Review/Teardown of a FNIRSI 1014D DSO - 100 MHz or 30 MHz Bandwidth?

By popular request, I did a review and teardown of a FNIRSI 1014D digital storage oscilloscope. You can also find the exact same scope under the Yeapook brand (ADS1014D). Although it is advertised as a 100MHz bandwidth scope, in reality the bandwidth is just at around 30MHz. This along with other issues (e.g. low memory depth, low input sensitivity, display artifacts, etc.) makes it hard to justify getting this scope even with the rock bottom price.
00:00 Introduction
02:45 Functional testing
06:10 Bandwidth measurements
11:31 Rise time testing
12:17 AM/FM modulation, Lissajous figure
13:11 Builtin function generator
14:49 Teardown
16:25 Conclusions

[@grahamhall2662]

Excellent reviews. Very comprehensive and easy to understand. Love the teardown's. Can see what you get for your money, great, thank you.

[@s14tam]

Thank you so much for this video! I am in the market for a scope was considering this model but now I will go ahead and spend a little bit more to hopefully get a better one.

[@LearnElectronicsRepair]

Hi Kerry, you asked for other opinions. I just made a review of the FNIRSI 1014D and I came to a different opinion to yours. I hope I explained clearly and logically in my review why I disagree with you and invite you to comment here or on my review regards the usefulness of the 1014D.

[@andrewsz8552]

Mr Wong said in a comment below: "To be fair, I wouldn't have any issue with the scope if the manufacturer was honest with the specs." Richard, you were also disappointed when you couldn't find a beeper on a 3 Euro multimeter during one of your recent tests and came to the conlusion: "Bin". :)

[@leeyounger2518]

⁠@@andrewsz8552when has a Chinese manufacturer ever been honest with their specs 😂

[@James_Bowie]

Interestingly, Wong has chosen to reply to a few comments but very noticeably not yours. Your review is far more useful because it was done by a professional technician putting the scope through its paces on practical tasks.

[@RJHElias]

Still no reply from Mr Wong 🤨, If he was right, he should answer to your question

[@ruenjou]

I almost bought this thing and was glad that I saw this video before doing it. Thanks for the video!

[@instrumentfixer35yearsexp90]

Just bought this scope, my needs are simple and this scope warts and all fits my needs

[@urnoob5528]

literally hantek for the same price

[@andrewwasson6153]

@@urnoob5528You’ve posted this comment a few times on this video. Which Hantek literally costs the same? In Canada, the lowest price I can get a FNIRSI 1014D delivered, all in is $220 (Canadian dollars). The cheaper I can find a Hantek DSO5102P delivered but not including import fees is $399 (Canadian dollars). Import fees could put the price over double of the FNIRSI scope.

[@jrose7849]

Thank you very much for this honest review and tear down. It is invaluable for someone like me just starting off in my study of electronics and putting together my first work bench. I can ill afford to make bad purchases (which I very nearly did😱). I’ll be sure to check out your other videos and I have subscribed to your channel. Please keep up the great work👍

[@backgammonbacon]

The scope is fine just up to 30Mhz. Do you really need 100Mhz?

[@DrexProjects]

Thanks. I just about placed an order for one. Great review.

[@proteomicrotronicsempresa2030]

Finally somebody do a teardown to this toy oscilloscope, I tested this oscilloscope use a TDR DIY to measure the rise time and with a formula calculate the bandwidth. The result is sad

[@blackarrow8683]

Thank you very much for this video Mr Wong. I like your channel a lot and I am looking forward to your next video! Great testing and true words! I think I watched all your videos twice already 🤗 Very nice content! 😀

[@rbruce25]

This is just my opinion so take it as that, I thought the review was rather harsh, I know Mr. Wong was just giving his honest opinion, but I think he was a little too harsh, "I would not touch this with a 10 foot pole" that stung, as I purchased this item. I purchased it because I have used older Tektronics Oscilloscopes when going through school, but that was years ago. I purchased this item to re-acclimate myself with oscilloscopes, I did not want to spend allot of money for an item that I could damage while learning, I did not care if it was not too accurate or the specs were somewhat bloated, I purchased this item for 1. it solved ground isolation by being able to be powered by a power-bank, 2. it was under $200 and had most of the basic feature I need to learn 3. additional feature that I could advance too if wanted. I think that Mr. Wong was somewhat blind to the audience, I use KZbin to find and learn things I do not know, I am glad that he was frank, but he could have been without the comment "I would not touch this with a 10 foot pole" that comment is the only thing I found offending to the review. I agree it is a cheap oscilloscope, it has some issues, some that have been corrected by a firmware update. In a summary all I am asking is that you be aware of your audience.

[@Tekjive]

Great, honest, and intelligent review. Ty!

[@stefanjetchick3853]

If you keep doing honest product reviews like this, you'll never get lots of free stuff from unscrupulous manufacturers! ;-)

[@mscir]

LOL

[@JAKOB1977]

perhaps, but its definately a breath of fresh air and the viewers love the transparency. Its funny to see such an honest review like this above and then see from a channel like "ilearnelectronics" on the same scope. that are "wow", its literally the second coming of christ.. hurry viewer, hurry viewers get it from my CN-link., all while being lubricated to the moon and back by this Chinese Fnirsi. and all while having the American flagpatch staged and highlighted on the desk, while doing this backbone-bending showdown. no wonder, viewers are like.. "why are you dirtying our flag like this, please jump in the ocean, that your rancid, please keep the US flag out of it and don't use it as a tacky talisman to play on some nationalistic cr4p all while acting this dirty.".

[@DrexProjects]

@@JAKOB1977 Ya that guy is a dorque.

[@testboga5991]

Less garbage to dispose of

[@SIXSTRING63]

@@DrexProjectsAbsolutely correct. When he sets up scopes and meters I always catch the mistakes he’s making and it usually takes him 5 minutes or never to figure it out. I find it hard to believe he was aboard submarines in the Navy. I hope it wasn’t an electronics technician in charge of any warfare systems 😬😬😬😬

[@jeffsaxton716]

It met my expectations, which weren't high. Money's worth, i think. I'm just using it for hobby purposes. I used to employ Tektronix CRT scopes in my work. This one meets the specs of one of those that cost thousands.

[@agranero6]

Yes, mine too for the price you get a good enough scope if you are aware of the limitations. I use this one more frequently than my old Tektronix as it has more convenient controls. I rarely need to look at freqeuencies higher than 10Mhz. Even for square ones that the bandwidth would distort the signal cutting off the higher harmonics.

[@WisdomVendor1]

I recently came very very close to purchasing this scope and as you mentioned due to reviews online. Thanks to reviews such as yours which are honest I thankfully did not purchase one. And will not. Much appreciated.

[@TechBench]

The waveform behaviour looks suspiciously as if the acquisition system has been set to some sort of averaging. Perhaps just check the averaging configuration to make sure. If the 'scope has a dot-mode, you should be able to count the number of dots plotted at a specific frequency to determine actual sample rate. Trigger stability is definitely not great. Thanks for taking the time to do this quick review!

[@DW11111]

Thank you for the vid. I'm getting into the hobby and you just saved me from making a mistake.

[@ervhowe1316]

Very good appraisal of the FNIRSI that points out the dishonest specifications (typical) that stare you right in the face! I watched your other scope video for the Hantek DSO-02D15 which is by far the better scope of the two you reviewed, thanks for that since 'entry-level' or 'beginners' oscilloscope kits has a lot of self-appraisal by the scopes manufacturer.

[@materialdialectics]

Haha, glad the one I got was a cheap open box deal. I appreciate the honest review though, that said I still think it'll work for my purposes since the utility I'm after is primarily a conceptualization aid, so as long as the relative values are decentish I'm not as concerned with the outright values being accurate.

[@DudleyToolwright]

Nicely done. A really well done review.

[@Scorry]

Thank you for the fair review.

[@blocky3664]

becaus of your honest reviews I'm subscribed!

[@aminekostone1411]

Thanks for this review. It really helps with choice of model. Would love to know what the best alternative is to this?

[@testboga5991]

Excellent review! Thanks!

[@ircustomsignalsuk-rg5pe]

I brought one & U am very pleased indeed. Especially as was bought under the other name for well under £200.

[@henriquehff]

Can you measure inrush current or peak voltage? For example, when disconnecting a relay to measure the voltage spike

[@BrendaEM]

Unfortunately, not all reviews are happy ones. I am glad you showed it for what it is.

[@freddiebear8793]

Almost bought this scope, but thanks to your review I bought the Hantek DSO5102P, much better quality!

[@electronichome1153]

Your conclusion is quite harsh, IMO. This "scope" is very good for breadboard applications to learn Arduino, or STM32 or another popular boards and programming. It is not a professional scope, there is no doubt about that. But a moderately good scope costs at least 3000$ and a professional one starts from 10k$. And this one costs only 120$, or at least this is the price I paid a year ago. This is unbeatable price compared to low-class competitors as Hantek, Owon or Siglent for example. I really enjoy using this "oscilloscope" for my hobby learnings with all these ESP32, Raspberry Pi or Arduino boards and it works for me. Just to mention that I have two high-class oscillsocopes Tektronix and HP, one analog Kikusui and one quite expensice Rigole. And I am using most of the time for not so demanding measurements FNIRSI 1014D. And really enjoy to compare identical measurements between all those machines and yes, FNIRSI is really the cheapest ever and not perfect one, but really works well most of the time for frequencies below 30-40 MHz. I am happy to have FNIRSI 1014D, because is very portable and with a great display and quite good mechanics too. It is good to have a backup with good oscilloscope for realistic measurements, but if you need to study a I2C protocol, you don't need LeCroy or Yokogawa, or Tektronix - this scope will do the job as well.

[@atlanko1]

It's hard to watch the i2c protocol, when 1014 does not allow shifting over the entire memory or changing the sampling frequency. An oscilloscope with very limited uses. Do not buy.

[@urnoob5528]

bro is coping lol no the hantek is selling for exactly the same price and it is MILES AHEAD

[@electronichome1153]

@@urnoob5528I don't understand what you'd like to say, but maybe you understand what you're talking about. And I've never said Hantek aren't ahead - of course they are. And this Fnirsi is a brand new Chinese brand. But Hantek oscilloscopes are more expensive, and that's a fact. And that this is not a real oscilloscope is also a fact, but I got it for a little over $100 a year and a half ago. Hantek's devices started at 250$, at least. Precisely because of the price I took one. Not that I don't have expensive oscilloscopes like the LeCroy 600MHz 64Xi that used to cost at the moment $4000 second hand. Everyone makes their own choice. Someone went to the efforts of making this cheap oscilloscope, and I'm not in the habit of spitting out that labor so easily. You don't like it - don't buy it. On the contrary, I am having fun with this small and cheap machine. For real measurements I use real oscilloscopes. And even Rigol doesn't fall into that category, let alone Hantek.

[@ernestb.2377]

Thanks for the review. It is valuable for the rest of us. And if we are honest, what can we expect and can you believe the claims for the money that is the half of a similar specs scoop. Something have to give. And on the other hand, for someone who is starting the hobby it can bu used. It works. It is not perfect but it is for hobby.

[@click381]

Hi Kerry, I really appreciate your honest reviews. To receive free junk you minus well not get anything.

[@andrewdoherty737]

Wish you'd done this review last year! would of saved me a lot of grief.

[@MaqsoodAlamShafiq]

Thanks for an excellent reivew.

[@jwrtiger]

I think most of the first part of your video which is measuring bandwidth using a sinewave is in error. Directly connecting a waveform generator outputting a sine wave to the input of the oscope or using a 1x scope probe is not the way to measure the full bandwidth of the oscope. The input to most scopes is effectively a low pass filter composed of an input resistance shunted by an input capacitance (1 Mohm || 16 pF). Again for a sinewave and using a 10x scope probe which contains a capacitor will help cancel out the inherent input oscope capacitance. This will greatly increase the 3dB point in determining the full bandwidth. This is why many oscope manufactures like Rigol state in their header to the specifications that they are made with a 10x probe properly compensated. Please note I am not commenting on rise time measurement. Hope this helps and I enjoy your channel very much and appreciate all the hard work.

[@KerryWongBlog]

The 1x, 10x are only applicable when you are using an oscilloscope probe. In this case the input is connected with the sig gen with a 50 Ohm coax. Later on in the video, when using the 8642, the signal was terminated with a 50 Ohm load as well.

[@jwrtiger]

@@KerryWongBlog Sorry disagree, you were trying to measure full bandwidth and even pointing to the oscope in the video saying it was not 100 MHz from your measurement (which might be true for that scope) but your sinewave method was wrong. That is not how oscope companies measure BW with a sinewave. Of course another method is rise and fall times of a step function. I was just trying to explain those specs for a sinewave 3 dB point are measured with a 10x probe so it does matter if your are testing for their specs because you are both using different methods. You might want to check Rohde-Schwarz website for a good explanation. The 50 ohm out of the generator and coaxial cable is fine also terminated as you mentioned but including a 10x probe if you want to check their specs. I will let it go at that... only trying to be helpful.

[@vachik979]

@@jwrtiger You're not right. The reviewer did the right thing.

[@KerryWongBlog]

@@jwrtiger For strict testing procedures, you've got a point and manufacturers typically follow a set of well defined procedures for certifying the specifications. The main point is that the spec of this scope is way off. The same approach have been used for testing other scopes (see my other tests) and the results are all in the ball park of the specifications. I do appreciate your comment as after all this video is intended to be more technical :-)

[@wtmayhew]

@@KerryWongBlog I came here to say the same. The review is correct, given the 50 load is attached at the scope input. The parallel input capacitance of the scope should be trivial compared to the dominance of the 50 Ohm resistive component of the effective input impedance. Mr. Wong has a tee connector and load on the scope input clearly visible in the video. I teach a course in digital electronics which is a junior/senior level course and I am always surprised how many students arrive not knowing that high impedance measurements need to be made with a 10x probe in order to have the capacitive and resistive voltage dividers in parallel; also that they need to have a 50 Ohm load for the signal generator at device under test’s input if the device under test has a high impedance input. I also have to cajole students to check probe compensation every time they get a probe that is not already known to be matched to the scope they are using. Students want to jump right into building projects with FPGAs, but I have them do a few labs with discrete parts so they learn layout technique and proper use of instrumentation.

[@bacamor5255]

Well these scopes are well enough for Audio Equipment repairs (expecially the VERY lucrative Vintage segment), so the limitation to 30 Mhz have not weight. With a tiny price a professional can repair with great accuracy Amplifiers, Cassette Decks, CDs, Mixers and all is in the frequence range of 20-20.000 Hz. All this spending a fraction of other useless equipments now on the market. It is a sad realty but the bulk of the job done by laboratories is fine with a 20Mhz Analog Scope of 40 years ago. It is a fact that the advent of brands like FNIRSI, Hantek, Hanmatek, low budget Owon have caused a big hit on Siglent / Rigol balance sheet. Amazon have the warehouses full of Rigols and Siglents that nobody purchase. Recent cheap scopes are all sold out instead. Even the integrated function generator IS NOT a fantasy, a decent low frequence sinusoidal wave generator is all is needed in Vintage repair and the signal emitted by FNIRSI is well enough for all Hifi Vintage repairs . Kerry deal with this. I can see some strugless in the future of some well known Pro Chinese brands

[@robertcollins224]

So, will this be alright for the newer, solid state amplifiers as well?

[@robertcollins224]

I have two 250w Radio Shack PA amps in protect mode.. Will this work for them?

[@andreivolkov1]

This scope claims to have a feature of capturing and storing a waveform from oscilloscope input and using this stored waveform as output of signal generator. It would be interesting to see this in action. Excerpt from their advertising: "The output device intercepts part or the whole part of the complex signals measured by the oscilloscope as the output signal of the signal generator, which can store up to 1000 customized cut-off signals; The built-in high-voltage protection module can tolerate up to 400V continuous voltage, without worrying about the oscilloscope burning accident caused by the probe not moving to 10x gear. Built-in 1GB storage space, can store up to 1000 screen capture pictures + 1000 groups of waveform data, the storage process is simple and fast, save the current waveform with only one click, no cumbersome prompts and choices to save the current data, very convenient." It seems this scope has some interesting features that differentiate it from other scopes, which may be useful in some scenarios. Not many instruments can replay captured waveform from signal generator.

[@testefederalteste]

Very good video! Thanks for showing !!!

[@CommenterRick]

Hi Kerry I really liked your presentation skills; very professionally done. Before buying my scope, I noticed a lot of reviews said that it was probably first designed about 10 years ago but firmware updates have kept it modern with few bugs. I was wondering if you had tried a firmware update since you did this review to see if some of the issues had gone away. Thank again.

[@luisperdigao1851]

Very good review! I actually ordered one of these a few days ago primarily because it can be powered off of a battery bank. My use for it tho is going to be measuring low frequency signals in an old car so hopefully it wont be too bad for that.

[@roygalaasen]

I was considering this for low frequency work as well. Now I an unsure of even that. 😂 Do I save up for a better scope or not? 😮

[@chrisfrank8413]

@@roygalaasen There's nothing wrong with this Scope, For your application, it is about 1000x overpowered.

[@roygalaasen]

@@chrisfrank8413 yes, it is sure to be good enough for my immediate use cases.

[@urnoob5528]

@@chrisfrank8413 literally a 10usd diy scope exist for stuff below 100khz

[@rickjames8960]

Just found your channel from Hackaday. Hooked already. Subscribed

[@KerryWongBlog]

Thanks Rick!

[@ovalwingnut]

Quite iNtErEsTiNg. Good job on your description, commentary and post-edit. Thank you.

[@kukulcangod1]

Thank you! ...I'm returning one right about now.

[@no1be4me2]

I appreciate this review I almost jumped the gun and bought it what budget scope do you suggest thanks in advance...

[@Vasse_t]

Just a quick question, due to the price can it be useful and worth the price if you use it as a portable 30 mhz oscilloscope? Like in automotive/educational (not have to be careful about) purpose, measurring CAN bus and small signal like that?

[@urnoob5528]

nope buy a hantek at the same price

[@mr_noodler]

‘Oh man, this is bad’ sums it up perfectly

[@radamspse]

Bought one, the bandwidth is really not an issue for me as I regularly work in the 1 to 20 kHz range. I do have a question and hope you can answer it. The FFT function trace seems to be set at a height of half way between the centre line and the top of the screen and I cannot move it with the channel knob. Is this a limitation of the scope or am I doing something wrong?

[@youtubasoarus]

I bought it to get my foot in the door for this kind of thing. I have no idea what to expect or even want out of a scope, so this fits my budget and allows me to get a feel for these things.

[@paulsmith2362]

Thank you for sharing the test results with FNIRSI 1014D. Wonder if you be ok to recommend a good oscilloscope that is under $200.

[@electronichome1153]

There is not such a thing. Minimum budget for decent scope is 1000$, realistically. I was lucky to buy one new portable 2-Channel Tektronix for this price, but it was 7-8 years ago and it was a Farnell's total sell with more than 50% discount of these models. So, if you look regulary for some offers, you can find something really good.

[@boots7859]

@@electronichome1153 BS. There are tens of thousands of people who can spend $250-300 and get a great 1Gs scope.

[@oniea]

looks like an aquire mode averaging is the display artifacts, while switching the timebase

[@ChupoCro]

Fnirsi 1014D does *not* have a firmware on the SD card (it has it in the flash) and it can boot even when SD card is formatted. One of EEVBlog forum members reverse engineered the firmware (and even made a new firmware for 1013D) and not only that - *he even reviewed this very review* of the 1014D saying: "Around 8:50 in the video he even does not notice the sudden rise in amplitude when the signal goes from ~41MHz to ~42MHz, which is when the software starts to calculate the sine wave instead of using the actual points, just as it does in the 1013D. Around 15:09 he assumes the firmware to live on the SD card, which we all know is not the case. He should have consulted this thread before doing his review. Have noticed this missing with other reviewers too. A bit of a shame because this blog is full with useful information.".

[@KerryWongBlog]

@ChupoCro, I may have used the term OS and firmware loosely but the OS is on the SD card and without it the scope will not boot (you can easily verify this yourself). Regarding the bandwidth measurement, the point I wanted to drive home was not where the actual cutoff frequency is, but the actual bandwidth is far below the claimed 100 MHz.

[@ChupoCro]

@@KerryWongBlog It won't boot if you remove the SD card but it will boot if you format SD card. It *will* boot from an *empty* SD card. Yes, the actual bandwidth really is far below 100 MHz but that isn't questionable - I was referring to the information that wasn't correct. Forum poster that reviewed your video review wanted to say there is an important info missing from your review. The information about how the oscilloscope works up to about 41 MHz vs how it works above this frequency might *for someone* be very important for making a decision if they could or could not use this oscilloscope. And if you read the thread about that oscilloscope I mentioned, you will find *many* more important information you didn't mention.

[@boots7859]

@@ChupoCro You and the EEVBlog forum member seem to have some real interest in trying to use a strawman argument to try and ding the main point of Kerry's video. The unit overstates its capabilities, its true bandwidth is barely 1/3 of what is advertised. At that point, it doesn't matter what else it can do or how badly it does it since it can't even do the primary thing its sold to do. Why some people want to defend a company for ripping people off is concerning, are the somehow being paid, or are they just inherently stupid or to butthurt to admit they got scammed?

[@urnoob5528]

@@KerryWongBlog no

[@click381]

This review would make the company update there software. Thanks Again

[@paulfalke6227]

I have an Owon VDS1022I USB oscilloscope and I think about an oscilloscope with display. Thanks for your teardown. Normally on KZbin, there are a lot of people saying YES or saying NO to any topic. But you give a WHY. This is the engineer way. Thanks!

[@robbieaussievic]

.... Well done Mate, I was imagining Dave Jones running from this scope in a nightmare.

[@MuellerNick]

Dave Jones would be brabbling for at least 49 minutes.

[@johncoops6897]

Most users at this price point could not care less about irrelevant frequencies >1MHz. Is there any channe or website that does *proper* reviews on these products?

[@robbieaussievic]

@@johncoops6897 .... Good point John, although we can't spend our hard earned money on a product that lies. I think Kerry is saying to young people, "save you money a little longer".

[@johncoops6897]

@@robbieaussievic - ALL products lie. I went out with a girl who told me she had 36C but they were actually only 34C... that didn't mean she didn't give good head.

[@snabelsvin1]

He wouldn't be running for long before the input circuit blows up. I just read the manual where it's stated that the inputs is maximum 40V and you have to use X10/X100 probes on higher voltages. It's a joke in every way.

[@jefft650]

Thank YOU Kerry Wong, what a Great Review. He gets right to the Point. Both the Video and Audio is very clear and he speaks perfect English. He has reviewed many different Scopes and gives lots of details both internal and external about this Scope and lets the viewers know exactly what he thinks about it. On a Scale of his Review, I give him a 10 out of 10. Thank You, Jeff

[@gradyplayer]

In the "Solemnly Remind" section of the manual the scope only claims 5MHz bandwidth with 1X probe... (so it seems to exceed that.)... It seems pretty impressive to me for the price point, much better than my super old analog tektronix...

[@KerryWongBlog]

5MHz is typical for 1X probe, but for 10X it fell far short of the claimed bandwidth.

[@gradyplayer]

@@KerryWongBlog did you use a 10x probe?

[@KerryWongBlog]

@@gradyplayer Yes. All tests were done with a 10x probe.

[@michaelmorgan4352]

Well done!

[@don7680]

From its manual, "The bandwidth of the 1X probe is 5Mhz, the bandwidth of the 10X probe is 100Mhz. When measuring frequencies above 5Mhz the switch on the probe needs to be set at 10X, and the scope needs to be set to 10X. Are you using the correct probe?

[@dmmgualb]

I'm an unfortunate owner of one of these osciloscopes (the price got me, and I was looking only for a backup/extra instrument). The main problem really is the gain, it won't see small signals, minimum scale is 50mV/div with 1x probes! Other problem is impedance matching: I was seeing a 5Vpp 1KHz square signal using the 1x probe. When I switched to 10x, it turned to 5.3Vpp (using cursors or automatic measurement gives the same class of error). The actual signal was 5Vpp, measured simultaneously with two other reliable (with valid calibration certificate) osciloscopes. So, I think there is some kind of impedance mismatching. I've tried with two distinct 100x probes with even worse results!:An actual 260Vpp signal showed as 220Vpp in the FNIRSI!. So, it seems to only work ok using probes in 1x mode! So, my advice is the same: don't waste your money!

[@jimbert50]

I see you have a couple Tektronix oscilloscopes on your bench. They look like a model 2445 or 2465. Which are they? I just restored a 2465.

[@KerryWongBlog]

One each.

[@andymouse]

Wise words indeed...cheers.

[@paulcohen1555]

Fully agree with you.

[@Tech-Relief]

Ok so I have some other cheap FRNISI devices and all of them are a little suspect. However, what is not clear is if you had the probes on 10x doing the bandwidth tests; because all scopes quote a bandwidth that is only valid when the probe is set to 10x at 1x you expect a bandwidth perhaps up to 10 x less... This seems to be a related to the probes.

[@watchdogu.s.a.8973]

Early in the video he showed it was set to 10x - then changed it to 1x and then back to 10x for testing.

[@watchdogu.s.a.8973]

Actually, the scope was set to 10x but we don't know that the probes, themselves, were set.

[@boots7859]

Whats clear is that you are spouting off senselessly. As he directly mentioned and showed in the video, several times no less, he was using a 10x probe and discussed why the P-P voltage was showing 10v vs 1. Again, a couple of times. You are one of the only ones who seem to have missed that, and then are extrapolating for it being the reason the FRNSI is showing bandwidth problems. And all after commenting that you have repeatedly bought other cheap FRNSI equipment that " all of them are a little suspect".....

[@jerril42]

This scope became available from my local seller. I was suspicious from the start. I had no intention of getting it, I'm sad my suspicions were correct. For the price, it might have meant getting a scope sooner. I'll hold out for the Siglent or Rigol I was looking at.

[@redpillcommando]

I have a Rigol 1054Z and I love it.

[@SianaGearz]

Hantek or Owon are about 15% more expensive than this. Both of them much more serious measurement device companies. I haven't bought one yet but the reviews including comparative ones are a lot more reassuring that they actually live up to the spec, mostly.

[@joeysartain6056]

did you ever switch the probe over to 10X? it says in the manual that for frequencies over 2MHz the probe needed to be on 10X. I do not know why this is as I am not familiar with scopes.???

[@mast3rbug]

From what I see when you switch the timebase, it looks like this scope have a cheap ADC and is made from addition of successive shifted sampling. Not a real 1Gigasample. So it need a long stable signal to combine the actual waveform.

[@technishn]

If the input of the Oscilloscope is terminated with 50 ohms, or whatever the source generator impedance is, does the bandwidth appear to change?

[@qbishop1]

Thank you!

[@ircustomsignalsuk-rg5pe]

I got the Yeapook brand. I do get an annoying 50 Millivolt noise from my Mains Supply or due to lack of shielding. I may have to Address this soon. My old UK Scopex didn't have this issue.

[@jb678901]

I need a scope to test vintage audio gear from 20Hz up to 20Khz. Pretty sure this one fits the bill just fine. I am a hobbyist and revising my own equipment. I'd rather spend my money on the audio gear and not break the bank on a piece of equipment I will use, at most, a few afternoons within the course of a year.

[@hungoan5836]

I think so, too

[@celsiusswatt6021]

The "unmarked" ICs there are AD9288s, these are dual 100Msa/s 8-bit ADCs. They are interleaved to get max 200Msa/s sample rate. The sample rate then is 200Msa/s at 10ns/div, 50Msa/s at 1us/div, 5Msa/s at 10us and so on... There is no anti-aliasing filter of oversampling in this design, so this is nowhere near 1Gsa/s written on the front bezel. The measured rise/fall time is 10ns (matches 30MHz bandwidth). The large unmarked chip is ANLOGIC Eagle4 FEF2L45 FPGA device, the design apparently is cloned from that found on Internet and pretty much the same as 1013D. The good feature is power from USB (one could also use a powerbank). I have seen many clones of that in online stores, so I am not sure if there was some other "true" scope which had original specifications. The overestimated parameters habit is the same as in selling 8000mAh 16850 batteries from China, in reality 1000mAh...

[@roelandriemens]

It looks like if the scope is in average mode. Then artefacts like in this video occur when the signal changes. Does this scope have a bandwidth filter? If so, it looks to be turned on.

[@johncoops6897]

None of the settings or features of the scope were even tested. It's so frustrating that these so-called experts get so obsessed with Multi-MHz that they forget to test the products properly. This guy didn't even test triggering, or accuracy. Most people couldn't care less about >100kHz.

[@ChupoCro]

If you want to know how this oscilloscope works and what it *can* do I suggest to read the thread about it on EEVBlog where one of the forum members reverse engineered the firmware, explained it in details and even made a new FW for 1013D. Not only that - he even reviewed this very review :-)

[@boots7859]

@@johncoops6897 John (

[@don7680]

Probably fine for a hobbyist working on audio equipment.

[@akbaraghabeyg9590]

Dear sir.... do you choice this model or Rigol Ds1102 ZE ??

[@mscir]

Great analysis, thank you, I was considering buying one of these but this doesn't inspire confidence.

[@sklepa]

Kerry You're Gold.

[@arduinomaquinas]

Awesome video 🇧🇷😉👏👏👏👏

[@svartling50]

The maual says that you must use a 10:1 probe to achive 100mhz. Was this tha case?

[@StephenSmith304]

Lol they must have meant it breaks at 100Mhz. Still I'm thinking this might be a good beginner scope for debugging basic arduino digital logic. I currently have no visibility into what's happening with my DIY circuits, and the arduino's clock speed is only like 16Mhz anyway, so I don't feel like it's worth spending more than ~$150, plus many other cheap options are handhelds with smaller screens. So I'm not sure what other low-performance budget options there are for desktop scopes with big screens for less than $150.

[@TotiTolvukall]

I have a question for you Kerry, I tried the same bandwidth test as you do - with the FNIRSI1014D I get 698mV at 19MHz. That's not even 20 😳 But my Rigol MSO5072 is at 982mV at 60MHz (that's as fast as my AWG will go) - do you think it is because of the FNIRSI - or because of the signal generator? I'm still keeping the FNIRSI - even though it also is mildly inaccurate. Why? Because it's safer than the Rigol measuring high-voltage circuits that share the ground with the Rigol but not the FNIRSI (I can run the FNIRSI off of a battery pack - and it's cheaper than buying capable probes for the Rigol) and also, abusing the auto button on the FNIRSI is a whole lot faster than the Rigol - manual or auto - which is... odd. Additionally I don't like the faux phosphor look of the Rigol. I like my sines clean and squares square - and sharp. But that's a personal preference.

[@KerryWongBlog]

Bandwidth measurements can be tricky, it would be more accurate if you have proper 50 Ohm termination. That said, if you saw such drastic discrepancy chances are that the 1014D's actual bandwidth is indeed significantly lower than what's spec'd.

[@victoruzhos856]

If the author had traced the line from the input connectors to the measuring chip, he might have noticed that the tracks go all the way across the board past the switching power supply. I think there's a lot of noise building up there and reducing the measured frequency. But for repair work on household appliances this device is quite enough, because it is almost never necessary to measure signals above 16 MHz. Therefore, it would not be cost-effective to invest $1000 in a very good device.

[@boots7859]

Or, as he said, you could spend in the same ballpark amount and get a vastly superior handheld from Owon/Hantek. Portable too.

[@fickfehler3866]

Can this work as a millivolt meter ? What's highest AC test bandwidth ?

[@clementihammock7572]

Yes, it's affordable, and with that USB power source is definitely a plus. But engineers and technicians need reliable gear.

[@ihatemicrosoftsobadly3188]

yeah can only agree, i have made the terrible mistake of purchasing this oscilloscope a while back when i was still an electronics beginner. i'm still in high school so i don't have much money to spend on proper test gear so i'm still stuck with this bit of hardware. i truly hate my past self for this purchase and to everyone who considers purchasing this unit: it is absolutely terrible. it only caused me trouble so far. for example when i swapped the USB power supply for a different one that had a tiny bit more noise... took me about 3 weeks and numerous hours of poking around with multimeter probes in the internals of this scope to figure out that was the issue..... also for the work i do not having a properly shielded scope is a real big issue. 0/10 would not recommend

[@anks888]

looks like its averaging the waveform from before and after the time base switch

[@costaylor6305]

Thanks.

[@graxxor]

How would you rate this against a TBS1072 .... "70MHz" oscilloscope consnidering the buying price second hand was $150...with probes.

[@TheDigitalAura]

I think it's wise to save your money and consider something like a Rigol DS1054Z as a bare minimum bench scope.

[@wtmayhew]

I absolutely agree. I have a 4-channel 200 MHz Rigol DSO which I bought about 10 years ago and use as my main bench scope. The Rigol has a very good quality feel of all its controls and easily meets or exceeds all of its promised specifications. At the time Rigol had an uncanny resemblance to Agilent’s lower line of DSOs, so I assume Rigol was making products for Agilent. Some of the products from Siglent look fairly decent too, but I don’t have any on my bench.

[@TheDigitalAura]

@@wtmayhew I upgraded my Rigol scope a while ago now to a Keysight, the Rigol still has it's place if I need 4 channels, mind you the Keysight blows it away for realtime bus decoding. The Rigol still feels very solid and I also have a Rigol DG1062z function gen. They make very good, competitively priced gear. This current trend of super cheap stuff from china however is just garbage, although I did buy the Owon 70mhz Handheld.

[@great__success]

Rigol is almost twice the price thou, but still it is worth it...

[@wtmayhew]

@@great__successagreed. Rigol makes pretty good instruments which are not rock bottom cheap, but you get quality benefits worth the modest extra cost. It is worth it to save up and get an instrument which gives accurate results and is a pleasure to use. Rock bottom instruments will taunt you with poor results and bad ergonomics. I also bought used test equipment for a long time and was usually frustrated by operation which was not quite correct. People usually don’t sell off stuff if they are happy with it. New test equipment is affordable enough now that it can match used name-brand prices and meet or exceed features and specifications.

[@wtmayhew]

@@TheDigitalAura Thanks for the reply. That is good to know. I like quite a few of Keysight’s offerings and they are getting more competitive on pricing. I made the leap to Keysight’s 6.5 digit bench meter. It was pretty expensive, but blows competition away in quality. I am glad I have a top quality meter with traceable calibration. It was money well spent and I have found having a precise and accurate bench meter been more useful than I expected. I have a fluke 8060A and an unpronounceable name cheap meter for everyday use where they might get knocked around.

[@koalaalentejano4528]

Thanks for the work you've commited to this video. Most criticism to your conclusions throughout the comments are for some significant part correct IMHO. But (huge BUT here) the utterly dominant use of the sinusoidal function isn't fitting to draw such a derrogatory conclusion. The most utterlly glaring absence of the square wave function performance of this oscilloscope is the major flaw in drawing such peremptory conclusions. I must agree it is limited, quircky and with "optimistic" specifications. Nevertheless it is dirt cheap! And so therefore it delivers real value in a low budget hobbyist use case. Besides if you goof up and brick or "magic smoke" one of these you loose less $$$ than with, say, an entry level Hantek or Owon. DISCLAIMER: I have one of these gadgets. Is it useless? No. Is it limited? Yes. Would I buy one today if I managed to fry the one I have? Most definitely Yes. Lastly: I have other scopes.

[@joop2295]

Thank you for the excellent review! I already have seen several reviews about this “thing”, where the performance, such as rise time and bandwidth, were not properly measured. Your tests only confirm my suspicions: this thing is not worth the money…

[@johncoops6897]

Thos channel didn't measure those parameters at all.

[@joop2295]

@@johncoops6897 Yes, that's right. Furthermore I have my doubts about the max. sampling rate...

[@themusicofnewyork1570]

Impressive that you could figure out how to do xy mode. I can't.

[@gravisan]

Is this a good beginner scope for audio applications?

[@McTroyd]

With this level of performance, you'd be better off with a 10 or 20 MHz analog scope. Probably cheaper to find one of those nowadays too. Sheesh. 👍️

[@TzOk]

This scope clearly works in equivalent time sampling mode, like early digitizing scopes from 1980's.

[@Scorry]

... and fail even in it.

[@AndreaZeta]

Did you calibrate the probe before the test?

[@jb5631]

Of course he did. But even if he didn't: the device is already so horribly bad designed that nothing can save it

[@thetechgenie7374]

Trigger doesn’t work correctly due to ADC sampling rate is below 5 points as of course it not 1Gsp/s. A problem I seen with 80’s scopes when equivalent sampling rate. This one actually maybe worst as the 50mv sensitivity?

[@atlanko1]

Hardware sensitivity is 100mV software increased to 50. Very bad.

[@bubbatennessee7531]

What do you expect for a measly 150 bucks ?

[@wtmayhew]

I strongly recommend the Owon HDS2102S scope meter as an alternative to this Fnirsi scope for people looking for an entry level multipurpose instrument. I have the Owon HDS2102S and it has quickly become a go-to scope, meter snd generator for everyday quick checks. The HDS2102S is less than US $100 more than the Fnirsi. The HDS2102S scope section sine wave amplitude accuracy as I measured is within 1 dB at 100 MHz and the meter section accuracy is within 0.25%. I held an amateur HT about a foot from the HDS2102S probe and it easily locked onto and displayed a 146 MHz signal though the on-screen frequency counter did not indicate at that frequency. The HDS2102S uses a time-shared 500 mega sample/S ADC though the input amps are easily good to 100 MHz. A stickler might consider the HDS2102S more of a 70 MHz scope, but the results out to 100 MHz for a single channel are quite usable. Limitations of the HDS2102S are that it does not do FFTs and the record length is 8K samples. Hantek also has scope meters with slightly larger screens, but Owon has better specifications.

[@TheDigitalAura]

I bought the Owon HDS2072s as an 'out and about' scope and it's pretty good overall, certainly much better than anything FNIRSI can produce. I think the Hanteks have smaller screens and don't quite perform so well.

[@jopotzner]

there was no 20Mhz BW limit mode?

[@kskzkdkd206]

What do you think about owon sds1102 ??

[@warunakumara7671]

SIR WTZ THE BEST BUDGET SCOPE U RECOMMEND

[@NaravishThongnok]

Great review. I believe that for the price, the scope did a fine job but honestly, I can afford a better entry level ones and for the peace of mind,, If the manufacturer lies to me, how would I be sure that the scope won't lie to me too.

[@krzysiekb9045]

the only thing you can measure with it is how much it will fly after a solid kick

[@ChienNguyen-dl5eq]

i want you to make a video comparing it with hantek 2D72