Cheap amazon scope probes

[brandon7861]

I used one of these for maybe 40 minutes. The witches hat would pull the probe apart when removing it and it didn't like switching because the guts of the probe move when trying to remove the hat and that would jam up the 10x switch. The BNC plastic molded part somehow rotates on the cable too. Today, I took the other one out (was a 2 pack) and tried it on my new scope. Junk. That one's 10x switch was bad out of the box.

The probes that came with my new siglent are very similar (almost identical) in design as the amazon ones and I am convinced they tried to copy the ones siglent uses. I would say to avoid these, but I now believe you should probably avoid any $10 probe. Lesson learned.

Amazon.com

 

[19wrc333]

A while ago I got some $20 cleqee P2200 probes from AliExpress, they seemed ok-ish. Using the word "seemed" as I've only used them a few times on my old boat anchor Philips PM3260E. The reason I only used them a few times was because usually when I needed to use the scope, .. it wouldn't turn on and the first thing I had to do was repair the scope itself due to issues with the internal power supply. Happened again this week and I was finally fed up with having to muck about high voltages. Not my thing.

So spent a number of evenings this week to research what is available nowadays and had a terrible time researching all possibilities and features.
Finally ended up with 3 scopes on the list in about the same price category (black friday discounts et al) and feature wise on features I deemed important, time will tell if that's really the case.

A Siglent SDS822x, a Micsig MHO14-200N and a Rigol DHO924S.
Had a lot of trouble deciding between the Siglent and the Rigol. Even while the Siglent had less features and is somewhat slower (not much).

Last night I ended up going for the Rigol, there was just too many features that it had over the Siglent. Hopefully I made the right choice.

Once the scope arrives I will retest those cleqee probes again to see if they're passable for resale or recycle bin material.
--
Skyline

 

[brandon7861]

A while ago I got some $20 cleqee P2200 probes from AliExpress, they seemed ok-ish. Using the word "seemed" as I've only used them a few times on my old boat anchor Philips PM3260E. The reason I only used them a few times was because usually when I needed to use the scope, .. it wouldn't turn on and the first thing I had to do was repair the scope itself due to issues with the internal power supply. Happened again this week and I was finally fed up with having to muck about high voltages. Not my thing.

So spent a number of evenings this week to research what is available nowadays and had a terrible time researching all possibilities and features.
Finally ended up with 3 scopes on the list in about the same price category (black friday discounts et al) and feature wise on features I deemed important, time will tell if that's really the case.

A Siglent SDS822x, a Micsig MHO14-200N and a Rigol DHO924S.
Had a lot of trouble deciding between the Siglent and the Rigol. Even while the Siglent had less features and is somewhat slower (not much).

Last night I ended up going for the Rigol, there was just too many features that it had over the Siglent. Hopefully I made the right choice.

Once the scope arrives I will retest those cleqee probes again to see if they're passable for resale or recycle bin material.
--
Skyline

I too was torn between the Rigol DHO924S and the Siglent SDS824X, I went with the Siglent.

However, I still haven't learned my lesson and went back to amazon, this time for a variety of connectors. Take a look at the high quality BNC tees that came today.

worst female pin ive ever seen here

this end appears to have foil on plastic instead of the split metal shield EDIT the plastic is over the metal

and it wouldn't be a proper China-Amazon collaboration without one being totally smashed

No more RF anything from amazon, just not worth it.

 

[Cable Guy]

I quit Amazon for quality, it's now like a fast ship AliExpress, I'm gonna start calling it Alizon.

 

[19wrc333]

I too was torn between the Rigol DHO924S and the Siglent SDS824X, I went with the Siglent.

However, I still haven't learned my lesson and went back to amazon, this time for a variety of connectors. Take a look at the high quality BNC tees that came today.

worst female pin ive ever seen here

View attachment 75216
this end appears to have foil on plastic instead of the split metal shield EDIT the plastic is over the metal
View attachment 75217
and it wouldn't be a proper China-Amazon collaboration without one being totally smashed
View attachment 75218
No more RF anything from amazon, just not worth it.

Wow..

I think you bought the right one.
The Siglent has a sample rate of 2 GSa/s versus 1.25 on the Rigol.
Also the memory depth is 100 Mpts/ch versus 50 Mpts on the Rigol.
Both when there's a single channel active.

I've got swayed by the 250MHz bandwidth on the Rigol versus the 200MHz on the Siglent, but knowing now -just watched a video- that isn't always the only way to look at it.
Now.. another thing was that the Rigol was more than 100 euro cheaper (black Friday) and they also gave a bag along to store the scope in.
So it was a pretty good deal and I'm sure the Rigol will be fine for my needs.

Getting back to the cheap scope probes.. (with a detour)

When I tried out my new scope it first wouldn't turn on for like 10 minutes.. Still not sure what happened, if the usb connector wasn't sitting well enough or something else? It has worked fine since.

After it started working I hooked a probe up to the hooks for aligning them and played with it for another 10 minutes. Then unhooked the probe and noticed the hook was bent. So I figured to bent it straight.. and... it broke off.

That's a EUR 60 probe.. without a hook in 10 minutes time.
I complained at the company I bought it from and they send me a new hook cap, but obviously they don't intend to do that again.

They also don't sell those caps. But siglent sells a probe kit for about 12 euro's...

Now I figured to get the Chinese probes again and the cap from them is similar.. and yes.. it fits on my Rigol probe, works too.
So I guess I won't be selling the cheap probes.
Ordered some extra caps from Ali, just in case.

 

[brandon7861]

I was leaning towards the Rigol as well, but then I saw that USB-C power cable and remembered how many of those I've wore out. That was the biggest issue I had with it. I saw a video testing rise time and the siglent actually has about 240MHz of bandwidth.

The cheap probes, I recommend setting one to 10x and leaving it that way. Those switches on my cheap ones failed about as fast as your hook did. Not much switching life in the ones I had.

EDIT: for RF, they should stay in 10x anyhow. in 1x, most probes, including the decent siglent and picoscope ones, have a bandwidth of about 6MHz.

 

[19wrc333]

The USB-C power part on the Rigol was one of the things I actually liked. Already bought a powerbank for it, so that I can use it by running it from the powerbank. Forgot to test that, but I just booted the scope from the powerbank, it certainly works.

Another thing I did like was that you can hook up a HDMI screen. A feature I will probably never use, but it is nice to have the option to hook it up to a big screen.

 

[brandon7861]

That's cool it runs on a power bank, I didn't consider that possibility. After you find out, I'd love to know how long the battery can keep it going(whatever mAh the battery is).

For a moment, I was discouraged that the 824 didn't have an HDMI port, but then I realized it has the LAN port and a web interface, so I can still get it on my computer screen. Although, I probably won't use that much until the joy of not needing a computer to use my scope wears off.