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This page is not intended to put down the little DS Nano v2. The scope behaves as advertised. For example, I had a project that required a piezo sensor input. Things were not working according to plan and the DS Nano v2 was able to capture the low frequency signal from the piezo and suggest that a diode was needed to tame the signal for use as a microcontroller input.
Here is another example of the DS Nano v2 doing a great job showing variable pulse width from a simple PICAXE18 program:
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That said, the DS Nano v2 does have its limits and I always wanted to compare it to a "real" oscilloscope. I was able to get my hands on a Tektronix MSO2042 Oscilloscope and Tektronix AFG3252 Signal Generator. The AFG3252 can produce waveforms up to 240MHz extremely accurately. Well in the range for our purposes as an input source.
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The table below compares some key specs of the DS Nano v2 and the MSO2042:
Again, for our test purposes the Tektronix MSO2042 Oscilloscope is way more than adequate to test the DS Nano v2.
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So what about the results? Below are some screen shots of signals with increasing frequency. The DS Nano v2 is the smaller screen in the foreground. The Tektronix MSO2024 is the larger screen in the background. Both oscilloscopes are connected to the same signal source in parallel with no concern for impedance matching (note the ringing). You can immediately see that DS Nano fails miserable at detecting the high frequency ringing. But let's be fair; the DS Nano spec is 200KHz for analog bandwidth, so this result is not a surprise.
One important thing to look at in the pics below are the voltage level cursor lines on the DS Nano v2. You will notice that there is really no attenuation in the signal the DS Nano v2 displays as we test to its 200KHz bandwidth; that's good. However, the limit of the 1MS/s sample rate does start to show. The 100KHz signal pic really shows how the DS Nano v2 sample rate effects the displayed output.
All that said, it you are looking for a <<$100US scope that will fit in your pocket, the DS Nano v2 is a handy choice. If you use it within it's specs it is a great value! If you need more call Tektronix!
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