Reddit reviews Rigol DS1054Z Digital Oscilloscopes - Bandwidth: 50 MHz, Channels: 4

Even a $20 oscilloscope(full disclosure: this is my video) is better than a DMM when it comes to debugging anything beyond the most basic circuits. But if you really want to splurge, buy him a ~$349 Rigol 1054Z. That's a professional-level instrument on a tinkerer's budget... I used to use a $40,000 Tek scope, and honestly I prefer the Rigol's user interface... I only use the $$$ scope when I need more than 100 MHz analog bandwidth (which is rare for most engineers to ever need).

Something like:

http://www.amazon.com/Rigol-DS1054Z-Digital-Oscilloscopes-Bandwidth/dp/B012938E76/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462302494&sr=8-2&keywords=oscilloscope

If you need cheaper, there are USB scopes.

I have a Rigol DS1054Z and it is a really nice piece of equipment, it's not overly expensive at $400 but may be complete overkill for automotive work (I'm not sure what kind of signals you'll be looking at).

Are cars a lot of lower voltage logic signals? Or is it a mix with a lot of analog stuff as well?

id try on of these Rigol DS1054Z Digital Oscilloscope
:https://www.amazon.com/Rigol-DS1054Z-Digital-Oscilloscope-Channels/dp/B012938E76/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1479681375&sr=8-3&keywords=oscilloscope
they're pretty nice

You are going to want to balance tools and parts.

TOOLS (must haves)

• Multimeters (At least two, I suggest starting with one cheapo ($5-$10) and one in the $30-$50 range)
  
• Variable regulated power supply with current limiting (Skip the cheap/dangerous chinese crap and get a used HP/Agilent/Keysight one off ebay like this or this.)
  
• Breadboards (several)
  
• Jumper wires
  
• Wire strippers and cutters
  
• Decent soldering Iron ($50-$100) (DO NOT CHEAP OUT ON THIS)
  
• Desoldering pump and/or wick (The ctrl-z of the soldering world)
  
• Heat shrink tubing for sealing connections (Especially if you are going to be doing outdoor stuff)
  
• Microcontrollers (I suggest starting with an Arudino Uno since it has the largest amount of online support material, you could get an Uno kit, any of them will be fine)
  .
  .
  TOOLS (eventually)
  
• Logic Analyzer (Let's you see the logic signals in your circuit which is super helpful for debugging, I have a bitscope micro which is decent, but the software kinda sucks and is more than just a logic analyzer)
  
• A function generator (variable voltage and frequency for sine, square and triangle waves) (Again I suggest used off ebay, something like this.)
  
• Oscilloscope (a really amazing tool for actally seeing what is going on in your circuit)
  .
  .
  PARTS (vaguely in order of usefullness)
  
• Elenco Resistor Kit
  
• Elenco Capacitor Kit
  
• Elenco Transistor Kit
  
• Elenco Diode Kit
  
• Elenco LED Kit
  (Of couse you don't have to get the Elenco kits, those are just the ones I use and really like)
  
• Voltage regulator ICs (Great for providing regulated power to things that need more than what your arduino can provide)
  
• Trimmer Potentiometer Kit (really useful to have around for many projects)
  
• Old electronic equipment to scavenge parts out of (Many of my parts have come from old equipment or broken ATX computer power supplies. Tearing stuff apart is both fun and yields great parts.)
  .
  .
  .
  I think that's all for now...

Not that they are totally worthless, but most people say a used <$100 scope is better.

The other option is save your money for something like this for $400: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012938E76/

There are firmware mods that take it to 100MHz and open up all kinds of features, like serial decode.

Popular hobbyist benchtop scopes are rigols DS1052E and newer DS1054Z. Both easily hackable for expanded features.

Seeed studio also has very decent pocket scopes, ready-made DSO models



I own the DS1052E(hacked) and DSO Nano V3(alternate firmware) personally. Both have been great, but id opt for the newer 4ch rigol if i were on the market now

They seem a bit expensive from amazon, though...

You don't actually need that high of a sample rate, since it's just audio you're dealing with the highest you'll be scoping will be ~20kHz. But should you ever do anything else you'll want a higher rate. Here's what I would recommend: Rigol DS054Z

Edit: I bought the Tenma one for the same price and it is nowhere near as good as that Rigol. Seriously for the value, if you want to spend less than $500 that's the one to go with.

Hah yeah, it's a Rigol DS1054Z, about the least expensive new scope you can buy.

I've found a few pages that talk about this type of DTR-only reset circuit for the ESP8266, but it's based on the Arduino schematic.

edit: also SJ2 is a solder jumper with a cuttable trace in case I need to disable the auto-reset.

just so yall know the Rigol DS 1054Z can be hacked to be a 100MHz scope (normally 50MHz) and have extra triggers

I have this one and I'm happy with it. I have another cheaper one which is good and useful, but the Rigol has much finer control than that one.

I would suggest not getting a software 'scope, no matter what you do, because it may rely upon an audio interface, and I haven't yet seen an audio interface that has DC-coupled inputs. (You need DC-coupled if you are going to analyze signals under 10-40Hz or so, because an AC-coupled interface will not represent them correctly.)

Rigol DS1054Z