Owon PDS5022S - Best I can afford?

[Stephen Hill]

Hello All,

For quite a few months now I've been trying to score a new or used DSO on eBay for less than £225 delivered from the UK or Europe. Those that have appeared on eBay have quite quickly gone out of the range of my budget. I've also been trying to find retailers selling new DSO's for < £225 but with little luck. I would really like the Rigol DS1052E but no one in Europe will sell it within my budget.

The cheapest DSO I can find from a retailer is the Owon PSD5022S from CPC in Preston. Some say the screen is terrible and the firmware is dodgy while others have said it's an acceptable beginners scope.

Electronic projects I would like to use this scope with include a bench power supply, audio amplifier, constant current load, radio transmitter and a wireless weather station. I already own a Open Bench Logic Sniffer for any digital stuff.

Would the Owon PSD5022S be suitable for most of the projects I mentioned or would I be a fool to buy it?

Many Thanks
Stephen

Sorry for yet another one of those Oscilloscope topics. I'm just not sure what to do and so I'm looking to the community for help

[marmad]

If you have a VAT number - or a self-employed friend or someone who runs a small business to order for you - you can get the Rigol DS1052E shipped to the UK for almost £ 225.00 excl. VAT:
http://www.batronix.com/shop/oscilloscopes/Rigol-DS1052E.html

I wouldn't get that Owon scope - it sucks. Better to save the extra £ 40-50 for the VAT on the Rigol.

[Stephen Hill]

If you have a VAT number - or a self-employed friend or someone who runs a small business to order for you - you can get the Rigol DS1052E shipped to the UK for almost £ 225.00 excl. VAT:
http://www.batronix.com/shop/oscilloscopes/Rigol-DS1052E.html

I wouldn't get that Owon scope - it sucks. Better to save the extra £ 40-50 for the VAT on the Rigol.

I understand that the Rigol is far superior, but would you be able to tell me why the Owon sucks? If the Owon can meet my basic needs, I may be able to live with it's shortfalls.

I really would like to save for the Rigol but I have a baby coming very soon and I need the money, so £225 is really my limit. (Also the limit imposed by the Mrs).

Many Thanks
Stephen

[T4P]

1) It's terrible
2) The screen looks so horrible it harks back to the 90's because it's actually a DSTN display
Want to know how a DSTN display looks like?

PDS5022T is the one you want, the one with TFT and because that one has been out in the woods for so long already you can probably ask for a discount
3) Being an early OWON the performance is really quite ... snot.

[Stephen Hill]

1) It's terrible
2) The screen looks so horrible it harks back to the 90's because it's actually a DSTN display
Want to know how a DSTN display looks like?

PDS5022T is the one you want, the one with TFT and because that one has been out in the woods for so long already you can probably ask for a discount
3) Being an early OWON the performance is really quite ... snot.

Like I asked Marmad, are you able to quantify why it's terrible and snot? I understand that the display is poorer than a TFT, but this may be something I could live with given my budget.

I have have seen the TFT version of the Owon scope but it's availability within Europe is non-existent.

[Stephen Hill]

BTW. I do appreciate the feedback.

I just feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place with my budget.

[soren]

For quite a few months now I've been trying to score a new or used DSO on eBay for less than £225 delivered from the UK or Europe. Those that have appeared on eBay have quite quickly gone out of the range of my budget. I've also been trying to find retailers selling new DSO's for < £225 but with little luck. I would really like the Rigol DS1052E but no one in Europe will sell it within my budget.

I recently bought a Siglent SDS1022DL for EUR 200 including shipping within the EU:

http://www.futu-tech.de/shop/sds1022dl/

I am quite pleased with it and if you can accept the lower bandwidth and sample rate compared to the DS1052E, I think it's currently the best value DSO available, at least when you factor in VAT and EU shipping.

Note that the price calculator doesn't seem to show free shipping for orders over €70, so you have to contact the owner.

[Stephen Hill]

For quite a few months now I've been trying to score a new or used DSO on eBay for less than £225 delivered from the UK or Europe. Those that have appeared on eBay have quite quickly gone out of the range of my budget. I've also been trying to find retailers selling new DSO's for < £225 but with little luck. I would really like the Rigol DS1052E but no one in Europe will sell it within my budget.

I recently bought a Siglent SDS1022DL for EUR 200 including shipping within the EU:

http://www.futu-tech.de/shop/sds1022dl/

I am quite pleased with it and if you can accept the lower bandwidth and sample rate compared to the DS1052E, I think it's currently the best value DSO available, at least when you factor in VAT and EU shipping.

Note that the price calculator doesn't seem to show free shipping for orders over €70, so you have to contact the owner.

Thanks for the info. I will certainly take a good look at the scope and the website.

If you don't mind, I would love to see some photos or videos of you using your SDS1022DL. It would also be nice if you could outline the good and bad points about the scope. If you've got the time of course

Many Thanks
Stephen

[Stephen Hill]

Well this issue was quickly resolved. I've just bought a 2 month old DS1052E on eBay