[Q] Choosing a DSO - Hantek vs. Tekway vs. Owon

[sairon]

After few years of playing with electrical devices, including anything from dismantling them to building completely new ones, I've decided an oscilloscope is a must in my lab. Since electronics is mostly just a hobby for me, I can afford only some cheaper (yet not cheapest) instrument - something up to ~€400. The application of it would be mostly some uC projects but also circuit diagnostics and repairs and experiments with analog circuits. Oh, and I'm sure I want/need a DSO, not a second-hand analog scope.

After reading through few reviews, videos and so, I've picked three candidates, namely:
1) Rigol DS1052E
2) Hantek DSO5062B / Tekway DST1062B (they should be equal in HW, right?)
3) Owon SDS7102

Rigol costs here almost same like Owon, while Hantek is a little more expensive. As far as I know, all of them should be at least 100 MHz, Rigol could be hacked to >100 MHz, Hantek to 200 MHz (if 60 -> 200 MHz hack is possible, is it?). Rigol's display is inferior to both its competitors, but it seems to be proven entry-level DSO and is controllable over PC - don't know what PC software offer Hantek and Owon. All of them are 1GS/s, Owon has 10x higher sample memory, Hantek offers higher waveform capture rate and twice the resolution of both competitors, which could be handy sometimes. Persistency display on Hantek looks nice (I like the DPO feature of Tek's), as far as I know it's the only of these three which offers such a feature. And one thing that scares me - A Hellene wrote here something about problem of Rigol with noise. Is Owon or Hantek prone to such problems too?   

The conclusion - is it worth paying a little more for the Hantek or should I take the Owon or - for some reason - the Rigol? I know the decision is sometimes based on personal preferences and target application of the scope but every tip is useful. Right now, I like the Hantek most, however don't know if it's worth the extra price (about €100, which I don't know I am able or willing to pay), second is Owon followed by Rigol, which are both same price.

[rf-loop]

Owon do full 1Gs/s to whole capture memory what is settable 1k, 10k 100k, 1M and 10M.
This is BIG advantage over Hantek and Rigol.
Hantek have fast waveforms per second speed but it have it ONLY with shortiest memory. If there is 0.5M or 1M selected Owon agen win also in this.
Typically Owon risetime is best if compare 100MHz models (Rigol, Hantek and Owon)
Owon have best A/D sampling. Becouse it do not use many single slow ADC parallel interleaved.

Hantek FW is today very good and it have many features. (I know Rigol but I do not know Rigol latest FW's so I can not tell Rigol FW features today.

Rigol display is extremely weak point. 320x240 tiny TFT
Hantek and Owon have nearly same display. Display quality itself i same. (same series Innolux TFT but small difference in shape. hantek 800x480 7" and Owon 800 x 640 8".  But real signal area nearly same becouse Owon have menu area bottom. Owon have still 10div vertical and Hantek 8 div.

Owon have Litium battery (need buy Owon SDS battery)

Owon may have optional VGA out and it is fully realtime!

Owon (USB connection) PC software is poor. And Owon can not command over USB. Only can read. (and example convert .bin waveforms to .csv.

Hantek can also control over USB but this PC software is also slow and you can not look realtime.

Rigol have best connectivity over USB or serial port. It is compatible with NiVISA. So you can use it also with many kind of solutions with full command set. (something  like example Agilent units)
This is nearly ONLY strong point in Rigol low end models exept also price.

If you modify Hantek to 200MHz you still not get much more than Owon 100MHz. Becouse lack of ADC accuracy and also 1Gs/s samplerate useability is only with small memory. (yes it can make littlebit better mostly if do some special calibration for just this individual set of ADC's and also if do HW modification (mainly some resistors on the board need change)

Heart of oscilloscope is signal digitizing. Signal quality is just best in Owon becouse they use single chip fast ADC so not need interleave lot of separate ADC's. It is 2 x 500Ms/s ADC where inside chip it can also do 1x1000MSa/s it can call as "semi interleaved in this mode. But still it use exactly same one clock! (but inverted - 180 degree phase sifted clock so still timing error is extremely minimal)  Why they do this and others not. Becouse Rigol and Hantek (Tekway) design is old and Owon design is new.

If you admire signal quality and fast samplerate also with lower horizontal speeds there is only one solution - Owon who have full realtime memory up to 10M. (10M + 10M if both channel in use)

If you like lot of features in FW (many of these are not needed) maybe you want Hantek. If you need fastest possible waveforms displayed per second value (but only with small capture memory) you maybe select Hantek. Owerall Hantek UI (part of FW) is better also with ergonomy as Owon.

Real time capturing and Owon win. And if go more higher frequencies (over nominal 100MHz) Owon win more clearly, naturally.

So what is best. It deeply depends exactly what you need. In this meaning all these may be winner - in your personal needs.

Only Owon have not interleaved ADC.
Only Owon have 1Gs/s available for all memory depths up to 10M. (and two channel simultaneously, both  500Ms/s and max 10M memory for both channels).
Both Rigol and Hantek are far below this. This is Owon strongest point.
Only Owon have realtime VGA output (optional)
Only Owon is ready for internal battery use (need buy optional SDS battery.)

[sairon]

Thanks rf-loop for great explanation! I'll probably consider buying Owon, now it seems the price difference is bigger than the list of advantages of Hantek over Owon. I knew the connectivity of Rigol was best of the three but I wanted to check whether there were some other advantages.

I liked the UI of Hantek on the videos more than Owon's but it's not a big deal. Could you mention some of the FW features that Hantek has and Owon does not? However, I assume there's some chance of FW extension in the future, since it's not and old device... Regarding the HW, now i know the Owon is the best.
As for the VGA output, I think the version sold in Czech Republic doesn't have it (see the link to seller). Again, not a big deal, because most of the time I don't have VGA-capable display in lab, but it would be nice. But battery could be a great help sometimes.

Once again, thanks for advice.

[rf-loop]

Could you mention some of the FW features that Hantek has and Owon does not?

Some small adjustments etc differencies and example "record" and specially play back  is maybe more advanced in Hantek.

-Hantek have some simple kind of window display "zoom".
 Owon have not at all windowed zoom. It have zoom   but it need push button to switch between zoomed and basic display.


-Hantek have fine adjustment for Vertical and Horizontal. Owon have only fixed steps 1-2-5

-Hantek have half tracking cursors. (afaik only t tracking - not selectable t or V base tracking ) and Owon have not any tracking option in cursors function. (but in this place, imho, Owon cursors adjustment UI have one thing better, both cursors have separate knobs. But then cursors can not locked to each others. Agen some good some bad in both scopes. )

Hantek horizontal steps are strange 2-4-8, Owon have normal 1-2-5 steps what nearly all use.

This was only some differencies what come first out from memory (and I am busy)

[shebu18]

What have you bought?
I am between Rigol and Hantek.(arduino, avr, powersupply ripple and beginner stuff).

[pfm]

Owon have best A/D sampling. Becouse it do not use many single slow ADC parallel interleaved.

Heart of oscilloscope is signal digitizing. Signal quality is just best in Owon becouse they use single chip fast ADC so not need interleave lot of separate ADC's. It is 2 x 500Ms/s ADC where inside chip it can also do 1x1000MSa/s it can call as "semi interleaved in this mode. But still it use exactly same one clock! (but inverted - 180 degree phase sifted clock so still timing error is extremely minimal)  Why they do this and others not. Becouse Rigol and Hantek (Tekway) design is old and Owon design is new.

If you admire signal quality and fast samplerate also with lower horizontal speeds there is only one solution - Owon who have full realtime memory up to 10M. (10M + 10M if both channel in use)

Hi rf-loop,
do you have similar information about the GW INSTEK GDS-1102A (not “U” or “A-U”, just model “A”) ? I am curious to know about the GW Instek’s adc and front end.
Does the Instek also use interleaved adc and fpga generated clock like others ?

Thanks.

[timcki]

So far out of everything I have read between the:
Rigol
Hantek
Owon...

It seems that they all have good points and bad points.

Personally I have narrowed it down to the owon and the hantek silmply for screen size...
owon sds7102v
hantek dso5102b

For me, a novice with the oscilloscope, I will be learning as I go...
I have a protek 6502 analog scope, I have learned how to get the signal to a readable form
and been able to interpret what the signal actually is.

IMO.. For me I like the hantek because of the layout while looking at at the waveform
I am color blind (have trouble with red) and am getting older(small print problems).....
I do not plan on buying another scope for a very long time so I think this scope will last for quite a while..

The only question I have is,   for a young player like myself is there anything that will cause me major  trouble  with the differences between the Owon and the hantek
such as the horizontal scale difference.

price in the U.S. for the 2 are very close $450 +/- plus shipping

[tinhead]

Hantek can also control over USB but this PC software is also slow and you can not look realtime.

there is custom made software for Hantek/Tekway DSOs, for Linux, OSX and Windows

http://www.dreisiebner.at/dso-usb-tool/screenshots.htm

[leverler6]

Hantek can also control over USB but this PC software is also slow and you can not look realtime.

there is custom made software for Hantek/Tekway DSOs, for Linux, OSX and Windows

http://www.dreisiebner.at/dso-usb-tool/screenshots.htm

im curious, when they say interleaved sampling... what does it mean? doesnt these 3 ADC are similarly made?

[pfm]

http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5989-5732EN.pdf (scroll down to "Testing for Interleave distortion")
http://el-chammas.com/papers/Manar_ICECS_handouts.pdf (go to Time Interleaved ADC)