I am an electronics hobbyist. I enjoy doing electronics and building things that have some electronic component inside. Usually hobbyists have more time to enjoy the process of doing electronics, but we could use some help, sometimes. What kind of help? Well, the introduction of affordable Digital Oscilloscopes (There are 25MHz digital scopes for $499 or less!) opens a new world of possibilities for the hobbyists. There is one problem when you are a hobbyist, you don’t have a formal training in electronics and electronics test equipments and you need some basic information on how to evaluate a digital scope, written by hobbyists for hobbyists. Some basic tutorials on how to use some of the handy features of DSO (Digital Storage Oscilloscopes) and MSO (Mixed Signal Oscilloscopes) could be useful as well. So I decided to write some tutorials telling other hobbyists my own experience with DSO and MSO. I will be using Rigol DSO and MSOs. In September 2007, I was exactly in the same position as you are, evaluating what DSO to purchase. I evaluated (virtually, through the Internet) many options (all entry level scopes) and I decided to purchase a Rigol DS1102CA, because of its price/performance. The evaluation took more than one month! I am very happy with the scope.
I will be using different Rigol equipment in my tutorials. In each tutorial, I will present a link where you can purchase the instruments I used.
