Is There Such a Thing as a Useable Hand Held Scope?

[BBQdChips]

Years back, I thought it would be nice to have a handheld scope meter. Within the budget constraints I had, I picked up a TPI, then top line model.  Spec-wise, it was capable of (barely) what I was looking for it to do, which was primarily automotive diagnostics.  In practice though, it was a complete and utter piece of garbage.  Manual configuration was somewhere between painfully slow and virtually impossible. It didn't save previous settings, so even if you did set it up, if you turned it off and back on again you had to do it all over.  All of this in very unintuitive menus and with very few keys.  It was a nightmare. I  unloaded it on Ebay and never looked back. 

It was short on display resolution and its scales were so far apart, you really could not work with a 5v signal.  There was no voltage offset capability, so doing DC work was all done in the upper 1/2 the display.  Without going on a full fledged rant, I'll just say, it convinced me that there was no worthwhile handheld scope.  I was not interested in purchasing another $400-$800 piece of gear to find it also wasn't worth my time, so I abandoned the idea and just used a cheap bench scope.  It wasn't ideal for work like that, but it was certainly better than the TPI.

Maybe a blog on the merits of hand held scopes is in order.  I know some think these are a cheap way around buying a larger bench scope and that's certainly not true.  Do they have any value for anything?

[saturation]

For discussion sake, my take is your TPI was not a very good HH0.  As more electronics makes its was into electrical and mechanical territory, there is a niche for HHO:

http://www.ecnmag.com/Articles/2009/11/Productivity-Drives-Performance-in-Handheld-Oscilloscopes/

The key reasons I use one is for the floating inputs with input protection, to safeguard myself and against damaging the scope.  HHO have replaced or replacing cart scopes for auto troubleshooting, and the HHO for auto use can be fairly low tech, 1MHz bandwidth, with the most just basic controls ... even the Velleman HPS 10 is popular as a low cost HHO for autos and continues to be in sold, now going on near its 10th year as the same model, without a firmware update.

[mikeselectricstuff]

The Owon HDS3xxx scopes are pretty reasonable scopes, probably the best scope/size ratio available, but the built-in DMM is a piece of junk.
Review here :

[Mechatrommer]

http://www.dhgate.com/ems-hantek-dso8060-5-in-1-handheld-oscilloscope/p-ff8080813097879b0130bb7b1a331035.html
http://www.dhgate.com/hot-sell-uni-t-ut81b-oscilloscope-8mhz-w/p-ff80808130ff2a0501312bf48c2c01bc.html
?

[BBQdChips]

Mechatrommer,

I'll have to see if I can find a video review of either of those.  My needs for this as mentioned above are really 1Mhz and below, so anything better is just a bonus.  Obviously, I'm not interested in something 1Mhz nowadays.  Thanks for the  links.  If you own either one or have experience with either, I'd be interested in opinions.  I see the UniT has autoranging at 4V adn 40V.  that's unfortunate for anything automotive that resides at 12v, or even worse anything on a micro that's at 5V.  If the vertical scale isn't infinite, I think a scope meter is handicapped beyond my willingness to accept.

Mike.
Great review!  That really is a nice scope, I'm impressed with the screen update rate.  Wow.  Clearly this was not made by the folks who make the TPI cause the TPI has a meter that's actually quite nice.  Digital, no pseudo analog rubbish, and with a update rate of probably 3 or 4x per second.  Now, unfortunately, the scope portion of that "scope meter" also has an update rate around 3x / second, if that.  Probably more like 1.5 -2.  It also suffered badly from what you complained about early on with that 2000 series where it was just painful to setup when navigating the menus with so few keys.  They used a few soft buttons on that, but still  it was downright painful.  It's a good thing it was only one channel cause you couldn't set up two in a single day.  It also suffered from the lack of resolution in the ranges.  They were huge steps, not analog as shown in your video. 

I sit here scratching my head as I think about that analog meter rubbish they did in graphics.  They must have hired a scab from microsoft after someone worthwhile went on strike or something.  How on earth could the meter update that slow on a tool capable of doing that beautiful update on the scope display?  It just seems impossible.  To digitize a waveform and display that graphically 30x/s or so, and then read a voltage and do it once per 2 sec, :?

Thanks guys for the info.  I just sold a hot-tub this morning so I may just have some money to burn!

/edit
Saturation,
I unfortunately don't have enough use for this to justify going that far up the food chain, (Agilent U1600).  If this was a work related money earning tool, I could see going there. But fr me this will end up being a dust collector most of its life.  Sorta like the last one.  Nice for when you need it, but not justified in watching it depreciate.  Thanks for the link all the same.

[saturation]

Hi BBQdChips,

No worries, not that you need to get a HHO, the link was for general info as to what they're good for.  Mike's stuff is first hand use of the Owon, but that scope is still pricey too.  I personally use a Velleman HPS40 a lot more than I thought I would, its less for accuracy that to simply get an idea of what the waveform is on my test point particularly if it exceeds the safe ratings of my Rigol 1052e; it was as low as $150 this summer.   

[Mechatrommer]

Mechatrommer, If you own either one or have experience with either, I'd be interested in opinions.

i dont own one, they just cute. but if i want to suggest only one, its the hantek 8060, its 5 in 1. if i dont have my bench dso here, highly probably thats what i'm gonna get. you need to carefully study the spec first. there's review in rcgroup i so lazy to link here. find it yourself

[BBQdChips]

Saturation,
I saw that HPS40 for $147us today with free shipping.  I'll do more fact searching before I buy. 

Yea, I see that Owon is available here in the US for about $900.  That's more than I'd want to spend for a handheld, but that scope certainly is faster and more useful than anything I've seen in its class.  I'm sure the Fluke and Agilent models are equally nice, but they should be for double the money. 

Mechatrommer
I watched a video on Youtube today on that Hantek.  That looks like it is easier to use than the Owon, at least as far as the controls go.  It's not nearly as fast, but it appeared to be easier to configure.  I did not see them move the vertical position during the whole video.  That would be very important to me.  I'll have to keep looking for another video on it.  If I could catch one on sale, that looks like it would work well for me. Thanks.

The Hantek also has a nice usable meter in it.  Much nicer as a meter than the Owon was.  But that's not saying much.




Like that TPI I had, it has enough specs to do the job, but I would like a nice interface too.

[Mechatrommer]

I watched a video on Youtube today on that Hantek.  That looks like it is easier to use than the Owon, at least as far as the controls go.  It's not nearly as fast, but it appeared to be easier to configure.  I did not see them move the vertical position during the whole video.  That would be very important to me.

except that. i'm not a fan of soft touch buttons for direction or scale increment/decrement. thats one of drawback i can see in hantek HHO. it will not beat the real knob.

[saturation]

Enjoy, but just note, the Velleman is very basic.  There is also the Uni-T 81 you can only get via eBay, check eevblog archives for reviews on both; I think we were talking on a thread comparing features.  I don't think there are any more products in this class of scope, below it are the DSO Nano types which are very limited and have no input protection.  There is a fake Velleman made by Sinometer.




You can get either for roughly the same price.

Saturation,
I saw that HPS40 for $147us today with free shipping.  I'll do more fact searching before I buy. 
.. I would like a nice interface too.

[BBQdChips]

Thanks Sat...

That looks more like what I was expecting when I got my TPI years ago.  That display shows a DC signal with the 0 point moved to the lower half of the display.  That is what I would want.  On the old TPI I had, 0 was always at the center of the display.  So if you were working on a 5V signal, you needed to use the 20V scale cause it went from 4V to 20V, and the waveform took up 1/4th of the top half of the display.  Worthless. 

Thanks for the post, that pic saves me looking for a video, I can just compare specs now.  At $150, I don't much care if I get slightly burnt on the deal, I just don't want a $500 piece of junk again.

[elmo]

I got my hands on a Fluke 123 from 2000 yesterday to try out. I would say it falls between two chairs, it is not  a proper scope and the multimeter features aren't that good either. But its good enough for fault finding in certain equipment, such as welders and VFDs (that is what I would use it for). This hand held scope is nice for that kind of field work.
But to buy this particular scope today would be meaningless for me personally, I'd rather go for the fluke 125 with automatic quality check/fault finding for fieldbuses since a lot of my work revolves around this.

Anyways, for serious lab work a bench-top scope will outpreform a hand held scope in the same price range.  The answer to the question is, there is a usable hand help scope but they will never compare to a bench-top scope for bench-top work.

[saturation]

Welcome, whatever you get please review it again for us please and give your impression.

@ elmo: HHO have a niche to fill, much of the money spent is for portability, safety  and input protection whereas a bench scope puts all its money in maximizing its measurement capacity.

Thanks Sat...

[qno]

I have 2 that I use often.

The Fluke 123 is a basic hand held scope that doubles as a multimeter. It is OK. I use the recording mode a lot.
The battery pack lasts a few hours when logging. You can store screenshots and data on your PC.

I also have an old THS720 from Tektronix that is more of a scope. It also has a multimeter inside.
The highlight of this beauty is that all inputs have galvanic isolation so you can measure both sides of a mains SMPS. with both scope channels and measure voltage with the internal voltmeter. Even the rs232 is isolated so you will not blow up your PC when measuring on the mains.
You can download tools to log or save screen shots. There is even a spectrum analyzer tool.
It helped me debug a vending machine.
You can only buy them on Ebay.

[shadowless]

I have a UT 81b, scope function is quite basic.  It has limited triggering mode that works fine in most case,  high voltage input so u can use x1 probe without worry.

They don't supply probe so you need to cash out additional for it.  Comes with optical cable and software for connection to PC but well I use mac. Battery life is a big limitation so i use it with the back light off most of the time.

U should check out the 2analogue +2 digital channel nano scope.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ds-203-3-0-lcd-pocket-mini-oscilloscope-65990

[Lightages]

Be aware that the Nanoscope and it brothers are not properly input protected and should be limited to being used on low voltage circuits. I have read in some places too that it does not perform as specified but I cannot remember where or the details.

[vk6zgo]

I have 2 that I use often.

The Fluke 123 is a basic hand held scope that doubles as a multimeter. It is OK. I use the recording mode a lot.
The battery pack lasts a few hours when logging. You can store screenshots and data on your PC.

I also have an old THS720 from Tektronix that is more of a scope. It also has a multimeter inside.
The highlight of this beauty is that all inputs have galvanic isolation so you can measure both sides of a mains SMPS. with both scope channels and measure voltage with the internal voltmeter. Even the rs232 is isolated so you will not blow up your PC when measuring on the mains.
You can download tools to log or save screen shots. There is even a spectrum analyzer tool.
It helped me debug a vending machine.
You can only buy them on Ebay.

I had occasion to use a THS720 back in the day,when my employer bought one to look at mains signals in a
SOLA(brand) power conditioner.
After that job it was put away unused for a while.

One of my jobs was fixing Picture Monitors,& I had a battle getting my hands on an Oscilloscope when higher priority stuff was also happening.
I grabbed the THS720,& found it was OK for this work,though a bit more "clunky" than an  Analog.

OK,it had the usual problem that at long time/div settings,the sampling rate was so slow that it made the display of  field rate video signals unreadable,but for TV pix monitor work there were workarounds.

The meter functions were quite good,too!
The whole thing was ruggedly put together,as it should have been for the price back in the 1990s!

VK6ZGO

[R_G_B_]

An example of a useable hand held scope:
https://youtu.be/-J__IR_giX4

Fluke 125 the Swiss army knife of scope metres.

R_G_B_

[SaabFAN]

For Low Voltage-Stuff and up to 3, maybe 4Mhz, the DS203 Scope is actually not bad. I have compared its performance to the PM3320A and the DS1054Z and found it to be pretty accurate.
The rise-time of the analog circuit is a bit low though: A square-Wave begins to look sine-like at about 2Mhz, while it still looks very "squary" on the other scopes. The Sample-Rate is 144MS/s (One Channel) or 72MS/s (2 Channels).

Given the price and the available Software (including FFT, Histogramm, etc.), it should not be discarded right away.
And it has an integrated signal-generator, which can produce a pretty good square-wave up to 8Mhz and can also produce arbitrary waveforms.
I think, for Audio-related stuff (as long as there are no Tubes involved^^) and basic testing of Power-Generators and their associated circuitry, these things are pretty good.

Problems:
- The metal hull is connected to GND (including probes)
- The standard-Software is rather basic (but there are more advanced versions available, as mentioned)
- The Signal-Gen can only go to 2,8V Peak to Peak.
- Rather small display.
- Problematic User Interface: 4 Buttons + 2 3-Way switches.

If there is to be a video on Handheld-Scopes, I think this one should be included.