Oscilliscopes

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

they are bragging to each other = posting pictures of their "collection" on eevblog!

NERDS!

[TheLaw]

Re: Oscilliscopes

I like GWInstek GDS-1054B. I find the user interface waaaay better than Rigol, and on-par with Siglent. We have a GDS-1054B at work. It's pleasant to use.

At home I have a GDS-2104E, which I really like. Zippy UI, no frills. Good value.

The budget Rigol scopes are just so dang sluggish. I know everyone seems to love them, but if you've used a scope with a good UI, you will find the Rigol frustrating.

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

i own the rigol,
try to remember that it's a 4 channel 100MHz scope for €360

you cant get a GW' with that spec for that type of price.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

LOOKIE LOOKIE!

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

nice.

one thing not in the manual,
if you hack the licenses then you can use a usb-dongle to connect via wifi.
i'm not sure plugging an rf emitter into a scope is a good idea - but you can do it.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

nice.

one thing not in the manual,
if you hack the licenses then you can use a usb-dongle to connect via wifi.
i'm not sure plugging an rf emitter into a scope is a good idea - but you can do it.

I've been a network engineer for over 20 years, I prefer WIRED network connections for good reason!

One could, if they wanted to, use a USB wifi with a decent USB extension cable to distance the transceiver from the unit ...

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

ah, but you will still have radiated energy returning on the cable!

[TheLaw]

Re: Oscilliscopes

i own the rigol,
try to remember that it's a 4 channel 100MHz scope for €360

you cant get a GW' with that spec for that type of price.

https://www.tequipment.net/Instek/GD...Oscilloscopes/

The 50MHz 4-channel verison is selling for <$350USD. I'm aware of how cheap the Rigol is, and while it was absolutely amazing 5-6 years ago when they got popular (and no one else could touch the price), these days, I think Siglent, GWInstek, and others give you a much more enjoyable, much less frustrating experience for comparable price.

I've used the low-cost models from Tek, GWInstek, Rigol, and Siglent in a professional setting, for many hours a day. For usability, tied between GWInstek and Siglent, second place to Tek (mostly just because it's a 10+ year old scope), and last place to Rigol.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

ah, but you will still have radiated energy returning on the cable!

No more than you would on an Ethernet cable. The USB cable provides power to the radio, then it also moves the data to and from the radio, but an Ethernet cable does the same thing only it's not talking to an RF device ... well ... not one that is intentionally leaking RF anyway.

[COSMOS2k]

Re: Oscilliscopes

Hello friends:

Siglent was the Chinese brand that I liked the most, but a failure in the firmware of their arbitrary generators has made me never buy this brand again, since I warned them about it and they never heeded my warnings, but they did about more banal things and without importance.

I usually repair and calibrate a lot of measurement equipment, from multimeters to spectrum analyzers, signal generators and many more related to RF and other measurement fields.

For years I have observed the Owon brand, and honestly they are the ones who never exaggerate in their ads, you buy what you see and do not feel cheated, with a better price than other brands. I prefer them even better than Rigol, who a few years ago manufactured and sold a large number of oscilloscopes with a faulty trigger and never made it public despite claims from only a few of its buyers.

I have quite a few bad experiences with Chinese equipment, if they are junk that you will never have a service manual or spare parts or parts, if there are any on the market, these Chinese brands will never serve you. On the other hand, these Chinese measuring devices do not comply with the regulations of your country, that is why they are sold in small quantities so as not to incur illegalities that can cost them expensive, if these Chinese devices are junk, and cannot be compared with HP / Agilent / Keysight, Tektronix, Lecroy, Rohde & Schwarz etc. Of these brand equipment can be found for quite good prices and fully operational, with a precision superior to Chinese scrap.

This is just my opinion as an electronics professional, which sometimes may not coincide with a member of this great forum, so there will always be different opinions, but any professional in the field will tell you the same as me.

Sorry for my English.

Greetings.

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

you will not find any service manuuals to tek, hp or lecroy either - not real ones with schematics anyway.
nor will they give you firmware or sell you chips etc.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

Hello friends:

Siglent was the Chinese brand that I liked the most

<snip>

For years I have observed the Owon brand, and honestly they are the ones who never exaggerate in their ads, you buy what you see and do not feel cheated, with a better price than other brands. I prefer them even better than Rigol

<snip>

I have quite a few bad experiences with Chinese equipment, if they are junk that you will never have a service manual or spare parts or parts.

But Owon IS a Chinese manufacturer...??

And the Siglent documentation has been excellent. Even the manual that came with it was laid out very professionally and printed on high-quality glossy card stock type paper in full color.

Sorry for my English.

Your English was perfect! Certainly on par with anyone who speaks English natively - as Internet posts go that is.

If I had any complaints about this unit so far, it would be the test leads. Some seem to be noisier than others...

For example, if you look at this graphic, you will have to zoom in and look at the horizontal line, but you can see how the different probes have more noise on them than others. These were taken from each different channel each probe on its own channel.



This image was all taken from channel 1, but I just swapped out the probes



And if it's too hard to see, I uploaded each original screen shot as well.

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

move the x1-x10 switches a few times incase they have any oxide or grease between the contacts

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

move the x1-x10 switches a few times incase they have any oxide or grease between the contacts

You know ... that actually did help... the yellow probe has certainly settled down a lot after doing that to where I can almost not see any noise in the horizontal lines ... there is still some there but it's very faint. I assume maybe over time it might go away completely?

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

how much is it of you zoom?
you will always get some level of noise because of the components in the signal path.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

move the x1-x10 switches a few times incase they have any oxide or grease between the contacts

OK, for some contrast, here is a video I took right after unpacking it and setting it up. This is from channel 4 - green probe.

And here is a video I took just now. Same tests signal, same channel, same probe.

I still see noise in the horizontal lines ... is it normal?

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

how much is it of you zoom?
you will always get some level of noise because of the components in the signal path.

Those videos were taken while connected to the front of the scope using the test signal and pressing the auto setup button, then I only zoomed horizontal two steps.

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

oh - if your using the testpoint - dont use the ground clip - you create a groundloop.
the probe is already grounded to the scope at the bnc

[stj]

Re: Oscilliscopes

looked at the vid, not sure the size of those spikes but they are super short - it could be noise from nearby equipment.

[EasyGoing1]

Re: Oscilliscopes

looked at the vid, not sure the size of those spikes but they are super short - it could be noise from nearby equipment.

OK, THATS interesting ... sitting right next to it is my port replicator for my Macbook pro and then of course the MacBook pro is right next to that... ill move the scope and check it out.