OWON HDS 200 Handheld Oscilloscope w/ builtin DMM/AWG

[Mechatrommer]

both. glued with tape, you can strip out and replace the 18650 batteries. i removed the tape in mind so next time easy replace... btw...

3D Printed Handle for OWON HDS ScopeMeter
if someone with 3d printer interested in printing the handle for it, but dont know how to make a model, attached is the zipped stl file.. it needs 3mm diameter (steel preferably) rod where you can slip the handle strip around. the rest, use imagination.

[jomaroliv]

Ok, só MB revision is 3.02 from end of July 22 FW 8.01

(just for info:) The batteries can be changed or are glued ?

I suppose they can be changed from what I’ve read in different reviews… did not look in detail to that but almost certain they can be exchanged.

[BD1QMP]

I did a bandwidth test on my new HDS242, use Rigol DS2072A (with 300MHz bandwidth)+ RP3300A probe (300MHz Bandwidth) as baseline, use my MFJ259B as signal generator. The test result shows that the bandwidth of HDS242 should be higher than 70MHz. 
 So, buy a 40MHz bandwidth DSO can get 70MHz bandwidth

the probe OW3070 provided by Owon is not so good, it is 70MHz, but has a deviation. the probe P7060 is provided by the distributor, it is much beter than OW3070. .

[papabol_24]

Hello

Need help.... I damaged my hds 272s scope by accidentally plugging channel 2 probe to the sig-gen output, smoke went out  , after initial visual checks i found U5 and D11 was burnt, after removing the burnt parts the scope boots up and the multimeter mode is still working, i can switch to scope mode but i have no horizontal line, if anyone can tell me the part # or body # of U5 and D11 im very thankfull...

[Mechatrommer]

i'm surprised that my HDS2102S only can do minimum 10mV/div on 1X probe setting (100mV/div on 10X probe) even though the displayed traces are still very clean. why this device dont let us dial down to 5mV/div, 2mV and even down to 1mV/div at 1X probe? i already email to ask for firmware update to enable this.

[S2084]

These are my old photos, sorry for the quality.

[MrAl]

i'm surprised that my HDS2102S only can do minimum 10mV/div on 1X probe setting (100mV/div on 10X probe) even though the displayed traces are still very clean. why this device dont let us dial down to 5mV/div, 2mV and even down to 1mV/div at 1X probe? i already email to ask for firmware update to enable this.

My guess is that is because of noise pickup and that in turn is because of ineffective front end shielding.  The noise would get worse and worse as the input is made more sensitive (5mv, 1mv, 500uv, etc.) and that would look bad because it would look like a very fuzzy line.
For me though, i have delt with this before and it's not the end of the world i got more information from having a fuzzy line than no line at all.  If you stick a sensitive scope across a resistor to sense current (not the best method of course but cheap) you get a very fuzzy current waveform but you can still glean a lot of information from it by thinking in terms of the average of the fuzzyness and then you see a wave that is more familiar.

So in the end they may not have been able to deal with the noise pickup as well as some of the upper end scopes.
Personally i prefer a scope that can go down to at least 1mv and so 100mv at 10x would not be something i would like, but if the prices is right and bandwidth ok i might put up with it anyway.  Up to this point i have been dealing with a 1MHz DSO scope, a old old 10MHz analog, and a 15MHz DSO PC based, so something at 40MHz or 70MHz would be an improvement for me.

It is entirely possible to upgrade the front end too, with an external amplifier made with a modern op amp.  Maybe we could start a group project to design a 10x front end amplifier.  That would quickly turn 10mv per into 1mv per div.  The op amps these days are very worthy.  Maybe power it with a 9v battery or something simple like that.  I would not mind using a 9v battery for that it would draw little current anyway.  We'd have full control over noise and input protection that way too.
Even perhaps someone did this already and we could use that design.

[skander36]

Hello

Need help.... I damaged my hds 272s scope by accidentally plugging channel 2 probe to the sig-gen output, smoke went out  , after initial visual checks i found U5 and D11 was burnt, after removing the burnt parts the scope boots up and the multimeter mode is still working, i can switch to scope mode but i have no horizontal line, if anyone can tell me the part # or body # of U5 and D11 im very thankfull...

You say about U5 but on the board where you circled is U6 ... 
On my 272 without siggen, U6 is LBAD 9221. I don't have D11 populated.
What HW version you have? My is V3.0. I see that S2084 has adifferent code for U6.

[neo2000]

Hi there, 3 weeks ago I bought a HDS2102S at banggood with a board revision that I haven't seen before. It's hardware version is main_V1.1.1 dated 2022-07-06 and the firmware is version V4.1.0.

Regards Timo

[orb]

Hi. I have a question. I bought a HDS242 with firmware version 4.1.0 which according to this site (https://www.owon.com.hk/download.asp?category=Digital%20Oscilloscope&series=HDS200%20Series&model=HDS242(S)&SortTag=Latest%20Firmware) can be upgraded to 4.6.1. I found out today that another shop has HDS242 with firmware version 6.1.0. Is there a big difference between firmware version 4.6.1 and 6.1.0? Should I return my purchase? I thought the other store wouldn't answer me anymore, so I took the 4.1.0 version because the prices are increasing. Please advise.

Regards.

[neo2000]

@orb I think that you can not put higher software versions on all revisions of mainboards of the HDS series. Every mainboard seem to have slightly changes in routing and even chips. But that does not have to mean newer versions are better. In some cases, expensive US manufacturer chips are just replaced with cheap chinese ones, that ought to have the same specs. As long as your Owon is doing what it is supposed to, I would stick to the version you got.

Regards

[orb]

@neo2000, thanks for your answer, you have an interesting point of view. I'll keep this scopemeter, then.
Regarding to the firmware version, here on the forum I saw a post where someone upgraded hds242 from 4.2.0 to 4.6.1. According to the owon site, this is the last available update for hds242 with "this type of mainboard" (for mine mainboard too).

[RogerG]

@orb:
Just enter your current fw version and you'll see the latest fw for your device. This update will work. Attention, don't mix the "S" and non-"S" versions.

@all:
My HDS242 shows a rather big DC offset in 5V and 10V range (at 10x probe setting) when started at normal room temperture. It's over 1,5V when measured by displaying the "mean" value in measure menu. During the scope gets warmer, this offset decreases. When it's operating more than 40minutes (which is the time I had calibrated the device, too) the offset is mostly gone.

I know that Owon states their specification is measured at 30min after cold start, but the offset drift seems a little high for my expectations.
Do your Owons show this heavy temperature drift, too?

Regards
Roger

[electr_peter]

Do your Owons show this heavy temperature drift, too?

Going by HWcave's video #104 A closer look at the OWON HDS272S Scope meter, temperature drift is an unfortunate feature of this design.

[Veteran68]

Why don't you have batteries?

Because I thought it would came with batteries lol
I bought it from pollin.de but probably didn't pay too much attention to the description

Weird. Must be something with that vendor.

It's due to air freight regulations around shipping lithium batteries. The 18650's in these meters are considered dangerous materials by airlines. Due to this, many products imported into the US from China come without lithium chemistry batteries now, especially individual or small batch shipments. My Handtek 1833C LCR meter from Banggood came without batteries last year. I had to supply my own (thankfully I have a ready supply of 18650's).

If it ships by sea then those regulations don't apply, but I expect for logistical reasons it's easier for suppliers like Banggood and Ali to ship without batteries for all rather than keep up with air vs sea shipments and risk a fine or confiscated shipment. Larger commercial/bulk shipments tend to come by sea, so the batteries would likely be intact if you bought from a more local reseller.

[orb]

@orb:
Just enter your current fw version and you'll see the latest fw for your device. This update will work. Attention, don't mix the "S" and non-"S" versions.

Ok, thanks.

Do your Owons show this heavy temperature drift, too?

Yes, my hds242 behaves similarly. It needs more than 15 minutes of "warm-up" to display the correct (calibrated) values. It makes no sense to calibrate it when it's "cold".

[Shonky]

As another data point, I received a HDS2102S mid November with a serial number 2232xxxx that has v4.0.0 firmware on it. Haven't seen that combination mentioned. Don't have much I can test against really.

Haven't opened to confirm the board revision at this stage.

[killingtime]

Anyone know if Owon implemented RMS math for Oscope waveforms yet?

Previous posts say not, and it's not in the manual either. Such a shame if not. It's the one complex math function that I find useful.

The 'RMS' bandwidth on a multimeter (even for true RMS meters) is typically around 20-30Khz (1.5Mhz for MX636 if implemeted). Beyond that you need an Oscope with maths.
Computing RMS for sine wave can be done from the average (which the 200 series has), but not all waveforms are sine. E.g. Input current on a non-PFC correct SMPS, or output on a domestic electronic LV lighting transformer (47Khz AC with with a DC bias shift on mine for some reason).

An ideal use case where your DMM bandwidth isn't large enough.

Thanks.

[electr_peter]

OWON HDS200 handheld oscilloscopes have not fully "matured" yet as seen by many HW and FW revisions. At current state this is usable basic scope for what it is, but FW still leaves much to be desired.
OWON also has HDS300 series which is basically the same but slightly improved.

RMS feature is implemented only in the newest and highest BW models - HDS2202(S), HDS307S, HDS310S, HDS320S.

[killingtime]

Ah yes. I missed that on the spec sheet. Top of the range meter has it, and 2.5 times the price to boot.

I wonder why they left RMS out of the lower models. Even 30 dollar toy scopes have RMS. Work in progress. A shame. There's a lot to like about these scopes by the sound of it (latest HW & FW revision). Right form factor. They even take 18650s.

[Orange]

Hi, I got my SDS2102S

I noticed that it now does 500Ms/s in two channel mode, see pics. It makes sense if you put in a 1Gs/s ADC in the thing. 

Firmware is 2.0.4,
Serial nr HDS2102S2218XXX

[orb]

My HDS242 shows a rather big DC offset in 5V and 10V range (at 10x probe setting) when started at normal room temperture. It's over 1,5V when measured by displaying the "mean" value in measure menu. During the scope gets warmer, this offset decreases. When it's operating more than 40minutes (which is the time I had calibrated the device, too) the offset is mostly gone.

I forgot to ask. Which firmware version do you have installed on your hds242? Which motherboard version do you have?

[Mechatrommer]

Hi, I got my SDS2102S

I noticed that it now does 500Ms/s in two channel mode, see pics. It makes sense if you put in a 1Gs/s ADC in the thing. 

Firmware is 2.0.4,
Serial nr HDS2102S2218XXX

where did you get HDS2102S that can do 1GSa/s? i still see 500MSa/s in their website... https://www.owon.com.hk/list_handheld_oscilloscopes

[tly]

i still see 500MSa/s in their website...

500MSa/s in total -> 500MSa/s per chanel when using 1 chanel or 250MSa/s  per chanel when using 2 chanels.
The displayed "500MSa" is the total used, not per chanel.

[Orange]

i still see 500MSa/s in their website...

500MSa/s in total -> 500MSa/s per chanel when using 1 chanel or 250MSa/s  per chanel when using 2 chanels.
The displayed "500MSa" is the total used, not per chanel.

Owon has increased the capabilities on the HDS2102S. it is now 500Msa/s per channel. it is also proven with the pics I posted earlier by me. 
If you still unsure about it, you can look at Kerry Wongs YouTube he made about it some time ago. In this video the sample rate folds back to 250Msa/s when in dual channel mode....