Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

crgfrench wrote:
Wed 05/06/20 1:53 pm
I've been using a Tektronix 453 scope and I'm thinking of upgrading to a digital one. Any reason a Siglent SDS1052DL would not be a good choice? They're available new for $260. I was also considering the Rigol DS1052E which are available for $300. I'm going for spending as little as possible while being sufficient for amp stuff.

2 channels should be enough?
What makes you want to switch to digital? That's the first question.

Some of the benefits of switching to digital are reliant on speed, memory, and sampling rates (or connectivity options, etc...). The Siglent 1202X-E has a lot more memory and usefulness compared to those two models, and is very close in price. I would bet it's faster too.

I tried to go based on price originally, and bought a cheapish/very popular Rigol. I almost instantly regretted that, but I've been very happy with my SDS1104X-E since.
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by crgfrench »

1) I'd like better deflection without having to cascade the channels, for one thing (for detecting outer foil ends of caps etc).
2) Also my old Tek hasn't been calibrated in about 40 years, and calibration is half the cost of a new digital scope.
3) Finally I like the idea of exporting data to my Mac.
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

crgfrench wrote:
Wed 05/06/20 5:46 pm
1) I'd like better deflection without having to cascade the channels, for one thing (for detecting outer foil ends of caps etc).
2) Also my old Tek hasn't been calibrated in about 40 years, and calibration is half the cost of a new digital scope.
3) Finally I like the idea of exporting data to my Mac.
1- How would you go about this? I'd like to try it out. It's been a LONG time since I read about foil detection (partly because I don't believe there's an audible difference, but the technical idea interests me).

2- good point.

3- You should strongly consider the SDS1104X-E. It is more expensive, but it's worth it. If you're using a Mac, then you'd certainly appreciate the built in web console. It's fast, and you can make it full screen, and export data directly onto your Mac. The web console works much faster than any of the other remote apps or web interfaces I've tried...and there's some videos on youtube showing the speed difference compared to the Rigols. It's significant.

I enjoy using my scope on a 24 or 32 inch screen. It's pretty awesome.

The SDS1104X-E and the SDS1202X-E both have USB ports, so flash drives are always an option to do that with, but not as fun. I use a 32GB flash drive in mine, and it works perfectly fine.
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by crgfrench »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Wed 05/06/20 6:34 pm
How would you go about this? I'd like to try it out.
I followed these instructions:
https://youtu.be/BnR_DLd1PDI
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

crgfrench wrote:
Wed 05/06/20 8:49 pm
I followed these instructions:
https://youtu.be/BnR_DLd1PDI
Thanks! I love his videos. He has a great way of explaining and demonstrating things. I'm gonna do this from now on just as an excuse to play with the scope more. ;)
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

Here's a film cap test:
SDS00159.png
SDS00160.png

Clearly that test does something. ;)
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by crgfrench »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Wed 05/06/20 6:34 pm
You should strongly consider the SDS1104X-E. It is more expensive, but it's worth it. If you're using a Mac, then you'd certainly appreciate the built in web console.
Ahh that is very cool -- the scope is wifi-enabled and acts as a server! I wish they offered this embedded web console feature on their 2-channel scopes, I don't need 4. But I'm very tempted...
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

crgfrench wrote:
Fri 05/08/20 10:38 am
JMPGuitars wrote:
Wed 05/06/20 6:34 pm
You should strongly consider the SDS1104X-E. It is more expensive, but it's worth it. If you're using a Mac, then you'd certainly appreciate the built in web console.
Ahh that is very cool -- the scope is wifi-enabled and acts as a server! I wish they offered this embedded web console feature on their 2-channel scopes, I don't need 4. But I'm very tempted...
Not needing 4 channels doesn't make you allergic. Here's something to consider. Most scopes (especially budget ones) that have 1 GSa/s sampling, split the sampling rate when using multiple channels. So on a 2 channel scope, you're getting 500 MSa/s per channel. On the 1104X-E 4 channel scope, it's 1 GSa/s per each pair of channels. You would use channels 1 and 3, and still get 1 GSa/s running both channels.

The scope isn't automatically wifi enabled. You need to get a dongle. I bought one for $9, then hacked the scope for options including 200Mhz, WiFi, and other stuff. Hacking to 200Mhz is a little silly, since I normally leave the 20Mhz limit on to reduce noise (and since that's all well above what we normally need in audio). The WiFi thing was mostly for my entertainment, I generally use the ethernet port.

And then there's the obvious benefit of having the extra 2 channels if you ever found an excuse to use them. ;)
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

Here's another reason having a decent digital scope helps. I was testing a .0047uF cap, and it was too sensitive for 2mV/Div, so I had to go to 5mV/Div, and it was much harder to tell the difference. Having the "Measure" button gave me the option to make it very obvious:
SDS00187.png
SDS00188.png
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

On the other hand, I had the opposite effect going up in size to a 1uF cap. In either direction it was too clean at 1 or 2 mV, so I had to drop to 500uV/Div...and even though the visual was obvious in this case, it was still nice have the numbers on the screen:
SDS00189.png
SDS00190.png

Without the ability to go below 1mV/Div, the measurement numbers would have been the only way to tell the difference.
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by colossal »

Nice! 8)
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by crgfrench »

Yes that is exactly the reason I was referring to for wanting to upgrade from my analog Tek.
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

I got another toy today. I like my Tenma audio signal generator, but I don't like not having a screen telling me the amplitude. Today I received my Uni-T UTG932E signal generator from an evil corporation that ships faster than others.

First, I love how small it is. The Siglent generator I tried out was great, but it was huge and expensive. This thing is small and fairly well priced. Build quality, and signal quality were all good. I tried different signal types, different termination simultaneously, and it was all great (except for my learning curve where I made mistakes in the setup, and then fixed it lol).

You can see how small it is compared to my attenuator or scope:
signal-generator.jpg

Here's two nearly perfectly matched signals from both channels:
SDS00194.png

And then I started messing around:
SDS00196.png

I probably started doing goofy stuff after that. But anyway, I dig it. It works well.

Thanks,
Josh
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by crgfrench »

I'm still using the old Tenma 72-505. That Uni-T looks nice!
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

crgfrench wrote:
Sat 05/23/20 11:30 pm
I'm still using the old Tenma 72-505. That Uni-T looks nice!
For the most part, the Tenma was great for me too. Not knowing the amplitude without doing extra work was the straw that broke my poor camel's back. It is fine for most stuff and gives a good signal.

It occurred to me that my other photo doesn't show the size too well. This one is better:
toys.jpg

Camera perspective is funny. I took another one that the AWG looked almost as big as the scope.
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

Here's another interesting bit. In troubleshooting my amp that had a bad OT, I also tried out a Snubber. After replacing the OT, I scoped the power tube grids (no snubber). Take a look:
SDS00001.png

Then I added the snubber back in, and measured again, everything else the same as the first test:
SDS00002.png

All the knobs were at 50% for both tests. When they say "smooth out your sound" it looks like it's actually true.

Thanks,
Josh
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

I figured out a stupid trick that works really well when some caps are harder to tell the difference which side is which...

I turned on a power strip, and kept my bare foot a couple inches from it.

Here's a capacitor without the power strip on:
SDS00007.png
Flipped:
SDS00008.png

Here's that same capacitor with the power strip on:
SDS00005.png
Flipped:
SDS00006.png

That silly trick made testing this pile of caps for my upcoming Tremolo TMB build go much faster:
cap-foils.jpg

I assume this works because the whole point is for us to be an antenna, and this way the antenna has a stronger signal to work with.

Thanks,
Josh
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by crgfrench »

I see the difference without the power strip. The results look backwards with it on?
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by JMPGuitars »

crgfrench wrote:
Fri 05/29/20 7:56 pm
I see the difference without the power strip. The results look backwards with it on?
For that cap, yes, it was plenty obvious without the power strip. I'm too lazy to go backwards and retest a cap I already marked. ;)

Good eye. Going back to my laziness, they're out of order because I didn't bother to reconnect the sides in the same order (tested the same side with and without the power strip, then switched). One side is obviously correct, and one isn't.
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Re: Oscilloscope and DMM Suggestions !

Post by crgfrench »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Wed 09/19/18 9:34 am
Check out this cute adapter:

_JMP3402.jpg

_JMP3400.jpg

Pretty handy when measuring from a parallel output.
Where can I find those? Just ordered the Siglent SDS1052DL+
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