SDS800X HD issues and tips

[eTobey]

I just want to post my top list about the bugs/issues i found. I do this in this section, because certain individuals (mostly fanboys) will probably be offended or create a lot of "noise", if i post this in the other section.
I try to keep this, the links, and the linked posts updated. No i dont, i am done with this! See: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/exposed-how-a-hobbyist-turned-an-entire-community-into-free-beta-testers/

Cons:
Serial analysis pretty lame: (Rigol is better in this regard)
- Can only trigger on one byte
- Search feature cant search for bytes at all!
- Bytes in list in decode feature are hard to read. Only like 7 bytes can be read at once without scolling (It is designed as if only single bytes in communication would be used nowadays...)


Issues / bugs:

Weak in the knees:
If you plug in cables in the back, NEVER ever tilt the scope towards the front! The feet might fold in, and you will smash your BNC connectors!

Menu hides traces:(1.1.6.5)
I am not quite sure if this would only happen directly after the start of the scope, but I remember beeing confused by it more than once:
If rollmode is used with big timescale. It then looks as rollmode would not start/work. Yes, its really not a big issue, but many small issues will add up. 

Rollmode trigger reference out of bounds:(1.1.6.5)
The trigger reference is not aligning with the numbers of the horizontal scale.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/cursor-shows-wrong-value/msg6204597/#msg6204597

Scale with wrong numbers:(1.1.6.5)
I have no words for this: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg6200861/#msg6200861

Serial list mess:(1.1.6.5)
When scroling on the timebase, the first byte that is visible in the traceview is selected in the list. BUT the list is moved, so that it is the last item. Essentially you see the bytes in the list, that are not visible on the screen. 
Further more it gets even worse. See "Seriallist.png": The bytes in the list are far away from what was scrolled to and is now visible on the screen. 

Confusion:(1.1.6.5)
Having C4 selected: Switching to rollmode and back, suddenly now channel F4 vertical scale, and 0V indicator is selected, BUT on the bottom CH4 is selected. As having the same color, this is a major confusion! (see image "confusion.png")

Overwrite without confirmation:(1.1.6.5)
When saving channels as binary and with the option "all channels", files are overwritten without confirmation. This may happen in other ways too.

Setting issues:(1.1.6.5)
There are a few issues with settings. Some settings dont get saved into the setup file, and then setting get changed where you dont know:
Attenuation settings:
 https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg6150133/#msg6150133
Setup settings:
 https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg6150775/#msg6150775

Ghost traces: (They do trigger the mask test!)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800-x-hd-persistence-mask-test-issue/msg5762649/#msg5762649

Cursor measures screenborder (Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5766285/#msg5766285

Moving gate A, changes gate B unintentionally.(Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5523604/#msg5523604

Changing sample rate changes timebase:(Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
Decreasing sample rate (fixed setting) changes timebase, but does not set the timebase back to the initial value, after setting the sample rate to its initial setting.
(1us/div goes up to 500ms/div, but only back to 5ms/div, after the sample rate has been set back to its previous value)

Persistence traces dissappear when selecting only a channel to display its scale:(Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5760405/#msg5760405

Measurement measures wrong edge:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-featureimprovment-disscusions/msg5470300/#msg5470300

Measurement on less points than acquired (presumably), is not indicated.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5527156/#msg5527156

Trigger rate decreases significantly when sample rate is decreased.(Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
ALSO in sequence mode!
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/why-is-the-trigger-rate-of-my-scope-(sds814x-hd)-changing-in-an-unexpected-way/msg5659165/#msg5659165

Mask test save issue(Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
It has internal memory, and LAN, but mask test will only write to a USB disk 

Color of math channels changes(Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5744691/#msg5744691
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5770627/#msg5770627
Last too pictures:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/measuring-the-same-signal-in-different-ways-result-in-different-waveforms/msg5755633/#msg5755633
Color changes on multiple timebase settings. Its a complete mess.
Workaround:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5747345/#msg5747345

Math average lost (Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
Math average is lost when changing timeposition (Yes, even in stop mode)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5750033/#msg5750033

Mask mess
Creating a mask scales and moves trace vertically / Introduces errors in the scope that may require a reboot (scales messed up)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5651161/#msg5651161
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5674527/#msg5674527

Trigger level indicator wrong in zoom mode
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5469121/#msg5469121

Vertical grid not aligned (fixed)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5527363/#msg5527363
https://youtu.be/ITbbYUFg6CU

History time wrong (fixed)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5660701/#msg5660701

Missleading accuracy of measurements (measure mode)
Digits of ns are shown, when accuracy is only +- 1us for example (not necessarily the case). (In stop mode it should measure all samples without reducing?)

Decode wrong data on low scale
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5742393/#msg5742393

Selecting math channel sometimes doesnt work
Although the click noise can be heard, and the mouse pointer is moved onto the button.

Save button setting (Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
"Save to" setting for the "save button" is overwritten when saving some different values/waveforms/... with using the menu. ALSO: normal save menu setting (not for button) is overwritten by the save type of the button.

SCPI command clears scope
When retrieving data with :WAVeform:DATA?, the captured traces dissappears from the screen.

No fixed offset zooming on math channel aka non consitent settings
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5762331/#msg5762331

Decoding hidden
When there are only very view decode items, the list hides them, when the timebase was moved and there were more entries in the list before. ("two issues decode list.jpg")

Artefacst from SCPI usage
Trace artefacts appear, when SCPI is used. ("Artefacts when using SCPI.png")

Cursor measurment messed up after use with automated measurements
Curser value „nans“ after having used curser on measurement ("SDS824X_HD_PNG_218.png")

Scope crash on SCPI use
When using SCPI command on non activated features, the scope will crash.

Webinterface does not show disconnection from scope (does disconnect for unknown reason and without attempt to reconnect)
The webinterface just shows the last screenshot, and is thus missleading, as if a test is still working for example.

File letter case issue
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5818727/#msg5818727

Sorting issue (its a mess):
See last part of the following post, especially, if your native language is not german or english: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/how-common-is-this-sorting-order-in-scopes-and-linux/msg5819217/#msg5819217
- Screenshots have bad filename format, so "PNG_99" will always be the last one, even if there is a "PNG_500".
- "B" comes before"a" (notice the case) (See "Sorting issue 1.png")
- (if NTP sync fails, files have the wrong date, therefore you cant sort filenames for their date then)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5813477/#msg5813477

Search event navigation issue (slow and omitting events)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5820229/#msg5820229

Taking a screenshot clears the screen while using rollmode(Still exists in 1.1.6.5)

Position of decode list is lost (1.1.6.2)
A set up postion, for example packet 84 (wich is tedious without a mouse) is lost for unknown reason. Probably because there were no packets read, or more read than before.

Histogram hard to read (1.1.6.2)
Values from 4.9753 to 4.9943 in combination with an unknown scale makes it difficult to judge the numbers in between.

Rollmode not reliable (Still exists in 1.1.6.5)
Screen gets cleared randomly for unknown reason. In single mode the acquire stops at some time (screen content stays though).

General tips and workarounds:

Rollmode resetting randomly:
Change trigger to auto, and then change a channel. Changing some settings around the trigger/channel seems sometimes to work.
(There might be more conditions which have to be met, in order for this to work. If so, I believe it would be something about the trigger/channels)
Edit:
I have just moved the trigger level and moved it back to the same place, and now there is no more issue. 
Edit2:
I seemed to work another time, but it might just be that it would happen just much less often.
Edit3:
I just let it run, to see if the network would be an issue, and I observed, that the random clearings became less and less. As I  tried restarts and unplugging before, where this issue was not there, I believe, that it might be a hardware issue.

Tired of sorting issues because of poorly choosen filenames?
Add a file named "SDS824X_HD_PNG_100000.png" and there is no more file name sorting issue for the next few ten thousands (for screenshots / png)...
This may also work with every other file type.

Fine adjust for math channels:
It can NOT be set with the knob, but it CAN be set via the menu.

Saving lot of things? Beware of the save button!
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5776675/#msg5776675

Stop drops capture and measurement fails workaround:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/sds800x-hd-bug-reports-firmware/msg5783215/#msg5783215

Overlaying labels issue:
It can be somewhat overcome, by setting offsets, and then realign the trace vertically. In case you want to compare: all have to be the same scale, and the one without offset has to be activated in order to show the proper vertical scale (for all channels). One has to keep that always in mind, or otherwise one would be misslead.
(See picture attached "Labels with offset")

Mask test mess (its buggy, and the following tips may not work, or still have quirks):
- when manually creating a mask, and loading it, it may likely create errors, that will persist, and affect the trigger or level of traces. Its a good idea to restart the scope after using the mask test.
- Starting the mask test (only works in this particular order): Enable "operation", and then start run mode, or stop and start run mode.
- Moving the vertical or horizontal position will prevent any further detectiong of fail events (at least with a manual mask). Restart as above is needed.

A little hack for those that work more on the science/statistics side:
The viewmode of the measured values can be switched to show as with the more advanced models. Instead of only 5 blocks of data, you can change it to view 12 lines of data. You need to use SCPI and use the command ":MEASure:ADVanced:STYLe" with "M2" or "M1" to switch it on or off. (Is that a bug or a feature? It  is in any case a treat ;-))

Virtual feature scripts for SDS800X HD (and probably other scopes):
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/scpi-virtual-feature-fixed-measurement-gates-siglent-sds800x-hd-and-the-like/

Siglent SDS802X, SDS804X, SDS812X, SDS814X, SDS822X, SDS824X, Hack, 12-bit, Scope, oscilloscope, SDS 800 X HD

[exe]

checking forum attachments

[tyeth]

Hey, thanks for compiling this list.
Is there any chance these can be verified against different firmware versions, i.e. we can track which have been resolved and also which FW is needed for the fix (or at least "should be fixed in latest")?

Not an easy or instant thing, and maybe there is a better place for it, but this was where I stumbled upon first...