The Owon VDS1022I USB Oscilloscope 2+1 Channel 25 MHz 100 MS/s is a portable oscilloscope that can connect directly with PCs through USB. It accommodates users with 25 MHz bandwidth, 100MSa/s real-time sample rate, USB isolaion and multiple trigger modes - edge, video, slope, pulse, and alternate. The VDS1022I's USB powering facilitates mobile tests under powerless conditions.

Owning an oscilloscope is a real gamechanger and these days, scopes are more capable and less expensive than ever before. However, there is a big difference between scopes that cost several hundred dollars which are usually quite good and many of the very inexpensive — below $100 — instruments that are often — but not always — little more than toys. [Adrian] looks at a PC-based scope from Hantek that costs about $60. Is it a toy? Or a useful tool? He answers the question in the video below.

The Hantek 6022BE sports two channels with a 20 MHz bandwidth and 48 million samples per second. The device included probes, too. Of course, you also need a PC, although there is apparently third-party software for Android if you don’t want to lug a laptop around.

With two channels and relatively low bandwidth and sample rates, this Hantek is not going to displace a good benchtop scope, but you aren’t going to get one of those at this price point. The question you have to ask yourself is what do you actually need? In [Adrian’s] case, he wants to work on things like Commodore 64 computers, so 20MHz should be just fine for that sort of thing.

The software looks a bit dated, but it does have a lot of features you’d find on traditional scopes. The triggering, however, wasn’t very capable but since the device uses USB2, you can guess that the triggering is all happening in the device which probably can’t handle anything too complex. The results matched fairly well with a more capable instrument that [Adrian] had on hand.

The verdict? [Adrian] thought it was probably worth the money, but did wish for some things to be better. Many commenters, however, urged him to try unofficial software for the device which is supposed to be much better. We weren’t that interested in the device as an oscilloscope, but given that the protocol is apparently understood, we wondered if it might not find a home as a cheap data acquisition module in some future project.

We’ve seen reviews of Hantek’s scope meter recently. We are always on the lookout for what kind of scope you can get for under $100.

Experimentation with libusb v1.2.6 seemed to resolve the USB driver flakiness, this can easily be installed using zadig.

The roller ball device is rather dicky to use.

VDS1022i

The VDS1022i is a two channel scope with 25MHz bandwidth, and the i suffix denotes isolation of the USB ground from the instrument ground.

The supplied application software is fairly good, but has some usability issues:

• the application opens with a fixed (ie non configurable) window size that may be larger than the physical screen size;
• the application does not persist the window size to new application sessions;
• the supplied driver (libusbK) and application combination are very flaky, the driver often disconnects and the scope has to be unplugged and reinserted to restart operation (we are warned that libusbK is not tolerant of poor usb implementations);
• USB operation was less reliable on a cascaded USB3 hub;
• on two of hosts tested, the VDS1022i is identified as “Unknown device

  1” in Windows;

• True triggered operation is not possible with the timebase set below 50ms/div (1s total sweep), it forces ‘auto' trigger mode disabling true triggered display, and as a result, disabling single sweep. The ‘auto' mode is actually unsynchronised above 50ms/div.
• The ‘update online' facility does not work.

A good time base trigger facility is essential to effective utilisation of any DSO, virtual or not.

Experimentation with libusb v1.2.6 seemed to resolve the USB driver flakiness, this can easily be installed using zadig.

RDS and VDS together

A test was conducted to see if both devices and their respective applications are compatible for concurrent operation.

On one of three hosts tested, the RDS1021i and VDS1022i both identified as “Oscilloscope” in Windows, they did not identify by model number. The applications did not automatically select the compatible device type, and present a list of identically named devices for the user to choose for each one.

It would be nicer if a single application supported both hardware types and effectively mapped the devices to different channels, but that is not so. Diagnostic messages suggest that each application, although they look the same, load their respective device specific FPGA images to the attached device (rather than recognising the device type and loading the relevant image).

Conclusions

Assuming that the issues that exist with these two products exist also with the VDS 100MHz 4 channel devices which are priced at $800+, I would not be even thinking of them unless there was some specific need for the PC integration.

A good time base trigger facility is essential to effective utilisation of any DSO, virtual or not… and both devices fall well short of the mark. Lack of performance in the timebase area makes channel performance somewhat irrelevant.

The application software and firmware on the tested device is a year or more old which hints a lack of interest by the manufacturer in fixing significant problems. Their web site hints a lack of support resources.

The fact that it works better with libusb0 than libusbK might indicate a non-compliant usb implementation.

There is no doubt that they are both much better than commonly available sound card oscilloscopes without an interface unit, and these low end models at modest prices might be good value for some applications, but they fall a long way short of a good quality DSO.

Are cheap oscilloscopes any good?

A cheap entry-level oscilloscope may be enough for hobbyists or someone that only uses it occasionally. For professionals who rely on accurate measurements and results, a cheap oscilloscope will not be able to handle more complex circuits or measurements.

Is USB oscilloscope good?

Unlike the full-fledged oscilloscopes, the USB oscilloscopes are rather more convenient to use as they are cheaper, work almost with the same precision, and can be easily connected with the computer since they are portable as well.

What is a good beginner oscilloscope?

Our number one pick for beginners and hobbyists is the Hantek DSO5102P Digital Storage Oscilloscope. Hantek DSO5102P Digital Storage Oscilloscope - It's one of the best entry-level oscilloscopes when it comes to price/quality ratio.

Can you use a PC as an oscilloscope?

However, the sound card of a personal computer is capable of digitizing low-voltage from a range of a few hundred Hertz to several thousand Hertz with a respectable resolution. Plus, free software is available for displaying these signals in oscilloscope form on the computer screen.