After dealing with electronics for since the 70's I'm slowly modernizing my tools. I retired my old 'cat's eye' for an ESR meter and next I wanted to retire old trusty, my Tektronix 475. (No I don't use the meter on top of it, just to lazy to unmount it.)

So I decided to try out one of the newer ARM based digital/analog scopes. I decided to check this one out and share my findings real-time in case anyone is looking for an portable scope.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057M7YLE

Here is a picture of it next to ole trusty...

DSC01149.JPG

It has an input max of 80Vpp with a x1 probe (400Vpp with a 10x probe)
2 Digital Channels with storing
2 Analog Channels
A signal generator

It comes with two 1x probes, but I picked up a couple BMC to MCX adapters that allows me to use my much beefier 10x Tektronix probes also.

http://www.amazon.com/coaxial-coax-adapter-female-connector/dp/B00CWDKAXA

I did some basic playing with it. It does work as advertise. Bit of a learning curve on the GUI and switches. Of course that's to be expected when one is used to the same scope for 40 years.

Being one of those small (about the size of an iPhone 2), cheap made in China dongles, the documentation is a bit sparse.

I did find a Wiki on it.

http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/DSO_Quad_Manual_(by_the_community)#Introduction

I need to figure out if it takes .jpg snaps of signals and how to move triggers around. But at first glance it does what I want and it is SUPER portable. First scope I could put in my shirt pocket.

Hard to say, it really was more of those 'down the rabbit hole called the interwebs thing' I stumbled on (may have even been while following one of DKpinball's threads, that made me go "Helloooo sunshine where have you been hiding?"

For the price it was a 'must try'. I'll see how it shakes out in time.

DOH how did I miss the heavy duty one.... Not worth my time and effort to ship back and swap.

It does save to .BMP and .CSV format.

IMAG001.jpg

Overall reviews show that its not a 'lab' scope you would use for precise work as the calibration is a bit of a kludge, but for portability and general use it looks to get good reviews.

+1 on that. I'm used to reaching out and twisting a knob, not trying to play Street Fighter combos.

The unit is self power meaning you do not plug it in, so it has no ground reference. You MUST ground your probes to you get garbage. Understood, but still inconvenient.

It's a bit tough to do timing measurements because of the UI and it's small scale. But it does what it does well. Small, cheap scope.