Hantek, Tektronics, Keysight o-scope comparison! :-)

[Timothy1027]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen. Noobie here. This is my first post to this forum. I am an electronics tech in training. I am designing & building a new e-lab for my apartment. I am working on a small budget due to living on disability income. I am preparing to buy my FIRST o-scope! I just finished an EXHAUSTIVE analysis of the US o-scope market. I compiled my latest results into the attached spreadsheet. There are 3 o-scopes listed (Hantek, Tektronics, Keysight) and 88 "Feature/Spec" lines for comparison. Some of you may find this list interesting and useful. Review & comment? Any suggestions for updates? Thanks, Cheers! Tim  :-)

[tautech]

Welcome to the forum.

Which way are you leaning and why ?

[Timothy1027]

I am leaning toward the Hantek because of the price (affordability) and it seems to have very impressive specs & good quality for a small price tag. I don't expect my needs to be great in the future. I figure can always upgrade if needed (or if I win a lottery) in the future.

[tautech]

I am leaning toward the Hantek because of the price (affordability) and it seems to have very impressive specs & good quality for a small price tag. I don't expect my needs to be great in the future. I figure can always upgrade if needed (or if I win a lottery) in the future.

OK, any reason why you've only found/listed these three ?

[Timothy1027]

That's a good question. These 3 o-scopes all have 2 channels, 70 MHz bandwidth, benchtop, FAST sample rates, 7" diagonal high-res screens, USB ports front & rear, under $900 USD.

[tautech]

That's a good question. These 3 o-scopes all have 2 channels, 70 MHz bandwidth, benchtop, FAST sample rates, 7" diagonal high-res screens, USB ports front & rear, under $900 USD.

You really don't need to consider spending so much for your first DSO and in fact if you drop the upper limit to $400 there's a good selection of better spec'ed DSO's available.
Have a look here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/digital-oscilloscope-comparison-chart/

I sell DSO's and other gear into the NZ market and my best seller 2ch DSO is just $379 and 200 MHz !

[Timothy1027]

I only made the upper limit $900 to accommodate the Tek unit which is like $806.
I plan on buying the Hantek unit for $194.99.
I think I may have already seen that o-scope comparison, that's where I got some of my info.  :-)

[Fungus]

I am leaning toward the Hantek because of the price (affordability) and it seems to have very impressive specs & good quality for a small price tag. I don't expect my needs to be great in the future.

The trap is that the software doesn't match the on-paper spec. Very limited features.

[tautech]

OK gotcha. 

As you've seemed not to have any experience with scopes let alone DSO's my advice is to select one with a much greater memory depth than just 40Kpts.
Many here will agree that 1 Mpts is the bare minimum to properly harness the power of a DSO especially when capturing a waveform and wanting to zoom on it later. But it really doesn't end there as the feature set is what you're paying for most of all.
This might be over your head at such an early stage in your adventure so the other thing I'd advise is to get a DSO with capability beyond what you imagine you need right now so as skills and knowledge grow it will serve you well for a good while.
Yes salesmen always try to upsell however this one prides himself in fitting the right instrument to the buyer for the best long term experience...... SDS1202X-E.
I could suggest lesser/cheaper models from the same stable but I don't/won't stock them !

Good luck with your hunt.

[Fungus]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen. Noobie here. This is my first post to this forum. I am an electronics tech in training. I am designing & building a new e-lab for my apartment. I am working on a small budget due to living on disability income. I am preparing to buy my FIRST o-scope!

I'm not sure I'd get a 2-channel oscilloscope these days - too limited in the world of modern electronics.

The Rigol DS1054Z fits your needs. Solidly built, plenty of bandwidth/memory, and all the features most people could ever need. You can get one for about $350.

nb. I'm not an oscilloscope dealer, just a DS1054Z owner.

[Timothy1027]

The $350 Rigol unit looks REAL FANCY with a whole lot of bells & whistles!!!
Can you give me some examples of where a tech MUST have a 4-channel 0-scope? e.g. 2-channels will NOT be enough. Thanks!

[tautech]

We go through this process of helping newbies select a DSO ever other week and the most obvious thing when we get down to the nitty gritty of spec vs spec is the perfect scope is yet to be built.
It all comes down to the buyers needs however not all scope buyers are clear in their own mind what they might need.
The 2 vs 4 ch need is predominately for observing multiple data lines and decoding however really only SPI needs more than 2 channels and only when there are multiple devices on the same bus. Not at all an everyday use case for the average hobbyist.

Again the perfect scope is yet to be built so one must get your ‘must haves’ listed and let them guide your selection.
BW, mem depth and feature set is what matters in the end.
Take your time and keep asking questions.

[Fungus]

The $350 Rigol unit looks REAL FANCY with a whole lot of bells & whistles!!!
Can you give me some examples of where a tech MUST have a 4-channel 0-scope? e.g. 2-channels will NOT be enough. Thanks!

I'm sure almost any task can be done with just 2 channels and enough probe swapping, but... 4 channels can make life much easier, especially if you're doing anything with microcontrollers (Arduino, etc).

Car analogy: A car with two seats can theoretically move as many people as a car with four seats, you just have to make make more trips. A car with four seats makes life a whole lot easier though.

[jjoonathan]

My first scope was a hantek. I spent my first 80% of my time with it getting the software to work (they published a debug build without debug DLLs, so it was straight up broken until you tracked them down) and the last 20% of my time with it discovering severe limitations (there was an always-present 10MHz background tone, software kept crashing, trigger was egregiously offset from the display value, wfm/s was low, memory depth was low, and those are just the ones that spring to mind).

Then I bought a Rigol DS1054Z and within minutes I was able to start working on my project, rather than on my oscilloscope.

YMMV.