Hello,
I'm also looking for a portable oscilloscope and I'm hesitating between the fnirsi dpox180h and the zeewei dso2512g...
For what I can see, as a newbie, after reading tons of videos and forum posts, the Fnirsi dpox180h seems interesting on the paper but I haven't yet seen great examples of its phophor functionality for diagnosis or analysis.
A lot of the online content is mainly about all the bugs and inaccuracy of that scope : not very reassuring, even if the firmware is evoluting there might be some hardware limitations due to the system by itself.
The dso2512g seems to be more viable for "in the field" work for the moment, the counterpart of this is the reduction of price between the two systems, as the gap seems to shrink (sometime 20€ difference on aliexpress
)
So what should I do ? go for the new dpo crossing my fingers to hope for a new firmware which will correct the bugs and give plenty access to the new functionalities or be on the safe side by choosing the already validated dso ?
Thanks in advance ![Undecided :-\](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/undecided.gif)
The DPO180H "looks" a lot better than the 2512G, with a sleeker design, sexier screen, phosphor trace goodness, 20Mhz bandwidth limiting, temperature-colored trace, etc. But none of that has actually been of use to me. I've been unable to use it to measure *anything* correctly out of the box, unlike the Zeeweii, which has actually been useful from day 1. With discounts you can get it very close to the price of the Zeeweii, BUT on arrival you should be ready to AT LEAST, do the following:
1.- Change the 2 AC blocking SMD capacitors in the front end.
2- Buy better probes. The ones included are abysmal
Now, the DPO180H has the advantage of a better frequency range. I've said this already but I wouldn't use the 2512G for anything above 50Mhz unless you are only "checking for a pulse" on your circuit. That unit also requires you to overclock it in order to barely reach the claimed bandwidth (at which point you can sort-of see a 120Mhz waveform, but forget about making any measurement on it). The DPO180H on the other hand doesn't require any fiddling to display a waveform up to, more or less, the claimed bandwidth. Both are supposedly 500MSa/s, so I suspect that the frontend implementation and the "processor" in both units is what makes the difference in their performance, but that's just a guess.
Other Advantages of the DPO: Being able to capture a waveform and then use it directly in the function generator is a huge plus.
Other disadvantages: Shorter battery life, Extremely menu-heavy UI; Everything is done through menus, unlike the Zeeweii that has numerous (somewhat intuitive, once you learn them) key shortcuts.
So, if you need high frequency response, or any of the fancy features of the DPO, and you are willing to either deal with the bugs or wait for fixes, and you are also OK with spending a bit more time and money fixing the caps and changing the probes, then the DPO180H is what I'd recommend.
If you don't need to measure anything >50Mhz, and you want something that is practical to use, with longer battery life, and you are OK with a rather lackluster UI and crude trace, then the Zeeweii would be my recommendation.