Owon VDS1022I USB PC Oscilloscope, MIT USB Isolation, 25 MHz

I both own and have used many digital and analog scopes due to my career as an engineer. However, I wanted an inexpensive scope that can be used with a PC for presentations. I bought a Hantek 6022BE for that purpose, and while it is very similar in features and performance to this OWON VDS1022i and nearly half the price, the software was not very good. The OWON was purchased based on positive reviews. I was not disappointed. While the features and performance are good for an inexpensive scope, the software is a big improvement to the Hantek. One example is the FFT feature, which I use, is pretty useless in the Hantek as it is displayed in a manner that does not make it easy to view or take readings. The OWON allows for a better display of the spectrum information and allows for easy measurement as well. Preset measurements, such as rms, rise time, etc., are much better with the OWON. The software allows for Printing, Screen Capture, and saving the data of the wave form(s) in a file with several popular formats to choose from.Now as an oscilloscope it has the advantages (easy to save and display data) and limitations (low bandwidth and waveform distortion near the the top end due to low sampling rate) of an inexpensive digital scope. The 25 MHz bandwidth is limiting, but the 100 MS/sec allowed for display of about 30MHz sinusoidal signals with minimal distortion. The record length is surprisingly limited at 5 kB. It comes with 2 basic 60 MHz, hard plastic, 1x/10x probes. [The Hantek's are a bit better.] It was relatively easy to setup with the software, documentation and drives included on a CD. You can download all the material from their website as well. The units gets it power directly through the usb connection on my laptop. However, it has an additional usb connector that can be plugged into a 5vdc power supply if you wanted to use it on an Android phone like the Hantek can with a proper adapter and software not included. It runs well on my 8 year old HP laptop (i7 with 8 MB)using the latest version of Windows 10.

Great oscilloscope! So far I've used it to test the MAF, IAC, and CPS sensors on a Ford Explorer. Trigger works great and is easy to use. You can set the trigger in a menu or by sliding a cursor on screen to the desired voltage. You can also freeze and the save data displays. Has a wide variety of features. Attached is a photo of the MAF sensor output at lo rpm.Update: Someone asked about the Math function. Initially it didn't appear to work. I used a sine wave and the internal square wave and added Ch1 and Ch2. I found that you had to fake out the V/div scaling and use 10nv/div for 10V/div for the math to work out right. Below is an image of the signals that I added.

Description failed to indicate YOU ARE BUYING A USED ITEM!Obviously used.

The product has serious EMI issues. Proximity within 2 feet of a USB hub power supply results in 60mv of noise on the signal from a B&K battery powered audio signal generator. Moving the Owon further from the power supply and hub improves this to 5mv but it does show a seriously bad design for test equipment. Note that the same setup with my other oscilliscope (Velleman handheld) shows 0mv of noise. With this OWON you will never know how much HF noise is a circuit problem or just spurious noise from the OWON being near the equipment being tested. It works best direct to laptop running only on battery.Previous reviews of the non-isolated model by experienced engineers have noted the same noise problem, and I submit that it is due to poor EMC design quality, not due to lack of isolation.The software is crude from a human factors standpoint, but it does function. The CD that came with it is useless and won't load on W7, you have to download from Owon both that and the USB driver, which doesn't self install, either. Owon's software overall seems like it still needs work.I really like the peak sample mode, which shows higher frequency signal noise and oscillations even when the sample rate is low. Alas, you don't know how much of that higher frequency noise is just OWON artifact.Edit- After comparing this to a Picoscope 2205 MSO, I've decided to upgrade my review from 2 to 4 stars. The built in isolator saves $39 which makes it a $60 scope.Yes, the Picoscope fried my laptops's video extender (to a remote workstation) while working on a 120VDC 1A pulsing circuit that the OWON with isolator did with no trouble. For the money, the OWON scopes are hard to beat. The scope works well for everything except low level signals and looking for EMI on signals. Something the Picoscope can't do either since it's got some noise issues too.The OWON software is no where near the polished and professional level of the Picoscope.The biggest disappointment was the print and image save functions. The print doesn't give you anything you can put in a report or you development records- no scales, 2nd trace yellow (invisible) and the formatting is a bad joke. The image save shows the scope screen, but the background being black makes it again, something you don't want use in printed records because you can hardly see the traces. Owon REALLY NEEDS TO FIX THE PRINT FUNCTION! The image save function could also be improved by offering a selectable white background with darker color for the 2nd channel. Then you'd have an image to stick in a printable document. And they should also change the trigger level set software; what they have is time wasting and doesn't get better with use.My bottom line is that for many slower speed 2 ch scope functions, the OWON does work pretty well, and the built in isolator IS important and will save you from frying your PC and connected gear. It's pretty hard to beat that combination for $100.

It looked like it had a lot of potential, but I couldn't get the software to install. I suspect it was a USB driver issue. The instructions provided for Windows 10 just didn't work. Files could not be found or were not allowed to be accessed. I am going to return it. I don't know how people managed to get theirs to work at all. Also there was no explanation or reference to why there were two USB connectors on one end of the cable andonly one on the other end.

This works great for arcade and retro gaming video signals and CD based console laser calibration. The software provides easy to use controls and responds as expected - quickly/immediately.Easily taken to on-site jobs and locations.Works on Windows 7 and 10 - just follow the instructions to install.