this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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you can get a basic oscilloscope for that. aliexpress sells $10-15 multimeters.
$10-15 is still less than £100.
True, but I'd wager a lot more people have uses for a multi meter than an oscilloscope. If you're interested in DIY electronics by all means get an oscilloscope (since you probably already have a multimeter in that case), but if you just need a basic tool for when you occasionally venture into the arcane world of electricity (checking a battery, checking if an outlet is live, checking if a fuse is good, checking if something's shorted, etc) then the $10-15 Aliexpress multimeter is enough. In fact an oscilloscope is less useful to most people because it only detects waveforms (and by extension voltage in general) but not resistance or current among other metrics (unless you get one of those cool combination multimeter osciliacopes).
A multimeter is still more practical for most use cases. Measuring resistant, continuity, amperage, and who knows what else are far more practical for an average persons day to day life. Especially around the house. Not to mention most people don't have a need to know the exact waveform for their purposes