Velleman HPS10 Hand held digital scope?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi All,

I got the Velleman HPS10scope and have played with it ;-)

http://hot-streamer.com/temp/VellemanHPS10.JPG

It is not bad at all!!  It can easily pull DRSSTC peak currents with a 
current probe and do "any" basic scope function.  I like it!!!!

You have to read the manual since it does have all the digital scope menus 
from heck... But it is pretty easy to get used to fast.  All the functions 
work very well.  It has all kinds of calculated readouts that work 
fine.  The "software" is very well honed and the thing operates very 
predictably and smoothly.  The display is fairly course but that is 
expected.  The digital readouts make up for that very well.  The full time 
"auto" scaling function is very cool and works fine.  The "quality" of the 
thing is perfectly fine.

I would not recommend it to a scope "beginner" or as an "only" scope (maybe 
the HPS40 with its greater capability and 2X better display) since it's 
"full digital storage" functions would be rather difficult to grasp unless 
one sort of knows already what is going on with digital scopes.  But as a 
second "go anywhere" - "expendable" scope, it is really cool!!  Battery 
power is no problem with the HPS10 (20 hours, 5 x alkaline AA), but the 
more powerful HPS40 with backlight would probably want rechargeables with 
the adaptor.  It has a reset button and "remove the batteries" function for 
when you "glitch" it....  I have not tried it yet, but it should do gate 
voltages easily since it is all very well insulated battery powered stuff...

It is sort of a "big" hand held thing, but could all fit inside a top 
terminal >:))  It can do an hour per division  time scale on down which is 
pretty neat.  No problems doing my DRSSTC H-bridge temp stuff.

So for twice the cost of a good scope probe, "I" can recommend the thing 
;-) I got mine online from:

http://elexp.com

in about a week+.  $135 for the scope and $13 extra for shipping.  I hope I 
don't fry it too quick ;-)))  But compared to the $4000 Tek, it saves me 
$3850 every time I do ;-))))  It is sort of the "KILL-a-watt" of digital 
scopes ;-))

Cheers,

        Terry



> Hi All,
>
> I see the super cheap Velleman HPS10 Hand held digital scope can be had 
> for about $150 if one shops around.  I was thinking it would be nice with 
> a current monitor when "playing" with say a DRSSTC away from home.  It 
> could also be "expendable" if things went bad (compared to the $4000 Tek 
> scope!).
>
> I was wondering if anyone had one and if it basically worked ok.  No great 
> need for anything fancy at all other than maybe checking peak currents and 
> maybe tuning.  Also curious about how bad it eats batteries.  Bulk AAs 
> from Digikey are pretty cheap, but so are NiMHs and a charger...
>
> Looks like a pretty cool thing to see fast pulse stuff in a hurry...  I 
> was going to get one, but wanted to ask first in case they suck ;-)
>
> Cheers,
>
>         Terry