Siglent SDS2000X Plus

[tautech]

TBH you're better to buy locally as shipping might eat any savings you might get.
Haggle with local suppliers for a deal. 

[corey]

Thanks Tautech. I see you're in NZ, do you know local Aussie suppliers (who frequent this forum) or where I can get a deal in Australia? (Or can you ship here?)

[tautech]

Thanks Tautech. I see you're in NZ, do you know local Aussie suppliers (who frequent this forum) or where I can get a deal in Australia? (Or can you ship here?)

We each have our assigned territories. Find yours here:
https://int.siglent.com/map/

[corey]

I put in an order for a SDS2104X Plus yesterday from AppVision.  They are running an EOFY sale at the moment, 15% off using a code. 

[KungFuJosh]

I put in an order for a SDS2104X Plus yesterday from AppVision.  They are running an EOFY sale at the moment, 15% off using a code. 

It's a great scope, and @Fungus is right; you'll definitely appreciate the touchscreen on it.

[Muttley Snickers]

For those in Australia considering the purchase of a Siglent SDS2000X Plus or other test gear, Appvision are currently running a few special deals which they just posted on Ozbargain.  I have no affiliation with either entity.

[MathWizard]

How do these compare side by side with similarly spec'd Tekronix and Keysight/Ag ?

[KungFuJosh]

How do these compare side by side with similarly spec'd Tekronix and Keysight/Ag ?

If they're similarly spec'd, then I think your wallet would see the biggest difference. 😉

[BillyO]

How do these compare side by side with similarly spec'd Tekronix and Keysight/Ag ?

Similar specs?

Ohhh, about 1/5 the price.

[MathWizard]

But performance wise tho ? What's much different ? Maybe the input noise ? Or ??

[2N3055]

But performance wise tho ? What's much different ? Maybe the input noise ? Or ??

Compared to what?

[tautech]

But performance wise tho ? What's much different ? Maybe the input noise ? Or ??

Maybe it's time for some serious datasheet study of all the models that interest you.
https://int.siglent.com/u_file/download/22_09_19/SDS2000X%20Plus_Datasheet_EN01C.pdf

[Performa01]

But performance wise tho ? What's much different ? Maybe the input noise ? Or ??

You asked for the difference to Keysight and Tektronix. People told you that its the price, which would be five times higher for the same specs. "Same specs" means same performance, doesn't it? On the other hand, there is no such thing as "same specs".  Even a 4000 series Keysight (where the price is more like ten times as much) will still have no deep measurements and only a lousy 64 kpts FFT - so far from "same specs" - it is optimized for highest possible trigger rates instead...

So what's your question? Do you now want to know about the performance difference at the same price level? The simple answer to this is that the SDS2000X Plus is an upper entry level scope (even top entry level in case of the fully optioned version), while for the same money you can get a 1000 series bottom of the barrel entry level device from KS/Tek at best.

Even when you compare the much more expensive higher class scopes, you would have a hard time to find one with a hardware accelerated 2 Mpts FFT or a 3-channel Bode plotter up to 120 MHz with more than 100 (up to 140) dB dynamic range. Not to mention the >10 MPts deep measurements that make this scope a highly accurate signal analyzer. What about histograms? 7 digit trigger frequency counter? Or long memory - compare the 200 Mpts of the SDS2000X Plus to the 4 Mpts (even less in almost all practical scenarios) of even the Keysight 4000 series. And what about the very well working 10-bit mode in the SDS2000X Plus?
 
The SDS2000X Plus noise performance is similar to R&S RTB2000, apart from that it has the lowest noise of the comparable 2000 series instruments.

[MathWizard]

I'll have to look for a side by side review of some. Not that I'm ever planning to buy a modern Tek/HPAK, too expensive.

But yeah, I guess it's hard to compare them. IDK any modern TEK/HPAC scopes anyways

I own the SDM3065X, I would love too see that side by side with some other 6.5D meters.

[2N3055]

But yeah, I guess it's hard to compare them. IDK any modern TEK/HPAC scopes anyways

I still don't understand what you mean..

Modern Tek /Keysight  in 1000/2000 class are not very modern or are severely limited in capabilities compared to competition in segment.

Is 25000 USD Tek series 6 scope better than best in 2000 class 1200 USD scope from Siglent... ??
Well, it better be...

Fact is that people tried to explain: you need to say what do you want to compare it to, in terms of capabilities of instrument...

To put it bluntly, if you disregard "only 500 MHZ BW", you must buy at least 3 series from Tek or DSOX4000 series from Keysight to get even close to capabilities, and even then SDS2000X+ will be better in many regards: channel sensitivity (hardware 500uV div), advanced measurements on full buffer with statistics and histicons, deep memory etc.
SDS2000X+ will not have some protocol decodes, and some other stuff (that are paid for option with Tek and Keysight, just saying).. We are talking 10X money here....

Anything in 1(000) and 2(000) series scopes from big brands is seriously outmatched. Only big brand 2000 series device that is comparable is RTB2000 from R&S at 3x the price.
But RTB2000 is good device.
Tek and Keysight OTOH are actually seriously outmatched in this segment even comparing to very entry level SDS1104X-E or even Rigol DS1104Z.

[Martin72]

Is 25000 USD Tek series 6 scope better than best in 2000 class 1200 USD scope from Siglent... ??
Well, it better be...

 

Word.

[Johnny B Good]

I'll have to look for a side by side review of some. Not that I'm ever planning to buy a modern Tek/HPAK, too expensive.

But yeah, I guess it's hard to compare them. IDK any modern TEK/HPAC scopes anyways

I own the SDM3065X, I would love too see that side by side with some other 6.5D meters.

 I too would be interested in such comparisons, most notably in regard of their tempco performance which was the stand out feature that led me to "push the boat out" regarding the higher price compared to its humbler cousin, the SDM3055X. A low tempco voltmeter had become a major requirement in my experiments with converting an Efratom LPR101 into a high stability frequency reference only bested by a well calibrated cesium frequency standard.

 After comparing the specs of the 3065 against its lesser cousins, I concluded that "I may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb" and get an extra digit of resolution into the bargain. In all honesty, it's a decision I have no regrets over. Indeed the undoubtedly very low tempco and the extra digit gave me a surprisingly useful insight into the rubidium oscillator's thermal behavior whilst monitoring its "Lamp Voltage" during my protracted testing of various fan controlled cooling algorithms I was testing out on an Arduino nano mcu module.

 What I was seeing was a slight but definite negative tempco variation (that would otherwise have been barely detectable on a 5 1/2 digit voltmeter) related to the thermal time constant of around 33 seconds that I'd seen with my early crude temperature control efforts just over two and a half years ago when I first embarked on this ambitious project using a simple comparitor with a thermistor and fixed resistor potentiometer to detect when it had gone under or over a set threshold to simply switch a cooling fan on or off leading to over and undershoots of +/- 1 degree or so at a cycle rate of around 33 seconds.

 In short, that extra investment in the SDM3065X option has well and truly proved its worth in my case since I'm now seeing baseplate temperature fluctuations around the 36.10 degree balance point of +/- 20mK or so in the ambient range of 16.5 to 29.5 degrees helped in large part thanks to the 3065X in revealing the subtle variations of 'Lamp Voltage' with changes in temperature gradient within the LPRO itself.

[MathWizard]

I own 3 working scopes, but I never really compared any of them, and only my siglent is modern, so I don't even bother with the other anymore, mainly because the are so much bigger, on the desk.

[zapvss]

I use my Synology NAS to store stuff for the Scope.  The only problem I ran into was that the Scope did not understand the UNC name.
eg: //Synology-01/TestEquip
             ^                ^----------- Share Name
             ^--------- UNC (Universal Naming Convention)

I had to set it up as //192.168.1.50/TestEquip
                                        ^------ Synology IP address.

Of course this works best if your server is setup to have a static IP address.

TestEquip is a share I setup on the Synology.

Siglent did a very good thing by implementing the "Net Storage" option.

[tautech]

In reply to a few that have asked for WiFi capability for these scopes....

In another thread member Peter_O pointed us to a TP-Link device used in Client mode with his SDS2000X Plus where it accesses any local WiFi access point and provides an isolated (secure) LAN and WiFi connection.
https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr902ac/
Scroll down to #4 Client mode.

Although it can be USB powered specs say 2A so what a scope USB port will think of that I'm unsure. 
Nevertheless one is on my shopping list to evaluate.....

Posted in another thread, my results:

Regarding the problem of SDS2000X Plus connecting to WIFI, I have a cheap and simple solution: buy a TL-WR802N mini router, the price is 12 US dollars, use the client mode, and connect the oscilloscope with a network cable. At this time, the router is equivalent to a wireless network card.

Fantastic little device. 
Just got mine working and it's totally invisible to your devices when in Client mode.

However when looking locally for one they were nothing like 12USD and I succumbed to one from Aliexpress. 
Well I paid for that in that the configuration UI was in Chinese with no apparent way around it but with a lot of Copy/Paste into Google Translate I finally got the thing to work. 

Advice to westerners, get a English UI model so to not be confronted with this:


There is a good amount of configuration required and done in Access Point mode before change to Client mode and all of which would be so much easier if you can read Mandarin. 

Nevertheless I got it to work in the end so carrying equipment that normally requires a wired LAN connection to your network for remote access is no longer required. 

Tests with SDS1104X-E (yes I do have the USB WiFi dongle too) with NTP time server and a SVA1000X analyzer/VNA, both connected to an iPad just fine and each of them communicated with our WiFi router DHCP for IP addresses fine also demonstrating TL-WR802N is invisible to devices that connect to you LAN via it.

[bdunham7]

Tek and Keysight OTOH are actually seriously outmatched in this segment even comparing to very entry level SDS1104X-E...

In the most obvious bang-for-buck ways, yes.  But do their 100Hz square waves have 'droop'?   

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/dmmcheck-plus-multimeter-calibration-reference-experiences/msg4955995/#msg4955995

Things like that matter to some people--they don't need an advanced feature set but they don't want oopsies and suprises.  I can deal with it if I know about it, but IMO it still keeps Siglent (at least that model) out of 'A-brand' territory. 

[tautech]

A sanity check with TL-WR802N connected to the SDS1000X HD LAN port and the WiFi module in Client mode powered from the DSO's USB port......saves on needing another power connection for the adapter. 

DSO inside on WiFi and me in shed on a wired LAN workstation......works a treat controlling the DSO remotely with a mouse and no wired LAN connection to the scope.
Browser screenshot grabbed as evidence......

[MathWizard]

I got my new sds2104x-plus, looks great so far. I have to registrar to get the 200MHz upgrade.

I installed the NI-VISA drivers and EasyWaveX, and imported 1 static image of only 1 channel. How to I see the realtime view on my PC ?

I'm connected over USB, in utilities, I don't see any mention of USB, like in the manual, but it's doing something over it. In the LAN settings, I see an IP address, but IDK if that can work over USB. I tried it in firefox and it just times out. Can it be done over USB ? I'm new to EasyWaveX, and I used to use the webbrowser option with my sds1204x-e, that was a quick/easy way have realtime view, and take snapshots.

[Martin72]

and I used to use the webbrowser option with my sds1204x-e, that was a quick/easy way have realtime view, and take snapshots.

I use it too, nothing else..

[MathWizard]

My scope is next to my PC, but the only ethernet port is used for my incoming internet from the modem. And I don't have another cable long enough to go from scope to modem.