Products > Test Equipment
Buyer Beware: Siglent Electronic Load
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nctnico:

--- Quote from: 2N3055 on June 25, 2021, 12:52:02 pm ---My advice to OP: Everybody make mistakes.. God knows I reacted too soon many times in my life..  But please be so kind and fix (edit topic title to something like: False alarm and warning: Siglent Loads are sensitive to USB stick properties..). That would convert a mistake to a useful topic that will warn other users that if they have problem, the USB stick might be the culprit...

--- End quote ---
But still the DC load could have failed in a more descriptive / well defined manner; for example by checking the USB stick layout and testing the checksum of the firmware image to see if the image is actually complete. A message saying 'USB stick incompatible' or 'firmware image corrupt' is way more descriptive than the device getting into a non-working state.
Gridstop:

--- Quote from: 2N3055 on June 25, 2021, 12:52:02 pm ---This way it came out as: don't buy Siglent loads because I'm a Muppet...  :-DD

My advice to OP: Everybody make mistakes.. God knows I reacted too soon many times in my life..  But please be so kind and fix (edit topic title to something like: False alarm and warning: Siglent Loads are sensitive to USB stick properties..). That would convert a mistake to a useful topic that will warn other users that if they have problem, the USB stick might be the culprit...

--- End quote ---

This is an incredibly insulting response to someone who has brought to light an inexcusable firmware bug in a shipping product. Nobody has pointed out where in the documentation siglent says you must use a specific size/format USB stick to perform the upgrade or the unit will be bricked, not just fail the update. I know because I went and looked and neither the firmware update instructions nor the user manual says anything beyond "The  SDL1  can  be  upgraded  with  new  firmware  using  an  external  FAT32 formatted USB memory device." That's it, nothing about size, nothing about sector size, nothing about the unit being bricked, nothing about the unit completely failing to validate the firmware before starting the install. This is absolutely not a 'False Alarm'.

Keep in mind people will have to use this flawed update process to upgrade to any future fixed version of the firmware, so anybody unfortunate enough to have not seen warnings like this thread is likely to have the same problem since larger and larger usb sticks are becoming the default. I think I just bought a 5 pack of 16GB ones for $10 from amazon. I only have a single <2GB kicking around the house. Anybody who hasn't hit this exact same problem before or seen this warning will be seriously likely to brick their siglent load in the same way. But I guess they all must be muppets so who cares.
mawyatt:

--- Quote from: rf-loop on June 25, 2021, 04:14:25 am ---
With over 10 years experience with Siglent instruments I have made my own decision for my own use. I use only Kingston (2G, 4G) and 8G formatted to native FAT32 with 4k cluster sizes. And I keep these some sticks only for use with Siglent. These 2 and 4G have also led if there is some reason for watch activity)

--- End quote ---

Caution!!! Our luck with Kingston SD cards has been just the opposite, these are the only SD card brand that have failed (had 2) so we've removed all Kingston brand SD cards and destroyed them. I opened one before it was crushed, and found a unbranded micro SD card wire bonded to an SD case :o

These may have been counterfeit, don't know, but we don't buy memory products from unauthorized dealers off eBay, most are from B&H or local Best Buy which is likely where these Kingston cards came from.

Now, since the Kingston issue long ago all our memory products are from Sandisk, Transcend and the old Lexar (when they were owned by Micron which actually made the memory chips) and never had an issue with any of these memory sources. Our use was hard on the cards since many thousands of images were collected with our chip imaging work, this was repeated often so the cards got many read/write cycles with many images, tough use indeed!!

Don't want to bash Kingston, since these could have been fake and happened long ago, but we won't be using any Kingston memory product USB sticks or SD cards, others can decide for themselves.


Best,
nctnico:
I have used hundreds of Kingston SD cards in products. Not a single problem. But these where sourced from a professional (business to business) vendor with traceable sourcing; not from the equivalent of the local supermarket that goes for rock bottom prices. However Sandisk and Transcend are also reliable brands.

All in all I'm quite sure you have bought counterfeits.
2N3055:

--- Quote from: Gridstop on June 25, 2021, 02:03:13 pm ---
--- Quote from: 2N3055 on June 25, 2021, 12:52:02 pm ---This way it came out as: don't buy Siglent loads because I'm a Muppet...  :-DD

My advice to OP: Everybody make mistakes.. God knows I reacted too soon many times in my life..  But please be so kind and fix (edit topic title to something like: False alarm and warning: Siglent Loads are sensitive to USB stick properties..). That would convert a mistake to a useful topic that will warn other users that if they have problem, the USB stick might be the culprit...

--- End quote ---

This is an incredibly insulting response to someone who has brought to light an inexcusable firmware bug in a shipping product. Nobody has pointed out where in the documentation siglent says you must use a specific size/format USB stick to perform the upgrade or the unit will be bricked, not just fail the update. I know because I went and looked and neither the firmware update instructions nor the user manual says anything beyond "The  SDL1  can  be  upgraded  with  new  firmware  using  an  external  FAT32 formatted USB memory device." That's it, nothing about size, nothing about sector size, nothing about the unit being bricked, nothing about the unit completely failing to validate the firmware before starting the install. This is absolutely not a 'False Alarm'.

Keep in mind people will have to use this flawed update process to upgrade to any future fixed version of the firmware, so anybody unfortunate enough to have not seen warnings like this thread is likely to have the same problem since larger and larger usb sticks are becoming the default. I think I just bought a 5 pack of 16GB ones for $10 from amazon. I only have a single <2GB kicking around the house. Anybody who hasn't hit this exact same problem before or seen this warning will be seriously likely to brick their siglent load in the same way. But I guess they all must be muppets so who cares.

--- End quote ---

I didn't say Siglent load couldn't have more robust /better firmware upgrade procedure.. In fact they should, because obviously things can go wrong.

It is not a firmware bug. It is a upgrade procedure that cannot cope with absolutely every combination that can happen in the field.

Wrong thing was repeating same procedure expecting different outcome. I would have returned load and demanded it to be replaced with one with the current firmware, so they have the responsibility to do it right. I wouldn't do it twice in a row, same way.. And would demand explanation what happened.

In addition to manual, there are release notes and firmware update with the firmware that go in more detail. There is a recovery procedure to load firmware even on device that failed previous update.. Which in the end worked for OP.

Problem I have is not that he had problem, which he had. And problem is with firmware updated being fiddly about USB sticks. That is something Siglent should look into if they can.

Problem is that OP declared "Buyer Beware: Siglent Electronic Load ....This makes me doubt the quality of their products. I am now wondering if others are having problems with
Siglent test equipment as I was going to purchase a spectrum analyzer from them.".

That was his first reaction... Before troubleshooting, before waiting to hear what happened, before finding out the problem or solution. That is just lame.
And then saying, problem solved, device works fine, upgrade worked fine with different stick...
But all previously said is still there...

That being said, English is not my first language, and I know as much as I do, not much. I also don't know what are cultural side notes on Muppets. It seems that you took that as a hard insult. Muppet show in my country is referring to goofy behavior but in an humorous and endearing way. You would tell that to somebody that you like but that did something goofy.
If I think someone is an idiot, word I would use would be an idiot.  Not Muppet. Smiley next to it was a hint..
If someone find it insulting, I apologize. Now I explained what I meant.

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