Oscilloscope Primarily for Very Occasional 3.3/5v Module Trouble Shooting

[trifusion]

Yet another "What Scope Should I buy Post" from a newbie.

I've read pretty much all the 'what beginner oscilloscope should I buy' posts and of course mine is different  (at least in my mind) .... (A good one is here ... https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/portable-oscilloscopes-list/)

I am a hobby enthusiast and I work primarily with ESP32s and sensor modules. Every year I build an escape room for my kids for Xmas. This year's theme was "Music" and one of the puzzles was a drum set I fit up with piezo vibration detectors. For troubleshooting I have been able to get by with a multimeter but the piezo vibration detectors were sending voltages too fast for my multimeter to read. This sent me down the rabbit hole of looking at scopes and of course all oscilloscope roads lead to EEVBlog.

When I was looking for a multimeter EEVBlog helped me narrow down my choices and eventually I settled on the ANENG AN8008 (this should give you a good indication of the price point and benefit ratio I am looking for). This multimeter suits my needs perfectly for those times I need to trouble shoot (with the exception of not being able to provide time based graphs).

I primarily work with 3.3v, 4.2v and 5v. Very rarely I might use 8v (thermal printer) or 12v (long run WLED).

What (I think) I need generally from a scope is (or has been):
1. Check for consistent voltage to a module (so I would be looking for scope single shot voltage drops)
2. Check for voltage spikes from modules (spike from piezo, again scope single shot looking for voltage rise)
3. Something that is small so I can pack it away most of the time.
4. Something that is cheap since I will rarely be using it.
What (I think) I'd like but don't need would be:
5. SPI, I2C and I2S decoding.
6. 2 channels.

I was hoping to stay under $50US for what I need or under $100US for what I want (both decoding & 2 channels).

My AN8008 multimeter can do pretty much everything else I need for trouble shooting.

I have done lots of looking and narrowed my search to:

Need (1 to 4 above):
SigPeak/Zeeweii DSO154-PRO http://www.zeeweii.com/productinfo/dso154pro.html

Need + Like (1 to 6 above):
DreamSource Lab DSTouch DS4T252 https://www.dreamsourcelab.com/shop/oscilloscope/dstouch-ds4t252/

I have ruled out FNIRSI, Zoyi/ANENG, Hantek, and Miniware as well as full sized scopes. I really like the AN8008 so don't really need a combo scope + multimeter.

Please don't say buy a used scope, I've had a Kijiji search (Craig's list equivalent in my area) looking at every oscilloscope posted for past 2 years without anything of value.

My main concern is that DreamSource Lab doesn't have much of a market presence (or firmware updates) but maybe that should not be a concern at this price point?

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

Greg

[Aldo22]

For under $50 I would buy the Zeeweii DSO1C81:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007394192248.html

I don't know the DSTouch.

[Fungus]

If you want decoding then it's difficult. None of the cheapo oscilloscopes do it.

OTOH you can probably get away with checking signal integrity on the 'scope (ie. Are the I2C pullups doing their job) and then run a "sniffer" program on an Arduino (or something similar) to peek at the data.

I'd definitely go for two channels, you often need to see an event and a response. This probably puts the price over $50.

I've got one of these and it does an excellent job for the price:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/another-dsodmm-zeeweii-dso3d12-claimed-120mhz250msps/

You should be able to get one for under $100.

(Yes, it has a multimeter. They all do so just go with it. Having a second multimeter isn't a bad thing anyway...)

[Fungus]

For under $50 I would buy the Zeeweii DSO1C81:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007394192248.html

I don't know the DSTouch.

Zeeweii is the brand to go for in "cheap 'scopes", IMHO.

[Fungus]

My main concern is that DreamSource Lab doesn't have much of a market presence (or firmware updates) but maybe that should not be a concern at this price point?

I never heard of them before today. 

Edit: There's a thread here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/dreamsourcelab-dstouch-ds4t1012-ds4t1012/

[NE666]

Yet another "What Scope Should I buy Post" from a newbie.

And you won't be the last. I am getting a side-gig idea..

My main concern is that DreamSource Lab doesn't have much of a market presence

I don't think they do, not by comparison to the main "tier two and below" vendors. However, their range of logic analyser products seem to get good press from their users on this site.

I am going to be the contrarian, and say that if you can justify the additional expense, I'd look more towards the DS.

Reasons? Largely subjective but sometime things are exactly are they appear, and you can trust intuition. The DS product actually *looks* like a finished product, rather than a self-assemble kit. Someone put some time and effort into the design. And it has some attempt at a functional specification on its "datasheet", whilst what Zeeweii are offering in that regard (on the link in this thread) is just a joke.

Not to mention that the DS has twice the sample rate, plus some decode capability if you think you're ever likely to need it. Probably won't be the worlds's best, but their LA products (as I said previously) get a good reviews in this regard.

To be clear, both are "toys" as compared to scopes in the 500 USD range, but to my mind, the DS less so than the Zeeweii.

[trifusion]

Not a lot out there about DreamSource Lab, but what I have found looks good. Last month there was a pretty good video on youtube: by Kerry Wong. For the price the DS4T252 looks much better than any other cheap scopes. I wish there were more reviews of it.

The company looks like they specialize in logic analyzers (based on open source https://sigrok.org/wiki/Main_Page) which seems to have enabled them to do the protocol decoder at such a low price point.

[trifusion]

To be clear, both are "toys" as compared to scopes in the 500 USD range, but to my mind, the DS less so than the Zeeweii.

Agree, I am looking at the 'toy' level devices, this is for 'cheap' fun not work.

Thank you

[NE666]

Agree, I am looking at the 'toy' level devices, this is for 'cheap' fun not work.

No harm in that. Looks as if there's good fun and learning potential to be had here.

[Fungus]

Looks useful in that video.

I'm just suspicious when a seemingly good device doesn't have a thread on EEVBLOG though.

[trifusion]

I'm just suspicious when a seemingly good device doesn't have a thread on EEVBLOG though.

My thought exactly. There are only two posts about it here, I PM'd the two who posted to see if they had any thoughts they could add to this thread. I also emailed DreamSource Lab this morning to see if it's in stock and delivery time to me, we'll see how long it takes for them to respond.

[Fungus]

I also emailed DreamSource Lab this morning to see if it's in stock and delivery time to me, we'll see how long it takes for them to respond.

Good idea. Email them with some basic questions and see if they respond.