Which Oscilloscope to buy?

[bilalbajwa]

Guys i am a college student and thinking to buy a Digital Oscilloscope. I have a budget of $300 and i found these oscilloscopes interesting. I would really appreciate if someone would guide me in selecting the best among the following. I highly appreciate your help.

Atten Digital Oscilloscopes 40MHz ADS1042C
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200581177391&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

ATTEN ADS1022 DIGITAL STORAGE OSCILLOSCOPE 25MHz
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320492007798&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

SIGLENT SDS1022C 25MHZ Digital Oscilloscope
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120691426434&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

OWON Digital Oscilloscope PDS5022S 25 MHz
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130493939041&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

[davenn]

they are all pretty standard built to a cheap price scope, are pretty popular by the hobbiest just remember you get what you pay for. If you can buy one of those from a shop front seller within your country do so. you have much better chance with warrenty returns.
Those three 25MHz scopes are all the same scope all made in the same factory, just labelled differently for the end seller.
Get the most MHz bandwidth you can afford.!! in the long run you will be thankful, as you electronics knowledge and activities expand and you need a faster scope.
So go with the 40MHz one for now ... it wont be too long before you will be looking at a 100MHz scope. Its all avout resolution of the signal you are looking at.

I had a 25MHz scope that could hardly resolve a 8MHz video signal properly, on my 100MHz scope it is easily resolved and I can see clearly what is going on.

Dave

 

[bilalbajwa]

Thanks a lot Dave. I do have a budget for a 50 MHZ Rigol DS1025E. Its $100 more. What do you think? I read a lot of good reviews about it on internet and also found they make low end oscilloscopes for Agilent!

 

[davenn]

Thanks a lot Dave. I do have a budget for a 50 MHZ Rigol DS1025E. Its $100 more. What do you think? I read a lot of good reviews about it on internet and also found they make low end oscilloscopes for Agilent!

go for it the Rigol is yet another brand name like the others... ATTEN etc. the one I have in my workshop is a 100MHz UNI-T, UT2102B, yet another weird brand name and looks pretty similar to the ones in your links.
It works ok had for ~ a year now it cost the business ~ AU$900 from memory

cheers
Dave

 

[(*steve*)]

If you look around, you will find that there are firmware hacks to upgrade some of these scopes to higher bandwidth.

Given that your budget doesn't stretch to buying two units, I would tend to recommend that you don't try the hack because some proportion of people brick their units.

I believe Rigol == Agilent for low end units. (Rigol manufactures for Agilent) May not be true of all models though.

 

[TheLaw]

Look at the Seeedstudio DSO Quad. It may interest you.

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/preorder-dso-quad-beta-test-p-736.html?cPath=174

It's still in Beta but the retail version is due to ship within the next month(s). Should be around $250 I believe.

I guess it depends on what you are using it for. These actually seem to be pretty accurate...

 

[bilalbajwa]

Thanks for all your replies.

 

[joy at mcs]

Rigol do make many of Agilent's scopes but not all the models.

The Rigol scopes are good quality and you can't go wrong for value for money.

I don't know anything about Atten , but personally I wouldn't recommend the Owon scopes. The screen quality is poor and most people I know who have bought the Owon scopes were't very pleased.

 

[infinity]

Agreed
Owon does seems fishy to me as well.
as for bilalbajwa I opened the first two links you offered.
Looks ok I would also choose a 40MHz among these four. also I noticed on the first link, the same one listed above in orange is one dollar cheaper, hope this works for you. Please update us with some reviews if you buy anyone of those you mentioned here. Good luck
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220827960822&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT