[OT] Three purchases I've made about which I am very happy and I'd like to share

[Electron]

Hi,

First of all, I'd like to point out that I have no interest whatsoever in
these companies, neither direct nor indirect. The only reason why I am doing
this post is to help some of you (who don't know these products just like
I didn't until some time ago) to discover them, as they are truly convenient.

My background:

I've been using my Tektronix TDS2024B oscilloscope and Tektronix AFG3102 for
years now, and I am very pleased about them, but I've always suffered some
limitations of the former. In particular, I needed an oscilloscope with a
longer memory (especially to zoom-in time wise after a single shot) and I've
also wished to own a Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope for a long time, as some
times that would have been surely useful, although not "mandatory".
I've found both things, for an incredibly convenient price (around $350!),
in a Siglent SDS1202X-E. I must say I am enthusiast of it, even if we don't
consider the price, it is quite above my Tektronix (which costs 5+ times
more) under many aspects. Main limitation is that it has only 2 channels,
but it has a trigger output that I routed to my Tektronix TDS2024B external
trigger input and I usually use the Tek as a "slave" adding thus 4 more
channels for less important signals, while I examine in more detail the most
important signals (also CAN/I2S/etc.. decoding) on the Siglent. So in the
end the 2 channels aren't limiting me a lot, thanks to the "secondary" Tek.
There is also a version with a 25MHz arbitrary signal generator, but I think
the price of this version is excessively higher than the one without, to
make it as convenient, so I didn't bother with it.

However, this oscilloscope+AWG combo idea puzzled me and as I needed a
portable oscilloscope to be used with my tablet PC, I discovered the Hantek
6254BD which is the top of its line, and is a 4 channels 250 MHz 1 Gsps
USB oscilloscope (you need a PC to use it) and a 25MHz arbitrary waveform
generator integrated, all for about $280. The AWG is not really precise,
e.g. I wanted to output a 1 KHz waveform and the real frequency being output
was either 999.6 or, if I increased it, like 1000.8Hz.. not really precise,
but still very handy to have this output channel (sure my AFG3102 is another
beast! But how much I paid it!). Moreover, the oscilloscope vertical resolution
is only 8 bit and this, on a PC display, is easily noticed.. but all in all
I am *very* pleased of it. It has great bandwidth (250MHz also when using all
the 4 channels together) and, although less "serious" than a standalone
oscilloscope, it gets the job done and is very "transportable" (I use it
with a tablet PC using a single USB 3.0 port).

The third "gift" I made myself is a 8 channels oscilloscope (again PC based),
with very limited bandwidth this time (just 200KHz per channel, IIRC) but
that I have to use for automotive stuff and thus it is more than sufficient
for most work (and when I had to zoom into some ignition coil and injector
waveforms to the ns level, I used the previously described 6254BD).
The nicest thing of this 8 channels oscilloscope is not only the 8 channels,
but that I paid it around $70! It's the Hantek 1008C. For automotive and
also for audio stuff, it's absolutely worth every cent of its price, of
course you can't do high frequency work with it, but for that I have other
options, as you know.

There's a fourth and fifth purchase I just made, I am confident they will
work well too, but I still haven't received / tested them, I mention them
anyway:

The fourth (yes I had some money to spend :D or, rather, too many years
passed without investing in some equipment) purchase I made has been
triggered by the fact that my 30V 3A + 30V 3A lab PSU wasn't enough for
some work I needed to do, for the first time. After reviewing a lot of
PSU's, I've bought a SkyTopPower STP3010H. It's a 30V 10A single PSU which
promises a very decent precision and low noise. Once it arrives I will
test everything and report. I paid it around $130 on Amazon.
The fifth is another PSU and if I had known it before, perhaps I'd have
not bought the SkyTopPower. This one is still a 30V 10A PSU (I wanted two
PSU so if the SkyTopPower works well, no problems) but it's more compact.
Performance should be very decent also in this case (way more precise
than the cheapest Chinese PSU's you usually see for a slightly lower
price) and it is the Gophert CPS-3010, for around $80. Later I discovered
there is even a 60V 17A (of course for a much higher price, x2.5) which is
quite impressive. I've seen reviews on the web and on YouTube that were
very positive, so I am confident that I'll have made 5 good purchases
out of 5 in the end, and empowered my old lab in a significative way.

That's all, I hope you appreciated my sharing! I hate to come here to
ask EE advice all the time, so whenever I had something to contribute,
although I ain't expert like some of you here, I've gladly done it, as
I am doing now. I've made a lot of research before buying this hardware,
and I don't think there are better choices to spent the money well, but
if anyone knows some other very convenient product, please share! For
example, the SDS1202X-E satisfies all my needs, if I think that I've
been years waiting to get a $5000 DSO, I am glad I never bought it and
it ended this way. Very good performance for the price, perhaps beaten
only by the Hantek 1008C, although this is only for specific uses.

With kind regards,
Mario