Oscope bench or laptop ?

Looking for a very cheap but good oscope for hobby activities which is better for the money traditional but bulky bench or laptop based one.

Really depends on how much you want to spend and whet you expect from the scope. The more features, the higher the cost. What's the budget?

Ron

No more than $100 at least 2 channels nothing serious just purely for experimenting and learning.

Look for a used but in good condition analog benchtop scope. Even something with a 20 MHz bandwidth should suit your needs. The problem with a USB / Laptop unit is that $100 doesn't get you much of anything. My opinion is your best bang for the buck would be a used benchtop model. Make sure you see it and it works before buying it.

Ron

I agree 100% with Ron.

Good and cheap are not words which go together when talking about USB oscilloscopes.

JimB

For minimal functionality and cost, maybe something like one of these:

**broken link removed**
https://www.gabotronics.com/development-boards/xmega-xprotolab.htm


https://www.canakit.com/digital-oscilloscope-diy-kit-kit-09484.html

**broken link removed**
https://www.canakit.com/dso-nano-v2-pocket-sized-digital-oscilloscope-tol-10244.html.

For all practical purposes, there is no such thing as a PC scope with any kind of decent capabilities at all unless you limit yourself to audio work. You may see 100 MHz bandwidth, but with that you'll also see a maximum of maybe 100 MHz sample rate. The advice to get a good, used analog scope is good. There are a lot of good Tektronix, Hewlett-Packard, etc. high-end used scopes for under $200. Even ones under $100 will run circles around a PC scope. It's the difference between driving a Corvette and a virtual PC Corvette -- it may look and feel great and be cheap, but it won't get you anywhere.