Hand held scope, opinions again please

[Lightages]

I was thinking of buying a DS1054Z or D2072A, but it occurred to me that I would benefit more from a capable hand held scope with similar capabilities instead.

I have looked at some of the Hanteks available and some of the models seem to be OK. The opinions and reviews on different hand held scopes seems to be rather sparse. So with this in mind I am looking for direct experiences, full reviews, or learned opinions on what might meet my wants/needs.

 I will be working on solar power generation and distribution, controls and electronics for stepper motors, servos, automobile controls and electronics, CCD cameras and associated electronics for astronomy, video signals such as old NTSC base and up to HDMI, and protocol analysis for micro controllers and their various forms of communication busses, USB1,2,3, etc. I think 2 channels are enough but maybe I need 4. I will be working on up to 1000VDC and down as low as ADC input values in the mV range. I would like to analyze things like CANBUS, SPI, RS323, RS485, and many other protocols. I probably will not need more that 100MHz bandwidth unless other see a flaw in my assumption. Maybe I could live with 60MHz.

So, what says the herd? Should I just get a DS2072A and carry around a portable AC source to power it? Would this be the best bang for the buck for what I want to do? Should I look at a real hand held scope? Is it possible with a hand held to get most of the things I want without going over $800 for example? Perhaps a USB scope and a notebook?

Thanks for any feedback.

[tautech]

I am not aware of any HH's that will do decoding and I was going to point you to the Siglent SHS 800(60 to 200 MHz) & 1000(60 & 100 MHz) series but it seems their website is down.
The SHS1000 series is a isolated channel version of the 800 series.

[Rory]

Though it may seem overpriced, a Fluke Scopemeter or competing scope of that class sounds more suitable to your application. I've had a Fluke 97 for over 20 years, and you really can't beat it for ruggedness. 

[sotos]

I also think so. Get a Fluke – Agilent

[Gribo]

Another vote for the fluke. I have two Scopemeters at work, 199C and 192B, both survived the last 8 years of abuse pretty well. They are quite expansive though, compared to bench scopes.

[dr.diesel]

I haven't used a Scopemeter in 10 year probably.  Are they still using the easy to scratch plastic screen cover and horrid display?

Not that you have lots of options in the handheld department, but for the price Scopemeters don't offer much in terms of value.  If you need protocol decoding, Scopemeter is out anyhow.

[Lightages]

While I like Fluke and the durability of their Scopemeter series, they don't really offer some of the features I think I need. I am not sure that any hand held scope will do what I want at any price. The Flukes are also more expensive than I want at this point, new and used. There are some older models for my price point but they are old tech and slow sampling etc.

I am beginning to think that I might have to forget the safety of a fully isolated hand held and go with the DS2072A and carry it around to where I need it. I am still investigating online, but the decoding part makes it a long shot by the looks of it.

[pascal_sweden]

There is a review on YouTube about the Siglent SHS 1062.

[dr.diesel]

I am beginning to think that I might have to forget the safety of a fully isolated hand held and go with the DS2072A and carry it around to where I need it. I am still investigating online, but the decoding part makes it a long shot by the looks of it.

Don't some of the Siglent/etc have wall wart/DC power input?  Home brew a DC/DC converter/regulator, might be a cheaper option for ya.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Unless you really need to use it portable most of the time,  handhelds have too many compromises to be a reasonable substitute tor a desktop scope.

[Lightages]

After watching some videos and looking at the different options, it looks like sage advice Mike. They are have usability problems, or build quality problems, or lacking in proper design and features. That is in the price range I am looking.

OK, thanks for the replies everyone but unless someone has a breakthrough product that hasn't been mentioned I will be picking up one of the popular Rigol desktops and lugging it around. They seem to have everything I need, almost.

[tautech]

After watching some videos and looking at the different options, it looks like sage advice Mike. They are have usability problems, or build quality problems, or lacking in proper design and features. That is in the price range I am looking.

OK, thanks for the replies everyone but unless someone has a breakthrough product that hasn't been mentioned I will be picking up one of the popular Rigol desktops and lugging it around. They seem to have everything I need, almost.

Be aware AFAIK the Rigols Ch inputs are only rated to 300 V max.
Will the Trigger suite meet your needs?

[Lightages]

Thanks for reminding me about the input limits. The only budget priced hand held I could find with good high rated and isolated inputs is the Hantek DS1XX2S series. They look fairly good for the price but a couple of things I have seen seem to show that the Hantek firmware is buggy and some models are crippled by the firmware. They also do no protocol decoding at all. I found the DS1152S for $740 shipped on ebay. If I could find a tear down and a review of this series somewhere I would like to seem them. But until then it is a $740 gamble.

The other option for me is to forget the "all in one" device and get a DS1054Z, a cheap handheld scope for looking at waveforms only in the field, and use the clone logic analyzer I have with my netbook when I need to decode things.

[Mark_O]

I am still investigating online, but the decoding part makes it a long shot by the looks of it.

Micsig makes handhelds with a full suite of protocol decoders.  Probably outside your price range though.

[Lightages]

Thanks for pointing Micsig out. I had thought of them but guessed they would be out of my price range. Having a quick look, I was right.

[tautech]

Is the in-built DMM in the HH's of value to you?
Siglent HH models have Logging features included.

[pascal_sweden]

For a portable protocol decoder this device could be an option:


Although you should not buy it from the distributor, as their margin is quite high.
Try to source it on Aliexpress or DealExtreme.

[Lightages]

Is the in-built DMM in the HH's of value to you?
Siglent HH models have Logging features included.

Actually I would gladly buy a hand held scope without the multimeter built in. As far as I am concerned it is extra cost and they all seem to be poorly implemented and slow. They just add cost and complexity to what a scope should be. I already have a Brymen BM525 that does 87,000 data points at up to 20 times per second.

The video I watched on the Sigilent model left me very unimpressed on the overall scope, and the multimeter was a toy IMHO.

It seem to get a good hand held scope with isolation and a useful AT rating for the field, I need to go with a Hantek at $740 without decoding, or a Micsig for $1600 or so that includes decoding.

[mikeselectricstuff]

The biggest problem with all HH scopes is they don't have knobs.
 Buttons are a far less convenient input method.
A well-implemented touchscreen might be better if implemented well, but I doubt we'd see it done well by a Chinese manufacturer as they can't design UIs  to save their lives

[artag]

Mike, I saw your reviews of the Owon handheld scopes. It seems that although you disliked some features, the later model was good enough that you repaired / replaced it with the same model when it broke.

From comments you made elsewhere it appeared that you also owned a Hantek handheld, but I don't think you reviewed it. What was it that made you prefer the Owon despite the problems ?

[pascal_sweden]

Have you seen the Kickstarter project from LabNation in Brussels, Belgium?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/751733865/smartscope-reinventing-the-oscilloscope

[mikeselectricstuff]

Mike, I saw your reviews of the Owon handheld scopes. It seems that although you disliked some features, the later model was good enough that you repaired / replaced it with the same model when it broke.

From comments you made elsewhere it appeared that you also owned a Hantek handheld, but I don't think you reviewed it. What was it that made you prefer the Owon despite the problems ?

I originally had the older Owon. Later got replaced with the newer one (-N) . The newer one died out of Warranty and got sent back to Owon ( who fixed it without charge, but took a bit of chasing). In the meantime I rented a Hantek from Ebay.
Hantek was OK but rather big.
I think the Owon   -N series are about the best performance vs. size vs. price for a handheld scope in the "Chinese" price range.
Pity the built in DMM sucks so bad - just ignore it.

[Lightages]

Mike:
Yeah, I like knobs too. I can live without them if the scope has what I want for the price I want.  I don't understand why hand held scopes have the horribly executed multimeters tacked on. It seems like a waste of space, time, and money.

Pascal_Sweden:
That Wens 540 is almost what I want. The problem is the scope is a bit low on bandwidth. Perhaps 10MHz is enough. The price that is mentioned on that video is a bit crazy though. I found it on Alibaba but the price looks like its close to $710 for one.

I am considering the following non-optimum idea: DS1054Z + Uni-T UT81B or UT81C. This would give me the capability of looking at waveforms in the field on battery, and doing more detailed inspection should the situation warrant it. The missing thing is that the DS1054 does not have CANBUS decoding but the DS2072A does.

[Lightages]

I find conflicting information on whether the Rigol DS2000 series does CANBUS or not. Anyone?

[tautech]

I find conflicting information on whether the Rigol DS2000 series does CANBUS or not. Anyone?

PM Mark_O or marmad they are both very familiar with Rigols.