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User Interface of Major Oscilliscope Brands?
teddaw152 writes "I've been tasked with ordering an oscilloscope and a logic analyzer for use in a university physics lab, and have found several models that will likely suit our technical needs from the major manufacturers (Agilent, Tektronix, and LeCroy). However, I personally have only used legacy HP scopes, and thus I have no idea what modern features are must haves and which brand's user interface is the most intuitive. Is there anyone out there that has used modern Tektronix/Agilent/LeCroy scopes side by side and can comment on their thoughts from the purely subjective side?"
As a software developer who's trying to learn about hardware, I find the timing of this question quite valuable, as I have a related question.
I'm interested in getting an oscope for my home learning. Typical beginner circuits (low power, inductors, breadboard etc).
Could someone who has more experience in this than I please give some recommendations for a new scope to buy?
The standard Physics lab ones are expensive (or at least they used to be). I'm a little hesitant to pick one up off of ebay, sight unseen.
Any recommendations here for a new one within the budget of a home hobbiest?
Many thanks in advance.
Alright... time to break up this party before it evolves into another bad pun thread.
I use tektronix scopes pretty much daily. Almost all of their new stuff, except for the very low end, is Windows based, which, besides the regular negative slashdot bias against windows, can be a real pain when you work in a closed lab with special security rules. Windows (and Unix) boxes are severely tied down in most security sensitive situations, and these scopes either require you to run as admin, or as a non-admin you lose a lot of functionality.
One of our brilliant IT security folks installed a program called Device-Lock on my Tek scope the other day. This was configured to completely disabled all I/O (except mouse/keyboard) on the scope, which is kind of funny considering the purpose of a scope. We got this fixed, after a long and entertaining conversation with security.
This issue doesn't apply to the submitter most likely, but anyone else reading and looking for advice, take into account rules regarding OS security at your work / school when looking at a new scope. Frequently I will look for one of the older scopes running proprietary OSes (like the old HPs) to avoid the hassle entirely. To answer your original question, you really need to define requirements before your start picking out scopes. It's like buying a vehicle with your only criteria being it's color.