I'm a teacher with a growing interest in electronics and robotics. I want to add a little more electronic theory to my class and start a robotics/electronics club. I know basic theory, but I'm lacking in practical experience. I've been thinking about buying an oscilloscope so I can show the students some of the transient effects and as an analysis / learning tool for the club. I've spent the afternoon looking at stuff on the internet and there are a lot of general rules of thumb and how to use articles, but what I need is "what to buy" advice.
I searched the forum, but the only suggestion was...
"...you're going to want an oscilloscope. Tektronix makes a full line from entry to "metrology lab standard" grade. Consider a Tek TDS 2024b."
That's a $2400 machine, do I have to spend that kind of money? Price is a concern as I'll have to buy the scope myself.
I want to be able to show kids switch bounce, measure the flash rate of an LED accurately, see the waveform of an RC circuit, see ripple and the effect of a cap on it. It will have to be fairly simple projects in the beginning, but over time I would like them to be able to build some fairly sophisticated analog and digital projects.
So what do I need? I've rejected the sound card oscilloscope solutions as they seem too crude, too bad though, they're cheap enough that every student could have one, but what else?
Storage is a must and at least 2 channels, but what bandwidth and sampling rates will I need to provide good examples of how circuits and components behave?
Are any of the PC peripherals really useful?
If so are their kits I could buy and assemble?
Can I pickup a scope on eBay that will do the job for a reasonable price? What do I look for?
Any recommendations would be appreciated.