What is inside a modern oscilloscope?I have show what is inside Tektronix 220 scope. But what about some more modern digital oscilloscopes? Here are some interesting tear-downs I found from Internet. You might find interesting to see them also:
First I have found Rigol DS4014 100 MHz Digital Oscilloscope teardown video Rigol DS4014 Teardown. (for details on scope itself look at review of a Rigol DS4014 4-channel digital scope). So look at the Rigol DS4014 Teardown:
Second interesting teardown is The One Million Dollar Scope Teardown: The Labmaster 10-100zi Oscilloscope is one of the fastest scopes in the world, coming in at a blistering speed of 100GHz with up to 240 Giga samples per second in real time. The scope is made by Teledyne LeCroy. Experiments and Teardown of the Teledyne LeCroy LabMaster 10-100zi 100GHz, 240GS/s Oscilloscope page takes you inside the Teledyne Lecroy factor, inside the scope itself and has an engineer describing the interleaving frequency technique that allows the lightning fast sample rates. So take a look at Experiments and Teardown of the Teledyne LeCroy LabMaster 10-100zi 100GHz, 240GS/s Oscilloscope video (this is 1.5 hour long video):
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Taking Apart a Vintage Oscilloscope
http://hackaday.com/2017/02/15/taking-apart-a-vintage-oscilloscope/
After getting a power supply and a multimeter, the next piece of gear a hacker would want to add to their bench is the oscilloscope. Nowadays, even the cheapest ones cost a few hundred dollars yet pack in the features. At the other end of the scale, if you can pony up close to a million dollars, you can help yourself to an oscilloscope capable of 100 GHz bandwidth and 240 GS/s sampling rate. With that perspective, it becomes interesting to take a look at this video (embedded below), where [Jack Ganssle] shows us the Philco 7019 Junior Scope which was introduced way back in 1946.
Episode 7 – An Oscilloscope from 1946 Can Still Teach Some Lessons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkFddiu2Dvk
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tektronix type 555 oscilloscope, over 100 tubes inside!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvbNBZX6kNE
Tektronix Type 555 Dual Beam Oscilloscope with over 100 vacuum tubes. See if it works after all these years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ManCave 001 – Tektronix 2201 Oscilloscope Repair (Part 1) – Troubleshooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQM_jubUEX0
In this video Filip troubleshoots Tektronix 2201 Analogue and Digital Storage Oscilloscope without a service manual.
Tomi Engdahl says:
#1 Tektronix 2213 Oscilloscope Repair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grUyjwyBDVc
After getting my first oscilloscope I noticed that one of the channels don’t work, so I have to repair it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rescued analog oscilloscope works fine, still has value
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4458052/Rescued-analog-oscilloscope-works-fine–still-has-value
Who wouldn’t want to save an oscilloscope from destruction? It’s an LG OS-5020, 20 MHz, two-channel analog model in very good condition. Let’s see how well it works.
The oscilloscope didn’t have probes. Fortunately, I have two 150 MHz passive probes plus some BNC cables to connect it to a function generator. The oscilloscope powered up (no boot time like a digital oscilloscope).
The top parts of the signal are somewhat skewed and that skew differs from left to right. Indeed, the falling edges appear to occur in negative time.
Correcting the “negative time” was easy. The oscilloscope’s trace needed to be rotated.
Note: The VirtualBench oscilloscope’s bandwidth is 100 MHz and I had a 150 MHz passive probe. No problem? Not quite. The probe’s bandwidth at the 1× setting is rated at 6 MHz. Be aware of a probe’s greatly reduced bandwidth at the 1× setting. I used a BNC cable for most of these tests.
Home> Community > Blogs > Rowe’s and Columns
Rescued analog oscilloscope works fine, still has value
Martin Rowe -February 28, 2017
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A few weeks ago, my father-in-law called to say he found an oscilloscope. His neighbor was apparently going to put it in the trash so he asked if I wanted it. Of course I did. Who wouldn’t want to save an oscilloscope from destruction? It’s an LG OS-5020, 20 MHz, two-channel analog model in very good condition. Let’s see how well it works.
The oscilloscope didn’t have probes. Fortunately, I have two 150 MHz passive probes plus some BNC cables to connect it to a function generator. The oscilloscope powered up (no boot time like a digital oscilloscope). I set it to CH1, adjusted the knobs and sure enough, a trace appeared. Now it was time to connect it to some signals and get out a lab notebook. Figure 1 shows the test setup, which consists of an HP34401A DMM and a National Instruments VirtualBench (computer for VirtualBench not shown).
Figure 1 The oscilloscope under test, an HP34401A DMM, and a National Instruments VirtualBench (PC not shown) served as the test setup.
For a first test, I went for the basics, DC and a 9V battery. Measuring the voltage on the DMM showed the battery at 8.368V. Connecting a probe to the battery showed a DC level (Figure 2) of what I’d call “pretty close” to that level.
Figure 2 The LG oscilloscope shows a DC level when connected to a battery. The level is reasonably close to the value measured with a DMM.
So far, so good. Next, I connected a probe to the LG’s calibration point, a 1 kHz square wave with an amplitude of 0.5 VP-P. Here’s a photo of the screen, taken with my phone (Figure 3). Yes, that’s the only way to get a screen image on an analog oscilloscope. At least I didn’t have to use a bulky Polaroid camera to get black-and-white photos like I once did.
Figure 3 The oscilloscope screen shows its 1 kHz calibration signal.
The top parts of the signal are somewhat skewed and that skew differs from left to right. Indeed, the falling edges appear to occur in negative time. For a sanity check, I connected the VitrualBench oscilloscope to the calibration point (Figure 4).
Figure 4 The LG oscilloscope’s calibration signal looks properly aligned when viewed with the digital VirtualBench.
Correcting the “negative time” was easy. The oscilloscope’s trace needed to be rotated. If you’re not familiar with analog oscilloscopes, remember that the trace on the screen comes from a beam that needs to align with the grid. That’s why this instrument has a trace rotation adjustment. Digital oscilloscopes don’t need that because there’s no beam, just illuminated pixels.
Next, I set the VirtualBench function generator to produce a sine wave at 1 kHz, then compared the LG screen to the VirtualBench at frequencies up to 20 MHz, the function generator’s highest frequency. Figure 5 shows the LG screen with a 10 VP-P, 1 kHz sine wave (0.5 µs/div, 2 V/div, 1× probe). For the remainder of the tests, I connected the VirtualBench function generator to the LG oscilloscope through a BNC cable.
Figure 5 A 10 VP-P, 1 kHz sine wave displays cleanly on the LG analog oscilloscope.
That sine wave compares well to the VirtualBench display (Figure 6).
Figure 6 The 1 kHz sine wave shown on the VirtualBench display shows that the analog oscilloscope is in pretty good shape.
Next, I set the VirtualBench function generator’s frequency to 20 MHz, still at 10 VP-P. In Figure 7, you can see the drop in amplitude at the analog oscilloscope’s maximum frequency. Not shown are photos of the screen at frequencies of 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, 17 MHz, 18 MHz, and 19 MHz.
Figure 7 At it’s full rated bandwidth, the LG analog oscilloscope shows the expected decreased sine wave’s amplitude.
At 20 MHz, you can see the difference that oscilloscope bandwidth makes. In Figure 8, you can see the higher-bandwidth VirtualBench’s display of the 20 MHz sine wave.
Figure 8 With a 20 MHz signal, the 100 MHz VirtualBench display doesn’t show the decreased amplitude seen on the 20 MHz LG oscilloscope.
Note: The VirtualBench oscilloscope’s bandwidth is 100 MHz and I had a 150 MHz passive probe. No problem? Not quite. The probe’s bandwidth at the 1× setting is rated at 6 MHz. Be aware of a probe’s greatly reduced bandwidth at the 1× setting. I used a BNC cable for most of these tests.
Just for fun, I tried a 5V, 1 MHz square wave (Figure 9). Both oscilloscopes showed some ringing on the signal’s rising and falling edges, possibly caused by parasitic capacitance on the connecting cable or perhaps an impedance mismatch from the function generator’s output to the oscilloscope’s input.
Figure 9 A 5 MHz square wave has ringing on the rising and falling edges – on both the analog LG and digital VirtualBench oscilloscopes.
Now what?
Given that the LG oscilloscope was headed for destruction, it was a good save. It could use a calibration, but that’s about all.
While keeping or selling the LG OS-5020 analog oscilloscope are options, I prefer to give it to a school or nonprofit maker space. I have contacted a local maker space and hopefully, they will take it. Check the comments for updates.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #521 – Picoscope 5000 USB Oscilloscope Teardown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM7HGFOc74M
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSP #133 – Keysight UXR 110GHz BW, 256GS/s, 10-bit Real-Time Oscilloscope Teardown & Experiments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXYje2B04xE
In this episode Shahriar takes a look at one of the most advanced electrical test and measurement instruments ever created. The Keysight UXR-Series Real-Time Oscilloscope brings 110GHz of analog bandwidth and 256GS/s real-time sampling at 4-channels simultaneously. To make it even more impressive, the entire data-conversion architecture is in 10-bits. This implies that the instruments captures, processes, stores and displays over 10Tb/s of information.
Various architectures of state-of-the art oscilloscopes from Keysight, LeCroy and Tektronix are examined and compared against the new real-time architecture of the UXR-Series oscilloscope. The teardown of the front-end 110GHz module along with the data acquisition board is presented and analyzed in detail.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1124 – Rigol 7000 Oscilloscope Teardown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AzXQ7sfYPU
Inside the new Rigol 7000 Series oscilloscope with custom ASIC’s.
Also a look at the bootloader code for potential hacks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSP #133 – Keysight UXR 110GHz BW, 256GS/s, 10-bit Real-Time Oscilloscope Teardown & Experiments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXYje2B04xE
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tearing Into a $1.3 Million Oscilloscope
https://hackaday.com/2018/09/24/tearing-into-a-1-3-million-oscilloscope/
Most hackers are rankled by those “Warranty Void If Broken” seals on the sides of new test equipment. Even if they’re illegal, they at least put the thought in your head that the space inside your new gear is off-limits, and that prevents you from taking a look at what’s inside. Simply unacceptable.
[Shahriar] has no fear of such labels and tears into just about everything that comes across his bench. Including, most recently, a $1.3 million 110-GHz oscilloscope from Keysight. It’s a teardown that few of us will ever get the chance to do, and fewer still would be brave enough to attempt. Thankfully he does, and the teardown video below shows off the remarkable engineering that went into this monster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXYje2B04xE
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #808 – Fluke 196 Scopemeter Repair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujy-0gRspUM
Dave repairs a dumpster Fluke 196 Scopemeter handheld oscilloscope that has a faulty LCD screen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1146 – New Rigol MSO5000 Oscilloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5faiEUXbGg
A teardown and quick look at the new lower cost mid-range 70-350MHz Phoenix chipset based Rigol MSO5000 mixed signal oscilloscope, to be release on the 13th Nov. Stating at US$909.
How does it compare to the 7000 series scope just released 5 months ago?
Tomi Engdahl says:
INSIDE A $30,000 8 GHZ SCOPE
https://hackaday.com/2020/07/29/inside-a-30000-8-ghz-scope/
https://youtu.be/8WNuGUQStq8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside A $30,000 8 GHz Scope
https://hackaday.com/2020/07/29/inside-a-30000-8-ghz-scope/
One of the best things about the Internet — especially the video part — is that you can get exposed to lots of things you might otherwise not be able to see. Take oscilloscopes, for example. If you were lucky, you might have one or two really nice instruments at work and you certainly weren’t going to be allowed to tear them open if they were working well. [The Signal Path], as a case in point, tears down a $30,000 MSO6 8 GHz oscilloscope.
TSP #172 – Tektronix 6-Series 4-Channel 25GS/s 8GHz MSO Review, Teardown & Experiments (Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WNuGUQStq8
Tomi Engdahl says:
Even Xzibit Would Appreciate This Pimped Out, Liquid-Cooled $18K Oscilloscope
YouTuber Zack Freedman pimped out an $18,000 Keysight oscilloscope with LEDs, Raspberry Pis, and liquid cooling. Xzibit would be proud.
https://www.hackster.io/news/even-xzibit-would-appreciate-this-pimped-out-liquid-cooled-18k-oscilloscope-1536722378b5
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1355 – NEW Siglent SDS1104X-U $399 4CH Oscilloscope Teardown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6gzYbuMjOA
Teardown of the new $399 Siglent SDS_1104X-U Four Channel oscilloscope.
A cheaper alternative to the SDS1104X-E
And what’s all this magnetic shielding stuff anyhow?
“Low cost” = $400
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog 1477 – TEARDOWN! – NEW Tektronix 2 Series Oscilloscope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2fw2g6WFbg
Detailed teardown of the new generation Tektronix 2 Series MSO bench/portable battery powered oscilloscope!
An innovative new design form factor you’re either going to love or hate!
This is the upgrade to the 15yo MSO/DPO 2000B series to give a low end on the next generation 2/3/4/5/6 series. It uses the new Lexington scope architecture that is different to the 3 and above series.
00:00 – Teardown of the new Tektronix 2 Series Oscilloscope
00:39 – The stand is a thing of beauty and a joy forever
01:13 – The tablet-like form factor and VESA mount & design decisions
02:55 – Teardown – PCB design driving the case design
05:03 – Was there room for real buttons?
06:12 – The power and grounding interface and why is it on the side?
07:51 – Was there room for an internal battery pack?
08:35 – The VESA mount
09:28 – Back side of the analog front end
13:12 – True single PCB design
15:07 – Don’t forget your knobs!
15:40 – Internal fans
16:37 – BNC interface
18:32 – One-piece metal chassis and heatsink design
18:59 – The PCB
21:59 – The Tek026 analog front end revealed
23:49 – DaveHead commentary and closer look at the bottom side PCB
26:26 – Top side PCB commentary
26:42 – Custom Tek Arg Gen ASIC ADG395C
27:23 – FPGA BGA thermal expansion glue
28:06 – Xilinx ZYNQ UltraScale+ FPGA
29:02 – The Lexington architecture block diagram
31:18 – Why so much sample memory?
32:38 – Product positioning and crippling
34:47 – The ADC – It’s NOT the Tek049
37:29 – Trigger input, PLL, and Battery input switching
38:24 – Digital Inputs
39:24 – External battery pack teardown
43:00 – Playing with the funky stand
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheap Oscilloscope Is… Well… Cheap
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/07/cheap-oscilloscope-is-well-cheap/
We always enjoy watching [Kerry Wong] put an oscilloscope through its paces. His recent video is looking at a very inexpensive FNIRSI 1014D ‘scope that you can also find rebranded. You can usually find these for well under $200 at the usual places. Can you get a reasonable scope for that cost? [Kerry] has a list of issues with the scope ranging from short memory depth to low sensitivity. He did, however, like that it is USB powered so it can be operated from a common battery pack, which would make it truly floating.
Review/Teardown of a FNIRSI 1014D DSO – 100 MHz or 30 MHz Bandwidth?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQKuHJELEOs
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13685-skooppi-kutistui-tabletiksi
Kannettavista testereistä on puhuttu jo vuosikausia, mutta Tektronix vie idean oikeastaan ensimmäisenä maaliin. Uusi Series 2 -oskilloskooppi on käytännössä tabletin kokoinen, alle 1,8 kiloa painava ja van 38 millin paksuinen täysiverinen mittauslaite.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review/Teardown of a FNIRSI 1014D DSO – 100 MHz or 30 MHz Bandwidth?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQKuHJELEOs
By popular request, I did a review and teardown of a FNIRSI 1014D digital storage oscilloscope. You can also find the exact same scope under the Yeapook brand (ADS1014D). Although it is advertised as a 100MHz bandwidth scope, in reality the bandwidth is just at around 30MHz. This along with other issues (e.g. low memory depth, low input sensitivity, display artifacts, etc.) makes it hard to justify getting this scope even with the rock bottom price.
00:00 Introduction
02:45 Functional testing
06:10 Bandwidth measurements
11:31 Rise time testing
12:17 AM/FM modulation, Lissajous figure
13:11 Builtin function generator
14:49 Teardown
16:25 Conclusions
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review/Teardown of a Hantek DSO2D10 Oscilloscope – It Has Builtin AWG, Does Protocol Decoding Too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmx7eo9STXE
I did a detailed review and teardown of a Hantek DSO2D10 oscilloscope. Check it out on Banggood: https://ban.ggood.vip/Zu2N use coupon code BGd2e0cc for additional savings (expires on 9/30).
00:00 Introduction
03:10 Power on time, features
05:08 Test signal
06:26 System information, it’s Linux based!
07:50 Arbitrary waveform generator, AM/FM modulation
12:23 Waveform editor software
15:30 Keysight Interactive IO, SCPI
16:46 Virtual Oscilloscope software
17:28 Memory depth
20:45 Protocol decoding, triggering capability
24:22 Bandwidth testing
27:31 Rise time measurement
29:15 X-Y Mode, DVM
30:58 Teardown
36:19 Conclusion
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything you need to know when buying/using an Oscilloscope! EB#49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d58GzhXKKG8
In this electronics basics episode we will be having a look at the biggest mistake you can do when working with an oscilloscope. But I will not only show you how to do safe mains voltage measurements but also show you all the basics when it comes to oscilloscopes. That means I will show you how to choose one, how to do simple voltage and current measurements and finally how FFT works. I will explain passive probes, triggering, voltage & time division, measuring functions, the cursor function, AC & DC coupling and single mode capturing. Let’s get started!
0:00 The big mistake when using an oscilloscope
1:08 Intro
2:02 How to choose a scope?
4:44 Passive probes & scaling factor
5:55 Trigger
6:41 Voltage division
7:11 Time division
7:37 Measure function
7:47 Cursor function
8:19 AC & DC coupling
9:08 Single mode capturing
9:36 Current measurement
10:16 Safe mains voltage measurement
11:37 Differential probe
11:52 Math & FFT
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #1317 – $140 2CH 100MHz Fnirsi Tablet Oscilloscope Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwtDwJlbWk
$140 for a 2CH 100MHz 1GS/s tablet oscilloscope?
Review of the $140 FNIRSI-1013D 2CH 100MHz 1GS/s tablet oscilloscope.
Is it too good to be true?
EEVblog #1260 – $70 100MHz Oscilloscope?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIH48bIUU00
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog 1503 – Rigol HDO4000 12bit Oscilloscope TEARDOWN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Jl0rMRGSg
Teardown of the new Rigol HDO4000 12bit ultra low noise oscilloscope
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-hdo1000-and-hdo4000-12bit-oscilloscopes-launched-in-china/
https://www.eevblog.com/2022/09/30/eevblog-1503-rigol-hdo4000-12bit-oscilloscope-teardown/
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog 1510 – $699 Rigol 12bit HDO1000 Teardown – WOAH!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEpkVa_ysaw
HUGE SURPRISE inside the new low end $699 Rigol 12bit low noise HDO1000 oscilloscope!
Hacking forum thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hacking-the-hdo1khdo4k-rigol-12-bit-scope/
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEVblog #675 – How To Reverse Engineer A Rigol DS1054Z
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVrTV_BeGg&t=1519s
Dave shows you how to reverse engineer a PCB to get the schematic. In this case the new Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope.
How does the discrete transistor analog front end and the software bandwidth limiting work?
How do you decode SMD transistor codes?
How does it compare to the old Rigol DS1052E?
Dave also discusses the low voltage ohms function of a mulitmeter, how it’s useful, and how to test your multimeter to see if it will have any issues with in-circuit testing.
http://rigol.codenaschen.de/index.php/Schematics
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rigol HDO1000 Serial Boot Capture for Hack + R&S MXO4 play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-eLu1z7-cs
Tomi Engdahl says:
FNIRSI 1013D teardown and mini review – A portable oscilloscope based on Allwinner CPU & Anlogic FGPA
The FNIRSI 1013D is a dual-channel flat-panel oscilloscope with a rich set of features. It is cost-effective and useful to people in the maintenance and R&D industries. Although it has been on the market for a few years, I purchased one, and I decided to introduce it and disassemble it to check out the hardware design.
https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/11/16/fnirsi-1013d-teardown-and-mini-review-a-portable-oscilloscope-based-on-allwinner-cpu-anlogic-fgpa/