Keysight U1604B oscillscope

grnick50

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Hello all, i am looking into buying a Keysight U1604B oscilloscope as a replacement to my chinese ATTEN bench scope. Has anyone used it or reviewed it? How does it compare to FLuke? Keysight is more sensibly priced than Fluke and I am very biased towards it as it is basically Agilent and I have been using them as a student.
Chinese portables like Hantek is are out of the question, but what makes Kesight and Fluke 4-8 times more expensive?
 
The criticisms I've heard of poRtable DSOs tends to be the software that comes with, or does not.

The reviewer here expected better datalogging and triggering features from the software. Well .csv is .csv, it's up to the user to be an Excel chart wizard.

http://www.keysight.com/owc_discussions/message.jspa?messageID=56975

If I were spending that amount of money I'd definitely download, print, and read the manual to see what I was getting.

It has good common mode and has battery power.

The spec sheet warned that the USB host feature can not be added, so if you want it, make sure yours comes with it.
 
I'm wary of Chinese stuff, but I dis buy a Rigol DS 1102E 100MHz dual channel portable (not a handheld), primarily for looking at AC noise on DC signals and RS-485.

At $400 USD, it fits the bill, but no battery power.

It works OK.

I read that Agilent private labels this particular Rigol, although I never checked it out. Private labeling is more and more common in the error of global markets. So an Agilent might be something else underneath the label
 
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This Rigol you talk about is like my ATTEN scope. I took the desiscion to buy the Keysight-Agilent U1604B.
 
Danw,

How do you use the scope for RS485? Do you set it in Channel A, Channel B differential? What trigger do you use?
 
Below are a couple links to short Youtube videos demonstrating the concept referenced above for using a dual channel oscilloscope in "add inverted channel mode" to view a balanced differential signal. The videos use Modbus RTU over RS-485 as the example, but the principle is the same.

Two parts
Modbus pulses on oscilloscope part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNtuVDKkOnk
Modbus pulses on oscilloscope part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qERWxdZLWhg

Essentially, Channel A minus channel B channel by doing add channel A to inverted channel B.


Triggering is tough. I've been able to slow the master's polling rate to once every 5 seconds, then arm the trigger between polls.
 
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