AntonUK
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 09:26 AM |
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Cheap eBay Oscilliscopes?
Looking to get a basic oscilloscope eBay lists some cheap usb or arm based with screen units.
Does anyone have any experience of these are they a waste of money or worthwhile for quick and dirty checks of various car (and maybe hifi) based
signals?
Build Photos Here
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DW100
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 09:45 AM |
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Any one in particular?
What sort of budget?
If it will stretch to £99 then you can get a entry level Picoscope, it will be a huge step better than most of what is on Ebay. With proper usable
software.
http://www.picotech.com/entry-level-oscilloscopes.html
Edit Just noticed that the price is plus VAT and postage making it more like £130 and doesn't come with any probes.
[Edited on 9/5/14 by DW100]
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theprisioner
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 10:04 AM |
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I got a old Telequipment oscilloscope for £5 at an auto jumble but then I also have an Avo meter if you know what that is.
http://sylvabuild.blogspot.com/
http://austin7special.blogspot.co.uk/
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Slimy38
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 10:49 AM |
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I'm sure I saw an Android based on somewhere, it got half decent reviews compared to the price. I can't find any sign of it now
though!!
Go on to google play at the oscilloscope software, see if there are any links to DIY jobbies.
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 01:33 PM |
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I have one of the DSO Quad mini scopes and, whilst better than nothing, they are very frustrating to use compared to a proper scope. The user
interface is non-intuitive, and as they generally use enclosures designed for MP3/MP4 players, the button locations and icons also make little sense.
The sample rate on the DSO Quad is reasonable, but the front end has a very poor frequency response meaning you can't get useful measurements at
higher frequencies. It also has a very limited sample buffer (4k points).
The really cheap Arm based units (e.g. 'Nano DSO201' ) share the same disadvantages, but also have a low sample rate (1 MS/s) and the
triggering can be flakey.
You can get a pretty decent new digital storage scope for around £200 now (e.g. Hantek, Owon, Siglent), and whilst not up there with Aglient and
Tektronix, they are vastly more useful than the toy scopes. If you want a super budget option, the Hantek 6022BE USB scope works reasonably well for
around £50, though you obviously need a PC/laptop to use it.
[Edited on 9/5/14 by MikeRJ]
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britishtrident
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 02:50 PM |
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They are fine for checking most the common car sensors, very useful for Hall Effect ABS and crank sensors also throttle position sensors.
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 03:29 PM |
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If you want a simple, single channel portable scope, then the Velleman HPS140 is much nicer to use than the DSO Quad/201. It doesn't have the
nice colour display, but it has decent bandwidth (40MS/s, 10MHz) and a far simpler interface.
The RRP is quite high, but they quite often appear on Velleman HPS140i Handheld Pocket Oscilloscope brand new in box for
reasonable money.
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AntonUK
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| posted on 9/5/14 at 10:39 PM |
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Thanks all, very helpful.
I think I'm going to go for the Hantek USB based one as seems to tick all the boxes i need atm. And its about time I put one of my old
laptop's in the garage.
Build Photos Here
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AdrianH
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| posted on 10/5/14 at 06:03 AM |
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I have an elderly Hewlett Packard, 100 MHz, 4 trace scope that I have had for ages, not used it much but when I need to see what is going on it does
the business.
Some times things are much easier to visualise then just rely on a volt meter. Only thing is nowadays there are more and more self diagnostics
around. They tell you what is wrong.
Adrian
[Edited on 10-5-14 by AdrianH]
Why do I have to make the tools to finish the job? More time then money.
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