Entry Level Digital Oscilloscope

What you guys think of this as an decent scope for DIY?

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/hantek-200mhz-digital-storage-oscilloscope-dso5202p.html

It looks OK... 

Back in the 70s I paid more than $500 for a heathkit scope in kit form that I had to assemble, and it didn't do all those tricks.


JR

JohnRoberts said:

It looks OK... 

Back in the 70s I paid more than $500 for a heathkit scope in kit form that I had to assemble, and it didn't do all those tricks.


JR

Click to expand...

Thanks JR! I bet the one you made was built like a tank! In my college days I bought a couple of used scopes from university surplus. I don’t remember the brand but they came with their own wheeled carts! And I could probably have hidden inside one of them in case of nuclear blast, like the famous Indiana Jones “Nuke the fridge” scene!

Googling this scope, it appears the firmware is quite buggy so in the end a Rigol may be better.

Thanks for the feedback!

You are thinking of the old tektronix ....  If cold while working in the lab you roll a scope cart on either side of your chair as a room heater.

JR

I have the Rigol DS1052E which was one of the early cheap scopes of this type. It works well enough. The rotary encoders are a little flakey, the clasps of the foldable feet broke and the FFT is useless.

So I would say the scope you link to probably cannot do worse. Consumer electronics have reached a point where it's just not that hard to make an oscilloscope like this.

JohnRoberts said:

You are thinking of the old tektronix ....  If cold while working in the lab you roll a scope cart on either side of your chair as a room heater.

JR

Click to expand...

;D

For why do you need 200MHz? Do you even know how to get 200MHz from an amp to a 'scope?

I've learned much from 'scopes 1/10 and even 1/1,000th as fast.

What about Pico 2000?
https://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope/2000/picoscope-2000-overview
I saw it in action and it's good! Way better than my (cheapest) Hantek.

PRR said:

For why do you need 200MHz? Do you even know how to get 200MHz from an amp to a 'scope?

I've learned much from 'scopes 1/10 and even 1/1,000th as fast.

Click to expand...

Of course I don’t. But at that price for a new scope, it doesn’t hurt to have.

I hear even a 20Mhz scope is fine for basic audio DIY. I have an old analog Tenma that is 20Mhz. It’s just so big and clunky it would be nice to have something more compact.

I’m not keen on scopes I have to connect to a smartphone or a computer though.

squarewave said:

I have the Rigol DS1052E which was one of the early cheap scopes of this type. It works well enough. The rotary encoders are a little flakey, the clasps of the foldable feet broke and the FFT is useless.

So I would say the scope you link to probably cannot do worse. Consumer electronics have reached a point where it's just not that hard to make an oscilloscope like this.

Click to expand...

The new 1054 looks lovely.

Rochey said:

The new 1054 looks lovely.

Click to expand...

It does. Is it worth another C note?

Have you looked at the  GW instek scopes?

Also look at the EEV blog youtube channels and forum

You might want a  4 channel that has decoding built in

Have you looked at older used DSOs?

Gus said:

Have you looked at the  GW instek scopes?

Also look at the EEV blog youtube channels and forum

You might want a  4 channel that has decoding built in

Have you looked at older used DSOs?

Click to expand...

Hi Gus, thanks for the tips. I love the EEV blog! Dave is awesome!

I’ll check the GW Instek units. I have an old Tenma with a flaky channel. I admit I’m not clear on what DSO means, aside from Digital Storage Oscilloscope. Is that a unit that allows capture of waveforms?

I need to do some calibration of a build soon and I realized I’m dreading pulling out the old Tenma, so thought it might be time to update my workbench a little.

Thanks much and check out your suggestions. You always give such quality ideas and contribute so much to this forum.

Thank-you.

First what do you want the scope for? What do you mean by entry level?

I suggest make a list of what you want it for now and what you might use it for in the future.

If for tube circuits check the CAT rating and you might want to buy higher than 10:1 probes rated for tube voltages.
Will you be using it with micro controllers? if so decoding options will be useful
2 channel 4 channel
what is the max frequencies
If you want FFTs I would check the  EEV blog it has a youtube FFT video that was interesting
How does the sampling change when using more than one or two channels?


I have a tek 465 when I wanted a  DSO I took a chance on the instek 2204E it is is OK so far I have not had the time to fully check it functions.  Now I might pick a different brand I got the 2204E over a year ago and things change.

One reason I picked it is it has controls for each channel some have one vertical control and you need to select the channel you want to adjust, it was also about the price of 4 channel 200MHz scopes.

I still get annoyed with some DSOs when I first use them. I know what I want to do however different brands can have the buttons and menus set up differently.  Some people stay with one brand because they know the buttons and menus

Other things to think about USB, RG45 and/or wifi, built in function generator, lab view etc. Is the software easy to use? is it tricky to update the firmware when updates are available? Do the probe autosense or do you need to set the channels up manually? What size screen and do you want a touch screen?

If you do a bit of searching around it is possible to upgrade the firmware on much slower digital scopes to improve the bandwidth.  The scope that you link to is remarkably similar to the scope I have under the Gratten brand & is the similar as the GW instatek.  The different bandwidth versions are the same internally, they just have different firmware.

See ths https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0uAqTZ0pXg

That said as PRR said you don't need that speed for audio.  In fact many people use the LPF to restrict the bandwidth on digital scopes for audio, because the waves look fuzzy compared to an analog scope.

This is worth a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znwp0pK8Tzk&t=723s

Thank-you all for the suggestions; they are great and give me some things to research and think about.

What a great place this is. Thanks!

The Siglent series is also not too bad. Dave did some reviews of that when it came out.
I have both a Rigol and a Siglent here and I tend to use the Siglent more these day, the bigger screen is definitely a plus.

gswan said:

The Siglent series is also not too bad. Dave did some reviews of that when it came out.
I have both a Rigol and a Siglent here and I tend to use the Siglent more these day, the bigger screen is definitely a plus.

Click to expand...

Good to know. I'll have to check them out!