GW INSTEK-1072A-U Screen Resolution

[andybarrett1]

Hi Thanks for reading.

I have a GW INSTEK-1072A-U … I consider to be a OK scope for the monies.

BUT

The screen is like 80's Teletext. Is it meant to be so blocky?? I took some screen grabs but on the PC it looks great.

Will try taking some pics (camera) later…. I only say because I was using a Hameg 203 to look at some LF Audio shapes.
The quality of shape of the same wave 1k Sine was infinitely better on the 203 

Am I missing a button press to improve the presented traces or is this a function of all newer TFT/LCD screens?

BR
Andy

[tautech]

Photo please.

[wraper]

Because it has 320x240 resolution, like Rigol DS1052E, what did you expect? It have pretty old hardware, basically 6-7 years old model, just a little bit updated compared to the older non -U model (supports USB flash instead of SD card ).

[andybarrett1]

Hi.

Could be resolution being 234x320 …. just found in specs. In truth I haven't used it much and when I did compare with old Analog Hameg was surprised ..

I guess I assumed it would be 400x800 at least…Will sort some pics later…. But I guess am stuck with it 

Or upgrade to Rigol DS1104Z .. Dave seems to like the Rigol in the same price bracket !!

BR
Andy

[BillW50]

I have both a GW Instek GDS-1062A (60MHz) and a LeCroy WaveAce 222 (200MHz). Both have a 320x234 5.7 inch display. Although what a difference in the display. The Instek will show a 1KHz square wave as jittery, for example. As the rise and fall traces will jump between pixels. But the LeCroy is solid as a rock. Also the LeCroy will show solid measurements while the Instek will vary a bit between updates.

Although with the PC software Instek's Freewave vs. LeCroy's EasyScope, Instek wins hands down. EasyScope looks like it was originally written for Windows 3.1. And it can't do everything that Freewave can do.

[sync]

Could be resolution being 234x320 …. just found in specs. In truth I haven't used it much and when I did compare with old Analog Hameg was surprised ..

I guess I assumed it would be 400x800 at least…Will sort some pics later…. But I guess am stuck with it 

Or upgrade to Rigol DS1104Z .. Dave seems to like the Rigol in the same price bracket !!

The Rigol DS1000Z is using pixel doubling vertically. So it have effective only 200 pixels for the waveform too. These scopes have only 8 bit ADCs. Which is very Lo-Fi regarding audio.

[andybarrett1]

Hi All

Couple of sample 1k traces (sine and square) taken with GW Instek scope vs couple taken with Hameg.

Spot the difference !!!

[tautech]

Spot the difference !!!

Very normal with low value DSO's, but you can tune some of the noise away.
Just get used to it, it's normal. Use your CRO IF you need precise waveforms but I ditched all mine in favour of the features a DSO can offer.

Dave did 2 vids on this subject #601 and 610. Watch them.

[commie]

I use to have one of those scopes,GW1152 looking at your pictures it would appear as though your signals are noisy.The possible reason for this is your Instek has 70MHz bandwidth whilst the Hameg has 20MHz, more bandwidth means more noise. Like I say, I don't recall my GW scope being that bad.

[Loboscope]

It looks that the signal is only 500 mV and the Instek shows resp. uncovers more noise in the signal what the analog Hamag will not show. That is normal for analog scopes, there exists a video about this item from Dave.
Use the "Averaging" function of the Instek and the nose will be more hidden and the trace should look more smooth.

Greetings, Jürgen

[pascal_sweden]

In the menu on the first screen of your GW Instek scope it says "BW Limit Off".
Try to enable 20 MHz BW Limit, and see if it improves. It should remove the noise.

[andybarrett1]

Ah….

Answers was looking for…. will try later / tomorrow  and report back

Thank you

BR
Andy

[andybarrett1]

Thank you all...

Yes the scope is reprieved....I have only been an electronics engineer for 1/4 of a century... I never thought of the thing seeing all that it could see..... Dave helped a lot there. And a lot of others looks like reading the comments .

  Still keeping my Hameg 203-6 though   

BR
Andy

[tautech]

Still keeping my Hameg 203-6 though   

And so you should, it's good quality.
But over time you will find that you slowly start using it less and less in favour of a DSO. 

[andybarrett1]