The Owon SDS1102 100MHz Digital Storage Oscilloscope - Pt.1 - Unboxing

Despite a bit of a worry over the seller and the risk that it was coming from China and not within the UK, the 'scope arrive safe this morning. Maybe I had been a little hasty over the weekend!

So, first impression is of the packing. The outer packing was a thick polythene shipping bag. No additional padding so only half-marks there! I suppose it was a bit much to expect double boxing!

Inside the bag the scope was enclosed in a sturdy cardboard box with plastic carry handle.

As supplied in box

Opening the box revealed the 'scope wrapped in a thick packing bag and positioned centrally by two moulded packing pieces. Down one side was the poly zippybag containing the instruction booklet and a CD/DVD, down the other side the bag containing the probes. In a space at one end of the box was the mains cable and a USB lead.

Split bag containing probes

I did notice that the edge seam of the probe bag had split, but this isnt of much concern. Inside it was two 1x/10x probes, with removable spring clips, a trimming tool for adjusting the compensation capacitors, spare springs, and different ID colour rings. The probes themselves, which are about 1 1/2m long, already had yellow and blue ID rings on them. 

13A fuse for a 15W device! Change that!

If you buy one of these, or in fact any mains powered item these days - check the rating of the fuse in the plug! This 'scope has a specified power requirement of just 15W - yet the plug has a 13A fuse! Swap that for a more sensible fuse as soon as you can! At the very least a 3A fuse - but even this is much bigger than needed!

All the controls were in good order, straight etc, no scratches or marks anywhere on the unit. The unit itself is only about 3inch deep, and has fold out feet, and a fold out carry handle. It weighs very little.

On switching on, the unit displays a splash screen while booting up. This takes about 10-15sec.

Initial start up splash-screen

As its late, and Im very tired from work, the furthest I am going to test it tonight is to quickly connect one of the scope probe leads to the 5V square wave internal test signal port. The two BNC connectors for the input channels have protective plastic caps.

Internal test signal trace display

As can bee seen, the probe needs its compensation adjusting! But that is only to be expected. Over the next few posts I will look at using this 'scope, and some of its features. Of interest is the 'MATH' button, which brings up a menu of things it can do with the traces - including Fast Fourier Transforms.