under $30 pocket oscilloscope

[papaof2]

usa.banggood.com/FNIRSI-DSO152-Mini-Handheld-Digital-Oscilloscope-2023-Latest-Version-2_5MSa-or-s-200KHz-Analog-Bandwidth-800-VPP-with-PWM-Output-p-1989991.html

$27.99 + tax + $3.99 shipping

Screen display of voltages, frequency, etc. 2.5mBs sampling, 200kHz bandwidth.
Think: home appliances, vehicles, most home electronics (audio, TV (other than IF/RF), solar power.

A world of improvement over the Eico kit that was my first 'scope ;-)

Other than portability, it's no competition for the 4 channel, 100MHz Tektronis solid state 'scope that I found on Craig's List some years back but for 90% or more of what I use a scope for now, this would be adequate. Internal lithium battery (1AH) so probbaly quite afew hours of use (run time not listed) but that means you can check AC power waveforms without needing to isolate the ground of a line-powered 'scope.

Nice package, control layout looks useful - but you need to have it in your hands to determine how well it fits you. Good luck on finding one locally but you could make a posterboard box that size and see how it fits ;-)

[techsar]

Yup...bet it's lots easier to carry than my Eico 460

[papaof2]

Probably easier by a factor or 50 or more ;-) Then there's also the Tek 485 that's on a cart in the basement - something I got when I was in AF MARS for a number of years. That was a real step up from any previous scope and it had some history associated to it - tag from "Lawrence Livermore Low Level Lab" which would indicate it was used in some type of nuclear research. Museum piece now?
I got the main board of the Heath synthesized two meter rig at a hamfest and added crystals to hit the local AF MARS repeater - there was a working AF MARS radio always available because it ran on 12 volts and I could put a battery in place if power was off. Circumstances made me unavailable so I dropped out and passed that radio to an older MARS member on a fixed income.

The little 'scope's weight is in grams and it's smaller than my phone - just thicker, from the specs.

I built a ""digital storage 'scope" from a kit about 5 years ago so I would have an easy to use 'scope for checking AC power waveforms and comparing the power co-op's quality versus the pure sine wave inverters I had. This is definitely an upgrade of that 'scope, with more info on the screen and an internal battery. My little 'scope runs on 9 volts so I have a 5-to-9 dongle that runs for hours on a Vaas USB powerbank. The 'scope in the ad has what looks to be an SMA connector and the kit comes with a BNC adapter so it can use a standard probe (also included).

[feralferret]

I looked at a similar scope about a year ago for about the same price. I don't need one enough to justify buying one.

I used to have a scope that I got from the estate of a silent key. It was a big metal cube about 24" per side. You unlatched and removed the front for use. It was an old Navy surplus scope that was fully tube based. It was indeed heavy enough to use as a boat anchor. It had a 4" round CRT display. I gave it away when I moved away from Texas as I didn't have the room to keep it.

I worked with a lot of small lightweight digital storage scopes (HP, Tektronics, etc) the past two jobs. The DoD contractor had one for the M79 Electric Match contract. It was a dual channel scope.  The ignition voltage was applied to one channel.  A photo detector was mounted in the test chamber and was used to detect the light from the flame when the unit ignited with the other channel.  The scope was setup to display the time interval between the command and the actual ignition.  This had to meet the design specification in the contract.




The other job was QA for an electronics repair shop for the railroad industry.  We had scopes out our ears there.