Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: PC Based Oscilloscope

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Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 08-05-2003, 10:13 AM:

I would like to get your expert views about this product?

www.softdsp.com

Product is SDS200. Look at spec sheet (4 pages, PDF)

Price: Approx $850 USD

Basic Specs
2 Channel
200 MHz Bandwidth

Thanks
Paul

Posted by Jim Alexander (Member # 226) on 08-05-2003, 06:13 PM:

One of the main drawbacks of any digitally based oscilloscope is the inability to show changes in the signal, immediately, as they occur. There will always be a certain level of delay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but reading through the spec sheet, there is also no provision for X-Y display. When aligning analog sound readers, this is virtually a must. Also another problem that occurs is with signals in the higher frequency ranges, resolution begins to drop off making the ability to show annomilies more and more difficult. Hacing use oscilloscopes for over 20years, I remain a true fan of the tried and true analog oscilloscope.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 08-05-2003, 08:30 PM:

They start out saying that this thing has a 5Gs/s sampeling rate, then tell you it is really 100Ms/s, unless you are using bath channels, then it is 50Ms/s; but it still works like it is 5Gs/s. This sounds like magic to me, and I would tend to doubt the 200MHz bandwidth. I did not see any way to feed it an external trigger. There are times that you want to use both channels to display waveforms, and trigger from a third source. From what I saw in their information, this unit cannot do this. I have never been happy with the displayed resolution of this type of unit. From their information it lookes like there is a max input of 42V. This could be a problem as well. And just think about having to wait for Windows to boot up before you can use your scope (it could be a good time for a coffee break).

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 08-05-2003, 10:23 PM:

You could by a good used dual trace on ebay for 1/4 that amount

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 08-06-2003, 03:12 AM:

or a brand new dual trace for about 1/2 that. [Smile]

-Aaron

Posted by Jon Bartow (Member # 241) on 08-06-2003, 07:33 AM:

Heck, I bought my scope on e-bay for $450
4ch 100Mhz analog scope with a built-in "computer" i.e. it will actually measure and display voltage, time, phase, freq etc.
Air Force surplus. Came with a big set of probes too.

Stay away from PC scopes for theater work. They don't have the resolution , the bandwidth, not in real time, and are too expensive. (Although not carrying around that big analog scope and just having the laptop would be nice...)
Jonathan