Some notes from using the scope (SDS 1104X-E 6.1.37R9).
First of all, it’s always welcome when competent folks express their criticism and suggestions. This kind of feedback has helped Siglent to improve their products in the past and still does so today.
That having said, there have been tons of complaints and requests over the years, coming from folks with vastly different backgrounds. Not all of them really equitable or even realistic. In your case, your background appears to be an older midrange scope from LeCroy, which is a lucky incident as there is a strong relationship between LeCroy and Siglent. Nevertheless, Siglent have never tried to copy LeCroy, but of course they have a major influence. It is difficult for entry level products though, since LeCroy don’t make anything below upper midrange themselves…
To cut a long story short, we do have no shortage on complaints, wishes and suggestions. Many of them have become reality with time, but certainly not all of them. There are conflicting requests – one user dislikes exactly the one feature that another user has strongly requested – or also unrealistic requests, like expecting high-end features (not found anywhere else) in a cheap entry level device.
I have dealt with the SDS1000X-E series extensively a couple years ago, but then concentrated on the much more exciting touch-screen siblings SDS5000X, SDS2000X Plus, SDS6000A, SDS 2000X HD. So because of space restrictions, I have no SDS1000X-E at hand right now and will only comment on some basic considerations…
A) Measure with statistics on: counts and statistic values should be automatically reset when changing time base or channel gain, without the need to press Clear Sweeps every time. Otherwise the shown statistics would be meaningless and possibly misleading.
Conflicting request. There was a time, where it has been exactly the way as you describe. But that is not the correct behavior – the measurements do not change just because we alter the sensitivity or the timebase. A 1 MHz, 1 Vpp signal is still a 1 MHz, 1 Vpp signal, whether we look at it at 200 mV/div vertical gain and 500 ns/div timebase or 1 V/div and 1 ms/div. The majority of us hold the view that the user should be master and the scope is slave. So we, the users, decide when to clear the history or the statistics, whereas the scope should not clear anything whenever we touch a setting. When in doubt, it is easy to hit the [Clear Sweeps] button in order to reset the statistic. If on the other hand the history or statistics is destroyed by the scope because the firmware developer thought he knows better, then there is no button to bring it back.
C) Entering values with the GP knob often is quite complicated and error prone, and the knob press is not always reliable - but that is. Neverthless in many cases it would be helpful to assign the default value to a long press of the knob.
When I used these instruments, I always preferred multiple key presses over adjusting the universal control and instead of pushing the latter I always found some other (maybe even unused) menu knob to press and confirm a selection. We sometimes find something annoying, then we find a workaround, get used to it and all of a sudden it’s not that dramatic anymore.
I forgot this:
E) Current acquisition modes (Normal, Peak Detect, Average nnn, Eres b) are not shown. They should be visible in screenshots for documentation purposes.
How far do you want to take this? Current rendering (dots, lines) and reconstruction modes (x, sinc) aren’t shown either.
Where would you want to place this information? There is not a lot of spare space to place additional information.
Finally: have you looked at the screenshots of competing instruments? Could it be that the Siglent already shows more information than usual?
A side note.
I purchased the SDS1104X-E to compliment an old LeCroy (4ch, 1GHz, 8 GSa/s, 16 Mpts, excellent analog front-end and a good assortment of passive, active, current and differential probes). But the device is very heavy and takeoff-like noisy, so I'd like to have a modern unit with lesser features but more handy (and it is). I also have handheld Fluke (100MHz) and Agilent (200 MHz, which I don't like). Good for field work (rare for me) and great for their isolated channels, but again the SDS fits most of my needs better (and, TBH, should it blow up, I'd cry for less time, so a little less concerns when touching higher voltages).
Actually I had also considered the SDS2104X-HD, but for its kind of price I chose not to take the risk: I had a previous bad experience with another cheap CN scope (a "known" firm I won't disclose) having good features on paper but a PITA to use. Based on my brief positive experience with this Siglent scope, probably I would have opted for the SDS2k HD (ok, maybe I would have thought about it a little longer, given the almost 6x price).
Well, you got an excellent analog frontend again, even though it is now only 200 (235) MHz bandwidth. Of course, any bells and whistles like internal switchable 50 ohms signal path become available only with the 2000-series and auto Probe factor (only if probes support it!) starts with the SDS2000X Plus – all of which you cannot take for granted in competing 2000-series products.
In the light of this an SDS2000X Plus or HD would have been a whole different world. The touch-screen makes all the difference – but of course it’s bigger, heavier and much more expensive. But then again, the 1000X-E series is the only one that has a datalogger. Not really surprising, because everyone will dedicate their cheapest scope for long-term tasks like datalogging…