Hantek 2C42 Handheld Oscilloscope Multimeter 2 in 1 Multifunction Tester 2CH+DMM 40MHz Scope

TLDR:This is a scope with basic features but comes in at a very low price and (unlike many other cheap scopes) the core hardware meets the advertised specs. A good second scope, in my view. OK as a first scope if portability and price are critical aspects.SpecificationsGetting a true bandwidth measurement requires equipment that I do not have. I do have an OK 50 Mhz generator though and see little attenuation (well under 3 db) when feeding in a 50 Mhz signal. Photos of 1Mhz and 50Mhz are attached for comparison. I would say that the specified 70 Mhz analog bandwidth should be easily achieved. That said, with 250 Msamples/sec, I'd say 50 mhz is a good practical limit for single channel or 25 Mhz dual channel (125 Msamples/sec when dual channel). That's application-specific as it depends on how many samples-per-cycle you consider acceptable.Signal GeneratorThe optional signal generator is basic but it performs its functions well. Attached photos include:- 1 Mhz sin 2V Pk-Pk driving a 50 Ohm load. Looks great.- 25 Mhz sin wave (the limit) with the same specs. A bit of attenuation but not bad.- 1 Mhz square wave with the same specs. Looks excellent with no ringing. I also measured rise time at 6.5 ns, which is excellent considering it's an overall system measurement (cables, oscilloscope, etc)- 10 Mhz square wave (the limit). As expected, it's starting to fall apart a bit at the limit.- An example arbitrary waveform: If you connect PC software, you can program your own waveforms but I have not tried.Overall PROs- Portability. Useful for applications like cars, appliances or other field applications.- It meets its specifications: Note that there is a lot of false advertising from competitors at this price point.- Price: It's very low, but watch for inflated sales prices.- Build Quality: Very impressive at the price point. They even include a nice carrying case and a bunch of useful accessories. You only get one proper probe but a second one will only cost $10 or so.- Not grounded. A bench scope is grounded which is a mixed bag in that you need to be mindful of what the ground clip touches when measuring grounded equipment (i.e. don't try measuring grounded equipment). With this Hantek, the common is floating so you are ok doing low voltage work (high voltage work still needs a differential probe for safety). Also note that the two channels of this scope are not isolated from one another (again, a differential probe is needed for this application).- Multimeter. The multimeter is basic, but it has what you need for most work. I compared it against my Fluke 115 and Brymen 869 and all three agree with one another.- Signal generator (depending on the model): See above- 18650 cells. That means cheap/easy replacements when the batteries are ready to be retired.You are giving up (verses a bench oscilloscope):- Memory depth limited to 6000 points (or 3000 per channel). This is very little memory compared to a benchtop scope. It's ok for viewing live waveforms but you don't get a nice history function, no magnify feature and there is not enough memory for quality XY plots.- Triggering and signal stability not to the level of my bench scope. Still usable.- Limited triggering. You get rising, falling, and either edge. No holdoff time.- Limited Automatic Measurements: You just get the basics of live frequency, min voltage and max voltage. No rise time, pulse width, etc. No statistics over time.- Screen is small: The smaller screen helps portability, but larger screens are nicer to work with.- Interface is more clunky. I don't think this is a deal breaker but there is more menu diving and multiple button presses to complete common tasks. Benchtop scopes generally have similar interfaces to each other so once you learn one you can mostly drive others. This one doesn't work the same so you'll need to look over the manual.- Serial decoding - no CANN, I2C, SPI, etc. These are really useful but you can get a second dedicated device relatively cheaply to cover these cases.- No FFT, although many bench FFTs are a bit of a gimmick as well.

Bought because I dropped a hammer on my crappy multimeter and I've been looking for an excuse to get a new one, I really wanted an oscilloscope too but we all know how expensive they are.I honestly don't really use the oscilloscope feature a whole lot but I have used it once or twice and it works pretty good, the user interface is a little confusing but once you know how to use it it's great. I wish the packaging was a little bigger because after you take all of the accessories out it's kind of a pain to get them back in addition to the DMM.Multimeter does exactly what it says it does, It works. My only real complaint about the whole thing is that the screen turn off time sometimes gets in the way of something that I'm doing, I think you can turn it off so that's not really a huge issue but also it's not very good with when the sun is reflecting off of it, I usually have to find a specific spot for it when I'm doing something or else the reflection of the Sun will just make it completely unreadable so I just keep it in the shade most of the time.Overall it's very solid, works great, I don't know if there's any type of circuit protection built into it but I feel like they're probably is because I've definitely done some things at some point that should have popped a fuse but it just didn't, very nice device and honestly My only regret was not getting the highest tier one even though I'm sure I wouldn't have used whatever that extra thing was, I'm just like that I guess.10/10

Update:Somehow I recently discovered and then purchased the Owon HDS272S. Credit to Hantek for creating this market segment but Owon is clearly the better buy right now. Though there are some pros and cons.Hantek Pros:-More rugged feeling-Bigger semi-rigid case (Owon case barely fits accessories)-A couple AWG operating points the Owon can’t do (faster square wave)Owon Pros-Bigger screen, more memory, faster waveform updates-Faster and better interface overall-More measurements, better measurement display-AWG can go to lower voltages-Lower noise on small signals (see picture)-Better DMM, fused currentOld Review:I'm a EE who designs circuit boards and uses scopes regularly. I've used other Hantek handhelds, Siglent and expensive Tek and Agilents. I finally decided to buy a scope for myself and this is what I chose. Knowing I don't have much time for home project I didn't want to spend much. For the price and features (AWG) this looked like a good start. If I ever added a bench scope this would still be useful (battery scope are isolated by nature which can be a big benefit).I spent a little time comparing this scope to 1Ghz Agilent and have some takeaways. Overall the waveform generator is solid up to the allowed frequencies. The Sin attenuation at 25MHz was maybe 30% (expected) and the waveform looked good. Square wave had some overshoot but solid rise times (compared to period) at 5Mhz. Overall pleased with the AWG.The scope performance was ok except for one main issue. My unit has a frequency dependent offset problem that's worse on channel 1. As the measured frequency increases above 1Mhz an offset develops. When the Agilent scope was reporting a +/-2.8V sin wave the Hantek was saying +3V/-2.6V. I saw this problem playing with the scope alone but wasn't sure if it was the scope or AWG until comparing against the Agilent- it's the scope and further experimenting showed its worse on one channel. Self cal didn't fix it.Otherwise scope performance isn't bad. The trigger isn't as solid as I'd like - its always jumping between 2 pixels. Low amplitude performance (0.1V sin wave) compared decently against the Agilent and overall amplitude accuracy across frequency (up to the AWG 25Mhz max) matched the Agilent well (setting aside the above mentioned offset error).Functionality is simple and covers the bases well enough. Its disappointing there aren't more measurements like RMS (measurements are all or nothing and there are only 3 each) but otherwise It's not missing much I was expecting. Using it is easy enough with a few quirks (I can never remember what up/down does vs left/right).Overall I'm happy I bought this and its a useful tool. If it wasn't for the previously mentioned offset problems and a couple other quirks (sketchy unfused 10A DMM current) it would get 5 stars. As it stands this is 3-4. I'm giving it 4 for the value.Final tip, if you're on the fence probably go with the 42Mhz version. With this sample rate the higher bandwidth will rarely be useful (and not possible when simultaneously sampling 2 channels).

under 200 dollars for a controls technician worthy hand held oscope/multi meter. what more can you ask for?