Used Oscilloscope Canada

[Desiderato Chouinard]

HiI'm looking for a cheap oscilloscope, I don't mind if it's used if I can see it work before I buy it, and I'm very wary of eBay. There are no stores that have any in Ottawa, where I live. I don't know if Active Surplus still exists in Toronto, they would have had them. Maybe there's a place in Montreal that has used stuff?

I agonized over this a year ago. I ended up with a Siglent Technologies SDS1052DL+ 50 MHz Digital Storage Oscilloscope. I got it from Amazon, and I see they list them at about $ 363 CDN. I realize that's not cheap, but it's been working A1 almost daily for 12 months.

I haven't been to Toronto in about three years, but one of my friends was there last summer, and he said Active Surplus is still going. They might have a used scope for a lot less. I have spent a lot of time in the Ottawa area and I concur that you are unlikely to find anything there in used equipment stores. That said, a fellow gave me a used HP scope that did pretty much what this one did -- it was about 20 years old and worked fine for a week, and then it let the magic smoke out of it.

I don't know your budget, but if you can afford a new one similar to what I listed above, you won't regret it. Buying used, surplus electronic gear is a gamble. You might get lucky and end up with a deal . . . or a boat anchor. I always by new unless I know from where it came. Anyhow, that's my 2-cents worth.

You might have some luck on some of the Amateur radio swap shops and flea markets, but they mostly want to sell to other licensed operators, and they are typically not selling scopes. Just old radios, antennas, etc. In years past, I have seen test gear such as you seek available, but it's seldom.

Not sure exactly what cheap means but, when it comes to 'scopes, I'd warn away from being too frugal. I've tried Kijiji, but never came across anything (within my price target at the time) that I felt comfortable buying. For a while I used a BitScope ($150). This is a large USB dongle that displays on your PC's screen. It was functional, but barely. I finally tossed in the towel this xmas and bought a Rigol. While a low end scope, it is versatile and does everything I need it to do. I bought it through the Canadian distributor (www.rigolcanada.com), as it was the same cost as buying through Amazon. I found that eBay was selling the same 'scope for almost twice the price.

@ve1dx I also will vouch for the SDS scopes. I have the 2 channel 200 MHz version. I got mine a couple of years ago. Before I was using an old tektronix analog scope which was big, heavy and could not do the neat stuff these can do like waveform storage and one shot capture and all the fancy triggering. Very easy to use. I wouldn't say they are cheap but I will not have to upgrade any time soon.

Oscilloscopes and vectorscopes are instruments used for measuring and charting electronic voltage signals. They are often used to detect electrical malfunctions and to test new electrical equipment in labs, schools, and other work applications. You can purchase a range of affordable new or used oscilloscopes and vectorscopes on eBay.

One of the most common uses for these types of scopes is to troubleshoot or probe malfunctioning electronic equipment. Since it can graphically show signals, Hertz, and Megahertz, an oscilloscope can show if a circuit is oscillating or not. In other instances, the exact timing or shape of a pulse may be important, and this can be seen in the waveform by these tools. Vectorscopes are mostly used in audio and video applications. In video applications, they probe measurements and test television signals. They look exclusively at the subcarriers in the video signals (certain MHz). In audio applications, they measure the differences among various stereo signals.

An oscilloscope is a test instrument, made in both analog and digital versions, which allows you to look at voltage signals as they change. Signals are charted on a 2D plot, using one or more channels as a function of time. They can typically probe and measure bandwidths and signals as low as 1Hz and up to 10MHz. The instrument can turn sound or vibration into voltages (MHz) that can then be charted in a waveform design. Oscilloscopes observe the changes that electrical indicators make over phases, charting them into shapes that show voltages in Hertz, Megahertz, and time periods. These charts are constantly graphed against a pre-calibrated scale. The charts can be checked for factors such as rise-time, frequency, amplitude, distortion, and periodic intervals. Some common waveform parameters that an oscilloscope will display on its digital screen are:

A vectorscope is a specific type of oscilloscope, usually a digital design, which has specific audio and video applications. Instead of using a probe for plotting signals versus time, the vectorscope displays a plot of two signals. This type of waveform can give insight into the relationship between channels, such as two separate times, voltages, or bandwidths (Mhz). This instrument operates much like the more generalized oscilloscope, but some specific vectorscopes may have more specialized functions such as accepting standard television or video channels as input.

Selecting the correct oscilloscope probe ensures accuracy and can improve the performance of your test instrument. TPI offers a wide range of high quality oscilloscope probes designed to meet the most demanding applications.

Why do TPI oscilloscope probes have a compensation range and compensation adjustment?

Since the input of every oscilloscope is different our probes have a compensation adjustment so the capacitance of the probe can be adjusted to match the capacitance of the scope input. The compensation range is the range of adjustment available. Matching probe and scope capacitance is important to prevent waveform distortion.

What is the benefit of a probe with X1 and X10 switchable attenuation?

Passive X10 probes allow you to read a signal 10 times the amplitude of that viewed with a X1 probe. Example: an eight-division graticule on 5V/Div setting would display a 40 volt peak-to-peak signal using the X1 setting. You can view a 400 volt signal using the X10 setting.

What is readout?

Readout is an activator pin that protrudes out of the BNC connector of an X10 or X100 probe that completes a circuit. There are contacts around the BNC connector on the front of the oscilloscope and the attenuation is automatically set. If your scope does not have contacts around the BNC connector, it does not need this feature.

What probe should I buy?

Select a probe that is at least the same bandwidth as the oscilloscope you intend to use; however, for optimum performance, select a probe with two times the bandwidth of your test instrument.

Why is common rejection ratio (CMMR) important for differential probes?

CMMR is a measure of how well a differential probe will reject signals common to both test points, leaving the desired signal to be displayed by the scope.

What does the maximum differential voltage specification tell me?

This specification provides you with the maximum voltage between the inputs the differential probe can be subjected to. This is important because the maximum voltage should never be exceeded.

The probe should have sufficient bandwidth and rise time for the test instrument and application. Choose a probe with at least an equal bandwidth as the scope it will be used with. For best performance a probe with twice the bandwidth as the scope should be selected. For oscilloscope probes, the input capacitance of your oscilloscope should be within the compensation range specification of the probe. In addition, if your oscilloscope has readout function, select a probe with this capability. For differential probes, make sure the maximum differential voltage is adequate for your application and the common mode rejection specification meets the requirements of the tests being performed.

With TwinCAT Scope, measuring applications are as simple as could be, even for "big data" applications: support for multi-core processing also enables the acquisition and display of very large quantities of data. The software oscilloscope is fully integrated within the TwinCAT control architecture and enables the simple graphical display of signal curves using the charting tool.

TE1000 is the TwinCAT development environment for convenient configuration of control, drive control and I/Os. In addition, the tool includes the configuration and programming of TwinSAFE, the safety solution from Beckhoff.

The TwinCAT 3 Scope View is a software oscilloscope for the graphic representation of signal curves in different chart types. These could be, for example, YT, XY, bar or digital charts. The Scope View Professional extends the Scope View Base version supplied with TwinCAT 3 XAE by additional functionalities. The field of application refers to processes that are to be tracked and monitored over a longer period of time.

The TwinCAT 3 Scope Server prepares data for the graphical display in the TwinCAT 3 Scope View. It can be used with the Scope View Base or the TE1300 Scope View Professional version. The Scope Server is particularly suitable for autonomous data recording in distributed systems in the production, plant or machine network. It not only has TwinCAT-specific communication interfaces, but also a standardized communication connection via OPC UA.

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The combination of the waterfall function and the real-time spectrum scope assists in maximum receive performance of the IC-7300 and increases QSO opportunities without missing weak signals. The waterfall function shows a change of signal strength over a period of time and allows you to find weak signals that may not be apparent on the spectrum scope.

Scroll mode automatically keeps the operating signal within the scope range.

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