My Hantek DSO4104B is a lesser model than the DSO4254C, but it can be hacked to 250 MHz bandwidth. As itsmaxdd noticed, there is not enough information about the new DSO4004 series, so I decided to borrow this thread to write a quick summary of my purchase.
Recently I was looking for a cheap four channel oscilloscope from Siglent’s and Rigol’s offerings to complement my PC USB oscilloscope. I then noticed a very low priced Hantek DSO4104B that I ordered it despite the numerous nasty bugs that early versions had.
In my electronic engineering times, I was using mostly Hameg and later also GW Instek equipment, so I had very low expectations from such a cheap device from a relatively unknown Chinese manufacturer.
I must say that I was wrong. The Hantek DSO4104B is nicely built with good PCB layout and proper internal shielding. On the outside, I really like its clean professional look with a logical controls layout and nice greyish color theme which Hantek “borrowed” from Keysight (Agilent) and improved upon as there are no rainbow colors. The same design language is present at dial knobs as they have nice rubbery feel instead of cheap plastic one. The haptic operation is sadly not as good as on premium devices.
General user experience is good but more on the slower side. Shifting between various options through menus is fast and responsive, but moving signal traces are slow compared to the latest offerings from Siglent and Rigol. In XY mode you only get few frames per second. It is still usable but far from 60 frames per second experience on PC USB Oscilloscope.
On youtube, you can find a few videos mostly about firmware bugs. For (potential) owners I recommend videos from Maria King:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiUTPaBj1thzazwCKY7vzyg/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0Pros:
- 100 MHz bandwidth with the possibility to hack it to 250 MHz
- solidly build device
- built-in serial decoder for UART, I2C, CAN, LIN
- four channels with individual dials for each channel
- big and crisp LCD screen with a large usable area for displaying signals
- brightly lit up buttons
- 2 nS horizontal range
- 500 uV vertical range
- low price (roughly half the price of the competitive devices)
Cons:
- mostly classic DSO functionality as it lacks more advanced features such as support for the digital phosphor, better math functions, filters and so on
- small record length memory by today's standards
- overall slower operation
- still has some bugs
- not a premium brand
Considering its low price and many built-in functions, the DSO4104B is as an almost perfect classic digital storage oscilloscope for enthusiasts and professionals on a low budget. Almost because Hantek still has some bugs to squash.
I find oscilloscope to be stable enough to be a good, albeit a bit slower device for my needs.
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