Atten 1102CAL 100Mhz 1GSa/s Oscilloscope

[SolderSplashLabs]

Hi All,

I've been watching Dave's videos for a while now and thought I would get involved here as well.

I just brought an Atten 1102CAL Oscillioscope off ebay. Very cheap, Spec looked good so I gave it a punt. It arrived very well packed and with out UK import duty!

I've had it about a week now, I was pretty happy to start with. The screen is great, viewing angle is good all round and it's 7 inches big!

PC Software, Easyscope is a bit crap but that doesn't really bother me.

The downside,

On both channels with no probes attached if you move the vertical position of the trace it moves away from zero (below) instead of staying at zero. This causes the measurement functions to report incorrect voltages. Now there should be no difference between a static measurement in the middle of the screen and one moved to the bottom of the screen, so this looks like a software bug to me.

I've repeated this with a probe clipped to it's own ground and the Scopes gnd test point, the result is the same.

At 2v's/dev the Vrms reads 0 whilst the trace is in the centre of the screen. Move the trace to near the bottom of the screen (at -6v) and now the Vrms read 400mV.

10v - 800mV RMS
5v - 600mV RMS
2v - 400mV RMS
1v - 40mV RMS
500mA - 20mV RMS

Again zero the channel and at all voltages the vRMS is 0.00v

Tried to contact Atten for a firmware update but had no response. Contacted the ebay distributor and they suggest sending it back to China, I'm not sure i want to do that so I might have to live with this issue. They also said Atten won't distribute firmware updates!

Unless someone out there has some Atten firmware.

My firmware version is 3.01.01.31
Hardware Version 6-4-2.1

[saturation]

Atten also makes Siglent.  Did you see this?

http://cseb.hu/siglent/

[SolderSplashLabs]

Atten also makes Siglent.  Did you see this?

http://cseb.hu/siglent/

Thanks I'll have a read

[alm]

Did you try signal path compensation (or auto calibration or whatever Atten calls it) after giving it some time to warm up?

[SolderSplashLabs]

Did you try signal path compensation (or auto calibration or whatever Atten calls it) after giving it some time to warm up?

I did yes, had it on all day before I noticed the issue, ran the auto calibration and it's the same afterwards.

[Taburn]

I was wondering if this was resolved? I was thinking of buying one of these scopes from eBay.
(Here's the add if you're interested: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ATTEN-ADS1102CAL-100M-Hz-1G-Digital-Oscilloscope-7-LCD-/320874183698?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item4ab5977c12 )

[saturation]

If you're in Canada, getting a Rigol 1052e, even with the smaller screen, is less risky and a better measuring instrument despite its flaws. 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Rigol-Oscilloscope-50MHz-DS1052E-1G-SG-1M-USA-warranty-/290423301829?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item439e93e6c5

I was wondering if this was resolved? I was thinking of buying one of these scopes from eBay.
(Here's the add if you're interested: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ATTEN-ADS1102CAL-100M-Hz-1G-Digital-Oscilloscope-7-LCD-/320874183698?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item4ab5977c12 )

[Taburn]

Thanks for the reply Saturation.

The only thing that makes me hesitate to take your advice is that the Rigol is a 50 MHz scope. Is there much difference between 50 MHz and 100 MHz? (I'm sorry, I'm rather new at this  )

[WBB]

The 100mhz rigol is only a few dollars more than the 50mhz model. And I would agree Rigol seems a much safer buy than Atten.

[T4P]

The 100mhz rigol is only a few dollars more than the 50mhz model. And I would agree Rigol seems a much safer buy than Atten.

There's quite a significant difference on proper retailers .
They charge starting from 514$ , and anything below that really isn't the right one to buy .

[saturation]

wbb is right, I forgot.  e.g.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-RIGOL-DS1102E-100MHz-Oscilloscope-Free-Bag-/251022791781?pt=BI_Oscilloscopes&hash=item3a721fd465

Saelig is an authorized Rigol dealer, 1102e for the same price as the 1052e quoted earlier.

The 100mhz rigol is only a few dollars more than the 50mhz model. And I would agree Rigol seems a much safer buy than Atten.

Thanks for the reply Saturation.

The only thing that makes me hesitate to take your advice is that the Rigol is a 50 MHz scope. Is there much difference between 50 MHz and 100 MHz? (I'm sorry, I'm rather new at this  )