Watching EEVBlog is extremely dangerous. Underneath Dave’s “overly enthusiastic style” there is electronics porn that I absolutely have no immunity to. Especially after seeing his tear down of Rigol DS1052e digital oscilloscope, I am totally poisoned. Thanks to the hardworking of Chinese engineers this once high-end professional equipment now only cost a friction of their venal official’s snack bill. Without much thinking a no brainer like me picked up one at 1700 Chinese RMB (~ $269 / S$343) during a recent trip to China. “Best investment ever”, according to Dave.
But my computer table is only 85cm wide, and I already had two monitors side by side. Running dual-monitor configuration boosts my productivity. Especially for programming or designing work I can have the project window on the main monitor while leaving reference materials on the other, eliminating all the hassles of switching around windows. Now my secondary 15inch Eizo monitor has to be decommissioned to make room for the Rigol. After a while I start to miss the good old days …
I had been struggling with some multi-desktop software like ATI HydraVision and VirtuaWin until DisplayLink iPad Software comes to rescue. For quick information this free software turns iPad into a secondary monitor. The connection is via WiFi, not as smooth as cable but still pretty usable even for video playback.
I started to seek for an iPad stand that does not take table space. The ideal choice is Hoverbar by Twelve South. I signed up their news letter for the new iPad support update but only received with disappointment: the new clip does not support iPads with protection cover! I finally ordered a clam clip from a Chinese website. The package comes today. As you can imagine I would rather skip the OOBE part, so here is the final setup after lots of bending …
And finally a full shot of my 1m2 computer table cum electronics lab workbench:)
P.S. Not really satisfied with the build quality of the iPad clip. But for the time being I’ll settle with it.
Nice blog post regarding the rigol from someone in Singapore. I recently started following EEV blog too and wanted to venture to setup a decent lab. It seems its quite hard to get the oscilloscope in Singapore at a decent price. I am going to hongkong next week. Should I try my luck there. Any problem carrying it back in your bag via Singapore airport. What was customs duty.
It is below GST chargeable limit so no worrying carry in. All I did is just put in the bag and walk through the custom. I would suggest you get the new 107x series, worth every cents.
I just scored an old analog oscilloscope for 100 bucks. Will give it a go to learn and then maybe I directly move to a DS2072A in the future. Thanks for the response.