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It's been a long time since I used a scope for audio as I don't have one. I am wondering if I need one at all, actually, as a hobbyist. Most everything can be troubleshot via a DVM practically. So, just wondering?
I see some neat looking DSO's for about $300.00 that don't even take up much space. Anyone have experience with these?
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I've been using a 190 series Fluke Scopemeter. I picked it up used at a small fraction of the list price. The user interface takes some getting used to, but what I like is the form factor. Although most things can be done with a meter, seeing what is going on sure is nice and with it being so portable I use it for a lot of different things.
Actually, any scope is infinitly better than nothing. But some are better yet... I know, it's hard to argue with "logic" like that but there it is.
Test equipment vaguly falls into two catagories in my book: Things that measure parameters and things that make signals sensible. You already have at least one of the latter: your audio system which includes your ear/brain, a fantastically sensitive signal analyser honed by evolution. Music itself is a drug of sorts that spoofs that system for entertainment.
If you need more details then you need more angles: time and frequency to help sort out what's going on. Scopes see well in the time domain while spectrum analyzers see well in frequency. Meters don't see anything well but are good at measuring parameters.
OK! Sorry if you feel that I am stating the obvious but clarity is important. From my lifetime of experience with electronics both professionally and as a hobbiest if I could have only one piece of test gear it would be a scope. Nothing else comes close if you really want to know what's going on. Since today's digital scopes can display the spectrum and voltage values they essentially do everything except directly measure component parameters.
I like Tektronix scopes from long long experience and bias (They are located a ways down valley from me). However you may find better values. The key thing to look for is a high sample rate (a GS/s is usually plenty) and a user interface that appeals to you.
Seeing is believing..
Rick
Very well done!
Could not be better said.
Thanks, glad it resonated with you.
The line between man and machine seems to grow thinner every year...
Rick
just had an ICD implant so now I am considered to be a cyborg...........
Hey my friends call me the gorilla cyborg, what those hoses!!
"just had an ICD implant so now I am considered to be a cyborg..........."
So, are we at risk of assimilation into the collective if we post to you?
I just did a quick google and now that I sort-of know what they are I'm curious if you are fully wired or have just, as the song almost goes, got one, under your skin...
Hope it works out well Stu, they look like slick technology.
Best, Rick
Hey that is the lyrics of a tune............?
Freaked out the implant surgeon in the pre surgery consult when I asked what kind of wire they used. A thousand procedures and I was the first to ask, he told me, but I was wondering how the PH of the blood would interact.
Kinda cool: titanium wire ceramic coated ( according to him) encased in a teflon tube. Ends are exposed of course. Screw fitting to the actual device ( about the size of a Zippo lighter), and made of a titanium casing). The heart end as a miniature corkscrew is like a wine opener, which they literally screw into the heart wall, to keep it anchored in place. That part kinda threw me for a loop, but in hind sight, how else could they keep the end in position ? As the surgeon explained, the heart has no pain sensors so there was no pain involved although the required observation period in the hospital ( procedure only took a little over an hour) was to make sure that the heart wasn't bleeding or they had penetrated through the heart muscle...
But all is well and the newer generation of batteries supposedly will last me over a decade.
Sometimes growing old can be a bitch...
Welcome to the Matrix......
Hey Stu wanna get together and market some as I/C or Speaker cable?
health related supplies are extraordinarily expensive. Sometimes I think they have lawsuit funds already built in....
The bill for my implant was $55K of which the major part was for the device itself. Thank heavens for supplementary health insurance !!!!
That being said, I have many docs as customers and they bring some intersting gear at times. One brought some coax from an MRI room being refurbished and upgraded. Armored copper clad aluminum with a copper clad aluminum inner wire, very similar to the stuff JPS labs used. It actually sounded better than the JPS stuff.
Another brought in some wire from an ultrasound rooms. Pure silver litz wire somewhat in a Cat 5 configuration but marger gauges and more of them. Claimed the hospital was charged $1.5K per foot or something like that ( wire was made in Japan). Made an IC but it sounded lousy, although I would ave loved to experiment further with it...
"titanium wire ceramic coated"
Sounds like pretty "high end" cables to me Stu...
From what I read (in the renowned medical journal, Wickipedia) apparently they also have them where they are rather like a minature internal version of the paddles that they use externally and don't have to be wired to the heart itself. I imagine that there are all sorts of factors that get stired into the stew doing that sort procedure.
Hope it works out well for you. I can just see the headlines: Man hit by a bolt of lightening while surfing now finds sunny days boring...
Best wishes, Rick
i'm supposed to avoid high RF devices: car ignition systems, strong magnets as in speakers ( have a pair of Lowthers:2.8 Tesla!), Sheesh seems I'm supposed to abandon audio pursuits, But damn with those restrictions....
"i'm supposed to avoid high RF devices: car ignition systems, strong magnets as in speakers..."
Stu, contact the manufacturer and get some real information. Neither of those restrictions are sensible. It the devices really have RF susceptibility issues you need the real data of field strength vs frequency and such. Same with magnetic fields, just HOW strong of a magnetic field, how many Teslas?
As you know B drops very fast as a fn of distance for typical small sources so you really need to understand if there is really a problem and what the threshold really is. This is the age of dangerously strong magnets and LED's and very near-field "personal" RF devices. Car ignitions?? GMAB!
Hang in there... Rick
the latest Atlantic has an interesting article on tDCS: Transcranial direct current stimulation where DARPA has been conducting experiments in placing a small voltage directly to the scalp (on scalp not under skin). Even a 9 volt battery with just 2 mA current has had fairly dramatic results.
They find that learning can increase by 10 to 20% and the effect lingers for at least a day. Perception wise , volunteers have had a doubling in the speed and perception making it of interest for military sensors.
Kinda cool, they think it will have benefits for stroke victims, epilepsy, etc..
But i'm not too worried. I disobeyed most of the restrictions in the first week, jumpering a friend's car, reconing a 15 inch woofer, etc. The tech scad me with what looked like those hand held scanner at airports. Apparently the unit has flash memory and a transmitter. He had the readings for the week and all was normal. So was the three week readings. Apparently they can program the trigger sensitivities. Mine is pretty low, so relatively immune to external factors, though doc cautioned me if i noticed my heart (pulse) racing.
So not really an issue yet ( they can increase sensitivity externally).
Just remember nothing is more important than your health... Guess the sins of youth are catching up....... 8^)
I recommend a decent used analog scope. You can find them quite easy. Get a dual trace, and almost any bandwidth you find will be plenty for audio. I recently picked up a great working Tektronix 2215 oscillloscope (60MHz) with probes for $125 from an add in the local paper. Look around, since all the new ones are digital, analog ones are cheap cheap cheap. Also, it is much easier to see noise with and analog scope.
It should have at the least: Dual channel, component tester and square wave generator.
And if you're a novice - not a trained tech - keep it simple. I think a scope is a great tool to have even for basic work. You can signal trace and compare signals between channels to trace and pin down a problem point in the circuit. And the fun too!
Look in the Asylum classifieds. there are a few good ones cheaper than $300
charles
Don't, get a used HP/Tek DSO or better an analog wide bandwidth one (300-400 MHz minimum).
I have a HP 150MHz HP, a Tektronics 400+ MHz and have used a 150MHz $400 DSO. The bandwidth, controls and displays of DSOs are just not good enough unless one spends much much more.
At a push and for a low budget, get a used 200 MHz analog.
I disagree with this. I bought a nice used Tek 200Mhz storage scope a while back and it was great. Until it wasn't. Now it fails self test, fails to boot and it's basically a boat anchor now.
So I just got a Hantek 100Mhz scope for about $300 on Amazon. This is great. Apart from anything else, the hardware is the same as their 200Mhz model so you can 'hack' it to go up to 200 if you need.
But it's just much nicer to use than my old Tek. Smarter, can be plugged into a PC and controlled from there. And so much smaller. A big plus !
One thing I like also is that it can do a real-time FFT display - so you can display frequency components in real time. Eat yer heart out, old Tek.
A 20Mhz scope is fine for analog audio work. But you are right I can't say I used a scope that much when I was repairing audio gear as 99% of the failures were blown outputs.
But for chasing down a bad cap in a distorted channel a scope is the only tool for the job.
One of the guys in my ham club showed off a Owan DSO he bought on Amazon.
$400 for a 100Mhz DSO is a lot of scope for the money.
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