PSA: Spent $400 on a cheap o-scope from Amazon and it lied to me for 3 weeks

Chased a ghost in a King Air 350 for three weekends straight before I realized the scope was reading a half volt low on the 5V reference bus. Anyone else get burned by cheap test gear or am I the only one who learned this lesson the hard way?

2 comments

2 Comments

smith.jordan6d ago

That cheap scope probably had a bad voltage reference chip or maybe a cold solder joint on the input jack... stuff like that is super common with the budget brands. I've seen guys chase a bad injector driver signal for days only to find out their probe ground clip was making intermittent contact. The real kicker is when you finally borrow a buddy's Fluke and everything works perfect right away, makes you want to throw the cheap stuff in the trash. Always cross-check your first few readings with a known good meter or scope before you trust it on a real job.

lily975d ago

And @smith.jordan is totally right about the ground clip thing (I've been burned by that more times than I wanna admit). Once you get burned by a cheap tool sending you on a wild goose chase, it's hard to go back to trusting the budget stuff without double checking everything first.