Please review these oscilloscopes for me ?

[pjp]

I want to buy my first oscilloscope. I have a choice of these 2.

http://www.aplab.com/pdfs/3702%20-%2...cilloscope.pdf

and

http://www.owon.com.cn/eng/pds5022.asp
(also this page: http://www.owon.com.cn/eng/pdsSeries.asp )

I don't know enough about oscilloscopes to make an informed choice. Please look at these 2 'scopes and let me know your opinions about them ?

( These are the only ones available for purchase here, so please don't tell me to buy a Tek! )

[keantoken]

I personally would go for the Aplab one, because of the higher voltage sensitivity (1mv/div as opposed to 5mv/div).

The "component tester" is a BIG feature. It is essentially a curve tracer if I understand correctly. This should save you a LOT of time testing components and troubleshooting.

The other has only slightly higher bandwidth, unless you get one of the upgraded versions (I assume you're getting the one you linked to).

- keantoken

[gyro]

It also depends what your major intended use of the scope is....

The Aplab scope is a traditional analogue real time CRT based scope, while the Owon is a Digital storage scope (with 8 Bit ADC).

If your main use is designing or debugging low level analogue audio signals then the APlab with its higher sensitivity and analogue input amplifiers is the way to go. The bandwidth should be high enough to be able to see if circuits become unstable and break into oscillation.

On the other hand, if your main interest is in digital logic then the Owon would be the way to go in order to capture digital events. It is likely to show significant noise on it's most sensitive ranges, making it much less suitable for low level analogue circuits (ie. you would probably be able to see 1mV signals on the Aplab that would be hidden by sampling noise on the Owon)

In an ideal world, it would be nice to be able to buy both and use each for the appropriate task, but you should decide which one based on what your main interest is - once you answer this then I think your choice becomes easy.

I hope this helps.

[pjp]

Originally Posted by gyro

the Owon would be the way to go in order to capture digital events

By digital events, I guess you mean non-recurring signals ?
I suppose even in analog circuits I might want to watch a non-repetitive waveform. I guess I'll have to consider how often such a feature might be necessary.

The primary use of this 'scope will be on analog circuits.

Originally Posted by keantoken

The "component tester" is a BIG feature.
- keantoken

That is interesting. I've never tested components with anything other than a multimeter, so I did not realize that this might be a useful feature.

[gyro]

Yes exactly. The Owon, will allow you to capture one-time (normally digital) events which the Aplab would never be able to show you (it would of course be able to display repetitive events, clocks etc).

Just to make you feel a little better, my comment about sampling noise would apply equally to an expensive Tek digital scope, the ones I have used have typically shown around 0.2 divisions of noise on lower ranges even with the probe shorted). To get over this you would need a specialist (low bandwidth) 12 or 16 bit digital scope.

If you are looking for your first scope I am making the assumption that you are probably just starting out. Personally I think everyone should have the experience of having used an analogue scope which gives much more 'feel' of what is going on. A digital scope is basically a computer which has things like auto-setup buttons and automated measurements, but you don't get the same experience of how it gets there and what to do when faced with a difficult signal, how to look at the noise level and not the big signal, how to measure directly directly off the screen, etc. Maybe I am just old fashioned in this.