This blows away the $60 budget oscilloscope! (OWON VDS1022 review)

#c64 #commodore #repair

On today's video, we have another cheap oscilloscope review while repairing a C64. This one directly compares to Hantek 6022BE USB scope I reviewed back in February 2022. How usable is this scope?

0:00 Intro
0:46 Unboxing and specs
11:15 Software and user interface
24:11 Inspecting the C64
33:07 Looking at signals with the scope
43:48 Does the C64 work now?
50:46 Exploring more signals on the scope
53:16 Conclusions

Budget scope reviews:

C64 Repairs in this series:
Episode 5: This episode!

--- Video Links

Purchase links for OWON VDS1022:

Open Source software for this scope: (Will do a follow-up video with it)

Adrian's Digital Basement Merch store:

Adrian's Digital Basement ][ (Second Channel)

Support the channel on Patreon:

-- Tools

Deoxit D5:

O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)

Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:

Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:

Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:

Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:

TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)

TS100 Soldering Iron:

EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:

DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:

Magnetic Screw Holder:

Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)

RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)

Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)

Heat Sinks:

Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)

--- Links

My GitHub repository:

Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA – Portland, OR – PDX Commodore Users Group

--- Instructional videos

My video on damage-free chip removal:

--- Music

Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino

[adriansdigitalbasement]

That means this mod surely worked OK at some point. I think the issue I was seeing with the luma signal being super low was due to bad soldering or broken traces because the rework done was bad. When I restored the board back to the original 5-pin connector, I fixed a few traces with bodge wires near the video connector and now everything is back to original condition. (I also restored R10 to be 120 ohm as specified on the schematic. It was 300 ohms on this machine.)

[volodimirkun]

Hey! This exact scope helps me make money almost every day. I repair power invertors and it is essential for getting fast reliable repairs out. Regards from far Ukraine

[jammin]

I bought this as my first ever scope after seeing lots of reviews, and I'm happy with it for the very occasional times I need a scope. Yeah the software is kind of infuriating although the github version fixes some of those annoyances. But the UI as a whole could be a lot better, making use of the large screen of a laptop to lay out more immediate controls instead of requiring menu diving. But as you say, the scope itself seems very capable, fast and accurate, and that's surely the most important thing.

[btraker]

I don't know what YT video creator is worse for my gear acquisition syndrome - you or Mat from Techmoan! Great content and I look forward to seeing you use this scope on more projects.

[Cherijo]

I do enjoy seeing all of these cheap scopes as options, especially for beginners. 11 year-old me would have adored one of these on my electronics bench in the late 1980s!

I personally ended up buying a standalone Siglent SDS1104X-U because I needed something that could do a little more and was a little bit more reliable, as well as four channel. I kind of wish I had sprung for the -E Model as it has a port to add a digital logic analyzer to it, but I didn't really have the money at the time.

[ValeriyD]

Thank you so much for this review! When I first time saw it (a year ago) I immediately decided that I need this oscilloscope. Now, when I bought it and it finally arrived, I'm watching you review again with a pleasure of being able to try everything and use it. Thanks again for such a great review!

[more.power.]

Hi Adrian you did a great interview on the The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast) this week. Thank you for sharing your early years with us and how you became interested in electronics.
Cheers Tim

[kreature]

Pro tip: Oscilloscope probes with 1x/10x usually only have their full rated bandwidth at 10x setting.
Working on 5v stuff you can use 10x attenuation with not much added noise and it may sharpen those waveforms up a bit.

[robervaldo]

i have the non-isolated version since about 5 or 6 years ago (haven't used it much, though); the software is java and, at least when I got it, it came with source code (possibly by mistake), at the time some people were trying to make it work on linux, IIRC, it's great that now there's opensource software for it!

[Peter_S_]

I recently bought an Owon handheld scope and I am quite impressed. It's a great little instrument and being isolated from ground is a huge bonus.

[TRONMAGNUM]

The 57 dollar scope you showed has been a nice addition to my bench. I grab it all the time now for quick signal checks. I have several other scopes, but it is super convenient.

[EinChris]

That analysis of the video signal was amazing.

[billthekid]

If you play a little with the software and learn the "shortcuts" this thing it's a beast! It's really fast and the open source Software it's like a candy!
PS. Great work as always!

[swdw]

The open source software interface for this scope you linked in the description is definitely better than Owon's. Has a little more functionality and control. Will allow you to use the scope on Linux too.

[Clavichordist]

Way back when I worked in manufacturing, I used to touch up the circuit boards that came out of wave soldering. We would insert headers and things that couldn't otherwise survive the trip through the wave soldering machine and we also installed ECO wires. When we installed wires, we would use some "super glue" to hold the wires in place and route them neatly, or at least I did the neat routing at the time. Once our wires were installed, we used some De-Sol as it was called to remove the extra flux and we then trimmed up any extra pins and inspected for solder shorts.

When I finally became a tech, I was quite proficient at replacing chips due to my touch-up experience and I can proudly say that there was little difference between my chip removal and hand soldering compared to what was done on the manufacturing side. Sadly, this wasn't the case for all the techs and many ruined boards very badly as was the case with field returns. This was a common occurrence when I worked in field service where I received circuit boards and equipment that was already 8 or 10 years old. With those boards, some dating back to the mid to late 1970s, the pads were ripped and wire-wrap wire, or bus wire as we called it, was a common sight on the backs.

When I received those boards back from the field, I learned quickly enough to check for that before even powering up the boards because in many cases, it was these poor repairs that were causing the more recent problems due to cold solder joints or intermittent breaks in the copper traces.

Those USB scopes are amazing critters compared to the old Tektronix 465B which I was so accustomed to.

[bobsbarnworkshop]

Adrian, I know the interface frustrates you, maybe because it isn’t more standardized but from working in industry (Westinghouse and Kodak), every time we purchased a new sophisticated piece of test equipment, they all had complex unusual interfaces and a long learning curve. I think this little oscope is very capable, you just have to get over the hump in the learning curve! Great review!
I think you had a predecessor like yourself who modded up that gen 1 c64!
Another thought, I’ve never used a SW based scope like this, so learning the interface would seem “normal” to me!

[sirtinley-knot]

As a beginner I learned so much from this about using oscilloscopes in general. What an amazing level of knowledge you have! Inspirational!

[Nordmende]

I could remember this Mods. I live in Germany and that was described in magazines. It was an series starting low level things and gaining the higher thinking.
The voltage mod I have made together with a small peach of copper that I had.
And the mod with the Luna mod I remember. They had a special monitor in the lab and did not thought about that a normal monitor is not so sensitive.
Two weeks later they explain the mistake.

[digitalarchaeologist]

Love coincidences like this. I've been using this exact model of Owon for the last two days and it's my first o-scope of any kind so I kinda jumped when I saw this video in my feed. You wouldn't believe how embarrassingly long it took me to realise the hook portion of the probe just pulled off and I struggled with hours using it with the hook on

[tony]

The scope reads UOMO when it was upside down on camera - "Man" in Italian LOL. Nice video, I like how you manage to mix the new equipment with an actual repair! The scope looks very good to me - the UI is improvable but I guess you can get used to it. What really matters is that for only $80 you get what seems to be a very capable hardware!