Pocket Oscilloscopes, experiences?

I bought a UT91 more than a year ago. It's a combined pocket DSO and multimeter. It's rather primitive as optimal features go, but what it does is pretty good.

I think 1 Msps (Samples per second ) is a little low. For under $200, the UT91 does 40 Msps. I guess by your estimate, that means it could show me a 4 MHz signal quite well, but I put it on a USB output ( 11 MHz ) and was able to read hex off the screen - It didn't translate it for me, I was doing that in my head, but the image was sufficient for me to read the encoded data bits accurately first go and getting a good image wasn't too onerous.

At that kind of sample rate and price point, it's a useful tool. It comes with a PC interface ( useless, except for voltage logging and mine didn't work anyway ) and has a few channels to store signals - I think 4 from memory. Also lacks nice presets.

But the trigger works well, it's easy to use and adjustable. It has an auto-scale feature that I find more of a pain than a help when I want to measure something, but if I don't know what I'm looking for, it can be useful.

Lots of fiddly button pressing. I got it so I can have an oscilloscope nearby and not have to pull the large CRO out of the shed each time I want to measure something. I don't have a workshop set up at the moment.

Definitely a valuable purchase. Being able to show me the signal before and after the trigger is useful too.

I'd like a delay setting, or to be able to adjust where in the sample the trigger goes off, but sadly it doesn't do that. Also some presets would be nice.

But for $200 I'd buy one again if this one broke.... I did have to shop around for that price though... I've seen these from $80 ( Yes, I actually saw them go for that price once, new ) to $1000... So the market doesn't seem to know where the right price point is.

But it gave me an accurate measurement and worked well. Also measures signal specifics like frequency and displays them. Usual stuff.

Does this help?

David.

Update - Just had a look at the nano... On the subject of scale - the UT81 is a typical multimeter sized pocket scope... ie, big pockets. If I could only have one, I'd take the UT-81... 40x the sample speed can be more useful... But since I can have two, I might buy the nano as well.

David,

Can you post a link to the UT91 you mentioned, I can not seem to find anything about it.

Also, I reviewed the DSOnano here. It turns out, it's a fairly useful device for quick measurements. Nothing I would write down in a final design lab report, but for testing and troubleshooting it truly shines.

Cabe

Hi Cabe,

Sorry, my bad - I typo'ed the model... No excuse...

Here's a link to the UT81 on Ebay.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=ut81b&_sacat=See-All-Categories

David

David,

8Mhz on the UT81 is impressive. I'm going to see if I can get my hands on one of these. Thanks for the link.

On another note, is there a dual channel handheld o-scope yet?

Cabe

You will find a product overview of low-end USB oscilloscopes here: USB Oscilloscopes - Product Overview (Low-end)

On the same website (Oscopes.info) there is also a list of "10 tips for selection an oscilloscope" available. See /Basics

We've had some nice discussions about oscilloscopes and their specs in this topic: http://www.element14.com/community/message/137641/l/re-recommendations-for-an-oscilloscope#137641, especially on the 2nd and 3rd page. Gives some good hints on what to look for in the specs.

I think I'd rather have  a bigger pocket and something like this if I needed a really portable scope.

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/handheld-oscilloscope-dso1060.html

Of course the Fluke ones are much nicer but a lot more expensive.

This one might be worth a look.

https://www.lab-nation.com/store

MK

Although the DS1054Z is not 'pocketable' it will give you 50 MHz "real" bandwith (i.e. single shot) with 4 channels (250MS/s per channel).

With one channel you'll get the full 1GSps, but then it's useless to have the 50MHz limit

It weighs 3kg, so I regularly take it with me in a small backpack when I go troubleshooting! I think the only real use of scopemeters is when you're very space-limited, for instance in installation work.

I'm totally with you there - I haven't bought  a Scopemeter since the very original one (made by Philips (any one want to buy a valuable antique ?))  - a real scope is much better (and much better value).

It's a shame that you have to pay double to get 100MHz bandwidth.

MK

An important thing to also remember no matter the scope type you choose is that you need maybe 5* the scope bandwidth than the signal you want to measure (As a general rule)

Unless everything you’re going to measure is a perfect sine wave, scope bandwidth is based on showing a sine wave, not square or other shapes, so for instance if your wanting to verify the integrity of a 20Mhz clock or output from a micro you will need 5* that or 100Mhz bandwidth if your to have any chance of seeing the real or close to real signal, a 50Mhz bandwidth will be attenuating the faster edges and making what may be a square wave toward looking like a sine wave

Square waves , triangle waves etc are made up from harmonics of a sine wave so for instance a 20Mhz triangle will need harmonics of 60Mhz and 100Mhz and that’s only the first 2 odd harmonics

Sounds like a good thing for a tutorial video…hmm

Peter

An important thing to also remember no matter the scope type you choose is that you need maybe 5* the scope bandwidth than the signal you want to measure (As a general rule)

Unless everything you’re going to measure is a perfect sine wave, scope bandwidth is based on showing a sine wave, not square or other shapes, so for instance if your wanting to verify the integrity of a 20Mhz clock or output from a micro you will need 5* that or 100Mhz bandwidth if your to have any chance of seeing the real or close to real signal, a 50Mhz bandwidth will be attenuating the faster edges and making what may be a square wave toward looking like a sine wave

Square waves , triangle waves etc are made up from harmonics of a sine wave so for instance a 20Mhz triangle will need harmonics of 60Mhz and 100Mhz and that’s only the first 2 odd harmonics

Sounds like a good thing for a tutorial video…hmm

Peter