[Martin Rowe] over at EDN recently put a $200 wireless oscilloscope to the test. The Areoscope 100A is a single channel scope in a probe body that communicates back to an Apple smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth LE. You can see the video from the post, below.
The original prototype of the device had a high bandwidth, but the production model only manages to have a 20 MHz bandwidth at 100 megasamples per second: nothing earth-shattering.
We aren’t above having a single channel scope to throw in a bag, but most of the ones we’ve looked at in the past have been well under $200. The wireless feature could be useful, but the reality is it isn’t that important most of the time. Even more perplexing is that the feature only works with Apple smart devices (and not even all of them). The 4 kB sample memory is probably sufficient for a toy instrument, but — again — for $200 we might expect better.
Consider that for about $50 bucks more you can get a very serviceable two-channel instrument with much better specs and for double the price, you can get a very nice four-channel scope with way more bandwidth, sample memory, and features. Sure, they won’t be ultraportable and wireless, but they won’t be bad.
If you really want something small and portable, the All-Sun and OWon units we looked at last year were both under $100 and — outside of the wireless capability — boast better bandwidth. If you want to live on the edge, you can always put an oscilloscope on your soldering iron. However, if you use an Apple device and you really want it to be your oscilloscope, the Areoscope 100A appears to do that job.
Filed under: tool hacks
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