Used Digital Oscilloscopes for Sale

Keysight, Agilent, and HP Oscilloscopes

This is the deepest bench in our inventory by a wide margin. The lineage runs from HP’s 54xxx and 546xx-series through Agilent’s DSO/MSO-X InfiniiVision line and into Keysight’s current MXR/EXR Infiniium and DSOX/MSOX families — same engineering group, three badges over three decades. Entry and mid-range InfiniiVision 2000X/3000X/4000X units cover most general bench work from 70 MHz to 1 GHz. Infiniium 80000/90000-series and the newer MXR/EXR models are what shows up in signal-integrity and high-speed digital labs, with bandwidth into the multi-GHz range and correspondingly deeper memory. On the older HP-badged 54600 and 54800-series units, check the cal RAM battery status in the self-test menu before assuming any accuracy fault is a bigger problem.

LeCroy and Teledyne LeCroy

LeCroy (now Teledyne LeCroy) built its reputation on deep memory and fast waveform update rate, and that shows in what we see on the used market: WaveAce and WaveJet cover entry-level bench work, WaveSurfer and WaveRunner are the mid-to-high-end workhorses for communications and power electronics debug, and the LC and LT-series units still turn up from labs doing long-record-length capture work. LeCroy’s touchscreen interface and dedicated math/measurement front-panel keys are a real usability difference from the Keysight menu-driven approach — worth knowing before standardizing a lab on one brand's workflow versus the other's.

Fluke ScopeMeters and Handheld Combiscopes

The Fluke 190-series and 120-series ScopeMeters are a different category in practice, not just a different brand: battery-powered, isolated-input, dual-purpose scope-and-multimeter units built for field and troubleshooting work rather than a fixed bench. Isolated inputs mean you can safely measure across floating or differential points in motor drives and industrial control panels that would ground-loop a standard bench scope. Battery condition is the real used-market variable here — check actual runtime, not just that the unit powers on with the charger connected.

Rohde & Schwarz and Tektronix

Rohde & Schwarz's RTB/RTM/RTE/RTO/RTH series are less common on the North American used market than Keysight or LeCroy but show up regularly from RF and communications labs, with the RTO/RTH-series covering higher-bandwidth and mixed-domain work. Tektronix's TDS and DPO-series remain widely deployed workhorses; note that Tek's mixed-signal MSO and mixed-domain MDO models with active logic/RF channels are covered separately in our Mixed Signal Oscilloscopes category rather than here.

What to Check Before Buying a Used Oscilloscope

Ask for the self-test results and, if the seller can run it, the calibration constants checksum status — a failed cal RAM battery is the single most common age-related fault and is a known, inexpensive fix rather than a reason to walk away, but you want to know about it before you buy, not after. Check that every channel reads the same vertical gain and offset at identical settings; a channel that reads differently from its neighbors points to a bad attenuator relay on that input. Confirm probes are actually included and compensated correctly rather than assuming any "10x probe" is interchangeable at higher bandwidths. For touchscreen-equipped DSOX/MSOX and RTB/RTM models, test the touch response across the full screen — corner or edge dead zones on resistive touch panels are a known wear pattern on units with heavy use.

Digital Oscilloscope Calibration

NIST-traceable calibration verifies vertical gain accuracy and offset on every channel, timebase accuracy, trigger sensitivity, and bandwidth, with measured deviation recorded at each test point against the manufacturer's published specification rather than a simple pass/fail stamp. Units with a cal-memory battery fault are flagged and the battery replaced as part of the service, not just re-zeroed against a failing reference. See all calibration services → or read about our oscilloscope repair process for units that need more than calibration.

Frequently Asked Questions