Handheld oscilloscope evaluations

I'm trying to find a suitable DSO for home use in the $1500ish range. I looked at the LeCroy WaveAce and Instek GDS-2012 scopes, both are very competitively priced and feature similar capabilities. However, a unit like the Protek 860 which has both a 60MHz x 2 DSO and a full featured DMM (temp, capacitance, etc.) with full datalogging and PC connectivity seems like a good deal. I'm mostly fixing home electronics, radio control stuff, and probing automotive electronics. Is it made in China?

I can say the most popular unit that we sell is the Fluke 199c/003s scopemeter. Our Instek scopes give you a great bank for the buck. Try us at www.tequipment.net

If you work for the Federal government or military, the Fluke 199C is availble at a great price through www.navicpmart.com

I have a few things to add... First, it's a little sad that Agilent (a company that makes some great higher-end scopes) has taken to slapping their name on an offbrand product also sold by Protek? I have an older Protek handheld scope and it's nearly worthless. The Agilent and Protek do NOT have isolated inputs. Neither do the new HDS series handheld scopes from Owon. Only the DMM inputs are isolated. The Tek TPS2000 series is indeed easy to use, and has isolated inputs, but for a relatively new design they have rather poor recording depth, limited features and limited display resolution. For about the same price as the TPS2012, the Fluke 196C offers a better display, more triggering options, more measurement options, data logging, DMM functionality in a much more rugged field-friendly package. If you don't need isolated inputs, get an Instek. The GDS-2012 blows away the Tek TPS-2012 for half the price with USB, deeper memory and more although the battery is optional.

After some more consideration, we found another solution. We went for the Tektronix TPS2024. It is battery powered, small and lightweight, with 4 isolated channels, isolated trigger, and set up like a traditional scope. The back lighted buttons are nice as well. It also has a Power Bundle (probe & software) option that makes for a very well rounded Industrial troubleshooting tool. I would recommend that you take a look. I think that readers who were interested in the handheld scope reviews would be interested in a proper review of this tool as well. Thanks Tony for pointing out the importance of isolated channels - it helped in making our decision.

I do some industrial automation troubleshooting, and own both a Tek THS720 and a Fluke 199 (older monochrome version). The Tek has more of an traditional scope feel to it. For automation troubleshooting, I recommend you get a scope with isolated channels, because it's likely a lot of your signals will be differential, such as RS-422 encoder signals, RS-485 serial lines, and LVDS data lines. Interestingly, portable scopes tend to have isolated channels; both of mine do.

In response to tech's comment: If you're accustomed to analog scopes, then you probably want dedicated buttons for vertical and horizontal scales. Only the Protek handheld scope lacks these buttons. Agilent is comparatively priced to Protek (Read reviews of both because they are very similar), with Fluke nearly doub the price and AEMC nearly double that. However, there are plenty of small bench scopes in that price range now, too.

Thanks for doing this review. Our old Tektronix 465 has finally passed the point of repair and it's time to get a new one. We have been looking at the hand held scopes, but there is so little info out there from a user review standpoint. This will help narrow down the choices. Any comments regarding the suitability for field techs accustomed to analog scopes working on Robotics, CNC etc.?