EEVblog #1317 - $140 2CH 100MHz Fnirsi Tablet Oscilloscope Review

$140 for a 2CH 100MHz 1GS/s tablet oscilloscope?
Review of the $140 FNIRSI-1013D 2CH 100MHz 1GS/s tablet oscilloscope.
Is it too good to be true?

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[leisergeist]

This is the kind of that could seriously benefit from open source software IMO.
At the price point I don't know, it seems decent... Proper name portable scopes are thousands of $$.
Less lies and open source could make it a pretty neat thing!

[prozacgod]

What I would love to see on this oscilloscopes is a push for open firmware of some sort, I think the open source community could really rock these things.

[bumv]

Lissajous is so last century, Li Shayu's is the way to go now, methinks.

[randallblake]

Your enthusiasm is mildly amusing, but the video would be shorter and more useful (in my opinion) if you actually familiarized yourself with how the instrument works beforehand (e.g., changing the time base). Maybe, in the future, you could make the longer, more entertaining (in the opinion of some), videos first and then post a shorter, more succinct version after you had familiarized yourself with the instrument. You already have a large following. Maybe you could increase it even more if you attracted those just looking for a concise informational video. Just a suggestion.

[kenabi]

a potential option for those not wishing to dump 350-400usd into an iso trans and variac combo to test thigns where you'd have to seperate the tested device from the mains, so long as you only run it off the battery while doing so. pair it with a 20:1 attenuator and you're gold for just about everything you could need to do with basic/mid level testing on most advanced hobbyist levels. well, so long as you only need to be able to get a rough waveform and readings on the output text. which for most say.. audio techs... this will be more than enough.

[PatrickPoet]

I bet that "table", "plate", and "flat" are all translations of the same chinese term by different translators working with different teams.

[altimmons]

I mean you have to remember Dave is used to using $100, 000 scopes. So he has that bias. The rest of us (hobbyists) are happy with things that work more times than not.

[calebbadger]

This would be great for automotive diagnostic applications. Most of the battery powered, all-in-one scopes for such are significantly more than $140. You dont even need the advertized bandwidth if you're just looking for crank signals or noise on sensor lines

[wizrom]

What a shame they didn't have a good software guy...
That hardware could be put to good use even at 200Ms...

[orpedsesama]

i bought this a few days ago, the user interface is way faster than this one in the video, the sample rate and freq bandwidth are still the same though. but i'm happy for the form factor, wide touch screen and user interface. so i guess it still worth the price, it's dirt cheap for the purpose

[p_mouse]

Get a polarizing filter on your lens, to get rid of the glare.

[ganko]

I think "Li Shayu" is referring to Lissajous!

[doningram]

Got sick of waiting for it to come into stock at Banggood and went for the Micsig tablet instead. 3 times the price, infinitely better product. Absolutely awesome bit of kit, all from a jaded techie who has stumped up for HP & Tektronix in business lifetimes past.

[celsiusswatt]

I bought the more recent version of this scope. It is NOT a 100MHz, 1Gsa/s scope, the rise time on 300ps signal shows 10ns (means ~25MHz bandwidth), the minimum timebase setting is 10ns/div, and it looks that all waveforms on <50ns/div are interpolated, do not reflect real signal which makes me think that the real sampling rate is not more than ~200Msa/s. The spec for AD9288 (2x100M) confirms that. The display cannot show the samples as dots, so you never know what it really captured. The software is very buggy, it is easy to get to the mode when the grid display is incorrect, sampling rate is low and record length is short. For instance, the pulse rate of 500kHz may be shown as 400ns period on the grid (5x incorrect!). It measures signal frequency or period or duty cycle only in "auto" synch mode, not from period in the capture. No rise/fall or FFT measurement. No control (and no advertisement) of record length. No external synch input. No explicit pre-trigger settings.
It can store the waveforms in flash memory and it can be re-measured, zoomed or analyzed later, which is convenient. The good feature in battery and can be fully isolated for non-grounded signals. It may be a good instrument to measure power and audio signals and entry level microcontrollers. It is not suitable for signals above 10MHz, so its specifications are advertised incorrectly. So really "too good to be true".

[Pootycat]

A while back, I was looking for a DSO. I watched every video I could find, on the ones in my price range. The FNIRSIs were the cheapest....BUT, the WORST! I finally bought a like-new Tek DSO2002B, for about what a new FNIRSI would cost, and I'm very happy with it. Whenever I.m looking for test equipment, and see the word "FNIRSI, " I run!

[Bodragon]

(13:05) - "The deal before was" that you were not tapping quickly enough.
Your taps were more like a "tap and hold"
It looks like a tap needs to be a millisecond tap not tenth of a second tap, because then it thinks you are going to drag something.
You with me here ?
>

[GigaPlaya]

Even a 100 kHz (not MHz) scope is useful to check power supplies for ripple. It also can be used on audio gear. The caps are a good place to start checking. So even 20 MHz is overkill for some people.
Because most power supplies offer 20 mV or less ripple, this oscilloscope is only just usable for the mV sensitivity. But it looks like good value for portability.

[milanfixer]

I have a feeling that these "affordable" scopes are too much of a hassle and you really get what you pay for (they're toys, let's be honest). Better save up and get a real one, because no one could give your wasted time back.

[nikmilosevic]

Yup that sums it up, my experience with it was the same. Good thing you didnt waste your time on the fft, its not great, crap actually (looks like they are using a tiny sample set). But its ok as a basic signal sniffer (up to 10MHz) that you can throw into a small tool box. I also wish they wouldnt bullshit about the specs, no need for that.

[eDoc]

I can really only see this as being useful if you need a truly portable scope. I'm happy with my old 20MHz analog Hitachi V-209 portable oscilloscope. It's a bit bulkier, has a smaller screen, and lacks single shot mode, but it has a more intuitive interface, no aliasing, and an external triggering input. Plus its internal battery still works after over 30 years. The $30 I spent on it and probes on the used market seems like a much better investment than this $140 unit.