OWON 14bit XDS3202A Oscilloscope Unboxing & First Impressions

An unboxing anf first impression of the OWON 14bit XDS3202A Oscilloscope.
Note, this was shot as single take for the 2nd channel, but thought it might be better off here but with no EEVblog number. It is NOT a review. If you don't like unboxings and just bumbling around with the scope the first time and ranting then please don't watch it.

Support the EEVblog through Patreon!

EEVblog Amazon Store (Dave gets a cut):

[rubusroo]

dunno about the scope, but dave's certainly triggered.

[danedewaard]

Do I detect a bias against OWON scopes??? I think OWON deserves some credit here! They market a scope and quickly send it to Dave to tell them all the problems and how to fix it!!!

[HisSadShadow]

Hold on power button probably to stop it from discharge battery by accidently turning thing on i guess

[necessaryevil]

Before watching the whole video: I guess this oscilloscope uses the HMCAD1520 ADC, the slightly better version of the HMCAD1511 which is used in a lot budget oscilloscopes. The HMCAD1520 can run in 8-bit, 12-bit and 14-bit modes, but the sample rate goes down at higher resolutions.

[johnfrancisdoe]

Some obvious things: 1. Trigger and X axis are closely related, and in XY mode, it makes a lot of sense for the X input to have controls matching and lining up with the Y controls. Trigger settings can obviously use either the 3rd, 1st or maybe 2nd channel.

2. Those soft turn buttons are obviously not doubling as push buttons, they would probably jump jump like 10 degrees on each push. But there should be a more obvious enter/ok button near the misc turner.

3. Maybe each decodable protocol requires a specific choice of input channels, such as Tx, Rx, RTS or similar.

4. Wonder if it's really 10 bits plus oversampling to get 14 bits.

[galileo_rs]

Can someone from China explain something: How is it possible that a multimillion company can't hire someone that speaks (writes) proper English? I bet I could do a better job by cleaning up a "google translate" Chinese -> English translation.

[andreykorenev]

I doubt it has a real 14bit ADC. Perhaps, it's only averaging, which can explain weird "breathing" look of that waveform.
But Dave, I think sometimes you criticize it too much.

[bioteqns]

It might be crap, but I'd gladly take it and put it to use. It may not be good, but it's better than nothing. Especially for someone on disability who loves electronics and lacks any type of scope!

[gbear-]

Funny, I had an ad for the fast boot time of a Rohde&Schwarz right before this video.

[theoldwizard]

Nice to see the battery compartment !

I sure wish the "low end" 'scopes would move to at least a 10 bit A-to-D.

[richardcypher]

why just read the user manual that will clear most of things as simple as that

[robinsattahip]

These are about the only online scope reviews from an engineer who really knows how to work one.

[mbaker]

I have an Owon and Rigol scope. When I need a scope I almost always use the Owon. It is so easy to use in comparison. As a consequence I now have a third scope and it's another Owon. Nice big display and I automatically cup my hand over the top so have no tilting problems. I know Dave does not like Owons and it shows.

[phillewin]

Picked one up brand new with all decoding options, waveform gen, multimeter. £300 3 years ago. Still going strong. No complaints. Thanks for crashing the price!

[MrPaddy]

I quite like the hold down to turn on thing. Especially on a battery. Don't want it accidently turning on unattended.

[garym]

Its 2024 & i was considering the 8 bit rev "E" version of this scope. Man im glad I saw this first.

[MetalPhreakAU]

Considering its portable with a battery, the power button hold is probably a nice feature. Otherwise you'd accidentally power it on by bumping the button in transit.

[clems]

The isolation of it being self contained battery powered is very usefull in industial control troubleshootong. I wish the Siglent / Rigol's had that option...

[dmitribovski]

The yellow connector is composite out so you can plug it into your Betamax for data logging.

[szabolcsmate]

I hate when he hates something before even getting it out of the box (Already started at N-in-1) Perhaps I have to go somewhere else if I want an unbiased review. :(

Alright. After watching the whole stuff yes, it has some major issues. But while he sometimes mentions it is a budget 14bit scope, it is unfair to compare this to top brand, many times more expensive scopes. I hope they are going to update the firmware soon as that is a major let-down.