Siglent Technical Support join in EEVblog

[BMac]

I purchased a SDG1020 over a year ago, it failed within the first hour of operation, I have gone back and forth with Siglent service many times all they do is stall and give me the "run around". In this unit Power supplies are good, FPGA is good, failure is in the output amplifier stages on the MAIN board. I have requested an RMA to return the unit for repair or return the main board,  and if that wasnt possible I requested a copy of the schematics, (which the salesman said were in the manual, turns out he was refering to the component layout, unbelievable he doesnt know the difference between Schematics and Component layout). Reguardless when it came to time for him to step up and do something he stopped communicating. I hope this isn't indicative of your whole organization. Please restore my confidence in Siglent and help in the repair or replacement of my SDG 1020 and honor your claimed 3 year warranty.
Hope to hear from you soon.
P.S. I will be coping my correspondence on EEVblog forum for all to see the response of Siglent.

BMac  E.E.

[vehf277]

Siglent answers here very selectively:) Maybe you will be more lucky than me:)

[mainman]

I purchased a SDG1020 over a year ago, it failed within the first hour of operation, I have gone back and forth with Siglent service many times all they do is stall and give me the "run around". In this unit Power supplies are good, FPGA is good, failure is in the output amplifier stages on the MAIN board. I have requested an RMA to return the unit for repair or return the main board,  and if that wasnt possible I requested a copy of the schematics, (which the salesman said were in the manual, turns out he was refering to the component layout, unbelievable he doesnt know the difference between Schematics and Component layout). Reguardless when it came to time for him to step up and do something he stopped communicating. I hope this isn't indicative of your whole organization. Please restore my confidence in Siglent and help in the repair or replacement of my SDG 1020 and honor your claimed 3 year warranty.
Hope to hear from you soon.
P.S. I will be coping my correspondence on EEVblog forum for all to see the response of Siglent.

BMac  E.E.

3 year warranty LOL, my brand new Siglent Dso was only out the  box for 3 seconds when it failed and Siglent wouldn't fix or replace it with a model of equal value.

Go back to page 11 and read my recent  BAD experience I had with my brand new out the box shs810 DSO with video of my faulty shs810 and another customer faulty shs806.  In the end both of us had to fix our own DSO without help from Siglent, in my case after trying to get siglent to fix or replace it themselves they actually tried to offer me a product of LESSER specifications as a exchange ( I still have the email to back this up ) so I would go away. Horrible company will never buy from again.

Siglent answers here very selectively:) Maybe you will be more lucky than me:)

He is waiting for the thread to expand way pass the page containing the bad review I gave Siglent on their claim to customer service and standing behind their products both of which are a lie based on my experience with Siglent. They sold me a  lemon and refused to solve the problem.

[BMac]

Thanks for the reply, although it didnt make me feel very good about the prospect of getting Siglent to honor their warranty. Maybe we can get Dave to take the Siglent addvertisment off his site.

BMac

[tzok]

I've not tried to use Siglent's warranty (but anyways I have a distributor's warranty), but I have rather a positive experience with Siglent's technical support. They respond quickly and are very patient. Currently they have holidays, so they are not responding till the 7th Feb.

[echen1024]

I've not tried to use Siglent's warranty (but anyways I have a distributor's warranty), but I have rather a positive experience with Siglent's technical support. They respond quickly and are very patient. Currently they have holidays, so they are not responding till the 7th Feb.

I have used their Technical Support before, and you need to call the China branch. It's much better. And yes, it is Chinese new Year and everyone is on break.

[tzok]

I've been contacting with Mr Kevin Fu, but I have no idea at what branch does he work.

[Macbeth]

I've not tried to use Siglent's warranty (but anyways I have a distributor's warranty), but I have rather a positive experience with Siglent's technical support. They respond quickly and are very patient. Currently they have holidays, so they are not responding till the 7th Feb.

I have used their Technical Support before, and you need to call the China branch. It's much better. And yes, it is Chinese new Year and everyone is on break.

Fucking hell, those Chinese don't half get a break and a half for new year. I just get 1st January off, one day, for work. I suspect my Rigol order from TEquipment won't even be considered until well after this week

[echen1024]

In China, there are very little other breaks, and Chinese new Year is the major one. Most companies don't even give fucking Christmas off.

[mimmus78]

Hi support,

two days ago my SPD3303S had a crash.

Power supply buttons where still "working" but display was messed up.

It happened "only" one time in almost 2 year of service, is it a known problem?

Any firmware update (Hardware Version 1.0 - Software Version 1.01.01.01.03R1)?



Thanks,

Domenico

[sdwarfs]

Hello Siglent Support,

it happens often, that your devices of the SDS1000 series "hang forever" at boot time. As far as I know they do not react to the "Default Setup" button, which would fix it.

This firmware bug is critical.
The user can't continue to work with the device. Only some trick works, which needs a computer connected via USB sending "*RST", "*SAV" as commands. So people who don't use a computer in their working lab have to interrupt their work for more than 5 minutes. People who are not so experienced computer users are even scared by this procedure...

Proposed solution
HOWEVER, I'm realistic. I do not expect you will quickly find all bugs in the firmware and fix them.
Instead, I ask you to implement a kind of "FACTORY RESET" function -IN THE BOOTLOADER- (not within the menu, you cannot use it when the device is frozen). And of course release it as newer firmware revision...

This function shall work like this:
1. The user presses -and holds- the "Default setup".
2. Then the user switches on the device.
3. The device resets all settings to FACTORY DEFAULT and reboots as usual.
4. Optional: When bootup is finished a message "FACTORY RESET SUCCESSFUL." is shown.


I expect that this change in your firmware only needs 1 short line of code in the software. Something like:
>> if (button_pressed(BUTTON_DEFAULT_SETUP)) handle_default_settings();

This just needs to be put -DIRECTLY BEFORE- the code line that loads the saved settings at BOOT UP...
>> load_settings(); // initially load settings


So it looks like this:
>> if (button_pressed(BUTTON_DEFAULT_SETUP)) handle_default_settings();
>> load_settings(); // initially load settings

Note to the developer: In this state the device is ready to -read- the settings memory. So it should be initialized enough to reset those memory region (I assume its a EEPROM). Optionally set a temporary variable "show_reset_message = true;" and after the GUI has been loaded show the message "FACTORY RESET FINISHED!" (or similar).

THAT'S ALL...


This is a very small change. But, it improves the user experience a lot! The brand Siglent would significantly improve by such a small change in the software.
You should implement this function in all your devices (especially in future) and write a short note a short note in the manual in the "TROUBLESHOOTING" section like this "Problem: The device hangs at boot" "Solution: Turn device off. Press and hold the 'DEFAULT SETTINGS' button and switch the device "ON". Hold button until message "FACTORY RESET SUCCESSFUL" appears on the screen."

Even your firmware works perfectly, another user in the lab might set the language to Chinese and the next user of the device isn't able to read it -> can't use the menu function. But, he knows how to do the reset and can just reset the device... now everything is English, which he should be able to understand a bit and might maybe change the language to "German" afterwards.


So... dear support: Please, send a copy of this to the product manager (or directly to the firmware developers, if possible).

Sincerely yours,
Stefan

[kebogen]

Hi support,

two days ago my SPD3303S had a crash.

Power supply buttons where still "working" but display was messed up.

It happened "only" one time in almost 2 year of service, is it a known problem?

Any firmware update (Hardware Version 1.0 - Software Version 1.01.01.01.03R1)?



Thanks,

Domenico

I think this should be the flat cable problem, the flat cable between mainboard to display screen.
This may cause by shock when you moved it.

[mimmus78]

I suspect it was some noise not the flat cable.

I happened exactly when I turn on some light, but I was not able to reproduce the problem, so I don't know.

[mainman]

So Siglent Technical support I noticed you haven't posted for a while, stopping right after I called you out on your lies of caring about good customer service and posted vids of the brand new out the box faulty DSO I bought from your company and its refusal to honor the damn warranty. If I had bought a $20 multimeter it would be a expected risk it would not work, but when I spend $600 on a DSO for that money I expect a fully working product but didn't get it and Siglent refused to remedy the problem.

Additionally there has been others here who have asked you to honor your warranty with the equipment they bought from you.

How the heck is Dave still advertising for this company when they blatantly are not honoring warranties for defective products.

Just recently talked a friend out of buying the DSO I bought and convinced him to get a Rigol.

[mainman]

Just recently talked a friend out of buying the DSO I bought and convinced him to get a Rigol.

Wise move, wise move indeed!

As for advertisements, with the human population, money tends to override any other passing thoughts about whats right or wrong

To bad I did not have anyone to go to in person for advice when I was DSO shopping, but you live and learn and I learned not to buy Siglent.

Well I don't know Dave personally but I hope money is not the reason he would continue to back a shabby liar company like Siglent.

[echen1024]

Just recently talked a friend out of buying the DSO I bought and convinced him to get a Rigol.

Wise move, wise move indeed!

As for advertisements, with the human population, money tends to override any other passing thoughts about whats right or wrong

To bad I did not have anyone to go to in person for advice when I was DSO shopping, but you live and learn and I learned not to buy Siglent.

Well I don't know Dave personally but I hope money is not the reason he would continue to back a shabby liar company like Siglent.

Dave is not paid to review anything. You think any company would willingly send a function generator to a person who would rail on the build quality of their products?

[Rigby]

Dave is not paid to review anything. You think any company would willingly send a function generator to a person who would rail on the build quality of their products?

Yes he is.  He is given free gear in exchange for reviews, and he tells them that he will be honest, even if it is unfavorable.  They send him gear anyway.  The only Rigol kit he purchased with his own money was the DP832.  The Agilent scope is a gift from Agilent.  The Tagarno USB microscope is a gift from Tagarno, etc.  There are lots of multimeters he's gotten and there are scopes that he has but just doesn't use, all (or most) were gifts.

I gathered this information by watching Dave's videos and listening to The Amp Hour podcast.

[Rigby]

How the heck is Dave still advertising for this company when they blatantly are not honoring warranties for defective products.

Probably because they're paying him for ad placement.  That's usually how it works.  He displays ads on eevblog.com in exchange for money. 

Typically, display of ads alone says nothing about the page owner's opinion of the advertiser, and you should infer no endorsement by the page owner (Dave) unless it is explicitly stated somewhere.  The display of Siglent ads is a 100% business transaction, opinion doesn't really count into it.

[echen1024]

Dave is not paid to review anything. You think any company would willingly send a function generator to a person who would rail on the build quality of their products?

Yes he is.  He is given free gear in exchange for reviews, and he tells them that he will be honest, even if it is unfavorable.  They send him gear anyway.  The only Rigol kit he purchased with his own money was the DP832.  The Agilent scope is a gift from Agilent.  The Tagarno USB microscope is a gift from Tagarno, etc.  There are lots of multimeters he's gotten and there are scopes that he has but just doesn't use, all (or most) were gifts.

I gathered this information by watching Dave's videos and listening to The Amp Hour podcast.

That's true. While his gear are gifts form the respective companies, he is still willing to rail on about the negative points, such as claiming the Agilent 4k series is not worth the money.

[Rigby]

While his gear are gifts form the respective companies, he is still willing to rail on about the negative points, such as claiming the Agilent 4k series is not worth the money.

Yep, that's payment.  Dave has a pretty sweet gig going.

[Siglent]

Hello everyone,
            I'm sorry for replying late, we have set up a special branch to solve all the technical problems.
    If you have any problem, suggestion or find some bugs, please email to support@siglent.com.
    We will reply you in 24 hours. Thanks very much.
Tips:
     Support email address: support@siglent.com
     Sales email address:    sales@siglent.com
     Please sent the technical or product problems to support email and sales or price information problems to sales email,
     or it will take you more time to get a reply.

[echen1024]

While his gear are gifts form the respective companies, he is still willing to rail on about the negative points, such as claiming the Agilent 4k series is not worth the money.

Yep, that's payment.  Dave has a pretty sweet gig going.

I would trade so much to be in Dave's place though.

[fluxcapacitor]

Dave also gives items away in contests , used,new and reviewed gear .

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/contests/eevblog-oct-2013-contest-giveaway/

[COSMOS2K]

Hello:
I recently purchased a Siglent SDG1020 works properly.
I have considered installing a high stability oscillator, but I have not found information about it, would appreciate information about this change.

Greetings.

[rf-loop]

Hello:
I recently purchased a Siglent SDG1020 works properly.
I have considered installing a high stability oscillator, but I have not found information about it, would appreciate information about this change.

Greetings.

I'm not common Siglent technical support. Also my answer may be obsolete because it have been long time after I ask this question from factory.

You have three choices.

1. Use external house reference (connected to 10MHz ref input).

2. Install High stability oscillator (example TCXO or OCXO)  to main board. There is place for it. I do not have detailed information for this. But long time ago I ask it from Siglent and answer was that it also need special FW (what can get from Siglent).


This 3. is my own thinking and not even discussed with Siglent engineers.

3. Modify main board. Take factory installed oscillator out (or cut only trace and leave it on its place) and install example OCXO in. Inject its output to same 10MHz line where was original oscillator output. (voltage etc specs you find using simple measurement on the running unit. 

All self made modifications delete warranty.

If I'm not distributor but I have my own Siglent for my own hobby or professional use. I will think this position 3. If I can not use external 10MHz reference due to what ever reasons. (example if it is used on the work travel or places where is not available 10MHz house standard line.)
Because, this mod also do not need special software and later possible FW upgrades are not problem in this case.

My opinion is that this mod (3.) is quite easy to do but I can not give details for this. (I have not anymore one "service and inspect" unit in my lab what I can use for experimentation.

Inside unit need be careful, and also use normal lab practice about ESD protection.

If installl OCXO it need also care how much it draw current when it start from cold until it stabilize and then, many times they need minutes to half hour to stabilize even first level but reach final stability much much later (retract and ageing curve).

Today good quality TCXO's may  be very good and may be even better than normal middle and even high grade OCXO until go to "State of art" level then OCXO show who is leader but TCXO's are going better and better so, who knows...

If look example Siglent SDG5000 it have far better internal reference inside. (here in forum you can find also tiny test about it)

It depends what are accuracy needs.