New O-scope option?

I'm a self-confessed oscilloscope snob, so I'll offer a kneejerk comment: Get a real scope!
Now I'll add something useful. The datasheet: http://www.linkinstruments.com/mso19s.htm

It could be interesting and useful for basic troubleshooting, but not for design. The one obvious problem I see is that it's single channel. That's a show stopper for me. Especially for that kind of money. And it's pretty slow. YMMV. On the upside, it's very small. But don't forget to factor in the size of the PC that is slaved to it. I would never spend money on something like that unless it had a significant free evaluation period.
 
Keep in mind that 200Msample does not equal 200 MHz.. Getting a reasonable waveform that does not even show glitching puts the usable bandwitdth WAY down there..

I agree with the above, get a real analog scope that has XY capabilities. You should be able to pick up a nice one on E-bay for the same price as that usb monstrosity.

Also note that they are out of stock on the USB scope :)
 
I've picked up several oscopes over the years from garage sales, for $100 or less. My latest hitachi 20MHZ works great. 2 channel, xy. Save yourself some money and look for a real used scope. you'll be happier in the end.
 
It's an OK price for what it does

Anyone messed with this? The software seems decent, but I have a really hard time believing the specs that they list for that price.

Any thoughts?

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9263

There's nothing particularly surprising about that device for that price. It's a single channel analog input + 8 channels of digital input + triggering, ram, and a micro-controller. With today's components, the only hard part is probably shielding the A/D converter properly. Everything else is VERY straightforward.

I'm certain that it works as advertised (Spark Fun has been around a while, and the stuff I've bought from them has been just fine), it's just not a very powerful system. But if you never want to analyze fast clocks (I wouldn't try to look at anything analog faster than 20Mhz, and even at that rate you're not getting too many samples per wave).

I don't know about the software, but I'd bet it performs it's basic functions just fine.

If all you want it for is debugging old Missile Command boards (highest clock is 10 Mhz), then it's perfectly fine. If you want to look at signals on cutting edge hardware, then it's not real useful. Further, the limit of 1000 samples per channel is kind of small, but not unusable.

Other posters have noted that you can get old analog scopes with 20Mhz bandwidth fairly cheap on Ebay. One thing to remember is the analog and digital scopes are used for fundamentally different sorts of analysis.

Analog scopes are constantly triggering and showing you the waveform. This makes them great for seeing certain types of problems, because you'll see changes in the waveform over time. Awesome when you have clocks, sync signals, etc, etc. Since analog scopes are basically using the input (via amplifiers) to deflect the beam on the screen, you're seeing very much exactly what's going on after the trigger point.

Digital scopes are more 'trigger once, then update the display'. They are great for looking in detail at a particular event (especially if you can set the scope to trigger on a logic analyzer pattern match). Better digital scopes (I don't think this one does) have modes where they are constantly sampling, and you can choose to see the samples from before the trigger instead of the samples after the trigger.

Summary: It's probably about the right price for the money. If you only have money for one piece of equipment, and you need both logic analysis AND scope functions, then this is a pretty good deal. If you can get by with just a scope, then buying used is probably a better deal. As long as you can find someone trustworthy to buy from.

I personally have an analog scope I bought off Ebay several years ago. I don't need a scope very often, and it suits my needs well enough.
 
I'm a self-confessed oscilloscope snob, so I'll offer a kneejerk comment: Get a real scope!
Now I'll add something useful. The datasheet: http://www.linkinstruments.com/mso19s.htm

It could be interesting and useful for basic troubleshooting, but not for design. The one obvious problem I see is that it's single channel. That's a show stopper for me. Especially for that kind of money. And it's pretty slow. YMMV. On the upside, it's very small. But don't forget to factor in the size of the PC that is slaved to it. I would never spend money on something like that unless it had a significant free evaluation period.

I'm going to have to agree with you on the single channel - one channel is OK for debugging something that you know used to work, but if you are doing circuit design work, you'll need at least a dual channel scope.
 
Supposedly this one gets decent reviews for what it is (a USB scope), but I'll third the notion of getting a real one. Ironically, both the ones I have, a 100mhz Hitachi, and a 20mhz B&K junker, I found them both in the trash!

Now if you already have a PC at your workbench with a flat panel monitor mounted on the wall - I would seriously consider a USB scope for basic troubleshooting stuff, it would be an excellent space saver and you can extend a usb port up to the bench to just plug n play.

http://www.parallax.com/Store/Micro...efault.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName
 
Ended up ordering that Parallax from Frys.com yesterday. It should be here tomorrow so I'll give my $0.02 on it tomorrow evening or Sunday.

I also have a ~$350 Owon portable o-scope here that I borrowed from a co-worker so I'll compare the two.
 
Keep in mind that 200Msample does not equal 200 MHz..

Yup. I'd be surprised if you got more than a couple hundred kHz of bandwidth out of it, just because of the generic scope probe. You could upgrade to a better probe, but then there's no guarantee the analog front-end could support it. 200Msps sounds like a load of marketing to me! :p

I can honestly say that in the few years I've been doing board repair, I've used a scope only once. You're better off spending that money on a decent logic analyzer and DMM.
 
200kHz bandwidth and 1M samples/second for the Parallax...did I misread that? If that's true, it's only really good for audio. And powersupplies. I really like the idea of a USB dongle scope. I been wanting one of these PC plug-in scopes for years. Ever since I saw the first sound card scope project (20kHz). But someone has to be able to build a faster one than the ones I've seen. :( The 60 MHz one wasn't bad, but it was only one channel IIRC.

The Owon looks interesting. Please let us know how it works out. I think if I bought one, I'd basically be buying the warranty and calibration. I can get a much faster used HP or Tek for that kind of money, but what if it breaks? And calibration on these things is *exepensive* if you don't have the tools to do it yourself. Some day...I'll buy a new scope. Some day........
 
Someone just posted pics of what looks like an Owon scope being used for vector PCB testing... :)

http://forums.klov.com/showthread.php?t=99033

I asked if it was an Owon...

That's me and yep, it's an Owon. It's an ok scope. I've used a few different scopes over the years and I have to say I am not a fan of the Owon's screen. Very poor contrast and the viewing angle is messed up. I have to tilt it up ALOT so I can see it good and even then it's not very good.

Those pictures of the Tempest board were the best three out of about 20...

I'll try to do a decent writeup on both using the Tempest board as a test sample. I may even take a video or two.

I'd like to say I'll have it done tomorrow or Sunday but I'd say by next weekend would be more realistic.
 
Ken, at 20 Mhz I would ask what you are going to do with it? I use an ancient 150Mhz Tektronix for Williams debugging.

Saltbreez

Was just curious. There was a repair blog I ran across and the guy had one and swore by it. It's only a little larger than a DMM and space is a real premium on my desk right now.

ken
 
That's me and yep, it's an Owon. It's an ok scope. I've used a few different scopes over the years and I have to say I am not a fan of the Owon's screen. Very poor contrast and the viewing angle is messed up. I have to tilt it up ALOT so I can see it good and even then it's not very good.

Those pictures of the Tempest board were the best three out of about 20...

I'll try to do a decent writeup on both using the Tempest board as a test sample. I may even take a video or two.

I'd like to say I'll have it done tomorrow or Sunday but I'd say by next weekend would be more realistic.

Can you output the screen to a USB drive? Or output it over USB to a PC? That is one feature I really like when I need to post a screenshot of the scope or document something I am looking at.

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I found some Owon info and a video.

http://www.tequipment.net/Software/OWON/OWONEDU5022.wmv

Manual

http://www.tequipment.net/pdf/OWON/EDU5022_manual.pdf

Looks like you can get some info via USB...

Owon oscilloscopes shipped now have OWON DS_Wave PC configurable frame-grabber upload utility (V 1.0.1.5) which now performs either a one-time capture or a continuous series of captures.This feature is available for scopes with USB connections only.

Looks pretty good for $300. Obviously a better color screen would help, but damn that is a good price.
 
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