HP 54602B 150MHz DSO Overview

A short while ago I purchased an HP 54602B from Junkmail for a reasonable price. The 'scope was introduced in 1994 and has a fully digital acquisition system. Unlike modern DSOs it offers screen refresh rates equal to any analogue oscilloscope at 60 frames per second or 1.5 million dots per second. This allows it to display Youscope as if were running on a normal analogue 'scope.

The 'scope also supports all the usual features you can find in modern DSOs such as automatic measurements (eg. frequency, waveform voltages, rise/fall time, etc), trace storage and recall and an excellent high speed triggering system. The 'scope has four input channels and, at 150MHz, measures rise-times as low as 1.4ns.

HP 54602B 150MHz DSO

The handy soft keys just below the screen makes it easy to control display settings, measurements and the likes. Here are some more waveforms captured with the 'scope.

2kHz square wave
2kHz semi-square wave (the ringing is caused by my sound card)

40ms pulse measurement
Measuring a 40ms pulse from my Arduino board

Sine wave
Measuring a 100Hz sine wave showing the channel input controls

Sine wave
Showing the time and frequency measurement controls

The full manual can be downloaded here in PDF format.


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