Still Deciding...

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analoger
 
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Still Deciding...

Post by analoger »

How come a more advanced oscilloscope has less sample rate? Is there something that compensates for the lower sampling rate so that it gives similar or even better results?

Here's the one supposedly more advanced:

Tektronix MSO2024B 200 MHz 1 GS/s 1 Mpoints

The ancient one,m also supposedly:

Tektronix TDS2024C 200MHz 2 GS/s 2.5 Kpoints

Another question regarding DC power supplies. Should I go for something with ground terminal in case of tripple-ouput, for example:

Agilent: http://www.home.agilent.com/en/pd-83643 ... =CA&lc=eng

or

Keithley: http://www.keithley.com/products/dcac/h ... =2230-30-1


Help greatly appreciated.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Still Deciding...

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

WRT the scopes, there's no good substitute for sampling rate. A 200 MHz scope with a 1Gs/sec rate is for digital work at best.

As for whether new scopes are better, there's this story:

Jim Williams was a staff scientist for Linear, and one of the great analog circuit gurus of modern electronic history. He had a lifelong appreciation for Tektronix scopes, and was an expert at using, maintaining, and repairing Tek CRT scopes from the 1960s and 70s. According to legend, someone from Tek called Jim and offered him a new scope from their catalog, free and no questions asked, if he'd just quit publishing app notes full of traces from scopes they stopped selling decades ago. He turned them down.

WRT the power supplies, you want output pairs rather than output voltages. Each positive output should have an associated GND, and each of those pairs should float relative to the others. You should be able to stack the pairs in any order, connecting the GND line of one to the positive line of any other.

analoger
 
Posts: 78
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2012 11:11 pm

Re: Still Deciding...

Post by analoger »

Thanks a lot for you informative reply.

analoger
 
Posts: 78
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2012 11:11 pm

Re: Still Deciding...

Post by analoger »

As I understand I can log the output of this oscilloscope to a computer, and using their software I can inspect the captured signal using a computer. Does this mean I have a much higher record-length than what's built-in when I use a computer? If this is the case then...who cares for this record-length memory...

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Still Deciding...

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The question is whether you can stream data from the scope directly to your computer, or whether your computer can read/process the data stored in the scope's memory. Either version is plausible, but only the first one lets you sidestep the scope's memory limits.

analoger
 
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Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2012 11:11 pm

Re: Still Deciding...

Post by analoger »

Regardless of cost, which one would a hobbyist/professional go for?

Rigol DS1204B 200MHz 4 channels. But the 2 GSa/s "MAX" scares me?

http://www.rigolna.com/products/digital ... b/ds1204b/

TDS2024C (the old dinosaur) but at least it's 2 GSa/s on all channels simultaneously.

or this: 200MHz and 4 GSa/s on all channels?

http://www.rigolna.com/products/digital ... 00/ds4024/

The memory is not a big difference anyway, 8 kpts vs. 2.5kpts, as long as I can log the output to my computer...

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