Marmad, thanks for starting the review. I (and most certainly those newbies out there) never knew Owon before and because of your review I know the company -- I hope Owon sends you free oscilloscopes for life! I have a feel you have good inputs and if Owon were smart theyd send you stuff to test :>
@kuson - Your welcome - and thanks for the show of support. But I think rf-loop would disagree about whether I should get free stuff from Owon
As you might know, I don't own an Owon at the moment, although if I had extra money for a second inexpensive DSO, I'd probably get an SDS7102 to have something that was battery-operated (with VGA out) for the occasional times when that would really be handy. But most of your gratitude should be directed at rf-loop for his tireless support of the Owon users here - many of whom are not even customers of his. I know he sells the DSOs, but he has gone above and beyond what was required in helping people.
Marmad, how's the Rigol 2072? Do you have a link for further reviews/ how its going, is 70Mhz good enough for the long term/etc? I planned to do what you had said - use the Owon first and if it gets serious, to get more powerful stuff later (either Owon or others)... However, I'm not sure how I can start learning electronics WITHOUT an oscilloscope (if SDS7102 will be ready in a Month or Two); Is there something I can start by using the audio port of a PC I can do while waiting?
I'm still enjoying the Rigol very much - but it's not without it's problems (biggest for me is the inability to read sample memory reliably from the PC) - most of which
could be fixed with a firmware update (but will they?) - which, typically, is about 3 or 4 months overdue from Rigol. OTOH, bugs in the current firmware allow you to keep the expensive trial options continuously - so perhaps it's good they're late
I don't make a huge amount of money so it was rather painful to buy it - but if you want a DSO with a fast enough update for intensity grading (which
is really handy), I think it's still the best bargain (although the new GW-Intek 2000 series is a contender). As far as the 70MHz goes - well, I'll just say that, like older Rigols, they have the ability to reach beyond their "limits"
I don't know if you saw the review
here, but the same post (at the bottom) also lists all of the current bugs the users at EEVBlog have discovered in the current version of firmware. I've also been working on software utilities for the Rigol, which are posted in
this thread.Edit: BTW, rf-loop should be able to keep you informed about when Owon may resolve the current issues - and it would be good to buy.