Re: Anyone have one of these? (Agilent U1604A handheld scope/DMM)

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:08:17 -0700, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgroups@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Responding to myself here...

For $700 you can get an "Owon HDS 2062-N"
(http://www.owon.com.cn/eng/hds-nSeries.asp), which seems to differ primarily
in that...

-- 60MHz, 250Msps vs. Agilent's 40MHz, 200Msps (although I wouldn't be
-- Agilent drops to 100Msps (per channel) when both channels are used, whereas
Owon *appears* to still sample at 250Msps in such cases.
-- Agilent has 125kB/channel memory, Owon only has 6kB (!)
-- Agilent has USB interfacing which -- as an option for $151 -- can be a USB
host so that data can be directly saved to USB memory sticks. Owon is always
a USB slave, but also has a "regular" (RS232-like) serial port.
-- Agilent has a prove calibration (square wave) output, Owon doesn't.
-- Not as many triggering options on the Owon (Agilent can do pulse-width
triggering, etc.)
-- Also, not nearly as many measurements in 'scope mode (no rise rise,
overshoot, etc.)
-- And no FFT option on the
-- Not as many measurements in DMM mode (no capacitance,
temperature/humidity/etc... although other than capacitance, you need the
right magic probes to make use of this)
-- Considerably smaller than Agilent (Owon is 18x11.5x4cm, Agilent is
24.1x13.8x6.6cm)
-- In general I would expect Owon might be fudging the specs a little more
than Agilent might. (Basic DC accuracy w/Agilent at >=50mV/div is +/-3%
whereas Owon is +/-5%.)

Still, for $700... wow. I remember my then-employer paying something like
$350 for a Fluke 87 DMM over a decade ago, and something like $4k for the
original Tek TDS720P (?) handheld-scope that was monochome and perhaps all of
20MHz and was considered quite the bargain at the time.

---Joel

I have the Owon - works OK but user interface is awful - can live with it for the few times I need a
portable scope though. Scope screen response speed is good, but DMM mode is far too slow - it has an
analogue dial but it's no faster than the digital display so pretty pointless.

One odd thing about the Agilent - for what appears to be a full-function scope, it has no trigger
holdoff facility. ISTR reading on the agilent forum that in slow timebases modes it only does roll
mode.

.

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  • Re: Anyone have one of these? (Agilent U1604A handheld scope/DMM)
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