Recommendation for oscilloscope to buy?

[Dinobot248]

Does anyone have a recommendation for an oscilloscope on Amazon? Looking for something for a beginner to check on my EG4 6500EX and keep in my "tool box".

I have some mild flickering lights at times. Have not recorded on paper or took mental notes when it occurred, but I wanted to to begin documenting it.

Thanks in advance

 

[Adam De Lay]

I had someone recommend this one to me.

https://www.amazon.com/YEAPOOK-ADS1013D-oscilloscope-Oscilloscope-Bandwidth/dp/B088WMWYT2

I just haven’t purchase one yet.

 

[HighTechLab]

Rigol MSO5074.

But more important is the probes. Get yourself a good differential probe if you are going to probe mains voltages.

With a good scope, you buy once, hurt once. With a good scope, no one, including yourself will doubt what you're seeing.

 

[webbbn]

What are you expecting to see on the scope? Transients are difficult to capture without a storage scope, and, even then it can be difficult to get the triggers right to capture it.

A Rigol is very nice, and highly recommended if you plan to use it for other things, but it's alot to take in for someone who hasn't used a scope before, and just wants to see a simple 60Hz signal.

I think you'd do better with a relatively simple volt meter/oscilloscope. You can use standard probes that you're likely already used to using with AC voltages, they're relatively easy to use, and they're designed for such uses.

There are also USB scopes that you can hook to your computer and record from, which might be useful for capturing the issue that you're looking for, but there's going to be a learning curve: https://www.amazon.com/Hantek-Oscilloscope-Channels-Handheld-Portable/dp/0201336421

 

[Hedges]

Here's something we use at work a lot. It has the particular advantage that inputs have isolated BNC shell and differential amplifier:

Rohde & Schwarz ScopeRider RTH Handheld 5-In-1 Oscilloscope | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Rohde & Schwarz ScopeRider RTH Handheld 5-In-1 Oscilloscope at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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I do prefer a higher performance one, though. Much better control over frequency domain and time domain winows:

Teledyne LeCroy - WaveRunner 8000HD 8 Channel High Definition Oscilloscopes

Teledyne LeCroy is a leading provider of oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers and related test and measurement solutions that enable companies across a wide range of industries to design and test electronic devices of all types.

www.teledynelecroy.com

Here's what I use at home, was quite the high end scope in its day:

TDS 784D TEKTRONIX 4-CH DIGITAL PHOSPHOR OSCILLOSCOPE 1GHz 4GS/s SER# B033299 | eBay

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3BB Tektronix P5210A Probe Differential Warranty : 1 month | eBay

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Fluke Fluke-I2000 Flex Ac Flexible Current Probe,20/200/2000A 95969345088 | eBay

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On a more serious note, we also use Rigol, which has some inexpensive ones. Also some Siglent instruments.

https://www.amazon.com/Siglent-Technologies-SDS1202X-Oscilloscope-Channels/dp/B06XZML6RD

I like to have a few functions, including math and FFT. A scope can compute V x I on a sample by sample basis, compute actual power not just apparent (if you have a current transformer, which is cheap enough.)


As Dexter said, probes are useful.
A 10x probe with 300V or so max input you may generally get away with using on the grid (there are issues with ground if you don't have a HV differential probe), but they may not handle transients that are likely.