Writing proper documentation is extremely expensive. Moreover, for a newcomer to the market it is much harder. Have a look at the outstanding documents you can download from the traditional instrument manufacturers. But remember that many of those documents have been refined for 40 years or longer!
That is actually the worst limitation for new Chinese manufacturers. It is hard to hire good technical writers. And it takes a lot of work to distill the knowledge of your engineers into a usable document. Moreover, their engineers are themselves relative newcomers to the field while the old brands employ old people who have seen a lot!
So many times in my life I have wondered "Have the design team actually used one of these (whatever, oscilloscope, etc) before designing one?" And it's not infrequent to think that when using a Siglent or Rigol product. Of course they have improved a lot if only by reading curses on the forum!
Regardless of the cost of the product, but the manufacturer should ensure perfect documentation; you often find manual entries that have disappeared on the device, or new entries on the device that are missing in the manual. The customer should be treated better
Regardless of the cost of the product, but the manufacturer should ensure perfect documentation; you often find manual entries that have disappeared on the device, or new entries on the device that are missing in the manual. The customer should be treated betterThey would be more expensive. Moreover, the current trend is stupid Youtube videos instead of proper manuals. Welcome to the 21th century
And, it's not like Tek was saving their pennies: they made plenty of instructional videos, as well as promotional videos about all sorts of manufacturing technology. Heck, for all I know they made model-specific instructional videos and they either haven't been uploaded to YouTube, or my Google-foo is sad and weak.
Manuals fully documenting scope usage or for that matter any modern instrument would be so large that alone would be a disincentive to prospective buyers as the instrument would appear to be too complex for many to use when in fact basic scope usage is very simple. Achieving stable triggering is everything and adjustment of amplitude and timebase are a doddle by comparison especially with more complex waveforms.
So rather than hold your hand as you venture into scope usage it's best IMHO to get hints by example then put them into practice yourself.
Videos, app notes and operating tips are where it's at rather than trying to remember all that might be in a manual.
Siglent has a good and continually growing range in Resources for each model they produce:
EU one for Charlotte:
https://www.siglenteu.com/digital-oscilloscopes/sds1000x-e-series-super-phosphor-oscilloscopes/#resources
US one for jdutky:
https://siglentna.com/digital-oscilloscopes/sds1000x-e-series-super-phosphor-oscilloscopes/#resources
Factory website:
https://int.siglent.com/products-video/sds1000x-e/
https://int.siglent.com/products-application/sds1000x-e/
in my opinion it would not affect the cost much, it is the unwillingness to do it instead; the guideline should be that the engineer adding a function tells the manual writer to make the small addition, I think it's a matter of a few minutes!
Maybe I like things done well, precise ... and I don't understand things done at random
Swiss and likes precision... So unusual ..
---
But there is A TRICK..
Most equipment still provide Reference manual for programing with SCPI commands...
And that one HAS all options in it, because it has to...
So I use that instead real reference manual, it's just a bit harder to read...
And, it's not like Tek was saving their pennies: they made plenty of instructional videos, as well as promotional videos about all sorts of manufacturing technology. Heck, for all I know they made model-specific instructional videos and they either haven't been uploaded to YouTube, or my Google-foo is sad and weak.
so even famous brands don't make manuals up to par? This is a problem!
The manual of my Siglent after all has 240 pages, the only context is that some functions are missing and others are poorly explained .. I do not put a negative rating, but not very good either
And, it's not like Tek was saving their pennies: they made plenty of instructional videos, as well as promotional videos about all sorts of manufacturing technology. Heck, for all I know they made model-specific instructional videos and they either haven't been uploaded to YouTube, or my Google-foo is sad and weak.
so even famous brands don't make manuals up to par? This is a problem!
The manual of my Siglent after all has 240 pages, the only context is that some functions are missing and others are poorly explained .. I do not put a negative rating, but not very good either
Oh, the Tek manuals are actually excellent, even by the standards of the day (the Tek 475 is from the 70s, when even consumer electronics companies regularly provided schematics in their manuals, if not full descriptions of the theory of operation), and this slim manuals is probably plenty for a skilled operator. My problem is that I am NOT a skilled operator and have very limited experience that should provide context for the explanations in the manual.
Modern standards, even for professional technical gear, is quite different, and my understanding is that SIglent actually has excellent documentation, both printed and on-line. They are a Chinese company, and it is a testimony to their dedication and effort that their English documentation is as good as it is; it is quite difficult for ANY company to hire good technical writers, much less hiring such writers to produce documents in something other than their native language.
Now that I've said that, I should give the 475 Oscilloscope Service Instruction Manual a good read to see if it has a more detailed discussion of the READY lamp. At the very least it will have a schematic from which I might deduce when the light should be lit.
On my Rigol, I get positive values when the trigger point is left of the screen centerline and negative values when the trigger point is right of the centerline.
This has nothing to do with Delayed Sweep which I just played with for the first time. For whatever reason, I had never used this feature. I knew it was there but I just hadn't come up with an application (yet).
I think the User Manual gives a broad outline of the capabilities but expects the user to twiddle the knobs for the more detailed learning. Given a reasonable input voltage, there isn't much you can do with the knobs that will actually cause damage.
READY Lamp-Indicates A Sweep is "armed" and upon receipt of an adequate trigger signal, will present a single-sweep display.
On my Rigol, I get positive values when the trigger point is left of the screen centerline and negative values when the trigger point is right of the centerline.
This has nothing to do with Delayed Sweep which I just played with for the first time. For whatever reason, I had never used this feature. I knew it was there but I just hadn't come up with an application (yet).
I think the User Manual gives a broad outline of the capabilities but expects the user to twiddle the knobs for the more detailed learning. Given a reasonable input voltage, there isn't much you can do with the knobs that will actually cause damage.
I begin to think that my Siglent, as regards the blue delay at the top, reverses its sign; I can move the knobs I want, but if I have the marker on the right it marks positive for me, when instead I think it should be negative; I have to look better ..
The horizontal marker is just to indicate the horizontal trigger position and especially in Zoom mode give a reference position for where you are in the unzoomed waveform.
WRT to the screenshot you posted earlier I believe the + was corrected in firmware after release as most of Performa01's SDS1104X-E review was done with a pre-release unit he was sent for beta testing.
Yes the power of a DSO to set the horizontal reference position is great and we each might move it from the 0s position to suit our needs be they pre-trigger or post-trigger. To fix it is useful too especially for those coming from CRO's where the trigger is always at the far left of the display.
Below, fixed so that adjustments of the timbase do not move the trigger off the display yet at any time we can still press the H-Pos control to return it to the 0s position or anywhere else and it will remain there regardless of timebase setting.
Of course you can have the H-Pos marker off the display and then the pointer tips sideways to indicate it is however without the + number you have no way to tell how far it is off the display. The number only is there to show how far the H-Pos is from the 0s position (middle of display) and serves no other purpose.
It is only an OSD like V/div and timebase settings.
That took less than 10 seconds on Google:QuoteREADY Lamp-Indicates A Sweep is "armed" and upon receipt of an adequate trigger signal, will present a single-sweep display.
It's also on Page 9 of the User Manual - Item 26
https://www.dennlec.com/images/manuals/tek-475-op-manual.pdf
It's the same indicator on my 485 so I had a bit of a head start. That is a great series of scopes!
Of course you can have the H-Pos marker off the display and then the pointer tips sideways to indicate it is however without the + number you have no way to tell how far it is off the display. The number only is there to show how far the H-Pos is from the 0s position (middle of display) and serves no other purpose.
It is only an OSD like V/div and timebase settings.
I'm thinking that the delay value might be quite useful if I am interested in some part of the signal that happens a relatively long time after the trigger. I want to know how long after the trigger the event occurs.
I'm thinking that the delay value might be quite useful if I am interested in some part of the signal that happens a relatively long time after the trigger. I want to know how long after the trigger the event occurs.Yes but on a DSO we can use cursors for that.
I've never seen the light illuminated on 475. Have you ever seen it lit on your 485? If so, how did you get to that condition?