Scopemeters etc

[Scott M.]

Ron & Cathy Webb,

Which Tektronix 200 scope do you have? Is this a 212? 214?
222? 224? Up until a few months ago I worked for Tektronix
developing portable battery operated automotive
oscilloscopes based on the TekMeter 565 platform. (These
were sold under the Mac Tools ET2020, KalScope labels) 

Before that I was the Mfg. engineer for the Tektronix 222
Handheld Digital Oscilloscope line.

Insert appropriate bias at this point.....

Here is some info on  portable handheld battery operated
DSO's

Regarding the Fluke Scopemeters:
Several years ago Fluke marketed the Fluke 97 "Auto" which
was basically a dressed up standard Fluke 97
(electronic/electrical version) with some automotive leads.
It wasn't until the introduction of the Tektronix/Mac Tools
ET2020 in Feb 1994 with preconfigured automotive setups
that prompted Fluke to introduce the Fluke 98 Automotive
Scopemeter some 18 months later. Last time I checked the
Fluke 98 was priced $1800-2700 depending on the distributor
selling it.  It is a dual channel DSO that has the
Bandwidth limited to 5MHz and has a menu driven interface
for selecting some preconfigured automotive setups. It
comes with a nice set of silicone jacketed test leads for
connecting to the ignition system, O2 sensors and to other
automotive connectors. It can display an ignition parade
showing all cylinder firing events or a single cylinder
firing event. The 98 uses the autosetup capability in some
of their preconfigured automotive setups which at times can
get confused and not sync on the correct signal. The dual
channel flight record mode works pretty well. It uses a
single 25MS/second digitizer as described below.

The other Fluke Scope Meters 92B, 96B, 99B 105B are their
latest electronic/electrical service models. They are
priced from around $1000-$2600 if memory serves me. Fluke
makes very nice high quality instruments that have some
nice DMM functions. My main pet peeve with the Scopemeter
series is the weakness in their hardware platform. They
basically use one digitizer and have a high speed switcher
that shares this one digitizer between the two channels.
This design prevents the ScopeMeter from doing simultaneous
high speed digital signal acquisition on both channels at
the fastest sweep speeds. They are using a single 25
MegaSample/second digitizer. They also do not have isolated
channel architecture like the Tektronix 222 DSO series
which allowed independent ground connections at different
reference points and used dual digitizers for simultaneous
high speed acquisition on both channels. BTW: The Tektronix
220  series has been out of production for a couple of
years. The 224 (60MHz Bandwidth) scope was last produced in
June 1996. The 220 Series used two 10MS/second digitizers.

The Mac Tools ET2020 "Quick Scope Plus" was also a LCD dual
channel DSO/DMM but has dual 25MS/second digitizers but it
did not have isolated architecture like the Tek 220 series.
It also has the ignition parade display and the single
cylinder ignition display. It uses 75 preset automotive
setups to cover all the different sensors, ignition systems
and various electronic signals found under the hood.  It
may be available in limited supplies from the Mac Tool
truck distributors. These were priced between $1800-2500
but are no longer produced by Tektronix.

The new Snap On Vantage and the Mac Tools Mac Wave are
designed for automotive technicians who are not familiar
with DSO operation and have low bandwidths and lots of help
screens for diagnosing problems. I have never used them
personally so I won't comment on if they are any good.

If you really want a high performance handheld battery
operated DSO, the latest Tektronix offering is the THS700
series "TekScope" . These portable DSO/DMM's have isolated
channel architecture, dual digitizers, Digital Real Time
using 250MS/second dual digitizers in the THS 710A  (60MHz
BW) and 500MS/second dual digitizers in the THS720A (100MHz
BW) and 1GS/second dual digitizers in the THS730A (200MHz
BW) . yada yada yada They are priced between $1800-3000
last time I checked. Not cheap but they are the highest
performing handheld DSO's in the world.  One weakness is
they have a 2 Hr battery life but they use a long battery
pack that is easily changed in the field. They can also be
operated from a 12VDC automotive supply.  Those digitizers
and backlit LCD soak up a fair amount of power.....

Well, hope that rambling helps

Happy scope probing....
Scott M.