Velleman 10 MHz Handheld Oscilloscope

by Velleman

Product Features

• Up to 2MHz Analogue Bandwidth
• 5mV to 20V/div in 12 steps
• 200ns to 1hour/div time base in 32 steps
• Ttrigger Mode: run, normal, once, roll, slope +/-
• Frequency readout (through markers)

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000I3VRX8
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,415 in Industrial & Scientific (See Top 100 in Industrial & Scientific)
  • #36 in Industrial & Scientific > Lab & Scientific Products > Lab Instruments > Meters > Oscilloscopes

Product Description

The Velleman Personal Scope is not a graphical multimeter but a complete portable oscilloscope at the size and the cost of a good multimeter. Its high sensitivity - down to 5mV/div - and extended scope functions make this unit ideal for hobby, service, automotive and development purposes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There are better ways to spend your money, March 22, 2006

By 

ESL (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This instrument is like most Velleman measuring equipment attractively priced but completely useless for any serious work. The specifications are very misleading and apply only to 3 of the voltage ranges (50 mV/1V and 20V). The bandwidth of 2 MHz is also only valid within these ranges. At this frequency however the scope is not able to produce a sine wave properly. Degradation of waveform in the ranges mentioned starts very early at about 1 MHz. All the other ranges behave different some are only useful to 150 kHz. Testing the scope with a Tektronix scope calibrator shows for some ranges differences for positive and negative values of DC voltages. I didn't expect Fluke quality but this is really a very inaccurate scope although the voltage values are presented with 3 to 4 digits. Only within the audio range and up to about 50 kHz acceptable measurements can be made. I own many scopes and this one definitely is not very useful to put it mildly. Any good second hand analogue scope can be obtained for the same price and will outperform the HPS10 easily.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Velleman 10 Mhz Personal Scope Hps10, July 5, 2007

By 

Roman A. Yankov (Fremont, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

It's impossible to use this product in professional work.
Brightness and contrast of display is worst.
I'm using it as simple tester to see is signal peresent or no.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the price, November 17, 2008

By 

David Knaack (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Velleman 10 MHz Handheld Oscilloscope

For what it is this is a great little device. You aren't going to get professional quality for this price, but an inexpensive tool like this is indispensable for hobby-level electronics and even some professional audio work.

I can see the screen just fine, it's a standard sliver LCD, much like an graphing calculator. I prefer this to the version with the backlight as I find it easier to read in sunlight, and it uses less battery power.

The many features on the scope are easy to understand if you take the time to read the manual to understand what they are supposed to do, then spend some time working with it in order to learn how and when to use them.

I would like to have had the serial port feature for saving screen images, but a digital camera works well enough and is probably faster and more portable anyway.

A second input channel would be nice, but at this price it's hard to complain.

Oddly, the plastic that the included probe is made of seems to react with the plastic the casing of the device is made from. If you leave the probe wire in contact with the device it will leave permanent marks. I put a layer of aluminum tape on the side to protect the plastic where I store the cable.

I have had some trouble with the device not wanting to turn on when it is running on battery. Occasionally it will start making a quiet pinging noise instead of turning on. Holding the reset button makes it stop until the reset button is released, then it keeps going. It will usually turn on though, and it always turns on when it is plugged in. I also find that if I leave it unplugged it will quickly run the batteries down (within a day). Since I usually use it at my desk these issues haven't been a problem, but they are a minor annoyance. (New batteries or alkaline batteries might help, I've still got the original 5 NiMH's I put in it several years ago.)

You could buy a second hand analog scope with two input channels and greater precision for around the price of this hand-held unit, but it will be a 20 pound briefcase-sized device that has to be plugged in, and it will have no digital storage scope features.

For me the digital storage features are a significant attraction of this device. I can capture a transient waveform using the trigger function (for example, the bit stream from a wireless thermometer) and then use the 'marker' function to measure the signal timing. I can put it into a very slow scan mode (10 seconds per pixel) and leave it on to monitor a slow event (maybe the voltage output from a solar panel over 12 hours).

Within very reasonable limits, this device is a great value, and I consider it one of the most useful tools I have had over the last few years. However, it is possible that there newer products available now in this price range with similar features.