Budget but useful oscilloscope?

[KevinV]

Question for my knowledgeable colleagues - can you recommend an oscilloscope? I occasionally have use for one but have never taken the plunge. Dual channels would be good I think. A quick Google finds a price range of £24 to £42000! I figure about £100 budget seems reasonable, I don't mind used, I'd prefer it not to be huge.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Ive had oscilloscope for over 40 years but these days I would go PC based I have a Techtronic's the wight a ton to a small transistor Hameg

PC based Oscilloscope using Arduino | Full Electronics Project

 

[B27]

Depends what you want to do.
Cheapest option is a Soundcard 'scope, which is just software.

Then there a re various data logger ADC things which plug into a PC.
Then there are handheld LCD scopes. for say £50 to £100 and upwards.

DO you need it to do DC? that rules out soundcards generally(?)
What bandwidth do you want? Audio? High speed data? the detail of stuff?

Do you want an analogue scope? Do you want to capture, store, export traces?
Do you want to capture non-repeating events?

How many channels do you need?
If digital, how many bits resolution?

It's easy to end up with more than one!

 

[Metalicmike]

Its one of those things that spends months on the shelf doing nothing then suddenly its there for that Voilà Moment. Its one of those things that are nice to have (if you know how to use them) and since moving to Tenerife its a bit of kit I miss not having. Having the boat on a small pension has meant that its always on my wish list, When I build my antifouling system I will add one to my system, a usb 100Mhz single channel would do, would be good if I could find one local second hand.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

This is what I have...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VDS1022I-PC-based-Oscilloscope-Bandwidth-isolation/dp/B00HFPF5R6

It's dual channel & in your budget. It's fast enough for most marine electronics. The PC software is a bit clunky but works.

A logic analyser is also useful to have for digital signals.

 

[S04]

To help debugging some circuits in a number of RPi projects I bought one of these

OK it looks like a toy, single channel only, tiny screen, claimed bandwidth is only 200kHz, the controls are not intuitive but frankly it did just what I needed. Mine cost me £15 on ebay. The fact that it came with a battery I thought was really useful as it gets round the scope grounding problem. For the money I was well pleased but I had no expectation that it could in any way come close to matching the functionality of "proper" oscilloscopes that I am used to. If it hadn't worked as I needed it I would have binned it without any great financial loss.

 

[Metalicmike]

Thankyou Angus and S04, I dropped a Clanger and put Mhz instead of Khz ( What an idiot), Im getting old

 

[Martin_J]

I have had larger oscilloscopes on board but the one I always have with me now is a DSO203.. It's compact, comes compete with probes and doesn't need a laptop lugging around with it..

Video of it in use (OneDrive link below) when looking at the tacho signal from the alternator (and comparing it with what a digital voltmeter reads for the same pulsed signal)..

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AoaL0Fl7hXvVrHCB48MQH6k9lnhI



A quick look online might suggest it's replacement is the DSO213

 

[lustyd]

I bought one of these when troubleshooting my tachometer recently. Seems pretty good and covers a lot of casual use cases for a reasonable price.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08VRDG94N

 

[Bran]

Picoscope are excellent for a pc based system. Prices start just over £100 for a two channel 10MHz unit. All our Field engineers used them, never had any issues.

 

[pmagowan]

I got this one Hantek DSO5102P. A bit over your budget but has been very useful for doing some electronics and fault finding.

 

[Metalicmike]

Just been looking at the Hantek 6022BE evidently you can get software to run it on a Tablet. My main requirement is to analyse the signal from my Mosfets prior to loading the step up transformers to my Transducers. Comments would be appreciated.

 

[B27]

Just been looking at the Hantek 6022BE evidently you can get software to run it on a Tablet. My main requirement is to analyse the signal from my Mosfets prior to loading the step up transformers to my Transducers. Comments would be appreciated.

That's a scope with 20MHz bandwidth.
If we're talking echo sounder or fishfinder, that's what? 200kHz.?
If that circuit was misbehaving, I'd be reaching for a 100MHz (or more) scope.
20MHz is plenty if it's basically working.
Bad FET circuits can oscillate at high frequencies though.
Also is 8 bits enough? 20mV (presumably per square?) most sensitive input range is so-so IMHO, but I'm used to building pre-amps and stuff like clamps and limiters to go in front of a scope.
An analogue scope would not be ideal with a low ping rate.

 

[andsarkit]

Don't confuse bandwidth with sample rate. If you need to look at a 100kHz signal you ideally need a 500kHz sample rate for enough samples to display the waveform correctly. (Nyquist and all that)

 

[Metalicmike]

Don't confuse bandwidth with sample rate. If you need to look at a 100kHz signal you ideally need a 500kHz sample rate for enough samples to display the waveform correctly. (Nyquist and all that)

The frequency range I will be working with will be 18 to 45Khz driving two 40khz Transducers and is only to verify that the expected signal is established. So basically its Just part of my Ultrasonic Antifouling build.

 

[B27]

So you're not looking for small signals coming back like in a fishfinder, so my comments about dynamic range don't apply.

By the way there are (or were) scopes with much lower 'sampling rate' than 'bandwidth'.
They are only good for repetitive signals and build up a waveform over several repetitions.
Some of these scopes were very fast, but some used to cost about the same as a house.

 

[Birdseye]

When I build my antifouling system I will add one to my system,

Eh? Interesting comment. How do you antifoul electronically?

Coppercoat works well, lasts well and doesnt need a scope

 

[Metalicmike]

Eh? Interesting comment. How do you antifoul electronically?

Coppercoat works well, lasts well and doesnt need a scope

Vibrations in range of 19 to 40 Kz deters mollusc larvae and is used in ship ballast systems and installed in quite a few sailing vessels. Proprietary systems are very expensive and there is a lot of negativity. The system requires good transmission around and through the hull so is not suitable for timber or sandwich construction hulls. There is loads of information and I reckon I can build a system under 300 euro including the Scope. It costs much more than that for the copper coat paint.

 

[kwb78]

I have one of these: Zoyi ZT-702S It's single channel 10MHz and works pretty well. It's been useful for some basic diagnostic tasks that a multimeter wasn't enough for.
There is also a dual channel 50 MHz version which has become available since I bought mine: Zoyi ZT-703S

Here is a review and comparison of both of them.

 

[Metalicmike]

I have one of these: Zoyi ZT-702S It's single channel 10MHz and works pretty well. It's been useful for some basic diagnostic tasks that a multimeter wasn't enough for.
There is also a dual channel 50 MHz version which has become available since I bought mine: Zoyi ZT-703S

Here is a review and comparison of both of them.

Thank for that, just got to decide which one and Ill order when I get my pension later this week