OWON HDS2202S 200 MHz 3-in-1 Handheld Oscilloscope Review/Teardown 

I bought a HDS2202S and it arrived two weeks ago. My examination of the unit I received is comparable to this video review. I am impressed with the value versus the price. I have noticed that there is about 1/4 minor screen division of noise in the vertical electronics. Setting the 20 MHz bandwidth limit in the channel menu doesn’t have any effect on the noise. There also seems to be some jitter in the sampling gate time, but I don’t have instruments capable of quantifying jitter. The result is that there is some noticeable thickness to the waveform trace, but there is no issue with display stability. I also have the HDS2102S and the waveform trace looks slightly crisper than the HDS2202S within the published frequency specification. The screen of the HDS2202S is very slightly larger viewing area than the HDS2102S and has better anti reflective coating which improves contrast. I did not rigorously test the battery capacity, but the HDS2202S is able to run for two hours or more while maintaining performance, with the display set not to blank. The HDS2202S adds a few additional waveform measurement capabilities, but there is still no FFT or protocol decode. The record length may be set to 4K or 8K points. A longer record length would allow for more time separation between the triggering event and what is on the display screen. So far the record length has been OK for my use. A few waveform traces may be saved as data and several screen shots may be saved as image files. The system menu allows the memory to accessed as a mass storage device to download the data over USB. The default USB mode is HID, but I have not used PC software with the instrument. In mass storage mode, firmware updates may be loaded and will install when the instrument reboots. As of this writing in December 2023 there have not yet been firmware updates for the HDS2202S. Other models in the HDS200 series have had firmware updates issued and may be downloaded from Owon’s web site. Other than the oscilloscope section, the operation and outward appearance of my two HDS200 series units is the same. Build quality is decent. The fold out stand seems a little light weight, but so far it is holding up OK. Safety features seem up to par. The plastic shell BNC connectors are a nice touch and ensure that the outer shell of the probe’s BNC connector won’t have exposed high voltage if the clip lead of the probe is elevated above earth ground. So far I have not had durability issues with the BNC connectors. My HDS2202S arrived in a factory sealed box and it did not include the charger wall wart, but it did include a USB C to A cord. The manual says that included accessories may vary with model, so technically that was not an omission. My older HDS2102S did include the wall wart. All other accessories were the same, except the probe spec is 200 MHz for the HDS2202S. My prior experience with Owon technical support is that I received a useful correct answer by e-mail within a few hours when I had a question about a bench digital multimeter.

I want to thank you for sharing your immense breadth of technical expertise and rational and clear explanations. I love all kinds of electronic equipment and instruments and your appreciation and enthusiasm has been encouraging. Good job !

You always do very thorough reviews. 👍

Excellent video and review of this device, thank you for taking the time to produce and publish. Very nice to not have my time wasted, which unfortunately is often the case with RU-vid video reviews. But that is very much NOT SO with Kerry's production here, great info and clearly presented, spoken in a normal tone of voice. I would have liked more of a demo on the meter and AWG components but I assume you've covered these in the lower OWON model reviews. I came to this one first as I am most interested in the 2202S unit. I'll be subscribing and looking forward to more of your analysis and reviews.

Thank you for your good video. Helped a lot in deciding what to buy! Keep up the good work!

Those videos are very helpful and informative. Love them. And btw I just read an interview with you from 2012 :) Respect.

Nice, thorough review!!!! Thank you!!!!

Great review Kerry !....cheers.

Wow. Very impressive performance for a portable scope that's less than $300. Thanks for the detailed review. One of those 200 series will probably end up in my tool kit before long.

Excellent review ❤

You did a wonderful job making this video.Thank you

Another great review. I have the 100 MHz version... HDS2102S. Very happy with it. Iwas going to wait for this one, but 100 MHz is plenty for what I need it for (usually ~1/2 rated bandwidth). I'd love to see a 4-channel version down the road.

If they updated the multimeter to that what is an Owon B41T it would be a killer machine. Thanks for the enlightening video.

Great review. I personally find the performance of the DMM in the model I have (HDS272S) very good. The biggest complaint would be the slow speed of it's auto ranging, especially when testing resistance. Otherwise, its the best I have next to a Fluke.

Just wanted to say thanks for your consistently excellent reviews. This channel really is a breath of fresh air compared to the multitude of shill sites.

Thanks for the good, thorough review.

Excellent review. My wish is some sort of FFT in future releases.

Thank you. The HDS2102S looks very impressive. I’ve been using the 100 MHz version for a little over a year and it has become my go-to because it is just so convenient. I agree that I’d like to see some improvements such as auto-cursor measurements and protocol decode. FFT would be nice, but not all that necessary in an instrument with this form factor. Perhaps Owon should consider an HDS300 series with the added features.

Kerry always love your reviews. I have a older one and it always bothered me about not have Vrms measurements on them. Perhaps you can convince Owon to update firmware on older models to have this feature,. It shouldn't be a problem using same micros. The other lack luster things about the HDS series is the limitations of the cursor measurements. I believe I was annoyed it didn't allow cursors when XY mode is on, but I do like to switch back and forth to look at the waveform with cursors on. Its just suddle things that add up.. The software side some love for a more polished experience. Overall still glad I have one.

The technical level of your reviews is way above my head but I learn what I need to know about the device being reviewed to see if it will fulfill my needs. This seems to be a great scope to use for automotive diagnostics and is less expensive than a Picoscope. Thank you very much.

Please leave a comment below if there's anything else you'd like me to touch upon. BTW, just got a coupon code from the vendor (sorry, US only): BG529d5c exp 4/30 ban.ggood.vip/13FoG

Very good meter, only down issues is no MIN / MAX in voltage setting

Very good product , value for money

Excellent videos. If I could ask a dumb question, how would this do for capturing a longer time of lower frequencies? Say for example you wanted to capture hall and inductive signals from a crank and a cam sensor, or if you ran a current probe on the starter but also wanted to see individual cam pulses for at least 2 revolutions? How far back can you scroll on captured waveforms?

Hi , does this equipment have the FFT option? Thanks for your nice review! 👍

Good video, I advise, linking or tagging the video on screen @ 4:55 of the suggested video. Only suggestion, besides that, it's very comprehensive of the essential information.

Thanks for the videos Kerry. Is this a better scope than the Hantek DSO2D15?

I just bought a HDS2202S 200, after reading your revew. This is my first 'scope, been wanting to get one for years. I'm an old geezer that's messed with basic electronics for years, still a beginner. I would be very interested in seeing if you could show how to hook this scope up to a breadboarded very simple transistor-LC-tank transmitter circuit running at the lowest reasonable freq (1 10M ???), to get *some* kind of results showing what the oscillator output looks like. I don't know anything about connectors, "levels" (voltage / impedance / input) that might be needed to get things "talking" together. It doesn't need (or probably ??) will be able to very accurately portray the waveforms, values, etc, "in the ball park" would be nice though. (just the the three components (trans / induct / cap) .... and / or a resistor .. if neccessary). Having read a bit about "dummy loads", I don't know if it would really be necessary, if only using a 1.5 - 5v battery, but if so, details on the dummy load would be great. I am also interested in knowing if tiny antennas could be put put into the breadboard and the scope, to actually get the scope to capture the RF transmitted signal, even if the scope / board were only a few feet away. If so, again, how would they be connected ? I don't know anything about how the scope and board would need to be connected, i.e. does the scope come with cables that can be connected to the bread board, or do I need to solder a BNC connector to the breadboard ? I don't *think* I can "blow anything up" connecting the circuit to the 'scope, but I would love to hear your expert advice. The goal is to try to experiment with oscillators / RF ... eventually modulation .... "radio" starting at a very low primitive beginner level, using modern test equipment. Mike

Great reviews as usually. Does this model have Vrms measurements for oscilloscope?

Could you please measure the back emf of the gnd line, which occurs at the moments of stopping and starting for an ac or dc motor, in single mode? Also, can you measure the magnetic field generated at the start of the motor in single mode and normal mode on a signal line that goes close to the motor phase? I want to know how accurately it measures noise. In fact, if you have a much better quality oscilloscope and you can compare it with it at the same time, it will be a clearer answer. In addition, if you also include and compare HDS2102S and HDS272S in this test, we can understand the difference between measurement capabilities much better. Also, thanks for this great review video.

thanks, from Dominican Republic

Thanks for the video. The sine is easy to show. Show us the rectangle.

thanks.

If I am looking to analyze waveforms from modular synths at audio rate and also some of the waveforms from other synth functions. Do you think this is my best bet in this price range ?

Hi Kerry. You seem to have tested more oscilloscopes than most so I was wondering if you could advise me of one that would work well for sound design on a budget. I would be plugging the audio output of a synthesiser into it.

Hi and thank you for the video!!! What happens if you replace the battery with a more-capeable one?

Sometimes it's hard to see the waveform of (only) PWM flyback (small, no PFC) on ic

I believe what we really need is a built in curve tracer function in these oscilloscopes.

Happy with the 72 so far......

..... Well done Mate, wisdom beyond your years. Articulate, professional, entertaining, consistant - (Still can't find your 50 Ω termination), and 'cool for cats' .

Review the owon 2ch 12 bit scope xds2102a, please

Hi thanks for sharing. I have a simple question. My current meter stopped working. Is there a fuse I should be testing?

Hello Mr. Kerry! I was thinking to buy an oscilloscope model HP54600a 100mhz. It was offered about U$ 300, without accessories. Could you comment if this could be a good deal instead of acquiring an OWON 2102 100MHZ? Thank you for your support and of course your videos!

I buying the S this very model. They are getting better and better every revision they come out with. Been impress with this series overall. The waveform update rate on these are getting increasingly good for this series.

Dear sir, can this scopemeter perform an eye pattern diagram? Thanks a lot if you can give me an idea

Is the time scale adjustable independently between channel 1 and 2?

Regarding the startup time at 5:30, my 2102S acts like the 2202S in the video. So this seems to be down to hardware or firmware revision.

Will you see if they fixed the capacitor reading

I am new to scopes and am looking for somethimg i can test automotive crank, cam, etc sensors with and cannot afford the 4000 dollar pico kit. Can anyone recommend this based on specs for that application?

olá, vi que você tem 3 unidades, você é representante da owon, ou mesmo você vende algum deles, eu gostaria muito de ter um desses.

I have HDS272S with exactly 5nS rise time, it was cost me just $100 in china. BYW, its sine gen has THD+N =.1%@1kHz BW=20-20k. For serious fun, I have a faster scope(1.5GHz Lecroy) but too big..

Is it possible to use it as a curve tracer (x,y) mode?

how to calibrarion multimetr 2102/2202 ?

Nice piece of kit, but they should have increased battery capacity to account for the higher consumption over prior models.

Are the two channels differential or single-ended ? In other words do they have comman ground?

Is it better than fnirsi 180Mhz?

Kerry, which one would you choose, this one (maybe the one with a little bit less bandwidth) or the FNIRSI DPOX180H?

Are the scope grounds isolated from each other?

Hi, nice review. I saw review stating that HDS2202S is getting realy hot. It is an important information. Wasn't it in your case? Regards

Can I use mpd3000 differential probe with 100x,1000x,20MΩ / 1.5pF( differential ) 10MΩ / 3pF( each input to ground ).I need for cat 3 type of work?

👍🙂

is this helpul for automotive diagnostic for cam bus ?

Thank you for this review. However, for a rise time measurement it is required that both stationary states of a sufficient fast step are displayed, and the signal path should have the correct impedance. You mentioned issues with the rise time measurement, but it appears somewhat misleading to use this rise time measurement to estimate the bandwidth. Rise time measurement could easily be a topic for a separate video :-) Anyway thanks for the summary.

Does the HS2202S have a matte or gloss screen?

What about the heat generated inside this device consuming over 1A, anybody can comment ?

Maybe it's ADC Clone Texas Instruments ADC08D1500

X Y mode ?

Why only one probe? Can you buy a second?

The 200mhz have no much sense as at the price you can get a bench type hantek fully featured,or a owon. Only the 100Mhz have sense because cover everything at lower price and far of a bench one. I have the 100mhz and I would never buy the 200mhz, just would buy a bench one

Check software version for boot differences

One advice, use thermal camera to see temperature of the chips. You will be badly surprised. Like usual OWON try to make our life BAD.

No math function bet ch1 and ch2

🫡

I have not working multimeter. Firmware not available. The plastic is smelly. OWON not answering to emails. I definitely don't recommend this one. Think twice.

Hahahaha, US$300, you must be kidding!!!!!

The oscilloscope is fine but the multimeter is slow asf.

No thx, no intensity grading does not add up in 2023 at these prices and the waveform shown seems to rely on some weird averaging & persistant blur when it wants to, and does not look to be something the user have control of and that aint soemthing you want, with all this trickery behind the scene.. look at that chubby line and the fidelity of that signal is completely crushed from make-up... how can you thrust the wffs numbers when the signal is so manipulated, then everything is relative and that the last thing you want in a measurement device... and a max of 8K depth and a max of 10k wfps, that I even doubt it can mustard, and Owon UI & fw often leaves a lot to be desired.. Owon and their scopes, no wonder they got a bad rep. who maks these handheld scopes, as it the same line that is promoted under numerous brands, not least "Victor" who also got the exaxct same line of scopes like "Victor 270S" (70MHz variant with AWG) just with an orange bumper and also a no name variant in a green silicone bumber sleeve. who makes these scopes, as numerous brands just seem to slam their own name on it.. Maybe you should sort out stuff like that channelholder and mention all these other budget CN brands who also got a model of it, atleast if your viewers interrest have any merits?

👍