Owon HDS272S For Automotive Diagnostics?

The Owon HDS272S is a hand held oscilloscope, but is it any good for automotive oscilloscope diagnostics? In this video, we take the Owon oscilloscope through it's paces, looking at the basic settings and waveform analysis. We also see if the Owon HDS272S can be used on CAN Bus.

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[simonparkinson]

I've got the 242S, the controls take a bit of faffing to get used to, but no more so than a Verus scope.
The big advantage is the scope is ready just one second after power on.
You've got to remember that all the scales are "per division" like a bench scope, compared to say a +/-20V "range" like Pico.
You can also set up 3 presets for voltage range and timebase, such as for CAN or relative compression to save a lot of setup faff.
At the time of getting my Pico, I had the choice of getting the 4425 or the new 4425A.
I purposely didn't choose the "A" model, so that all my accessories were universal to any scope.
Yes I use my amp clamps, secondary ignition probes and even the WPS on the Owon.
Your final comment that the benefit of this scope is for quick checks rather than in depth analysis is spot on.
I was frustrated with the bootup time of the old Verus, so a "quick check" certainly wasn't.
I had looked into the AESwave uScope but was put off by its non standard connector that seems very prone to breakage, so at a similar price point, this range of scopes is really a no brainer either as an entry into scoping or as an additional instrument.

[IskarRiver]

Thanks for the video ! If you connect the positive end of the oscilloscope probe to the negative wire of the coil and the negative end to ground, you will get the desired signal waveform. In this case ATTENUATOR is required. In my case the spike is 400 V.

[yankovalsky]

I bought an HDS242 but returned it because it had a fair amount of voltage drift while warming up. The drift was about 2V on a scale of 10V/div (mean, min, max readings). The drift was disappearing only after about an hour. The HDS242 required constant calibration when it was cold and when it warmed up.

[toddsands]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge of the OWON HDS272S Oscilloscope. I didn't realize how intimidating all of the buttons are. I've learned quite a bit in a few hours of tinkering with my OWON O-Scope. I'm very satisfied with the investment I made. I'll continue learning more from its use from your channel.

[danedewaard]

This is the best demo of this scope for automotive use!!! GREAT

[PDR-wbdq]

I've had that Owon scope for just over a year and I love it, it's great value for money but the way you adjust some of settings can be a little tricky, once you have gotten used to it it can be a very helpful handheld device you can quickly use at the roadside. I also have the Zeeweii DS02512G which is also a great little scope but the screen is a little too small. I still use my Pico 2204 but it's a pain to set it all up, at least with the Owon you can get a reasonable answer very quickly.

[rem]

My friend and colleague and I liked your signal simulator.Good stuff.

[patim]

To trigger on the signal at 10:30 you can set manual trigger and then use the trigger hold off function. (No clue if a simple scope like this one has it) Sometimes there is no function called hold off, but then you can tell the scope in the trigger menu to skip some trigger-time (Like hold does) and sometimes there are more options like only triggering at a certain pulse-width, or after a number of triggers etc. The more expensive the scope, the more advanced trigger options you get. Trigger is one of the most important things if you do more complex measurement like searching for that one faulty pulse that appears once in a while only (and you can find that using single shot trigger). But I do not know if automotive probing is very demanding/complex. I never used a scope on a car, I repair electronics on component level (repaired a few ECUs but that was for friends, normally I repair electronic measurement gear and industrial/maritime stuff and I use a 300 MHz R&S scope, you can not compare it with the Owon). I just saw this great video by accident and it is very well done, clear explained so I watched it all.

One thing to watch for with most scopes is that if you choose a to low timebase the scope will show a waveform but with a much to low frequency. This will look OK but it is totally wrong. Always go up as much as possible until you have one period on screen. At some point you see the signal changing, if so you had the timebase to long. If you have 1 periode or less you can then lower the time base to see more periods in one screen

[MiracleMAX]

I bought one just because it had so many features, including the function generator at 1Hz. Good to show students the features of frequency. Easily shows a good PWM signal on the oscilloscope mode. I must mainly bought it to add to my 24 multimeter collection. Oh, with all those features, it also adds to my 8 oscilloscope collection as well as my 4 function generator collection am getting help.
Yes it is a little convoluted to use, but with practice, it would be a good little unit.
As you have shown, it is a good little mobile unit with a range of features.
Good review mate 👍

[jorgeautomotrizfcsa.]

I send greetings, thanks for your video tutorials, they are very good, I learn a lot, I am an automotive entrepreneur, in Chile. regards

[alanottley]

Very good video. As a DIYer, I have been looking at small scopes and found your evaluation to be very informative. Thanks!

[robertoassi]

I've got the same 272S since a few months now and I am very happy.
Its like you said to check quickly if you have a signal or with the multimeeter to check some value.
There is also a good solution if you have to mesure main supply 230V, because is insulated, Ground issue!
So thank you for the video and all the comments.

[anthonyheak]

I own one of these, the scope function is good. Resistance measure is too slow. Standby battery drain is good, but the battery drains too fast when on. Other than that, it is ok for a device around $200.

[nhg]

Hi, I bought the OWON HDS272 oscilloscope and I want to use it to adjust gain in a car amplifier to detect clipping, I play a 1000 Hz test tone and I increase even to the end, the waveform only increases and does not change to a square, I would really appreciate it if you could help me tune the oscilloscope?

[sollykhan]

nice presentation, Darren, Thanks for all the content you put together, well appreciated 🙂 although that scope is tiny and somewhat 'fiddly' it can save an awful lot of time setting up the laptop versions, if as all you need is confirmation that there some kind of signals on troublesome jobs, save valuable time i guess, before hitting the ground running with heavy duty gear, once armed with essential knowledge, we can make tracks to the right course of action, problem is, modern car's are far too complex, with ever increasing sophistication, often with little or no tech info/ wiring diagrams, sensor location and values accordingly, so we inevitably waste untold time digging out the critical and often mass of diverse knowledge prior to actually getting right under the bonnet, or in haste start 'guessing' data values? (not a good idea) as a suggestion to the manufacturers of that scope(for marketing purposes) perhaps they need better think tanks, by simply altering the 'spelling' slight addition/subtraction etc, they could harness psychological tactics to make their product more desirable (as others have done throughout long periods of public awareness) say drop the second 'O' so it becomes 'OWN' (own, 1 of these ) 🤔, or delete the 2nd 'O' and add '2 letters' after the 'N' ie; ED, to read 'OWNED' (to imply it's better than others 🙂, ( i remember the early day's of 2 way radios etc, Walkie Talkie- which was renamed for major appeal) anyway keep up the great work, as ever. 😇

[stanwardoshiro]

Owon released two handhelds after the HDS272, that is the HDS2102 and HDS2202, the latter one having a much higher sampling rate. Seems like Hantek needs to up their game with an improved version of a handheld oscilloscope.

[FantaBH]

I got job for you, you could get one Fnrsi DSO TC3, a 5 in one device, beside all other features it offers, it also have one channel oscilloscope . And as You tested once DSO 138 cheap DIY oscilloscope in automotive job. It would be nice to see how DSO TC3 doing, it is fairly cheap device and quite useful device to have. For how much it cost it offers a lot. I did tested it in some other occasions how it doing, but it is not seen many times as my channel does not growing and don't doing any good, it would be nice to see it here in automotive job.

[MaNMega]

The new model is 200hz, unimportant in automotive but it also has many more sample points. I don't know enough to decide if it's worth the higher price 🤔 Any tips?

[autolatinopro]

What is that signal generator called? Thanks great work with your videos👍👍👍

[MaNMega]

The new Model has 4x sample size, tried it? Seems like it can really make the difference with fast signals and zooming, but lack the expirence to actually know 😂