Author Topic: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget  (Read 4781 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline mwb1100

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 529
  • Country: us
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #25 on: December 08, 2022, 05:08:24 pm »
@sx57 I'm guessing this stuff is heavily taxed in your country?

@sx57 has mentioned they are in Iran.  I'm sure sanctions make many things difficult to come by.
 
The following users thanked this post: sx57

Offline Gyro

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 9410
  • Country: gb
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #26 on: December 08, 2022, 09:15:00 pm »
You are right, of course. I just disregard top ranking USB scopes because OP says he has a really tight budget. AFAIK, any USB scope in that price range will probably suffer from USB bottleneck. That Owon seems to be able to do most of the work within the device itself, so it seems to work better than others, while using just full speed USB. Other devices using high speed USB 2 (so theoretically 40x faster) seem to work worse. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm always willing to learn.
...

No, you're right. Having an FPGA and intelligence in the unit itself means that the 1022 can do proper multi-mode hardware triggering and only send the needed display data over USB (it's this low bandwidth requirement that allows it to include USB isolation at such a low cost too). The 6022BE is nothing more than a glorified streamer (just like the $10 logic analysers), it has to throw everything at the PC in real time so that (edge only) triggering can be done in s/w there. This demands a lot from the High speed USB latency and PC performance, and still only achieves a very optimistic 48Msps (versus a solid 100Msps for the Owon).

The VDS1022 matches it's price point well, that's why it has been around for such a long time (just like the Rigol DS1054Z has in its own niche). Owon make higher bandwidth and 4 channel USB scopes too but they bang head-on into the price of lower end bench scopes. They only make sense for very portable uses, there the user is already carrying a laptop - even this is starting to be erroded but the better handheld scopes.
« Last Edit: December 08, 2022, 09:39:13 pm by Gyro »
Best Regards, Chris
 
The following users thanked this post: sx57

Offline BillyO

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1338
  • Country: ca
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #27 on: December 08, 2022, 11:42:38 pm »
Other devices using high speed USB 2 (so theoretically 40x faster) seem to work worse. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm always willing to learn.

My real hands on experience with USB scope covers the absolute worst ($50 Instrustar ISDS205 which only meets it's spec halfway .. never, ever buy this unless you can get it for $5 just to see how bad a scope can be) to the low to mid-range (Hantek 6074BC which exceeds it's spec, especially if using only one or two channels).  These both seem to work just as well when plugged into USB2 or USB3.  I think they do some data reduction in hardware and pass preprocessed information on to the PC such that teh USB speed is not a significant issue.  While I have briefly used "high end" Picos in the past, I have never seen one that needed anything beyond USB2.  Even the 9300 series @ 25GHz only requires USB2.

These days I'm like you.  I too use benchtop scopes almost entirely.  The Hantek 6074BC I have in my desk in my office .. just in case. :-//
Bill  (Currently a Siglent fanboy)
--------------------------------------------------
Want to see an old guy fumble around re-learning a career left 40 years ago?  Well, look no further .. https://www.youtube.com/@uni-byte
 
The following users thanked this post: sx57

Offline tatel

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 427
  • Country: es
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #28 on: December 09, 2022, 12:10:29 am »
@sx57 has mentioned they are in Iran.  I'm sure sanctions make many things difficult to come by.

I too guessed that at the first moment, but I don't know if China is sanctioning Iran. It would surprise me, Iran is getting into Shanghai Cooperation Organization after all. If China is not sanctioning Iran, then I guess the price difference, between what AliExpress shows in my screen and the prices OP seems to be getting, would be taxes?
 

Offline sx57Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 20
  • Country: ir
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #29 on: December 09, 2022, 10:32:16 am »
@tatel AND mwb1100
I think it is not the taxes but the importers. they sell with as much profit as they want. then the retailers are the same. none of them will take responsibility of a possible faulty product easily after selling the product most of the time unless you buy from internet website which has somewhat better support. iran is a sh*t and corrupt country. everyone can break the law easily with money. so you need to buy very cautiously. manytimes, you may buy a product for tmore than two times the price on aliexpress or any other reference. you can find good deals too, specially on things like phone chargers and cables when there is a lot more competition but in the realm of oscilloscopes, it is a complete joke and mess with very few options available .i wish i could measure the noise with my sound card, it would have 24 bit resolution ,way higher than most of the oscilloscopes. i know i should be able to measure the main's ripple and it's harmonics(50hz and up) but the damn SMPS noise is gonna be at different high frequency bands. finding an oscilloscope is a must if i want to it right.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2022, 10:41:20 am by sx57 »
 

Offline sx57Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 20
  • Country: ir
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #30 on: December 09, 2022, 10:51:24 am »
Quote
These days I'm like you.  I too use benchtop scopes almost entirely.  The Hantek 6074BC I have in my desk in my office .. just in case. :-//

at BillyO
then i guess i envy you  ;) 8) i wish i could have such nice scopes. man when i used the sound card as an audio amplifier measuring device, seeing and analyzing that waves was so cool. now think of real devices you can have on your bench :-+
« Last Edit: December 09, 2022, 10:52:58 am by sx57 »
 

Offline tatel

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 427
  • Country: es
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #31 on: December 09, 2022, 11:04:01 am »
I think it is not the taxes but the importers.

Can't you buy from AliExpress?
 

Offline sx57Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 20
  • Country: ir
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #32 on: December 09, 2022, 11:18:51 am »
I think it is not the taxes but the importers.

Can't you buy from AliExpress?

no. not only we have no international credit cards in iran because of the sanctions, but also the shipping cost is gonna make it about the same price in iran.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2022, 11:24:18 am by sx57 »
 

Offline tatel

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 427
  • Country: es
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #33 on: December 09, 2022, 12:09:58 pm »
Of course, the credit card. Boy, how they got us by the balls. Well, I hope this will happen soon

https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/iran-set-to-join-russia-s-mir-card-payment-system.html/
https://eng.allexprs.info/oplata-zakazov-aliekspress/article/magazin-aliexpress-gotov-prinimat-k-oplate-bankovskie-karty-sistemy-mir-rossii.html

EDIT: perhaps you know an international truck driver or a sailor?
« Last Edit: December 09, 2022, 12:17:03 pm by tatel »
 

Offline sx57Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 20
  • Country: ir
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #34 on: December 09, 2022, 12:45:43 pm »
thanks for the news. i hope too.
no i don't know anyone unfortunately.
 

Offline JacobPilsen

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 139
  • Country: cz
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #35 on: December 09, 2022, 05:56:57 pm »
Is it allowed to buy it, for example, in Turkey and then transport it across the border?
 
The following users thanked this post: sx57

Offline BillyO

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1338
  • Country: ca
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #36 on: December 09, 2022, 07:00:45 pm »
i wish i could have such nice scopes.
To be honest they have been acquired over a looooong time.  My first scope was a 5MHz single trace Heathkit I built back in 1976.  It cost me $180 and that was an absolute fortune for me back then.  I eventually gave it away to a young student of electronics but I wish I had kept it.  You can check it out in the 1976 catalog on page 66.  In fact, check out the whole catalog.  The world of hobby electronics lost a lot when Heathkit closed their doors. :(

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Heathkit-Catalogs/Heathkit-Spring-1976.pdf
« Last Edit: December 09, 2022, 07:02:31 pm by BillyO »
Bill  (Currently a Siglent fanboy)
--------------------------------------------------
Want to see an old guy fumble around re-learning a career left 40 years ago?  Well, look no further .. https://www.youtube.com/@uni-byte
 
The following users thanked this post: sx57

Offline sx57Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 20
  • Country: ir
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #37 on: December 09, 2022, 10:18:43 pm »
@JacobPilsen
i think yes it is allowed to buy one.
@BillyO
thanks for the info.
 
 

Offline james_s

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 21611
  • Country: us
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #38 on: December 09, 2022, 10:27:59 pm »
The world of hobby electronics lost a lot when Heathkit closed their doors. :(

Hobby electronics was on life support leading up to Heathkit closing their doors. They couldn't compete with regular mass produced equipment. Modern automated manufacturing meant that there was no savings in selling kits for things you could buy already built and ready to use. It wasn't until the Arduino came along that hobby electronics was reborn, for a while I was afraid the entire hobby was going to go extinct.
 

Offline BillyO

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1338
  • Country: ca
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #39 on: December 09, 2022, 11:30:51 pm »
Hobby electronics was on life support leading up to Heathkit closing their doors.
Yes, it was and that's something I personally never quite figured out.  I bought and built a lot of Heathkit stuff, but it was never because it was cheaper.  It was mostly that I could build it myself, see and understand the design and have a load of enjoyment in the process and in a lot of cases, their stuff was just unique in many ways.  When I bought that scope kit there were cheaper pre-made alternatives and cheaper used alternatives.  But where's the fun in any of that?
Bill  (Currently a Siglent fanboy)
--------------------------------------------------
Want to see an old guy fumble around re-learning a career left 40 years ago?  Well, look no further .. https://www.youtube.com/@uni-byte
 

Offline Watth

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 241
  • Country: fr
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #40 on: January 24, 2023, 07:56:23 pm »
thanks mate for this link... real epic videos there like SMD soldering using ... soldering gun :-}
The "Homemade SMD to DIP adapter" one? Brutal!
Because "Matth" was already taken.
 

Offline rstofer

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 9886
  • Country: us
Re: need an oscilloscope on a very low budget
« Reply #41 on: January 24, 2023, 11:33:37 pm »
Eevblog video 1022 for $50 scope.  May not apply in Iran
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf