iMSO User Reviews

Top reviews

Very disappointing

I had very high hopes for the 204x, based on earlier reviews. Reality seems to be very different. The hardware is possibly fine, but the iOS and Mac apps are so bug-ridden that it is unusable. Specifically, exporting CSV files containing data simply doesn’t work.

On iOS you only get one partial channel, sometimes as a row, sometimes as a column, apparently related to time base, but no explanation of why the difference, even in the pdf manual. And if you delete all the files (there is no way to force a new one - that seems to be random), it generally fails to create another one next time you try to start the logger.

On the Mac app it uses your iCloud/Documents directory, and shows you all the files in there. And you can’t scroll - it will only advance one file at a time through a view of three files. And if you do, finally, find the log file, the only option is to email it, and if you select that it gives an error that mail is not set up, even when it is. You can’t scroll on the help (i) screens either, so you can only read the top of them.

I’m very surprised at the catastrophically poor standard of these apps. The 204x is on its way back to Amazon.
Show more

Really impressive app

The double axis cursors make the measurement far better than the large oscilloscopes that we use in our lab courses. Well thought out app and fast enough to work with our photon detectors.

Response from developer

Appreciate the love. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences from the lab.

HomeTech

Innovative, good to see the minds in America are still solving problems.

Response from developer

:) This makes us smile. Thank you for your kind words.

Compact and Handy

My wife surprised me with this for Christmas. I was skeptical until I started to use it. This will never take the place of my beloved 100 MHz HP oscilloscope, but for a lot of what I do, this gets the job done and it does not need a scope cart. I am finding more and more uses for it as time goes on. My iPad 1 will never be without a job now.
Show more

Response from developer

Glad to give your iPad another job. And we love that you're finding more uses for your scope. Guessing it comes with you wherever you go. Wonder if that also means you're now more productive in all the jobs your wife might ask of u? Come to think of it, that might be a different discussion altogether :)

Great pocket oscilloscope

I've had this oscilloscope for a few years now and it is great for doing field work on things like serial lines. My only wish is that they make it sample faster.

True, it doesn't compare to my tek scope, but I leave it in my work bag so I always have it and that's kind of the point.

For all those who complain that isn't a free oscilloscope, read the website. This is the software to support the hardware you buy. You don't get a free tv with Samsung remote apps. Same thing
Show more

Response from developer

Love that you've been using the scope for years. Oscium recently has come out with a newer (and faster) version of the scope you're using. Try: iMSO-204x. It's got some extra horsepower...

Stinks

It doesn't work or I just don't know how

A little quirky but excellent

Takes a little time to get used to the interface, and a few bits that are not intuitive. But overall for the money it's a great little tool and sooo much more convenient than a full blown scope

Response from developer

Wonder if we've sorted all the bugs you've mentioned. Ping us with specific feedback at support@oscium.com if there's anything else we can do to improve. Thank you for the five star review. We know we can always improve and with your help, we will.

Great Little Scope

It might seem like a steep price for a single analog/four digital scope with limited bandwidth, but the portability makes up for it.

An iPad screen is great for kitchen table projects, but the small iPhone screen is perfect for everything else.

The menus are easy to navigate and there seem to be a lot of features that you would expect only on more expensive scopes.

The one feature that I'm not crazy about (but need to use most often) is the pinch-to-zoom method of changing the volts/division and the time scale. Although that's the normal method for this platform, it's a little cumbersome with this application. It's not so bad on the iPad, but it's not as easy to use on the iPhone. I'd rather have buttons to change the scales.

As my first real, use of the scope, I was debugging an Arduino project. Being able to immediately identify an error that was causing an incorrect duty cycle on an output was a huge time saver.
Show more

Response from developer

Thank you for the five star review! We've made some improvements to the pinch-to-zoom. Have those improvements met your needs? We've added immediate feedback so that you can see where you are and where you're zooming into (or out of). If it's not perfectly awesome, please ping us at support@oscium.com with that feedback. We'd love to improve. And, with your help, I know we can.

Good product

Works well enough for my needs. This is a good first iteration.

Response from developer

Thank you for the love. Have you seen our newest scope: iMSO-204x? It's our forth iteration and we're getting better all the time Would love to get your feedback on that and see if we are still tracking with your expectations. Ping us at support@oscium.com. We'd love to hear from you again!

Great Product

The iMSO is a great tool for anyone working towards a 2/4 year Electronics Engineering or related degree.

I encourage any student of said fields to check it out, as it should handle many of the analog/digital measurements you will make during labs.

Unless you have found a better MSO that fits in your pocket (for $300 or less), the number of features found on the iMSO will easily make up for any limitations that you might find.
Show more

Response from developer

Wow. Thank you for recommending us to your EE students. We love helping education. If there's anything else we can do to assist you in the lab, please let us know. We are always looking to improve. Best way to contact us is: support@oscium.com

Maintenance

Compared to a usb scope, The bandwidth is too slow to capture details about R/W. It may be good for audio but the lag may rule that out too. If I want to capture real time data I still use my DSO.

Response from developer

True. There are faster USB scopes. Our play is in portability and the fact that you can have a scope in your pocket. Since you left your review, we have improved our speeds and added a second analog channel. Check out iMSO-204x.

Not bad for an I-pad scope

This is a good 1st effort at a portable scope for apple i-products. It takes a bit of getting used to and has its limitations but it provides a very clear and quite functional user interface. Hopefully there are more products yet to come.

Response from developer

And we have released more products as you might have expected! Check out: iMSO-204x. And thank you for the five star review. We appreciate the love!

Genial

Lo mas útil que tengo en mi iPad

Very useful portable tool

I have a university lab full of high end, high speed test gear like 25 GHz 'scopes and the like. But I also do some home projects for a variety of reasons and help out a local commercial diesel repair shop when they have weird electronics problems. While I have a low end 'scope at home, I find the portability of the OSCIUM device a great asset for many of my tasks where I do not need high bandwidth. A recent example was finding CAM bus problems on the big diesel rig. The iPad was easy to handle in tight spaces and the OSCIM scope did its job and we nailed the problem quickly (saw bad reflections and isolated a poor connector).

While I would like to see a similar product from OSCIUM with a dual channel analog 'scope, this tool has been most useful and for my use rate it as a 5 star.
Show more

Response from developer

Thank you for the love! Did you know that we recently released a dual channel analog version? Check out: iMSO-204x. It's exactly what you have requested :)

Very pretty and compact but slow.

The hardware is good and the display looks great but you have hunt around to find some of the basics, like time/div. The icons could use some labeling- otherwise you have to experiment or go look for the manual. The sample rate is slow and the voltage range limited as would be expected for a mini scope, but you can beat it for portability.
Show more

Response from developer

We've got a faster version of the scope you reviewed! Check out: iMSO-204x! And regarding the labeling, we've iterated the software many times since you reviewed. Can you circle back and let us know if we've got it right now? Would love to make sure we hit the bogey for you. We can be reached at support@oscium.com or via this feedback forum.

Awesome

Update: using this app with AirPlay mirroring to my apple tv totally works, I still like using the HDMI adapter since there's no latency that way, but I'm still in love with this scope, thanks again Oscium.

I've had this scope for a while now and it's still working great. If you feel that the iPhones screen is too small to do anything serious know that it supports using the apple HDMI out adapter, and it is pretty sweet. Note that I had to cut a tiny bit of superfluous plastic off the side of my HDMI cable, but I'm pretty sure anybody who buys a scope is ok with a slight cable mod.
I've been using this in lieu of a logic probe lately and I'm very pleased with its abilities, thank you oscium.
Show more

Response from developer

AirPlay is a fantastic little feature, isn't it! Also works with Apple TV (for us with a projector, like in a classroom). Thanks for taking the time to review the scope. We appreciate the love and the title. Awesome is where our company name came from: awesome + oscilloscope = Oscium. :)

Great App But...

Having just received my hardware I was anxious to try it out. I have been developing a program using an arduino based board to control an analogue to digital converter. Using my iPad, I was able to look at the various signals with ease. I decided to plug in the digital adapter to look at some serial data. Without thinking about it I just unplugged the hardware without quitting the app. The app complained that it was clipping the input in the negative direction, i plugged the hardware back in but nothing I did would get the app out of this mode. In the end after restarting the iPad it still didn't come good. As a final effort I deleted the app from my iPad, and reloaded it, this fixed the problem.

A couple of other suggestions, a user manual would be good, although it is very intuitive there are some subtle features not obvious. Also whilst the pinch to zoom feature is nice, I find that I am unable to work in either the horizontal or vertical direction only, I always affect both directions at any time. I think dedicated buttons as an option would be a good option.

Beyond this it is a great program.
Show more

Response from developer

Clipping issue is totally due to the scaling (and zooming in/out). We've put a ton of work into improving the pinch feature. Can you circle back and let us know if we've hit the mark? And if not, please contact us at support@oscium.com. We want to make sure you're 100% happy. And with your help we know we can improve.

Good o-scope for the price

The software and hardware are very nice. The hardware amounts to a 5 MHz analog probe, and 4 digital probes. This is nice, but I would like to see a 2x analog probe hardware accessory, even if it is at the cost of speed. Be sure to pay attention to the probe specs and don't exceed the max voltages.

The software is very modern, the UI is straight forward and mostly self-explanatory. All the expected data logging features were there.

I found that pinch to zoom in and out to be clunky. a smooth zoom option would be nice.
Show more

Response from developer

We just released a 2x analog probe version! Check out: iMSO-204x. Hope with that improvement, we can win over a five star review (from the four star provided). Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. It matters! And we're listening!

WOW!

What a cool little oscilloscope! Works as expected. App is simple. Hardware seems pretty sturdy. Love it.

Fits in my pocket!

Travelling to my customer's sites used to be a real pain because I had to check my oscilloscope at the airport. Of course, it was the heaviest thing in the bag, and I never knew if it was going to make it unscathed or not. Oscium's oscope fits in my pocket!

Response from developer

Love it. Thx for the feedback.