Low Cost Digital Storage Scopes
From Sam, the moderator of the LeCroy_Owners_Group on Yahoo
My diatribe on various low cost (<1K$ US) DSO's. This is also to address Jason's post about replacing his 9350CL
Now right off the bat, those of you that know me are aware that I design electronics for a living, and I have used, repaired, and worked on (or a combination of all three) just about any piece of electronics test equipment that you can name and that I have no connection to any test equipment manufacturer or representitive and that the opinions that I give are my own and are based on actual experience with the various products.
With that legal disclaimer out of the way…..
I am purposely leaving out the USB scope modules from this discussion. These are the ones that just have BNC connectors and a USB to PC connection that you connect to a laptop. None that I have seen are up to the task really serious product development use. Those that come close cost as much or more that the scopes discussed here.
This discussion covers the stand alone scopes only.
Well it hurts for me to say this, I being a die hard LeCroy DSO user, but in the low cost/high performance scope capability wars you might want to give very serious consideration to the Rigol DS1102D/E Color LCD 100MHz models.
They are dual trace 512K to 1Mpt per channel with lots of built in functionality.
I bought one of these when Tek wanted 1400.00 flat rate to fix a TDS-3012 that went up in smoke on power up one day.
The DS1102E is a really nice instrument, well built with a solid feel. The size is about the size of the TDS-210/220/ 2000 series.
I bought this one for my company as a “knock around” scope for the times when I need to take a scope out into the plant rather than haul the LeCroy 104Mxi and risk damage to it and for the times I don't need the power of the 13K$ scope.
As it turns out it is quite a performer, They list for $795.00 (with two probes and accessories) but they can be purchased from tequipment.net (where I bought mine)for about 10% or so less. Now if you are looking for standard math functions with FFT and up to a 1024 screen capture mode and you don't have much bench space it's a great fit. Sadly it's much better than the lowest cost LeCroy WaveAce and can really directle compete with the LeCroy WaveJet features for a lot less money (I know since I own a 200MHz one of those as well and it was more than 4.5X the Rigol cost).
Now don't expect it to be able to compete with the mathmatical and analysis functions of a fully loaded LeCroy 9354AM or AL (my overall favorite LeCroy scope or the it's big brother the faster color version the LC574AL), but what do you want for under 800.00?
Oh, by the way, if you want to pay more you can buy exactly the same scope as the DS1102D/E with a different front panel on it from Agilient (former HP, for over $2K) because Rigol makes Agilents low cost (and maybe mid-range) scopes as well.
Now if you need an MSO you can buy the Rigol DS1102D which is the same scope with an integrated 16 channel logic analyzer. It's a few hundred dollars more for that option and it's not an add-on so you have to buy the D model if you need that functionality.
Oh did I mention that with either one of these Rigol scopes you get a true separate external trigger input and an optically isolated Pass/fail output that can be used to trigger other equipment?
How about a built in front panel accessable USB port for saving settings and data to a USB memory stick. Or the USB cable that plugs into a separate port in the rear of the scope for data transfer and remote control with the PC software (all included for less than 800.00)
The only other thing the Rigol needs to do is to make what I would call the DS1104D/E scope. A four channel version of the DS1102D/E. They could charge 200 to 250.00 more for it and they would sell a ton of those. Their current low cost 4 channel scopes don't have the long memory like the DS1102D/E. Can you imagine a 100MHz 4 channel color LCD MSO with long memory for well under 2K? now that would be something! Are you listening Rigol? LeCroy? Agilent? OWON? Iwatsu?
Subject diversion wormhole on:
Oh did I mention that Iwatsu makes the WaveJet series for LeCroy? They also made their LA series analog scopes. I also have a Iwatsu SS-8740A 470MHz analog scope with is the same as a LeCroy LA-314A.This scope series was designed to compete with the Tek-2465B and the 2467 “Bright-Eye” (well kind of) it is no longer sold by LeCroy but still available from Iwatsu. Quite an excellent 4 channel analog scope (but that's another story). They are sometimes available really cheap on e-bay going for 5 to 10% of their over 9K$ list price.
Subject diversion wormhole off 
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The only thing I wish all add or bring back (and the same goes for the LeCroy WaveJet) is a true snap on front cover just like the Tek TDS-3000 series, not some ugly pseudo case cover that is a issue to deal with.
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On other inexpensive scopes:
I have analyzed the OWON chinese scopes as well. I have an original one that has all of the nomenclature in Chinese. I relabeled all of the panel controls with my Brother P-Touch label maker.
Truthfully they are fairly good instruments for cheap scopes (less than 400.00 for a dual channel 25MHz with the battery option). However in terms of quality the Rigol wins hands down but it's double the cost.
In all fairness to OWON, the newer units may be better, but I have not had the chance to evaluate any of them. The plastic parts, the LCD (larger than the Rigol but not as nice a display) and the unit is not nearly as rugged as the Rigol. But if all you do is low speed work and need the battery option the PDS 5022 (I think that's the correct model number) may be okay for you. You can find them all over E-bay. I think that they now offer higher bandwidth models as well but the PDS5022 is the only one that I knw anything about, The one that I have pre-dates the battery option so I really don't know the details about the instrument operation on battery.
The only other thing the Rigol needs to do is to make what I would call the DS1104D/E scope. A four channel version of the DS1102D/E. They could charge 200 to 250.00 more for it and they would sell a ton of those. Their current low cost 4 channel scopes don't have the long memory like the DS1102D/E. Can you imagine a 100MHz 4 channel color LCD MSO with long memory for well under 2K? now that would be something! Are you listening Rigol? LeCroy? Agilent? OWON? Iwatsu?
It's getting late here and I have rambled on way too much tonight!!
Good night and good scoping!
Sam
Moderator
