Best hobbyist oscilloscope
What’s the best hobbyist oscilloscope? It depends on what’s important to you and what’s not. Do you want portability? Do you want physical controls as opposed to navigating through menus?
I’m going to attempt to guide you through the options to help you make the correct and considered decision for you.
|
Item | Prime | Buy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yeapook
Tablet Oscilloscope | yes | ||
| Hantek
DSO5102P Oscilloscope | yes | ||
| Rigol
DS1054Z Oscilloscope | No | ||
| SainSmart
DSO212 Oscilloscope | yes |
A customer once asked a waiter could he recommend a good bottle of wine? The waiter said yes, look at the wine list, they are arranged in order of how good they. The best ones are the most expensive.
Its a bit like that with most things really, there is the odd bargain, but usually the best is the most expensive. There are however better and worse ones in a similar price bracket. What I’m going to do is highlight the best ones for the price.
An oscilloscope is fantastically useful when it comes to testing electronics as it enables you to see the signals that are happening in an electronic circuit. After I had first used an oscilloscope I wanted one myself. I started using oscilloscopes about thirty years ago. They were nearly all analogue and all expensive, oh and I forgot, all extremely heavy!
Now though, things have significantly changed. There are some amazing oscilloscopes around at very affordable prices. There are even some really good oscilloscopes around at really cheap prices and for the hobbyist so you can now get a decent oscilloscope for a bargain price.
Can a laptop be used as an oscilloscope?
Yes, If you’ve got no money at all you can build an oscilloscope using an old laptop and a few cheap components. You can read my article “Build a sound-card oscilloscope”. If that’s something that interests you.
It’s also a great way to see what an oscilloscope can do without spending money.
Why would you want an oscilloscope
There are things that you can’t do with any other piece of test equipment.
If you want an example look at my article “how to use an oscilloscope”.
I use it to set a variable resistor on an oscillator to correctly produce a ramp wave.
I don’t know how else you would do this without an oscilloscope. There are plenty of other things that you can do with an oscilloscope. Depending on what you want to do there are several options. I’ll attempt to explain so you can decide what is the best one for you. If you are unsure if you need an oscilloscope at all be sure to check out my article “Is an oscilloscope worth Buying?”
You might also consider a USB oscilloscope if you only want to use it occasionally and you can certainly save money. Check out my buyers guide “Best USB oscilloscope review”.
So if you’ve made up your mind that you need one, which one should you get? It’s like most things when it comes to buying, it depends on what you want it to do and how much money you have available.
How to choose an oscilloscope?
There are various things to consider when you buy an oscilloscope because you don’t want to get it wrong and waste a lot of money. The good news is that with what’s available nowadays is its hard to end up with an expensive pile of rubbish.
There are some very good inexpensive and expensive oscilloscopes available but you want to find what’s right for you. You don’t want to pay for a lot of features you’ll never need but you don’t want to buy something that wont do what you want either.
So lets look through the features and help you decide what you need and what you don’t.
Number of channels
The minimum number of channels you’ll find on the oscilloscopes listed here is two. You can get models with four and there are some with eight that are designed for automotive use. I’ve never needed more than two and I more often that not I only use a single channel.
Oscilloscope bandwidth
This is a bit like the bandwidth on your Hi-Fi. With a limited bandwidth on your Hi-Fi it doesn’t sound as good. A wide bandwidth on oscilloscope enables you to see higher frequency waveforms properly. The thing is though a lot of electronics don’t use frequencies that high. I mainly build synthesiser modules and you don’t really need that large a bandwidth.
Sometimes I think its a bit like having a faster flasher car. Do you really need it? There is a rough rule of thumb with oscilloscope bandwidth. That’s the five times rule. Look at the highest frequency you work with you need a bandwidth five times that. A 100 MHz oscilloscope will be able display 20 MHz waveforms properly. I wont complicate things so if you want to know why read my article on oscilloscope bandwidth here.
Sample rate
This is the next most important specification because its the rate the oscilloscope “samples” the waveform to display. It could be a 200 MHz bandwidth scope but if it doesn’t sample the waveform enough times you wont see the detail that’s there.
Its measures sample rate in giga samples per second and for a 100 MHz scope you should be looking at 50 giga samples per second to display it.
Oscilloscope memory depth
This is how much memory is available to stores what’s been happening on the input on the oscilloscope. If there’s not enough available you might not be able to see what you wanted and particularly zoom in enough.
To be honest although these specification are important the manufactures have sorted most problems these days and no ones going to make a 100 MHz oscilloscope that doesn’t sample quick enough or doesn’t have enough memory in it. If you get your bandwidth and channel requirements right you’ll be OK.
Oscilloscope price – what can you afford to pay?
The next thing to consider is price and what you are prepared to pay. You do get a lot for your money these days.
Oscilloscopes for less than two hundred pounds
If you have around about £100 to spend I would consider the DSO212. I bought a DSO201 as a portable option when I didn’t want to move my bench oscilloscope. The DSO201 isn’t available any more as it’s been replaced but the DSO202 which is updated is a better oscilloscope. I used my DSO201 up until I replaced it with a USB oscilloscope, which is now my portable oscilloscope.
Comparing it with devices that cost a lot more isn’t really a fair comparison. It will however work as a competent oscilloscope but with a limited bandwidth.
If you want a more in depth details you can read my review of the DSO201 here.
- Very portable, small and light, my mobile phone is bigger!
- It’s cheap costing around £100.
- Just recharge it through a USB socket and holds its charge for ages.
- It has a built in frequency meter.
- Its light weight can sometimes be a problem as the probe lead can drag it around in use.
Best budget hobbyist oscilloscope
Yeapook handheld digital tablet oscilloscope
If you have more money to spend there is a clear bargain to be had from Amazon prime. That is the Yeapook handheld digital tablet oscilloscope. I really like the look of this and although a haven’t bought one yet I’m very close to it. This would replace my USB oscilloscope as my mobile device. The Yeapook looks really well made, in fact it looks really good.
The design of the case and stand / handle with the sockets at the bottom make it look a smart piece of kit. It’s specifications blow away the SainSmart with 100 MHZ bandwidth, 1 giga sampling rate and a 240k bit sample memory depth.
Its two channel and you get the two probes with it. Its got a 7 inch screen with a display of 800 x 480 which is similar to the machines in the £250 – £400 price range. The reviews are good with a high rating of around 4.5 out of 5. The price of all of this is a pretty ridiculous low £140.
Hantek DSO5102P digital oscilloscope, 2 channel, 1GSa/s real-time sample 100 MHz
This is what I consider to be the best budget hobbyist oscilloscope. I can’t find anything else that gives you more bangs for your bucks. Sure there are better oscilloscopes available and there are cheaper ones available but this one gets the balance of price and performance just about right for me.
On the whole it is a very well put together unit. It’s really useful to have buttons for things rather than going through menus and I think I’ll always be more at home with a device like this as my main oscilloscope having been brought up on traditional analogue oscilloscopes at work.
Hantek DSO5102P specifications
This is a two channel device. Then there’s the extra bandwidth of 100 MHz and accuracy of the larger screen. Its 7 inch TFT LCD, the grid on it is 8 by 18 and its colour WVGA (800 x 480) with each channels trace having a different colour. This makes it a lot easier when you’re using both channels and something we didn’t have on the old analogue scopes.
Its mains powered and having it plug in means it’s not going to need charging while it’s on your work bench. For a work bench device I always like it to plug into the mains. Batteries are great for on the move but I just prefer the extra reliability of mains gear.
You can use it on signals of up to 400 volts so you can fault find all the way back to the mains. That’s something you can’t do with the budget DSO201 which you can only use up to about 100 volts.
It’s apparently also got very good digital storage functions but that’s not something that I’ve used at all but it’s nice to know its there if you need it.
Like the DSO201, it also has a frequency counter but this one is much more accurate. As I build analogue synthesisers this is something really useful for me.
Its size is 31.3 x 14.2 x 10.8 cm and it only weighs 2.5 Kg. This is something I can never get over when I think about carrying my first analogue oscilloscope at work. While we’re on the subject of carrying it, there’s a handle on top that drops down and nicely recesses into the top of the scope.
Hantek DSO5102P digital oscilloscope, 2 channel, 1GSa/s real-time sample 200 MHz
Also worth considering is the 200 MHz Hantek DSO5202P. Although I haven’t got this model I’m guessing it’s similar to the Hantek DSSO5102P with the difference being the larger bandwidth.
Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope
For me this is just out of my price range but it is a very good oscilloscope. It has been around for a few years and I suspect that’s because its good so why change it?
The biggest difference to this and the competition is that this has four channels. The bandwidth is only 100 MHz though and for the price you could get the 200 MHZ bandwidth Hantek 5202. It has a 7 inch display at 800 by 480 pixels like most of them unless you pay a lot more.
Final thoughts about the best hobbyist oscilloscope
You may have noticed that all of my recommended oscilloscopes are digital. For me they have many advantages over the old analogue oscilloscopes. They are much lighter not having to have cathode ray tubes and large, high voltage power supplies. The displays are a lot clearer and you don’t keep having to mess around with intensity and focusing controls.
Analogue oscilloscopes are still available but are more aimed at professionals these days.
If your looking to buy an oscilloscope, and like me were brought up on old huge analogue ones, I think you will be amazed at what digital oscilloscopes can do, these days and what you can get for your money, particularly the Hantek DSO5102P. I did spend a lot of time reading and researching because I didn’t want to make an expensive mistake.
Ive also linked to oscilloscopes that are available from Amazon prime. As an oscilloscope was going to be an online purchase I was very reluctant to buy from retailers who I couldn’t totally trust or I hadn’t tried before. An oscilloscope is a purchase of a few hundred pounds so I was more then happy to buy from Amazon prime. If you aren’t a member you can get a free 28 day trial by clicking on the link below.
While researching which was the best hobbyist oscilloscope, I did consider quite a few models. If I didn’t have to worry too much about money I would have gone for the Rigol DS1054Z. I was very tempted to go for this machine but I considered that for what you get for your money the Hantek DSO5102P was a better buy.
Then there is also the cheaper option of the Yeapook handheld digital tablet oscilloscope. With a 100 MHz bandwidth with a 7 inch screen it’s specifications are very impressive.
My conclusion to the best hobbyist oscilloscope
So what’s the bottom line on the best hobbyist oscilloscope and which one would I buy now?
If you have less than £150 to spend then there is the obvious choice of the Yeapook handheld digital tablet oscilloscope . I’m going to get the Yeapook to replace my SainSmart DSO. At around £50 more than the DSO, in my opinion it does way more and the extra £50 is well worth it. The SainSmart DSO has been a really good buy for me and if you can’t afford the Yeapook handheld digital tablet oscilloscope its certainly a decent option.
If you have £250 to spend I would go for the Hantek DSO5102P digital oscilloscope. It’s an excellent machine and another best buy for the money
If you have £500 to spend then the Rigol DS1054Z Oscilloscope is the machine to go for. Unfortunately for me its currently out of my price range.
What ever you can afford the good news for the buyer is that these are three excellent oscilloscopes and you wont be making a mistake whichever option you go for.