. Of course it does stuff an ordinary digital scope or analogue one can't do.

I'd sooner have 100MHz Tek analogue scope than a digital one, but both would be nice as long as it was a "real" digital scope. Meanwhile I have the 20MHz Hameg, a Dual IF Meguro Geniscope (Analogue sweep 460 kHz and 10.7MHz IF) and an HP141T spectrum analyser with three different RF plugins. If the storage tube dies, it's possible to drive a regular scope at normal sweep rates and a sound card at slow sweeps or dumb plotter at very slow sweeps.

I don't have the companion tracking generator for the HP141T, though maybe my DDS based sig gen can. I made a wide band noise source with a wide band power amp to drive filters etc and see response on the HP141.