I am just rediscovering electronics after retirement (was a Radio Shack rat in my youth!), and this scope works perfectly for my needs in my price range. I don't need 120 MHZ to prove that a 555 timer circuit works. Maybe someday I will graduate to more complex circuits, but not until I have figured out all the fundamentals. Nice review, very helpful.
What a great review. Quickly showed the many positives about the unit and also pointed out the inaccurate claim for bandwidth. Still a rather nice unit for the hobbiest. Thank you for sharing.
Just ordered this from Banggood. I will use it for testing Fog Horn outputs (732hz, clock signals & possibly dirty outputs on battery chargers) offshore in Gulf of Mexico. Thanks for your review.
Great Review. Looks really solid for the price. Perfect for somebody who needs something portable. 45 MHz isn't bad. Anything more you would probably want to use a benchtop anyways. I have the FNIRSI portable and I love it as second scope to my Rigol. I use it frequently for quick signal checks. The Mustool looks a little nicer than mine.
I just bought a NanoVNA and the TinySA a few days ago after watching your videos and find them both truly amazing. I put them through a fairly extensive test with laboratory grade standards and they passed very well. I'm thinking about adding the MUSTOOL 120M to my collection of pocket-sized instruments but I have a question. My primary frequencies of interest are the HF ham bands DC to 30 MHz. If the 120M were used to tune up a radio within these frequencies, how quickly does the screen respond to a change in amplitude level. The digital scopes I used in the past always had a noticeable lag between a change in the input and the screen display. That made them almost useless for tuning up a rig so I always preferred to use an analog scope. Does the 120M respond fast enough for this purpose?
I think I'm a suitable customer for this type of product in a sense that I'm looking for some reasonably priced ($150-$1000) scope so that I don't need to rely on my "big scope" as much. No matter how I look at it, it seems better to pony up the extra cash for a Micsig scope. If this was 640x480 and 100MHz at -6dB at $150 price point, I'd be sold. Single channel is totally fine for this type of product and compact size. The overall look and layout of this unit is excellent. My OCD is UI responsiveness, and this unit delivers. Very good. Thanks for the overview!
@@IMSAIGuy I'd like something battery operated though, that's why I was looking at the Micsig scopes, like their newer STO scopes with panels.. so you get touch screen + knobs + battery operation. I was thinking of something like that plus their 100MHz high voltage differential probe. The Micsigs also include serial decode as standard and you can get 100MHz 4ch or 150MHz 2ch. Similar enough to Rigols size-wise.
@@keithking1985 Well, it's bad since this was advertised as a 100MHz scope. Nevertheless, 25MHz is enough for a lot of use cases. It all depend what you are looking at. You must understand that when you get closer to the scope bandwidth, signal fidelity decrease. So normally you want a scope with 4x the bandwidth of the signal you want to look at. Ex, with this 25MHz scope you can probably comfortably analyze a signal at 6MHz.
@@kosmic5695 sounds good to me tbh, I'm still stuck on the 555 timer level circuits so I wont be needing a better scope than 6MHz anytime soon. I do wonder though if theres some DIY tinkering that could be done to improve this scope
I'm looking for a small cheap Oscilloscope to test whether an inverter is genuinely pure sine wave or actually modified. Are you able to comment whether this would do that? I'm not an electronics person so need something simple and straight forward
Do you see the discrepancies in the p-p voltage measurement with different vertical scales? At 70 MHz it was reading 286 mV on 200 mv/div but when you expanded the vertical scale to 100 mV/div, it read just under 500 mV. 80 MHz on 200 mV/div was reading 700 mV p-p. Even at 100 MHz, it was still reading about 500 mV p-p.
@@ol-np8sy yeah I was kinda thinking along those lines, hearing him say he was using a 1volt p-p output at the generator, makes me think it might not be enough considering distance etc. I'm a noob compared to you guys though so take what I say with a grain of salt
15:20 What the he.... is happening here? It jumps from reading less than 400mV at 80MHz to reading more than 700mV just by You changing timebase? Or am I missing something? I have been looking for a review of this, so thank you for doing this. Now if someone would do a review of the OWON HDS200 Series that would be great :-)
@@IMSAIGuy But it changes value at the same frequency, not as you change frequency. That's my point. The frequency stays the same, but the PP value changes. That's not what you want in an instrument. You might get a higher reading at 60 MHz just by fiddling with the timebase. ??? Maybe?
Shouldn't you switch to 10x mode to measure anything beyond 5 MHz? This is what user manual says for other inexpensive oscilloscopes, and probably for this one too.
no. you need to use a 10x probe and not 1x. since I am not using a probe it will be the fastest (not limited by the probe). telling the machine 10x is just a mathematical change, it does not effect the bandwidth.
@@IMSAIGuy 10 log power or 20 log voltage (with same input and output resistance) gives a 3 dB point where the voltage is sqrt(2) / 2 of the original voltage. Antenna beamwidth is usually specified at the 6 dB down points. Oscilloscopes only by manufacturers who aren't meeting their specs...
Oh cool! I literally just took my Hantek 2C42 out of the box yesterday night. I was looking at these MUSTOOL's also, though didn't see this specific model listed on eBay or Amazon. Darn... or maybe not. Looks like now when specifically searching for the make and model, there are three listings on eBay, though two are like ~twice the price. Thing I like about the Hantek that sold me, was the software and data logging. Plus better higher voltage DC/AC specs... even though probably wouldn't push to the limits. Reads like can upgrade the firmware to the more expensive models options too.
On the page on Bang-Good/Aliexpress etc. It shows a large screen beside the scope leading you to believe that you get a bench top screen with the scope. But I guess that's not thrown in with it.... pity. Coz that's why I'd say alot of people bought it in the 1st place. But it still seems to be a ok scope for 70 bucks/€65
Too bad that this little guy doesn't have separate X & Y inputs. Otherwise it seems okay if you realistically expect 30 Mhz resolution from it, IMHO. I just don't understand why the Chinese company's overrate their instrument specifications. I mean, you could label this model DSO as the 30M, and sell a faster (60 Mhz capable) model at say 60M, and finally a faster/fastest model still (120 Mhz capable)model at 120M and people would at least be able to actually buy the instrument that fits their needs. Advertising this oscilloscope as good up to 120 Mhz is not allowing the customer to decide for him/herself... I just don't get it.... Thank you for the awesome review IMSAI Guy. I appreciate you sir! Fred
Completely off subject You see on eBay, Tons of HP power meters in all shapes and sizes like the 435A and 435B they sometimes sell for $10-$15 without the thermistor. Could a smart guy like you make the thermistor? Then a guy like me could have another useless piece of vintage cool looking gear hanging around😂
Stop comparing it to a Nano VNA (size, weight).....That is useless,pointless and worthless...Not every viewer has one...Might as well compare it to a tile in your kitchen for that matter.
it is portable, the tile is stuck to the wall it has more functions than the tile it is much more expensive than the tile the tile does not require batteries tile comes in various sizes, some bigger some smaller I hope this helps
it's better than a toy. If you need a portable scope to test in the field it would be great. I use $20 multimeters all the time in the field and then my Keithley bench meter in the lab. I used to have a battery powered tek scope that was only 20mhz and found it handy from time to time
You have already proved it didn't make spec. Was there a traceable doc. with unit when you opened it?Taking that into a customers lab would not be practical.
@@jdmccorful of course there is no traceable doc. If you use this to make critical measurements you are hosed. If you use it to check if the clock is present you are good to go. It is harbor freight not snap on
I am just rediscovering electronics after retirement (was a Radio Shack rat in my youth!), and this scope works perfectly for my needs in my price range. I don't need 120 MHZ to prove that a 555 timer circuit works. Maybe someday I will graduate to more complex circuits, but not until I have figured out all the fundamentals. Nice review, very helpful.
Exactly what I was thinking as well, Ken! Nice to see someone of a more senior generation being so relatable to my own situation right now
What a great review. Quickly showed the many positives about the unit and also pointed out the inaccurate claim for bandwidth. Still a rather nice unit for the hobbiest. Thank you for sharing.
Just ordered this from Banggood. I will use it for testing Fog Horn outputs (732hz, clock signals & possibly dirty outputs on battery chargers) offshore in Gulf of Mexico. Thanks for your review.
Imagine having one of these thirty years ago! It would have been simply mind blowing.. I love these little things. Very handy tool.
Even have and Arduino nano would look like Alian tect...👽
Just got mine in the mail! This is one hell of a big improvement over the DIY Arduino shit I've had to deal with in my home setup hahahah
Great Review. Looks really solid for the price. Perfect for somebody who needs something portable. 45 MHz isn't bad. Anything more you would probably want to use a benchtop anyways. I have the FNIRSI portable and I love it as second scope to my Rigol. I use it frequently for quick signal checks. The Mustool looks a little nicer than mine.
I just bought a NanoVNA and the TinySA a few days ago after watching your videos and find them both truly amazing. I put them through a fairly extensive test with laboratory grade standards and they passed very well. I'm thinking about adding the MUSTOOL 120M to my collection of pocket-sized instruments but I have a question. My primary frequencies of interest are the HF ham bands DC to 30 MHz. If the 120M were used to tune up a radio within these frequencies, how quickly does the screen respond to a change in amplitude level. The digital scopes I used in the past always had a noticeable lag between a change in the input and the screen display. That made them almost useless for tuning up a rig so I always preferred to use an analog scope. Does the 120M respond fast enough for this purpose?
I found the speed pretty good
I think I'm a suitable customer for this type of product in a sense that I'm looking for some reasonably priced ($150-$1000) scope so that I don't need to rely on my "big scope" as much. No matter how I look at it, it seems better to pony up the extra cash for a Micsig scope. If this was 640x480 and 100MHz at -6dB at $150 price point, I'd be sold. Single channel is totally fine for this type of product and compact size. The overall look and layout of this unit is excellent. My OCD is UI responsiveness, and this unit delivers. Very good. Thanks for the overview!
get a rigol for $350, this is a second scope
@@IMSAIGuy I'd like something battery operated though, that's why I was looking at the Micsig scopes, like their newer STO scopes with panels.. so you get touch screen + knobs + battery operation. I was thinking of something like that plus their 100MHz high voltage differential probe. The Micsigs also include serial decode as standard and you can get 100MHz 4ch or 150MHz 2ch. Similar enough to Rigols size-wise.
If you started at 1Vpp the 3dB point should be at 709mVpp, not 500mVpp. So at 25MHz you are pretty close to the -3dB point.
Kosmic: Is that good or bad?? Kinda new to this.
@@keithking1985 Well, it's bad since this was advertised as a 100MHz scope. Nevertheless, 25MHz is enough for a lot of use cases. It all depend what you are looking at. You must understand that when you get closer to the scope bandwidth, signal fidelity decrease. So normally you want a scope with 4x the bandwidth of the signal you want to look at. Ex, with this 25MHz scope you can probably comfortably analyze a signal at 6MHz.
You are right. The "real" 3dB bandwith here is about 30 MHz.
@@kosmic5695 sounds good to me tbh, I'm still stuck on the 555 timer level circuits so I wont be needing a better scope than 6MHz anytime soon. I do wonder though if theres some DIY tinkering that could be done to improve this scope
I'd be curious to see a repeat of the tests using the 10x probe. Thanks for the video. Appreciated.
We should see about the same because measurements were made with a properly terminated coax.
the probe does not quite match the input impedance of the unit. a bit of under correction.
When measuring 220v Mains- it cuts part of the negative half wave???
Now it's interesting to see what's inside.
Please do a teardown.
ua-cam.com/video/GXjgRd1fOnI/v-deo.html
I'm looking for a small cheap Oscilloscope to test whether an inverter is genuinely pure sine wave or actually modified. Are you able to comment whether this would do that? I'm not an electronics person so need something simple and straight forward
can it wait , and trig on pre set level , capture and show.... or no...
Do you see the discrepancies in the p-p voltage measurement with different vertical scales? At 70 MHz it was reading 286 mV on 200 mv/div but when you expanded the vertical scale to 100 mV/div, it read just under 500 mV. 80 MHz on 200 mV/div was reading 700 mV p-p. Even at 100 MHz, it was still reading about 500 mV p-p.
yes, read the description. it acts funny above 50mhz.
At 15MHz it was already 0.7/0.8=0.875 -12%
I am giving it about 35MHz BW as I have seen somewhere on UA-cam.
Of course it is 120 chinese Mhz.
Many signal generators drop output as you ramp up the frequency
@@ol-np8sy yeah I was kinda thinking along those lines, hearing him say he was using a 1volt p-p output at the generator, makes me think it might not be enough considering distance etc. I'm a noob compared to you guys though so take what I say with a grain of salt
That was around 14:20 in the video.
15:20 What the he.... is happening here? It jumps from reading less than 400mV at 80MHz to reading more than 700mV just by You changing timebase? Or am I missing something?
I have been looking for a review of this, so thank you for doing this.
Now if someone would do a review of the OWON HDS200 Series that would be great :-)
read description, yes it changes. actually gets better at higher frequencies, then rolls off again.
@@IMSAIGuy But it changes value at the same frequency, not as you change frequency. That's my point. The frequency stays the same, but the PP value changes. That's not what you want in an instrument.
You might get a higher reading at 60 MHz just by fiddling with the timebase. ??? Maybe?
@@geirendre at higher frequencies it is starting to alias and the waveform will not be stable. I does not have enough speed. seems good
Can it be calibrated to show the correct voltage and frequency?
mine gets very slow between 20-500ms grid spacing
Para frecuencias mayores de 5 Mhz debes poner 10X....
Shouldn't you switch to 10x mode to measure anything beyond 5 MHz?
This is what user manual says for other inexpensive oscilloscopes, and probably for this one too.
no. you need to use a 10x probe and not 1x. since I am not using a probe it will be the fastest (not limited by the probe). telling the machine 10x is just a mathematical change, it does not effect the bandwidth.
@@IMSAIGuy I see, thanks for the explanation!
Did you figure out how to recall saved scope photos? Can you download thru the USB with a PC?
yes, I can recall (read the manual), no you can not download
This would come in handy working on line operated switch mode power supplies
Yes. Ground is floating
Excellent review, thanks por sharing
Interesting little scope! I think I'll keep my 2200x series Tek 100MHz scope. Still a fine review.
What Omega are you a wearin'?
Speedmaster Automatic
Do they have an Firmware update option to fix bugs?
don't know
This looks like FNRSI scope with buttons rearranged. It has no firmware update and it is far from 500 MSPS.
Are there cursors on this unit?
Where is this product come from?
You're a pretty generous grader. Shouldn't the spec be the 3 dB point?
Of course I'd be a generous grader too if people were giving me free stuff! ;-)
3db power 6db voltage
@@IMSAIGuy 10 log power or 20 log voltage (with same input and output resistance) gives a 3 dB point where the voltage is sqrt(2) / 2 of the original voltage.
Antenna beamwidth is usually specified at the 6 dB down points. Oscilloscopes only by manufacturers who aren't meeting their specs...
Oh cool! I literally just took my Hantek 2C42 out of the box yesterday night. I was looking at these MUSTOOL's also, though didn't see this specific model listed on eBay or Amazon. Darn... or maybe not. Looks like now when specifically searching for the make and model, there are three listings on eBay, though two are like ~twice the price. Thing I like about the Hantek that sold me, was the software and data logging. Plus better higher voltage DC/AC specs... even though probably wouldn't push to the limits. Reads like can upgrade the firmware to the more expensive models options too.
On the page on Bang-Good/Aliexpress etc. It shows a large screen beside the scope leading you to believe that you get a bench top screen with the scope. But I guess that's not thrown in with it.... pity. Coz that's why I'd say alot of people bought it in the 1st place. But it still seems to be a ok scope for 70 bucks/€65
That's why it is important for channels like mine to review products.
Too bad that this little guy doesn't have separate X & Y inputs. Otherwise it seems okay if you realistically expect 30 Mhz resolution from it, IMHO. I just don't understand why the Chinese company's overrate their instrument specifications. I mean, you could label this model DSO as the 30M, and sell a faster (60 Mhz capable) model at say 60M, and finally a faster/fastest model still (120 Mhz capable)model at 120M and people would at least be able to actually buy the instrument that fits their needs. Advertising this oscilloscope as good up to 120 Mhz is not allowing the customer to decide for him/herself... I just don't get it.... Thank you for the awesome review IMSAI Guy. I appreciate you sir! Fred
I shutter when I see a popular SPDT Toggle switch in use that they rate at 20 amps. Gee, mine burned up at 2 amps. Go figure.
What it's cost
Link in description
100mhz em 1x, deveria ser em 10x
Completely off subject
You see on eBay, Tons of HP power meters in all shapes and sizes like the 435A and 435B they sometimes sell for $10-$15 without the thermistor. Could a smart guy like you make the thermistor? Then a guy like me could have another useless piece of vintage cool looking gear hanging around😂
there is a reason those sensors are expensive. There is no way for a garage version that would be any good
good video: ua-cam.com/video/py06VNvykTk/v-deo.html
@@IMSAIGuy I wouldn’t have thought! Thanks
That explains it
Stop comparing it to a Nano VNA (size, weight).....That is useless,pointless and worthless...Not every viewer has one...Might as well compare it to a tile in your kitchen for that matter.
it is portable, the tile is stuck to the wall
it has more functions than the tile
it is much more expensive than the tile
the tile does not require batteries
tile comes in various sizes, some bigger some smaller
I hope this helps
@@IMSAIGuy Personally I'm a fan of dark wood flooring, but tiles are pretty great for bathrooms etc at least!
A toy?
it's better than a toy. If you need a portable scope to test in the field it would be great. I use $20 multimeters all the time in the field and then my Keithley bench meter in the lab. I used to have a battery powered tek scope that was only 20mhz and found it handy from time to time
You have already proved it didn't make spec. Was there a traceable doc. with unit when you opened it?Taking that into a customers lab would not be practical.
@@jdmccorful Making measurements with an instrument that lies to you is worse than not measuring at all.
@@jdmccorful of course there is no traceable doc. If you use this to make critical measurements you are hosed. If you use it to check if the clock is present you are good to go. It is harbor freight not snap on
@@jdmccorful I would take this and a TinySA to the top of a antenna tower. You take what you need.