Owon HDS272S Handheld Oscilloscope

Over the years I’ve had a number of Owon scopes, function generators and power supplies – so I’m pleased to now have my hands on their handheld HDS272S, a new, portable dual-channel scope which can also be used as a multimeter and function generator.

As you’ll see, the scope/meter has a 3.5″ colour display good enough for outdoor use and runs on a pair of 18650 Li-Ion batteries for up to 6 hours of continuous use. Owon provide PC software so you can use it via USB-C with your PC or laptop.

Apparently, Owon compare it to the Hantek 2000 series, while claiming larger screen and more internal memory. The unit csn store up to 8K data points and images can be stored as images or CSV for USB export.

The HDS272S contains a 20,000 count true RMS multimeter with the usual facilities including auto-ranging. There are various models, the HD272S being the 70Mhz version (ie at the top of the range). Price will vary depending where you are, I understand eleshop.ue have them at around €182. Vertical resolution is 8-bit.

The unit arrives well boxed and in it’s own quality black pouch. It also comes complete with leads, scope probe, USB C lead and power supply. Batteries are rechargeable but also easily replaceable.

When grabbing the PC software, I got a message from Chrome about the software not being safe.

Up to now, all attempts to use the software, despite getting the re-assuring sound from Windows when connecting, failed. I checked comms, failed. I tried running as administrator – failed. Owon have just come back to me to say the driver was not installed properly. so next time I’m in a meter-checking frame of mind I’ll try again.

More on this when I get the driver working – using with a PC of course is just a nicety as the meter/scope runs perfectly well stand-alone. I must say, to look at, the HDS272S is very pretty and I do like the sturdy cloth case.