T&L Publications

anybody out there use a fluke scope? Are they worth the money you pay for them? or are they like laptops where you pay a lot more for the portability. I'm in the market for a new scope and wondering if i'm better off getting something else for that price.<p>Cheers, James in Vancouver

what do you plan to do with the scope? what kind of circuits? speed, etc. <p>where do you anticipate using it?

I will be using the scope mainly at the home work bench but my job also requires me to work on the road and out of trucks. Most of my work revolves around control- micros, rc links and sensors. With things getting ever faster I don't want to be wanting a faster scope in a few years. I,m looking at 200Mhz BW with a sampling rate of 1Ghz. I view test equipment like cars, you buy quality and take care of it and it should last you a while.

I have had a portable Fluke O-scope for several years here at work. I'd tell you the model number, but it is "loaned out" right now. We pretty much exclusivly use their multimeters as well, because they are easy to use and very durable. I have never had a problem with their products, and would personally recommend them to anyone that can afford them. At home, I have a $10.00 multimeter, and I get my money's worth there.

If the cost is no issue then the fluke scope would be ok. My biggest concern is the size of the screen. Several HPs are in a portable formfactor. Me personally, I care about cost and prefer a benchtop form factor.

For portability and general viewing its fine.
For exacting circuit analysis and troubleshooting, I wouln't hit a dog in the butt with any scope using an LCD readout.
When it comes down to "when the rubber meets the road" give me a CRT readout in realtime --No contest.

Usually, the Fluke Scopemeters are a little pricey for their performance. Don't discount Tektronix. They make a line of LCD-screen portable DSO with decent bandwidths, starting at around $1000 for 60MHz and going up from there. Their offerings are sized as though you just bought a "regular" portable scope front panel with about five inches of case behind it, so they're fairly small and definitely light and sacrifice nothing in performance. Although the Fluke Scopemeter, being a flatter non-foldable notebook-sized instrument, may fit into a briefcase better than the usual Tek TDS models, the Tek will be a lot more "scopelike" in operation. Seems to me that at one time, Tek also imported (or made in Beaverton, I can't remember) a Scopemeter look-alike, so you might try ebay for something like that.<p>Dean