Budget scope with long term recording?

It's been a while since I visited Our workshop oscilloscope has finally died and needs to be replaced. While I'm waiting for the company
to spend a few grand on a 'proper' scope I'm wondering if any of these budget scopes have a good recorder scope option?
For example - when I'm tracing a current draw on a vehicle I measure the voltage drop across a piece of wire in series with the 
battery over several hours, so I can watch as things turn off and the current drain falls away on some of these fancy European cars.
Sometimes I want to zoom in to an area of the screen especially when I have measured over 3-4 hours.
I had one of the Hantek 8 channel budget versions but couldn't even find out where to turn on voltage reading, let alone record
for extended periods.
is there a cheaper scope out there that is easy enough to use that can do this?

A cheap Pico will probably do what you want. IIRC all their 'scopes have USB streaming which is what you're gonna need to record for that length of time.

Thanks, I had a quick look and the cheapest one I can find in New Zealand is US$1000.

Damn!!!!!!!!! The cheapest ones here in the States are only a couple hundred.

Ok, I found the 2204A for $350. Just not sure if it can do the long time recording function.

You may want to ask Darren from Mechanic Mindset. He is knowledgeable on the 2204 topic.

  This link takes you to a video on how to make the 2204 work with the​​​​pico 6 software.

He's got a website too where to contact him.

 
Thank you.

Desmond, the pile of garbage Hantek scopes can be turned into a very workable cheap scope using a program called Hscope by Martin Loren. You will find it in the Play store and does run on Android. Not windows usable. It does require UTG or usb on the go. You can record upto 5 hours depending on the capture rate in the automotive mode. It supports cyl overlays, 720 crankshaft rotation and a bit more, very useable for dirt cheap. Grab the demo and play around with it.

Thank you very much, that is very useful info I had the budget Hantek a few years ago and gave up on it when I couldn't even work out how to show
a voltmeter
I might have to give it another try!

So I downloaded Hscope, ran the demo mode - tried to set it up for long record time and it told me I have to purchase the automotive
module for that but didn't say how much or provide a link! 

For long term voltage recording you would need a data logger Hantek (!) do a reasonably priced range but as with all Hantek equipment it has got mixed reviews --- but I have been tempted. 

I believe the module is like 15 dollars each, you will need the full working version and the automotive module. Go to settings on the bottom right a tap the little gear, then tap license. Do not buy this unless your scope(and he does support about 10 others) and your tablet or phone will connect. He will not refund your money! I bought the new 4 channel Hantek but its sample rate was to slow for any real work so I sent it back. I believe 1008 runs about the same speed. I use a 6022 which is only 2 channel but 48MS/s which is workable. If you are going to buy one go for the Lotoscope as it supports a max sample rate in the auto module and is about the same price. Run over to martinloren.com to get a better idea about the software and the scopes he supports. I'm a beta tester and he has updates every week.

Note every different scope(same model numbers don't need extra license) you plug in will need its own license but the automotive will go with all scopes with a basic license.

I stole my scope off ebay with no probes for $32.

Now I do have another one I use to test secondary ignition as the Hantek doesn't like it. That one is a portable FNIRSI 1013D I believe I paid about $125. No whare neer the fearures of the Hscope but it holds its own at my place and because the screen is less sensitive the the tablet, I won't change something on it while under a dash.

Well actually I lied to you, I have a Modified Rigol 1054z running at 100mhz, a early 1950 Tektronix that I use to heat the room up with in the winter, it has 113 Vacuum tubes and is hot as hell. I have a heathkit tube unit that I'm recapping. And one other that I still can't figure out whats wrong with it but no real value.

Thanks, I ordered a 6022BE last night

Make sure that Hscope will connect with the device before you pay for the modules. Martin will not refund and he has stated that you must check compatibility. Now I have a Samsung S5 it works on and I use my Lenovo 10" tablet most of the time. Once you pay for the modules go sign up to be a beta tester, Martin encourages it, and you will get some pretty cool features he's working on. If you are the real geek, he designed his own scope as well and other modules that you can build.

In hscope go into settings, then click probes. In here you can download from the cloud a bunch of preconfigured probes or custom configure here. Just have a look, No problem if you want to use a in cyl press transducer, its probably already there or make one yourself. The hantek secondary probes are x10000. Not many cheap scope will let you configure that, I know my other ones won't.

Zoom feature, WOW, spread or pinch your fingers and it will zoom in a very very very long way. Same thing with time base. You can vary the rate of capturer from 50ns to 2 seconds per div. When you get the license it will enable longer timebase. Without the license its useless software.

He has a very strong following in the automotive module and he adds new stuff all the time. I used it to show someone a few months back that they had a bad cyl. and it took all of about 10 min. When you have a picture of the failure, its hard to dispute it.

If you look at the bottom you will see a window. that window is the whole capture and you can zoom and scroll the entire window. This waveform is off my truck, cam and battery voltage drop and it does have a failure in it, just not in that shot.

Thanks for the in depth description - I am VERY interested in the zoom feature especially when I am scoping current draw on vehicles which is sometimes 
a 2 or 3 hour recording while monitoring the voltage drop across a 'shunt wire' which equates to current draw.

In the automotive module using 1KSa/s will allow you to record(at least on my tablet) 5 hours and on my phone for some weird reason will record 11 hours at 250 samples a second. I think my clamps would wonder after that much time. At those rates it won't be the best looking but it should get the job done.

Do you mind me asking what you're trying to chase down?

When I'm tracking a current drain in something like an Audi [they don't like all the moisture in New Zealand ] I disconnect the battery
and put a long piece of wire in series with the terminal to create a slight voltage drop. This gives me a reference voltage to measure current at
and monitor current drain as it falls away, or returns. There's a sample on my blog  www.springbokphotography.com/autoelectri...nosing-battery-drain
Sometimes it's good to be able to leave a vehicle and go to another one for a while but still have a record of what the other vehicle is doing.

I have the software on my tablet now and just bought the 6022BE module.
I had a quick play with it at work but I think this weekend I will have to play around a bit with it
to get the hang of it.

It connected to your device ok? If it did then you're good to go on the software licenses. Most everything works on it as far as the stuff I've tested.

Don't get frustrated if it gives you problems, the settings to a bit to get used to. One thing I don't like about the Hantek(not Hscope) is, if it gets hit with enough signal it will reboot and set the probes back to x1 This is for sure in the hardware as it does it on openhantek as well.(linux software I believe that they have a working windows version but you have to do something with a driver and I'm linux user so I didn't go any further with it). I haven't tried it but I bet you could just download linux on a disk/memory drive and run it without any install then run open hantek. Nothing to install if you're a window person.

The factory software is terrible at best but it does work. OpenHantek is the best pc based software. Hscope is hands down the best software. There are people at sigrok that are working on stuff and the do have software but I couldn't get it to work. There is one more but I can't remember the name and it is windows based. Looks like a good start then never finished it.