The Red Pitaya STEMlab is a considerably more expensive device, but it's more than just a toy. It has two 14-bit, 125MS/s ADCs and DACs, 16 digital GPIOs and gigabit ethernet.
That's nice, but I imagine the use cases are pretty different, the Pitaya's sampling frequency has 3 orders of magnitude on the Labrador (and 2 more bits of sensitivity). I think they're both pretty impressive for their respective prices.
Why is the LCR meter expansion so damn expensive? The base starter kit is pretty reasonably priced, but I can't figure out what is going on with that LCR meter thing.. based on pictures the HW doesn't look like it has anything special on-board, so is it just a SW license cost thing?
I got several working, albeit, old, oscopes and signal generators from pawn shops for $50 to $100 each. Had to search a while, but they tend not to sell well there, so they eventually get marked down.
Someone recently mentioned something called “LHT00SU1”. It’s primarily a logic analyzer, but it has one analog input. (I’m not into EE, never used scopes, just randomly found a discussion about it recently)
In that vein the Saleae Logic[1] are really awesome, the prices went up recently but they're the real deal, next step up from them gets into the $X,000/$XX,000 range very quickly.
I have one of the Saleae devices, and it is wonderful. I still like (and sometimes really need) my more traditional full-size equipment, but the Saleae was inexpensive and it's easy to whip out and hook up to something.
I don't know if they still have a hobbyist discount, but when I bought mine they knocked a good chunk off the price after I emailed them and told them my plans for it as a tinkerer.
No disrespect to Saleae's Logic as even their 1st gen product was indeed outstanding value (and may still be at the current price point; software front end is well executed). But to be sure, there's still a significant hardware gap that sets it apart from "the real deal".
