In article , james.douglas@genesis-
software.com says...

Anyone use these? Any recommendations good or bad? I am looking at some that
have Scope, Meter, Spectrum Analysis, etc. Are the "multi-use" type PC
scopes any good? I see some that are down around $200-300? which is in my
price range.

My gut reaction when I see a PC-based O-scope is to cringe.

I would stay away from them. For the same price range that you
mention, you could get one heck of a nice Tektronix 7000 series 'scope,
or perhaps a 400 or 2400 series portable, all from the used/surplus
arena (more specifically, from ham radio swap meets or Greed-Bay).

Example: The Tek 7603 was one of their most popular, and is also
one of the most plentiful on the surplus market. It has a mainframe
bandwidth of at least 100MHz, and can often be found for around $50-$100
with plug-ins.

If you want some serious bandwidth, you should have a look at the
Tek 7904 or 7104. The base frames have bandwidths of 500MHz and 1GHz,
respectively, and you should be able to get a good 7904 with plug-ins
for a little over $300.

Your test equipment needs are, of course, your choice. However, I
would like to say that just because a test instrument CAN be designed to
work in a PC environment does NOT always mean that it SHOULD be. Good-
quality input stages are hard to do (there's a reason Tek put so much
R&D into theirs), and they are one of the main driving factors where
cost is concerned.

I have little faith that the Taiwan-import PC-based (alleged) O-
scopes can do a proper job in this regard. Good quality test gear is an
investment, and it should be treated that way.

Keep the peace(es).


--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute.
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, ARS KC7GR,
kyrrin (a/t) bluefeathertech[d=o=t]calm -- www.bluefeathertech.com
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped
with surreal ports?"