EEVblog 1582 - FNIRSI DPOX180H 180MHz DPO for $123

[EEVblog]

A look at the FNIRSI DPOX180H 180MHz Handheld Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope for $123.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005564788266.html
https://eevblog.store/products/eevblog-bm036-ac-dc-clamp-meter

[Doctorandus_P]

I saw a few parts of your review of this thing, and it confirms what I have seen in other reviews.
This thing lies to it's user. For example look at the risetime @08:00. That barely reaches 70MHz. Also other indicators show this thing is undersampling and tries to reconstruct higher frequency signals. That would be OK for this pricepoint if they were honest about it.

It is also geared towards beginners, and not as an "extra / portable" thing for people who already have better equipment.
And because it lies to the user, I can not recommend it at all, and especially not to beginners.

I can only think about two sort of outcomes. One is a very detailed and in-depth review of how this thing lies exactly to its user (this would require reverse engineering of the lasered off IC's, measurement of clock frequency of the ADC, measurement of actual bandwidht of the frontend, etc. The other way is straight into the garbage bin, not worthy of time to review it. (And that is why I did not see more than about 10% of the review).

With these 20 minute reviews people may get the idea that these things are actually decent. Most other reviewers of this fnirsi stuff also do not have the experience to recognize how bad these thing are and how they lie to their users. These things are also especially misleading because they look so good. On first sight they give the impression of being decent instruments.

[thm_w]

Detailed thread here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-toy()-scope-fnirsi-dpox180h-claimed-180mhz500msps-(may-2023)/

I don't see how a long review "validates" a product.
Dave also measures the -3dB as ~180MHz. There is likely sharing of sample rate, so with the two channels at 8:00 it would drop to 250MS/s.

[.RC.]

And because it lies to the user, I can not recommend it at all, and especially not to beginners.

Years ago I got interested in metal working, and have equipment like a lathe and mill.  I also needed metrology equipment.

So I started out with the cheap chinese micrometer set and cheap chinese other stuff.

Then I found out I pissed my money against the wall on this cheap crap. I also found out about repeatability.  Some tools I bought had crap repeatability, measure the same thing five times and get five different measurements. 

Then (this is before the stupid international postage rates of today) I found ebay, lots of cheap high quality reliable measurement equipment from West and East Europe, UK, US and Japan.

While the machines I have are not the most accurate, at least the measurement gear I have I know is good.

And I see electronics the same. A $20 T12 clone soldering iron will be usable, cheap measuring equipment, not so much.

[boggis the cat]

So I started out with the cheap chinese micrometer set and cheap chinese other stuff.

Replace "chinese" with "japanese" and you are posting from the 1970s.

[Randy222]

My 180h showed up today.
10min out of the box, and already got the menu down w/o manual.
I kinda like this small device.
Everything seems to work ok, BNC's lock in w/o issue.
Signal gen is cool (and works).

My main draw to 180h, is the FFT feature. Need to test that some, but I think it will work for my needs.
I also have zoyi 703s here too, scope side not work so well. Waiting on new FW to come out.