Osciloscope

[Merces]

Hi
I want to buy an cheap oscilloscope and i have 2 options.
An DS212 from Miniware or an HM412 from Hameg  in working conditions that i found on an online marketplace.
The DS212 is 80$ on Aliexpress and i need to want 30 days for it to arrive
The HM412 is 50$ and i need to wait 2 days for it to arrive.
What should i choose. i cant decide .
Thanks everyone in advance!

[johnnyzoo]

No experience of either, and no time for a thorough analysis now, but after a quick look:

The HM412 has much higher bandwidth (still low but acceptable for many types of hobbyist use) and despite being old, it's a "professional" instrument. But because it's analog, it can't be really used to analyze single-shot events. And unless it has a delay line, the trigger point will be on the left side of the screen.

The DS212 has relatively low bandwidth, just 1 MHz, which may not be enough for tesla coil experiments. But it's digital so it can capture single-shot events and it's probably possible to see what happened before triggering. Small size and battery operation may sometimes be advantageous. The user interface doesn't look very practical.

This thread is not about DS212 but it's still worth reading:
https://highvoltageforum.net/index.php?topic=923.0

[Da_Stier]

As Johnnyzoo said,

it depends a bit on what you want to do.
I personally got a 30MHz Hameg scope when I was 16, I paid 80€ which was a lot of money for me back then.
I really like the scope and still use it.
It works fine for signals that are repetetive and has even a bit more bandwith than advertised, as usual.

However you can't really do anything with it in the digital domain, you can't take single shots, don't have any decoder or Math functions.

The Ali Express one is a basic digital scope, however I personally wouldn't get this particular one, since it has super limited bandwith, an akward menu (in my opinion) and is super small.
I would save a little bit more money and buy an entry level picoscope for around 120$.
(https://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope/2000/picoscope-2000-overview)
It offeres REAL 10MHz bandwith and has a very nice software with every function under the sun, you will ever need.
(And it uses this software for every model so you can upgrade if necessary)

So if you need your scope super quick and do a lot of analog stuff with continuous waveforms, I would go for the Hameg.
If you want to do some digital stuff as well, I would save up a bit more and get a better digital scope.

Thats all my opinion of course, in the end, any scope is better than no scope for sure. 


Greetings,
Michael

[Merces]

Thanks everyone for replaying!

I will get the Hameg then.

[rikkitikkitavi]

One of my best dumpster diving findings was a fully functioning 2204A Picoscope. There is just one thing with it- I need a bloody PC to run it a display everything, with all that comes with that.