The cheapest USB scope I could find online

Reviewing the cheapest dual channel USB PC scope I could find, the Instrustar ISDS205A. It has a few disappointing limitations, but overall it's quite usable (it could be much worse).
and given that my goal was a cheap scope, it's not too bad.

[@ATrustInThrust]

Absolutely loving these recent videos! They’re awesome

[@MLFranklin]

Wow, this was pretty cool. I thought you were just an expert at woodworking. I appreciate your diversity of skills and interests.

[@reilly8191]

I love these nerdier videos! (I live the projects too) Thanks for everything you do!!

[@submarine.7seas]

Really excited to see you doing this kind of stuff. I have Enjoyed your wood working videos also. Thank you.

[@kwhp1507]

I am loving these videos more than your woodworking videos. Don’t get me wrong I also love your wood videos, especially when testing joints or new joints you create methods for. There’s nothing wrong with changing what you do and like doing during your KZbin career/journey. I started off learning woodworking and still do, but I have also been teaching myself electronic and appliance work and repair, and very slowly learning microcontrollers. I am not advanced as I would like to be, but the way you use the scope in this video raises an eyebrow of things I never thought of before. This tempts me to try my rigol 1054z in some new ways.

[@englishrupe01]

A really excellent review, and overview of these types of scopes...thanks!

[@ThinkinThoed]

If anyone is curious, Windows 7 and Windows 8 drivers *generally* do work in Windows 10, if they're not labeled for Windows 10. Basically the same underlying OS for the most part! :)

[@rompdude]

I was going to say this

[@detzels]

If you ignore the security updates, I think Win7, Win8 and Win10 are just re-skinned versions of Windows 95

[@Gideon_Judges6]

@@detzels no this is totally wrong, they are closer to reskinnee versions of Windows NT 4.0, but there were major changes in Windows 2000 (NT 5.0), and Vista (NT 6.0). Windows 9x was a very different animal based on Windows 3.x. It's a totally different kernel.

[@WndSks]

But Win98 did have WDM drivers, not just the old VXDs. There is even a stripped ntdll.dll for usermode.

[@Gideon_Judges6]

@@WndSks yes 98 and ME improved by supporting WDM drivers, but with drivers we're talking about the kernel space here not user space compat layers. The 9x kernel is very different from NT kernel. E.g. NT doesn't have MS-DOS kernel resident in memory at all, while 9x does and actually requires and often falls back on it. There's more to it than I can seriously get into on a YT comment.

[@mibobalou726]

With most instruments like this, if you run the PC on battery power alone, without the AC charger plugged in, you should have significantly lower residual background noise.

[@vega1287]

also if you dont plug the pc in or have the pc running of an isolation transformer you can do differential meshurrments on mains eartht devices with no risk of short cirquiting something

[@SootySweep22]

Vega 128 If you want to ‘liven’ up your laptop!

[@binaryglitch64]

The noise part is also true if you use and android phone and just download an audio scope and make headphone probes (the poor-man's / teenager's first scope) if you use it while charging you will see a lot more noise... however it's unwise to use such a set up to probe mains as the resistor you use is all the protection your phone gets, and headphone wire isn't rated for mains so there's some safety concerns not just for the safty of the device but also its user. But paying attention to the noise factor on those setups is how I immediately recognized the same issue when I graduated to USB scopes.

[@binaryglitch64]

@@vega1287, I love your spelling choices. It tickled my brain.

[@LeonvandenBeukel]

A couple of years ago I also looked for this kind of USB oscilloscopes but could not find many good reviews on them back then. I eventually bought a Rigol DS1054 which is ok for home and hobby use.

[@mikevcampbell]

I love your woodworking videos and the latest round of experiment and tech videos are just as good. I would love to see strength tests comparing adhesives similar to the joint strength tests you did a few years ago. How does CA glue, epoxy, and construction adhesive compare to wood glue? Do some perform better on butt joints vs mortise, bridle, etc?

[@Yonatan24]

^*Darbin Orvar Check out James Wright, he made a super in depth test of all available adhesives, I think it took him 2 months!

[@KingNast]

There's also a channel called Project Farm that does a lot of tests like that

[@saturnus3]

Thanks for this review. Ordered it at once !

[@leightonboster3332]

I have a similar one purchased for working on vehicles and testing sensors and waveforms. It's an autel unit. Was about $600 I believe but it came with lots of different connectors and leads. Along with reduction coils for watching spark plug wires. The best part I think is it has 4 channels not just 2.

[@imqqmi]

I really enjoy both woodworking, maths electronics and mouse maze stuff, just about everything you show us 😊 I'm sure the cheap scope will serve you well. The best scope is the one you actually use. I love the rigol ds1054z, it has been such an essential tool in many of my projects. Love to see scope plots in your future projects! It's a great visualizing tool for producing videos too.

[@SamiJumppanen]

Very good information, thank you! Now I can really consider if to get one like this or not.

[@bgable7707]

Thanks for the updated video on these USB scopes. I can't justify spending ~250.00 to 400.00 for a tool that I will occasionally use for IoT interest/hobby. When the need / ROI occurs, I'll deal will shelling out the $$$.

[@trainliker100]

I liked that he left the part in where he hooked it to the wrong probe. I think everybody does things like. At least I have. I was once working on a developing a very high input impedance high gain op amp amplifier and was reading all sorts of noise. It was driving me nuts. It turns on I hadn't turned on the power supply powering the circuit under test. So, I simply had a crude antenna picking up local radio stations and whatever other electromagnetic radiation was around. Of course, I believe that somebody who never makes a mistake, is somebody who isn't doing anything.

[@ionymous6733]

I bought one of these about 15 years ago. I've used in on a few hobby projects and it did the job.

[@kwhp1507]

Ion Ymous I bet it cost a lot more than 88$ 15 years ago

[@ionymous6733]

@@kwhp1507 I just looked back through some email. Just over 10 years ago and $225! You are right!

[@ddiva1973]

Interesting to see what one could do with one of those. Any interesting projects or explorations, some videos at a later time perhaps?

[@poptartmcjelly7054]

Looks the same as one of the Hantek cheapies, basically an ADC in a box. I'd personally prefer the OWON USB scopes, mainly because they have a true scope front end and do all the signal processing in the scope. I got my VDS1022 for sbout 85€ and it's pretty neat.

[@brandonmee-lee1695]

I just got the VDS1022I (Isolated) from sainsmart, it was on sale for ~$75 but new members got $20 off an order of $100 or more, so I got a few other things like 3d printer filament all for less than the price of the unit from Amazon

[@armunro]

I have the Owon same isolated scope and it's great value. Probably the best of the cheap usb scopes.

[@HandlebarWorkshops]

Thank you for this. I saw it on your toothbrush video and ended up being more interested in the scope than the toothbrush. So I went looking for it online since if Matthias is using it, it must be decent. I have an old Heathkit scope. It takes up a lot of real estate, but I'll probably just keep using that. Thanks for the info.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

If I’m using it it must be cheap. Without being able to play with it I could not tell if it was good

[@PayneMaximus]

You can make a portable oscilloscope with that, just by hooking it up to your single board pc of choice; an Orange Pi might be a best choice. You can always hook up the two using pocket holes.

[@uni-byte]

I got one of these too as a laugh, about a year after you did. I paid $72 CDN for it. For some reason on certain computers the drivers cause issues. Also the bandwidth, in real terms, is not 20MHz. Maybe 7MHz if you're generous. So for digital it's of limited use, even for those of us into retro computing. But for audio it's just fine. All in all I agree that i's a pretty good value and certainly better than no scope at all.

[@DagEliasSrdalurm8]

Can you do a how to use scope video? I would love that! Also SMPS troubleshooting 👍

[@MarkMcCluney]

I like the idea of the convenience of a usb scope (or even a good digital scope) but I can't help feeling that it's hard to beat an old fashioned analogue scope.

[@pmarintube]

There is an open source signal analysis software called sigrok that I think it supports your device.

[@clydedecker765]

But its Linux .. not Windows 10 ...Good thought.

[@rpavlik1]

Well, he knows Linux (see all the raspberry pi videos), but it also runs on Windows too.

[@clydedecker765]

I mentioned Linux because HE WAS SPECIFICALLY not running it. NOT THAT HE DIDN'T KNOW IT! Please view the video again if you need to. Specific software to run ON WINDOWS 10. Because he wanted to use his laptop which is Windows 10.

[@quakfrosch2298]

@@clydedecker765 Calm down, cranky old man. Take your meds and have a cup of tea for fucks sake.

[@jojoposter]

@@clydedecker765 sigrok works on windoes as well :)

[@EJEuth]

Very nice your comments, really appreciated.

[@km5405]

i got my version of one of those as well for AC stuff - i even specifically made sure i could measure most buck converter' frequencies

[@xanokothe]

The software actually looks good to me

[@BCElginTex]

That seems to me to be a pretty good scope for the price. I would have hoped that it would have some way to increase the buffer, though.

[@natebrooks7015]

cool. Thanks for doing this!

[@isettech]

Noise you don't like is related to the bit depth. Many USB scopes do not have front end attenuaters for range switching.

[@HowardJohnstone]

You should consider the Instrustar ISDS2062A, this has 12-bit ADC, thus 32V and 320V (x10) at a very small amount ($18) extra. Now, this makes it really usable!

[@amanpreetsingh3961]

Keep the probe at 10x for maximum bandwidth. Bandwidth drops with 1x settings.

[@Zartymil]

Why would that be the case?

[@amanpreetsingh3961]

Zartymil kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZqknniIZrR9npY here check it out

[@berni8k]

Has to do with the capacitance of the coax cable from the probe. Indeed the video sugested by Amanpreet explains it nicely.

[@apostolisioannou4073]

Great review! I have the same scope and considering the price I am pleased with it. I am interested in coil you made at 8:50 and how does it work? Does it have to have specific dimensions and turns?

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Nothing specific about it. The signals coming out of that power adapter are pretty strong, it just picks it up by induction.

[@apostolisioannou4073]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 I see. Thank you very much!

[@tibfulv]

Gratifying that they've tested it against Wine, which is the Windows emulation layer which allows running Windows binaries on Unix-likes, including MacOS and Linux.

[@xavierneckor8918]

Good video. It's supposed to have spectrum analyzer fuctions. Can you share any experience with the FFT, THD and related spectrum analyzer functions?

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Could not get anything useful out of that. Didn’t really work

[@GoldSrc_]

Just think how much something like this scope would have cost in the early 2000's, people would have killed for something like this lol. Still, not too bad of a scope because when you need one you need one.

[@electronic7979]

Very good 👍

[@jum5238]

Hopefully you can review the Pokit Pro when they finally start to release it.

[@BarryPiper]

I have a SainSmart DDS-140 that I use only for teaching, so it's more than sufficient. The SainSmart scope software would probably accept the feed from almost any USB scope.

[@SxyN8]

the oscilloscope company finally has a video to play their ad on

[@kyeongsushin3145]

One thing that I am concerned about such scopes is that those cheapo scopes sometimes lack some safety features (like USB isolation) needed to protect your PC. It should be okay in most circumstances, but I don't plug mine into my main PC, just in case..

[@andrewwmacfadyen6958]

Own VFS1022i is isolated. Note the i suffix indicates isolated

[@rpavlik1]

Cool stuff. Bummer it doesn't work with line voltage levels well, I'd think that might be an advantage of a USB scope on a laptop: the tool can be "floating". I know for the cheapo signal analyzers, SigRok is a great piece of open source software. Haven't tried it, or looked around for another, to use with an analog unit like this though. Have you?

[@johnalexander2349]

100x probes will get it to line voltage. I've used Hantek ($30 each, i think), and they work fine, but I've just upgraded to Stäubli.

[@jej3451]

I got Digilent's "Analog Discovery 2" which is really nice for embedded systems and hobby electronics. It's an oscope, logic analyzer, and function generator, with really good software.

[@jojoposter]

Well its agilant's but it is a good compromise indeed

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Neat unit, but costs 5x as much!

[@jej3451]

Sorry, I meant Digilent, not Digikey, obviously. Matthias, yeah, it's a little pricey. It has a large user base though, and a known brand name behind it, so that's worth something. Imagine what you would have paid for its functionality 10 years ago.

[@breakinn403]

I just watched the entire video and gave it a thumbs up even though I have no idea what you said. I just enjoy your presentations no matter what the topic. Having said that I'm looking forward to build and non technical electrical product reviews etc. I hope you wrists are improving.

[@DaveWirth]

If I remember correctly, I thought you showed an old oscilloscope sitting in the attic above your father's workshop. Would be a cool idea to compare that to the digital one.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Oh, that thing is quite terrible!

[@teekaypew6538]

Matthias random stuff even better!

[@ksbs2036]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221, was it an old tube EICO? Those didn't even have triggered sweep

[@Boretoto]

Thank you for this video, Can you tell me if the FFT has a THD, THD + N, etc. or comes out redeuced...? Regards

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Too many unknown TLAs to answer.

[@juniperwillard]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221, I imagine Boris is wishing to know if the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT, i.e. the Spectrum Analyser Mode) has the ability to provide Total Harmonic Distortion and Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise. These measurements are often used in the realm of audio.

[@iankidd6654]

Hi Great video thanks. Was it difficult to find and load the Win 10 driver.

[@kristoferskrade6600]

I hope this eventually has something to do with mice...?

[@Techmatt167Official]

That thing is cool

[@ziadfawzi]

Thank you so much.

[@lelandclayton5462]

Could of gotten one of those Hantek USB scopes for a cheaper price and would probably worked a little better. PC digital scopes always has always failed short. It's better to get a real scope. Most modern scopes have a USB option to dump log info to a PC or even control the scope from a PC. I myself have an old HP 16500c and since I run Linux I can use X11 Server/Client mode to control it.

[@andrewwmacfadyen6958]

Hantek entry level scopes are awful and the Windows software is terrible

[@DeezyF7]

What is your profession/educational background?

[@rpdigital17]

Instrustar 2062 models have up to 320 VAC range and 12-bit resolution. Way more useful in practice.

[@wireworks616]

You can get a 100x probe for these if you want to do radios

[@abmac58]

Merry Christmas

[@prayandersahatmasiahaan4710]

Hi, thanks for your video. I got a problem. I try to save a waveform with my instrustar, i click save and it return as csv file, but it set in ns, the period is from 0 ns to 50000ns wich mean that 0s to 0.05 s and the appearance of my plot is more tight depend to horizontal axis even my frequency is 100Hz. Did you know a right way to record waveform to csv from Instrustar ? Thanks Sorry for my english :)

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

I only ever saved screenshots.

[@susilnishantha5111]

thanks bro

[@Spiderelectron]

The clipping is acceptable, what's wrong there is that full-scale ADC should always map to full-scale on screen. Any other 'scope would have clipped at the very top and bottom of the screen.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

that would be a problem too, because when showing multiple traces, sometimes you don't want the trace to fill the whole screen.

[@DatBlueHusky]

you should get the super cheap kit or reassembled kit with a small screen thats 1mhz iirc

[@JasperJanssen]

Dso138. It’s a lot less capable than this thing - it’s basically just two inputs straight into a microcontroller.

[@andrewwmacfadyen6958]

The best very cheap USB scopes are the Own VDS1022i they are head and shoulders above the Hantek and the Windows software is excellent works with touch screen and has also been ported to Linux

[@alexsaenz4946]

I have a ISDS205C and cannot find where to download the ".exe" software from. I cannot find it on the Instrustar web site. Any suggestions?

[@petercheung63]

where to buy it?

[@simonhopkins3867]

The cool thing about this is your probably going to get offered a new one.

[@excitedbox5705]

Obviously didn't look at the spec sheet you wouldn't have had half your complaints. The other model goes up over 320v. That one I believe only goes to 150v (15v at 1x) which is why it clipped.

[@h0rk3d]

"it is the cheapest scope i could find" *puts down scope in a non violent way and scope disconnects* 1:54

[@henrryzul8917]

Sir can I know this scope are really work with win 10..or not. Please advise me

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Windows 10 on my laptop

[@dedskin1]

I have old Grundig Analog osciloscope , and from time to time i think well i should get something better , but these things cant even measure what i want , or am used to 1mV per division, up to 50v per division , which is on 10x , 500V per devision , able to scope 2000V easy , and as low as below 1mV . I never took that seriously untill i saw what these scopes do . no way near that , i saw a good Tablet one with 100Mhz range , but it basically doesnt go below 1V per division and tops at 200V or something , witch is not what im used to . I dont need advanced function because i do Audio gear , no need for high frequency but i do need 2000V ability because i do Tube Amps , so i guess this is not for me and im good with what i have .

[@Piyomaru111]

R.I.P Electroboom

[@Ultrapro011]

???

[@ottawa8860]

It actual can do data recording at 24M per sec for 1 channel or 16M for 2 into a full/. Minimum size is 1M samples. My old laptop seems ok to handle a few Ms. I can get a long capture going through record and playback. Quite unexpected, ok for around 10MHz. 😊

[@ottawa8860]

Into a flle..

[@ottawa8860]

File

[@ReevansElectro]

I have only heard people who don't know much about scopes call the probes "ONE EKS" or "TEN EKS" rather than one times or ten times for the attenuator setting.

[@pilobond]

hmm ok what's your point? What about this guy? Do you think he knows much about the scopes? he say "one ex, ten ex" kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYmXeXqEjKeYa68

[@paulkolodner2445]

I've been using oscilloscopes off and on since the 1970s. In graduate school, I taught myself how to use the Tektronix 7904 by touch and from behind so I could see fast transient signals in the dark. I think I know a few things about scopes, and I have always used the terms 1X and 10X. I guess I must be the only one.

[@mckenziekeith7434]

I don't claim to be an expert, but I don't think it would be accurate to say that I "don't know much about 'scopes." I have a BSEE and have been working with oscilloscopes for 19 years. Give me a call. I will say "10X" and expand your horizons.

[@dinhthecuong7306]

How can I measure electric current with this scope?

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Same way as with any other scope. Use a shunt resistor.

[@alfredneumann4692]

I never would connect a measure instrument with the pc. If the magic flash occures, instrument AND PC are over.

[@grizzlypb]

I adree but you can add a USB isolation device. It can help protect the pc. Most good instruments that connect to a pc will include isolation. However I expect this cheaply made scope will not be well isolated. www.analog.com/en/technical-articles/digital-isolators-offer-easy-to-use-isolated-usb-option.html

[@EitriBrokkr]

However these days, you could buy one of these and a dedicated cheap pc for the price of a decent scope, and if it let's the smoke out, your not out a bunch

[@ksbs2036]

One thing that you have to be really careful with on these USB scopes is that the scope ground is connected to your computer ground. If your ground wire accidentally touches a high potential (house power for instance) you can blow up your computer. Andreas Spiess (kzbin.info/door/u7_D0o48KbfhpEohoP7YSQ ) likes to use a USB isolator with these kinds of equipment. That can help remove ground loops as well.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

but that means I now need a separate power supply for the USB. That would be quite annoying

[@ksbs2036]

Yes, true. But if you are monitoring A/C powered devices I would say the protection is worth the annoyance of yet another brick. Definitely a personal risk-tolerance decision

[@johnhunter1262]

Nice chair. Did you make it? Cheers John

[@vega1287]

so basically the only thing my tds 1002b looses to this scope is the sample size

[@dannyradjkoemar580]

Your a real genius, but i really miss your woodworking videos. You make such cool stuff. Danny from holland

[@52Ford]

I found myself going back and watching some of his old woodworking projects from years ago. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn't been able to do much woodworking due to a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

[@dannyradjkoemar580]

@@52Ford My bad, didn't know that. Still doesnt change the fact the man is a freaking genius.

[@paulkolodner2445]

I'd be disappointed with only 8 bits of resolution. The noise on your square wave looked like it was the last bit fluctuating. The real noise is probably much lower. I guess it costs about $11 per bit.

[@berni8k]

Most scopes out there are only 8bit, even fancy ones that cost over $10 000 The problem with this scope is the lack of a proper analog front end to scale and shift the signal to utilise as much range on the ADC as possible. Thats why other scopes show a much better signal.

[@paulkolodner2445]

@@berni8k Sounds right about the ADC. I guess the designers have to trade bandwidth for resolution. But what's this about the instrument scaling the input automatically, instead of ME? You youngsters don't know how lucky you are.

[@jezzermeii]

I am a complete and utter layman when it comes to oscilloscopes, but could the 5V issue be a limit of USB? I am completely and utterly ignorant, so please forgive me if this comment is stupid!

[@svenpetersen1965]

For the money, it is quite cool. But finally, you only get, what you pay for. 20MHz are... hmm... not much compared to the clock frequency of a standard Arduino. Here it is sold for 48€. It is much better than the DS203 open hardware scope for less than half the price.

[@benzmansl65amg]

Thanks Matthias

[@constantinmarginean3644]

I bought a higher version ISDS210A . Should have been better but it is locking after few working minutes. It's too annoying.

[@AlexBuznik]

Is it safe for the computer?

[@allahasan6631]

Is that scope can work for repairing amplifies

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

if you know how to repair amplifiers, yes.

[@allahasan6631]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 thanks man im asking about that because he said its have a5volt limit

[@salvatoreborriello4414]

Would you develope and publish plans how to make this out of wood. Just kidding love all your videos

[@ImaginaPower]

It has roll mode too!!

[@robertperly6104]

Could be laptop cpu / gpu causing screen lag

[@davidprice2861]

A Hantek pc scope would be be much better, a 6022BE does 20MHz and can handle 50 volts, no ac coupling tho. Costs about $90 AUD.

[@andrewwmacfadyen6958]

Hantek software is a joke also hardware spec doesn't compare with Own

[@themomorain]

Why is your pc not made out of wood?

[@spikeydapikey1483]

Oooooh, new toys!

[@niloypramanik3]

Send me your link Where you were buy this product

[@pressuredup]

Saskatchewan download speeds!

[@outtlaw324]

What is it used for?

[@johncoops6897]

Detecting idiots. Oh look, it just found one!

[@andyweb7779]

Can it generate clean signals?

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

its a scope, it doesn't generate any signals.

[@anti_globalista]

The only good thing I can see in this gadget is you can view oscilloscope on 50 inch TV!

[@ImaginaPower]

you can connect the dot too!! maybe you should familiar yourself with the oscilloscope and after using it sometime , then make a video like this!!

[@stephenoshaughnessy2279]

You should think about adding some padding material for your broadcasts. The echoing that takes place against all that wood makes your speech hard to decipher.

[@unperrier5998]

At 7:04 _"it only does -60V to +60V, so you wouldn't use this thing to debug AC power."_ In any case I would never connect anything like this cheapest oscillo junk on the mains voltage. Nothing on mains that isn't galvanically isolated or CATIII/IV certified. And even so, some chinese products like multimeters lie about being certified as Dave from EEV channel reported.

[@jeffeberl12]

We really need open source software to work with these scopes. I know there are a few choices in linux, but these software packages and eula are just so annoying.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

yes, and I think most of the limitations of this thing could be fixed with better software

[@superdau]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Keep an eye out at "sigrok". It already supports a lot of different scopes (one of which is very similar to this in hardware) and yours is on the "Planned/in progress" list. I use sigrok with those cheap logic analyzers (

[@oan1249]

good news everyone! Software for win10 is out