Good, cheap scope.

I recently found a good scope for my hacking needs on Banggood. Thought you might be interested in it. You can find it here. It's the All-sun EM125 25MHz 2 in1 Mini Handheld Digital Oscilloscope + Multimeter.

TL;DR: Great value for $100! I love it for portable use.

I've used this now for a few weeks. My needs for a scope are modest. I need to see what wave forms are going on in different circuits and/or trying to figure out baud rates for stubborn serial lines. This scope gives me that and more. It also has all the features of a high-end multi-meter, including capacitance. And has a DMM mode that is easy to use.

The scope is solidly constructed. Normally at the low end you have to put up with funky adapters, fragile connection, light-wight (flimsy) construction. The construction of this device suffers from none of those defects. It is as solid as any of the higher end test gear I've used over the years. The fit and finish is quite nice. The aesthetics are pleasing without being obnoxious. Again, a pleasant surprise given the cost. The bag that comes with it is durable and holds all the accessories that come with the scope with some room to spare for a few extras.

While it lacks some of the features found in higher end scopes, and I would never think to make high precision measurements with it to calibrate systems, it gives me enough of a window into what's going on that it is well worth the money. Years ago I had a low-end Tektronics 5MHz scope that set me back more than $100 and wasn't half as easy to use as this. The only feature I miss from it with this one is the second channel for triggering / comparison.

It doesn't have a fancy color display like some of the cheaper scopes I looked at. However, it has a higher sampling bandwidth. The display is crisp and useful. The actual performance of the scope is better than the color ones costing twice as much.

The only down side for a native English speaker is that some of the menus on it are in Chinese. And the manual is in Chinese. The scope is simple enough to use that a little trial and error was all that was needed to get the basics. And I used my smart phone and google translate to work out some of the other bits.

For about US$100, I think it's an excellent value. If you are looking for a cheap scope that's portable and gives you good results, this one is for you. Don't expect the precision of a $1k or $10k scope, though. It lacks a second channel, calibration inputs and the display is also a bit small for high precision work. It's worked out great for trouble shooting and reverse engineering.