Opinions on 1 GHz scopes please
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From: Paul Probert on 15 Jun 2010 21:44 Folks, At my lab I have a chunk of money to get a new scope. I'm looking at 4 channel MSO's with 1 GHz analog bandwidth. Agilent has the MSO7104B, Tek has the MSO4104, and Lecroy has the MSO104XS-A, all for about $18000. Any horror stories about these companies and their recent products along these lines. Who has praise? I had a couple Lecroy 100 MHz scopes in the 80's which were cool when they worked. Very fragile hangar queens. We got an Agilent Infinium in 2002, which ran windows 98 under the hood and spent quite a bit of its own time belly up. Further, Agilent quit supporting it while the $20000 price was still stinging a little. Tek scopes, well, for me they suddenly develop big offsets, the triggers quit working, and Tek really soaks you for probes and other accessories. I don't have a typical use case to give you. Every month its something different. Looking at noise and laser pulses from APD's, trying to catch glitches in huge switching power supplies, debugging microcontroller circuits, etc. Thanks in advance for your help Paul Probert University of Wisconsin
From: Phil Hobbs on 15 Jun 2010 23:10 Paul Probert wrote: > Folks, > At my lab I have a chunk of money to get a new scope. I'm looking at 4 > channel MSO's with 1 GHz analog bandwidth. Agilent has the MSO7104B, Tek > has the MSO4104, and Lecroy has the MSO104XS-A, all for about $18000. > Any horror stories about these companies and their recent products along > these lines. Who has praise? > I had a couple Lecroy 100 MHz scopes in the 80's which were cool when > they worked. Very fragile hangar queens. We got an Agilent Infinium in > 2002, which ran windows 98 under the hood and spent quite a bit of its > own time belly up. Further, Agilent quit supporting it while the $20000 > price was still stinging a little. Tek scopes, well, for me they > suddenly develop big offsets, the triggers quit working, and Tek really > soaks you for probes and other accessories. > I don't have a typical use case to give you. Every month its something > different. Looking at noise and laser pulses from APD's, trying to catch > glitches in huge switching power supplies, debugging microcontroller > circuits, etc. > > Thanks in advance for your help > > Paul Probert > University of Wisconsin A used Tek TDS684 is a nice device. Out of support, but you can easily buy three for what a new one would cost. Also--key point--they don't run Windows. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net
From: MooseFET on 16 Jun 2010 10:46 On Jun 16, 11:10 am, Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSensel...(a)electrooptical.net> wrote: > Paul Probert wrote: > > Folks, > > At my lab I have a chunk of money to get a new scope. I'm looking at 4 > > channel MSO's with 1 GHz analog bandwidth. Agilent has the MSO7104B, Tek > > has the MSO4104, and Lecroy has the MSO104XS-A, all for about $18000. > > Any horror stories about these companies and their recent products along > > these lines. Who has praise? > > I had a couple Lecroy 100 MHz scopes in the 80's which were cool when > > they worked. Very fragile hangar queens. We got an Agilent Infinium in > > 2002, which ran windows 98 under the hood and spent quite a bit of its > > own time belly up. Further, Agilent quit supporting it while the $20000 > > price was still stinging a little. Tek scopes, well, for me they > > suddenly develop big offsets, the triggers quit working, and Tek really > > soaks you for probes and other accessories. > > I don't have a typical use case to give you. Every month its something > > different. Looking at noise and laser pulses from APD's, trying to catch > > glitches in huge switching power supplies, debugging microcontroller > > circuits, etc. > > > Thanks in advance for your help > > > Paul Probert > > University of Wisconsin > > A used Tek TDS684 is a nice device. Out of support, but you can easily > buy three for what a new one would cost. Also--key point--they don't > run Windows. > Yes, avoid any of the scopes that are running windows. They are just harder to use. If you want to get data out to a PC, get one that takes a USB memory stick. The networked or computer controlled ones sound nice but it means you need to bring noisy stuff too close to the measurement you are making. Anything that needs special software on your Windoz PC won't work at some point in the not very distant future.
From: Nico Coesel on 16 Jun 2010 12:36 Paul Probert <paulprobert(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote: >Folks, > At my lab I have a chunk of money to get a new scope. I'm looking at >4 channel MSO's with 1 GHz analog bandwidth. Agilent has the MSO7104B, >Tek has the MSO4104, and Lecroy has the MSO104XS-A, all for about >$18000. Any horror stories about these companies and their recent >products along these lines. Who has praise? > I had a couple Lecroy 100 MHz scopes in the 80's which were cool when >they worked. Very fragile hangar queens. We got an Agilent Infinium in >2002, which ran windows 98 under the hood and spent quite a bit of its >own time belly up. Further, Agilent quit supporting it while the $20000 >price was still stinging a little. Tek scopes, well, for me they >suddenly develop big offsets, the triggers quit working, and Tek really >soaks you for probes and other accessories. > I don't have a typical use case to give you. Every month its >something different. Looking at noise and laser pulses from APD's, >trying to catch glitches in huge switching power supplies, debugging >microcontroller circuits, etc. One of the things to look for is the ability to have the cursors outside the screen. Another thing to watch for is peak detection / envelope display so even at low sweep rates you won't miss a glitch. Having Windows on a scope makes it easy to exchange data but also imposes a security risk. Better not connect it to a company wide network. -- Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico(a)nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael Kellett on 17 Jun 2010 04:08
"Paul Probert" <paulprobert(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote in message news:9smle7-v64.ln1(a)giganews.com... > Folks, > At my lab I have a chunk of money to get a new scope. I'm looking at 4 > channel MSO's with 1 GHz analog bandwidth. Agilent has the MSO7104B, Tek > has the MSO4104, and Lecroy has the MSO104XS-A, all for about $18000. Any > horror stories about these companies and their recent products along these > lines. Who has praise? > I had a couple Lecroy 100 MHz scopes in the 80's which were cool when > they worked. Very fragile hangar queens. We got an Agilent Infinium in > 2002, which ran windows 98 under the hood and spent quite a bit of its own > time belly up. Further, Agilent quit supporting it while the $20000 price > was still stinging a little. Tek scopes, well, for me they suddenly > develop big offsets, the triggers quit working, and Tek really soaks you > for probes and other accessories. > I don't have a typical use case to give you. Every month its something > different. Looking at noise and laser pulses from APD's, trying to catch > glitches in huge switching power supplies, debugging microcontroller > circuits, etc. > > Thanks in advance for your help > > Paul Probert > University of Wisconsin I've never bought a new Tek scope with my own money (no special reason - just havn't fancied what they had on offer when I was buying) but I have bought Agilent and recently a LeCroy - not quite as fancy as you can afford. If I were in your shoes I would go for an Agilent - mainly because I've found it easier to get what I needed on the screen with Agilent rather than LeCroy. None of my scopes has died in service yet so I have no useful comment on relative reliability. Michael Kellett |