Show Posts
1
The RF Workbench / Re: Oscilloscope recommendation?
« on: December 12, 2023, 0754 UTC »
Late, but I second the Siglent endorsement. I own a Siglent (SDS1202X-E 200 MHz) and a Rigol DS1000Z (100 MHz).
I prefer the Siglent because samping integrity seems to be better. If you set the display to "dots", the Rigol is still doing some sin(x)/x interpolation (which I think it shouldn't do) which can lead to some odd artifacts. The Siglent, however, only applies interpolation when in line mode (or it does it right when displaying dots).
These Siglents are also more sensitive, 500 µV/div. The Rigol is 1 mV/div.
As for the suitability of a digital oscilloscope for radio stuff, this is much better than getting an old analog sacred cow. These scopes (and, again, Siglent gets it right) have a persistence mode that works similarly to a phosphor screen. I have used mine successfully to adjust a microphone compressor connected to an HF transceiver, for example. I could visualise the signal envelope very well.
The only thing these units lack for some radio work is a 50 ohm impedance option for the inputs. But you can find proper terminators on eBay.
But these things have so much more. Nowadays there is digital circuitry anywhere. You can peek at I2c and other serial communication lines for example.
The best affordable Siglent options are, in my opinion:
SDS1202X-E (200 MHz, two channel)
If you want a four channel version instead (better for some digital protocol decoding):
SDS1104X-E (100 MHz)
SDS1204X-E (200 MHz).
These models are no frills, all options included unlike others that require a payment to activate "advanced features" such as decoding and some measurements.
And so far the manufacturer is being serious about bug correction and firmware updates. I own a SDS1202X-E, Rigol DS1000Z (so I can compare them) and I also got the SVA1015X VNA/Spectrum analyser. It is a very good product.
I prefer the Siglent because samping integrity seems to be better. If you set the display to "dots", the Rigol is still doing some sin(x)/x interpolation (which I think it shouldn't do) which can lead to some odd artifacts. The Siglent, however, only applies interpolation when in line mode (or it does it right when displaying dots).
These Siglents are also more sensitive, 500 µV/div. The Rigol is 1 mV/div.
As for the suitability of a digital oscilloscope for radio stuff, this is much better than getting an old analog sacred cow. These scopes (and, again, Siglent gets it right) have a persistence mode that works similarly to a phosphor screen. I have used mine successfully to adjust a microphone compressor connected to an HF transceiver, for example. I could visualise the signal envelope very well.
The only thing these units lack for some radio work is a 50 ohm impedance option for the inputs. But you can find proper terminators on eBay.
But these things have so much more. Nowadays there is digital circuitry anywhere. You can peek at I2c and other serial communication lines for example.
The best affordable Siglent options are, in my opinion:
SDS1202X-E (200 MHz, two channel)
If you want a four channel version instead (better for some digital protocol decoding):
SDS1104X-E (100 MHz)
SDS1204X-E (200 MHz).
These models are no frills, all options included unlike others that require a payment to activate "advanced features" such as decoding and some measurements.
And so far the manufacturer is being serious about bug correction and firmware updates. I own a SDS1202X-E, Rigol DS1000Z (so I can compare them) and I also got the SVA1015X VNA/Spectrum analyser. It is a very good product.
