Can anyone recommend a good 4 ch scope?
I have an Owon SDS1104 which is actually pretty useless because the triggering is so unreliable. 
Plus it’s highly susceptible to electrical noise picked up on the probes.
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Hi Gerard
This will be picked up irrespective of scope variety.
A lot of choice is usually dictated by price
I have had an “Atten” for quite a number of years which has been quite good. “Only” 25MHz but hey! a lot of what you see on a 100MHz unit you have put there anyway and you are not meant to see it. It actually causes a lot of anxiety for nothing as some of it means little. But it is dual time base and has filters if I want to clean up a trance for some reason. Most other nice things. But the XY function stopped working which was a nuisance at the time but not life threatening.
I also have a tablet scope which is OK as long as you are aware of it’s limitations. But the triggering seems good and it is dead easy to record a screen shot and retrieve it later. Supposedly 100MHz but I take that as I find it. Seems to measure a few mV high but I can put up with that. Will someday check it out of interest more than anything.
I think Rigol seem to be pretty popular and for what you get I don’t think too pricey. They have been around a long time now.
I just noticed you say 4Ch. Mine are only a lowly 2Ch but at a pinch I have 2 devices.
I supposed I got spoilt when working full time as I had access to some of the better instruments Tektronics had to offer, nice. Also some other eye watering instrumentation from HP, Marconi and other european instrument suppliers. Some of the antenna measuring gear was unbelievable. One HP instrument was capable of measuring the inductance of a capacitor lead, about 50mm of straight wire. Not bad eh.
Cheers Bob
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Oh for a Tektronix 475 scope! We used them when I was a mainframe engineer (an extinct job now!).Predictable, accurate and so easy to use. A bit of kit you could trust.
The Owon? Difficult, cannot be trusted. And being able to trust that what you see on the scope screen is actually what is happening in circuit is fundamental.
Of course, waaay back I used a Tektronix 585. 15MHz. The great thing was that you could warm your hands on the side panels when cold!
Yes. Thems was the days wot??
I remember one test we did on a pretty sophisticated HF receiver. Using a HP spectrum analyser the resolution and video bandwidth had to be set so low it took the spot 45 minutes to go across the screen. Literally could go and have a cup of coffee. I used to set up a Polaroid oscilloscope camera, open the shutter and set a single sweep. Go and have lunch or something and wait.
Cheers Bob
Hi Gerard,
Over my working career I was spoilt with high end test equipment. Last year my 30 year old faithful died and I needed a replacement, but now on a retirement budget.
After much research I settled on a 200MHz, 12 bit, 4 channel Rigol DHO-1204 scope. I have been extremely happy with this purchase, both in the digital and analog domains.
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Very Nice !!
Cheers Bob
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Thanks for that. I am tending towards the Rigol and that’s reinforced by the support the boys from Core provide.
The main problem with the Owon is that the after sales support is zero. Combine that with the plethora of features that will probably never be used and trouble is brewing.
We did tend to get spoilt with excellent test kit.
Bob, I recall that we did have a Polaroid camera setup on one of our scopes. I think it fitted up to the old 585.
Mainframe maintenance was 2 years of sitting about doing preventive maintenance then 3-4 days of absolute chaos when the thing broke. I have some weird and wonderful stories from those days!
Hi Gerard
Wasn’t by any chance the On Course Tote set up for Sydney Racing clubs was it. I was involved in that for some time. Not Computer maintenance though.
Cheers Bob
No, not Sydney Racing.
The kit I worked on later were the bleeding edge of technology at that time (1980s) when the hardware consisted of Motorola ECL devices. ECL=Emitter Coupled Logic. I do recall two things about ECL. 1) Very high power demands. 2) A very specific power up sequence due to a multiplicity of voltage requirements for the logic. Later on CMOS caught up in terms of speed so CDC moved to CMOS mainframes.
The 2 sites I mainly worked on were BHP (CDC Cyber 74) and Defence Signals Directorate (CDC Cyber 175). I never saw either of these mainframes ever break or ever stop running. Peripherals…disk…tape…printer…card reader? All the time! Always something broken.
In terms of nags and betting, CDC had the contracts at VICTAB here in Vic and QTAB in Brisbane. All their site engineers were rostered on to work Melbourne Cup Day every year!
