Hantek MSO5074FG

[Electro Fan]

Anyone know if this is likely to be a notably improved next generation product or if it will more if an incremental repackaging of previous products?  Looks like it has some good potential.

http://www.amazon.com/Hantek-MSO5074FG-Oscilloscope-Channels-Generator/dp/B00HEHUDB8/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1399301031&sr=1-2&keywords=hantek+generator#productDetails

(Anyone have a link to the manual or know anything about it's decoding capabilities?)

Thx, EF

[Mark_O]

Anyone know if this is likely to be a notably improved next generation product or if it will more if an incremental repackaging of previous products?

No, no one knows.  Hantek doesn't even know.  If you visit their website, there are no links to the product there (either the F or the FG series), nor does it appear in any of their product listings.  They do have an info page on their site though, which can only be found via a search engine.  Not exactly a "good sign".

Looks like it has some good potential.

Perhaps.  It looks like a Jr. version of the Rigol DS1074-S, with slightly worse specs, single-channel ARB gen, and an 8-channel LA thrown in, for a bit more $$$.  Feature-wise it falls a bit shorter, bit the price may justify the cutting of those corners (for some on a very tight budget).

Keep in mind that Hantek isn't exactly known for building high-quality instruments*.  And before you spend any money on a Hantek product, you may want to wait until many others have already bought and can give you a hand with.  You may also want to send Hantek a question or two via e-mail, to gauge how well they support their new product.  Heck, send them 3, or 4.  Let me know if you ever get any response from them, because I never did.

And if you'd like to be able to control the scope, or the LA, or the ARB gen via SCPI, you can forget about that.  Hantek don't need no steekin' SCPI.  They have customized DLLs (all different) for each of their products.

http://www.amazon.com/Hantek-MSO5074FG-Oscilloscope-Channels-Generator/dp/B00HEHUDB8/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1399301031&sr=1-2&keywords=hantek+generator#productDetails

They're also "available" (in the sense of being offered for sale) from other vendors, for about 50 bucks less than Amazon.

(Anyone have a link to the manual or know anything about it's decoding capabilities?)

No, there is no manual for this product yet (in English, at the very least).  As for its decoding capabilities, your guess is as good as anyone else's.

*I should clarify by saying I'm not necessarily talking about the quality of their hardware, which is usually pretty good.  I'm talking about their firmware, lack of bugs, documentation, and quality UI and user experience.  In ALL those areas, they are sorely lacking.  Don't expect ANY post-purchase support, and you won't find yourself disappointed.

[yugpmoc]

I took my shiny new MSO5074FG out of the box about 4 hours ago.  About 3.5 hours ago, all the knobs and buttons on the thing ceased function.  I had yet to connect a probe to it, I was just exploring the menus.  I can control it via the MSOscope software on the included disk, but get nothing at all from any other control aside from the power switch.  It does have a warranty sticker over the case seam, so I'm not popping it yet.  I have sent email to hantek and the vendor.  I'll update if I hear from them...  I needed this thing working, tomorrow...

Anyone have a reset trick?

I'll add this: The screen seems nice enough, but has the old school lcd effect (slowly filling white bruises) when you even lightly brush it with a fingertip.  The buttons and knobs seem of adequate quality (when they worked).  The miniSD slot is not positioned properly behind it's hole and it's quite difficult to get the card out once you get it in.  Nor is the LA header centered in it's cutout...

4 hours in and I'm feeling a little raw already.

[yugpmoc]

They did include a manual on the disk, in passable english.  The forum won't let me upload it due to size.  pm me your email and I'll shoot you a copy

[Hydrawerk]

Please, could you post the manual to a file hosting web, like this? http://sharegadget.com/

[yugpmoc]

'tis done!

http://mysharegadget.com/928421199

[Electro Fan]

yugpmoc and Hydrawerk, Nice work.

BTW, the manual looks pretty good/ok.  Maybe not written by a Yale English Major but it looks like Hantek put a reasonably good English speaking writer/editor on the job.  Congrats to Hantek for making the effort.

On the downside searches for "decode", "ASCII", "I2C", and "SPI" don't seem to reveal any entries - maybe decoding functionality will appear in a manual for optional accessories.  The section on arbitrary waveforms isn't real extensive either.  Maybe the product does more than the manual suggests

[Mark_O]

I took my shiny new MSO5074FG out of the box about 4 hours ago.  About 3.5 hours ago, all the knobs and buttons on the thing ceased function.  I had yet to connect a probe to it, I was just exploring the menus.  I can control it via the MSOscope software on the included disk, but get nothing at all from any other control aside from the power switch.  It does have a warranty sticker over the case seam, so I'm not popping it yet.  I have sent email to hantek and the vendor.  I'll update if I hear from them...  I needed this thing working, tomorrow...

That's kind of a bummer.  Sorry to hear that.

The miniSD slot is not positioned properly behind it's hole and it's quite difficult to get the card out once you get it in.  Nor is the LA header centered in it's cutout...

That's the kind of QC that can sink a product.  Those items should be mounted in a proper position on the PCB, and the PCB should fit into a specific spot on the case.

4 hours in and I'm feeling a little raw already.

Yes, I can see how you'd be disappointed.  I hope you get some quick feedback on your problems.  It wouldn't be surprising to find that your first problems (non-functional knobs), and the observation about misalignment, are not completely unrelated.  A Reset fix would be a pleasant surprise, but it seems more likely you may need a unit swap.  And your vendor should be willing to do that for you.

[Mark_O]

yugpmoc and Hydrawerk, Nice work.

BTW, the manual looks pretty good/ok.

Yes, it's not terrible.  Thanks for sharing it, CompGuy.

On the downside searches for "decode", "ASCII", "I2C", and "SPI" don't seem to reveal any entries

Because there are none.  I read the whole thing.  I'm always on the lookout for newly arriving economy scopes that can be recommended to beginners.  And with Hantek, hope springs eternal. 

...maybe decoding functionality will appear in a manual for optional accessories.

Or maybe it will never appear in a manual, because it doesn't exist in the scope.  I'm not sure where you got the idea it has any such capability (wishful thinking?).  But there's nothing on the Hantek site to suggest it currently either triggers on, or decodes, ANY protocols.  Or ever will.

The section on arbitrary waveforms isn't real extensive either.

You sir are the master of understatement!     

Maybe the product does more than the manual suggests

Well, in Hantek's defense, they wouldn't be the first Chinese manufacturer in that situation.  Especially with a brand-new product.  Lot's of Rigol products, e.g., get extensive manual updates after the product has been released.

One thing I did like about the manual is there are lots of screen shots depicting the menu structure.  That's something Rigol has been pretty lax with, of late.  But I can't see much functionality there that hasn't already been exposed by descriptions in the manual.  It's too bad CompGuy couldn't finish his tour of the menus, before his unit crapped out on him. 

In place of the protocol capabilities, it does support two features everyone else has been leaving out... Alternate timebases, and ETS.  Which likely explains the 2,000 wfms update rate.  Also, lack of intensity grading.  Lack of persistence.  Lack of...

One other handicap, when comparing to the likes of a 1074-S, is the memory capacity of 1M analog samples, total.  Split between the 4-channels.  The LA also has a separate 1M samples.  They don't say how deep the ARB gen memory is, but the limitation of 8-bit samples is kind of disappointing.


CompGuy, I don't mean to run down your new toy (though you may feel like driving over it a time or two ), and it does offer a lot of features in one package, for a lower price [than] anyone else offers.  Naturally, in that case it won't be surprising if the features are weaker, and what will be most important is if they are adequate for your needs.  I hope they are.  The core specs look decent, though not impressive.  And the screen seems well laid-out, and readable.  I was a bit befuddled by the various pix in the manual though, because the channel colors (on-screen, front panel, etc.) seemed to be shuffled around quite a bit.  And they somehow managed to mix the FFT cursors up on Frequency vs. Magnitude.


Worst right now though is your negative OOB experience.  But any manufacturer can have some of their first production run suffer from infant mortality.  Hopefully you were one of few who will have that fate, and they will ship you a shiny new one quickly, erasing the bad taste from your mouth.  I'm actually a bit more concerned about what the connector misalignments imply, than I am the failure of the front panel controls.  Good luck!, and please keep us informed how things go for you.

[Mark_O]

Also, on the LA side of things, I saw nothing relating to logic families, voltage thresholds, or anything of that type.  That has me scratching my head a bit.  However, it is obvious one way they cut costs by cutting corners was to avoid providing an active logic head.  Just a raw set of (short) wires, coupled directly to an exposed 26-pin IDC port.

I was happy to see they did provide an English manual on the CD, and perhaps a later rev. of that manual will be more illuminating.  Like everybody these days, they were probably in a big hurry to get it out the door.  Nothing surprising about that at all.

[Mark_O]

EF, is this what you saw that had you thinking protocols?

"Features: 

Abundant Trigger type: Video, Edge, Slope, Pluse Width, Overtime, Alternative, Code-type, Duration, Queue, Repeat trigger."

I don't know what they meant by that, or Queue, for that matter.  Neither is mentioned anywhere in the 79 page, Version 1.1 manual.

[Mark_O]

the manual looks pretty good/ok.  Maybe not written by a Yale English Major but it looks like Hantek put a reasonably good English speaking writer/editor on the job.  Congrats to Hantek for making the effort.

BTW, I'm not sure if you're aware that the MSO5074F/FG are the sixth in their 5000-series, and it's manual is 80% a copy of their earlier MSO5000D model?  They just did a cut & paste, and tweaked sections that differed for this variation.  So the effort wasn't quite as much as you might initially think.

Oh, and Hantek first announced the MSO5074F series back in Dec/2011.  So I think they should have had enough time to get their ducks in a row.

[yugpmoc]

I do have to say, I've had timely positive responses from both Hantek and the vendor.  The vendor has a picture of it working before he dropped it in the box, so is feeling like he needs a little more info (can't blame him there :-)...  I also notice that when I power cycle the thing while plugged into the lappy, it brings the usb interface up and down many times before I can connect.

Interestingly, both hantek and he asked for a video of it booting up...  I'll get all cinematographer on it's butt tonight.

I love fixing the tools I use to fix things.

Spec wise, no, not fabulous, but adequate for the majority of the tinkering I do, and so handy, all that in one box.

[general_advance]

Has anyone been able to verify that the logic inputs on the MSO5074FG are really rated at 0-3v only? Although possible, surely that would suggest that 5v logic could damage the scope? I would like one of these but am put off by this and some stories of dodgy firmware.

[Lauris]

Hello,

Do any users have any comments and reviews on this Hantek MSO5074FG. Because I'm thinking on geting one by myself, tho still trying to find any more valuable info if it is worth to do so, or better try saving bit more for some other.

Basically I'm looking for mixed signal oscilloscope (oscilloscope with LA), sample rate should be not less than 1Gsa/s and would like 4 channel one - thought 2 would work also. But must be possible to see analog and digital signals in same screen (So if I found out correctly OWON is out of the list). Hantek looks like best choice - specially the price part, since you can get it now for $499.

Laurynas

[yugpmoc]

They did send me another, and I've been happy with it since.  I'm uncertain on the logic voltage levels, I'll have a look at it tonight and see what I can find.

[tamagotono]

yugpmoc, can you tell me where you ordered your scope from? I am hitting ready to pull the trigger and buy one but it would be nice to find a reputable dealer. Also, can the Sig gen and scope/LA be used simultaneously?

[general_advance]

I'm really keen on this device but can't buy one until I know about the compatibility with 5v logic. I have asked the manufacturer direct but had no response. 

[Mark_O]

I'm really keen on this device but can't buy one until I know about the compatibility with 5v logic. I have asked the manufacturer direct but had no response. 

and also...

Has anyone been able to verify that the logic inputs on the MSO5074FG are really rated at 0-3v only? Although possible, surely that would suggest that 5v logic could damage the scope?

General, if this is what has you concerned...

Input Voltage Range   0V~3V
Logic Threshold Range   0V~3V

The input Range has to be a misprint, because the Logic Analyzer specs say "Compatible Input: TTL, CMOS, ECL".  TTL is a 5V signal, so it must be able to handle it.  Besides, any such device has to be able to handle signals above it's threshold voltage.  Threshold can never be Vmax.  Be aware though that the User Manual has extremely little info on the LA.

Before you buy, you may want to read some reviews on it at Amazon (last month).

"Hantek 5074FG is a very beautiful and very buggy piece of equipment.

The screen is beautiful. The resolution and contrast are great. The controls are nice.

there are many things which will make the scope crash.

connecting to a PC via USB can make the scope lock up and become completely unresponsive...

I have found no way to use the arbitrary wave form generator, even in the PC software. even so, the function generator is nice.

The logic analyzer seems fairly worthless. But the documentation it comes with is next to none, so maybe I am wrong.

the scope still crashes SOMETIMES when you make certain adjustments and/or turn on new channels in certain settings. But not always."

Hey, that's awesome!  It doesn't always crash!     Surprisingly, he concludes.

"I'm still happy with the scope, after the initial headaches.

...it's the cheapest 4 channel scope I can find by a wide margin."

Guess he never heard of the DS1074Z.   

[Mark_O]

Do any users have any comments and reviews on this Hantek MSO5074FG. Because I'm thinking on geting one by myself, tho still trying to find any more valuable info if it is worth to do so, or better try saving bit more for some other.

It depends on how patient you are, when things don't work.  How comfortable you are when things crash, and you lose what you were working on.

Hantek looks like best choice - specially the price part, since you can get it now for $499.

Where at?  Are you sure that's the FG version?  That's about right for a 5074, but the FG tends to run a bit over $600 (where I've noticed them).

[edavid]

Hantek looks like best choice - specially the price part, since you can get it now for $499.

Where at?  Are you sure that's the FG version?  That's about right for a 5074, but the FG tends to run a bit over $600 (where I've noticed them).

It's about $500 on aliexpress: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hantek-MSO5074FG-70Mhz-4-Channel-Oscilloscope-8-Channel-Logic-Analyzer/1834484116.html

[Mark_O]

It's about $500 on aliexpress: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hantek-MSO5074FG-70Mhz-4-Channel-Oscilloscope-8-Channel-Logic-Analyzer/1834484116.html

Thanks.  That's good to know. 

However, folks need to keep in mind that if they get a lemon, or have to get it serviced at some point, they're looking at another $100+ for each round trip.  So orders like this are a real gamble... if you feel lucky.

Of course, if you buy it from Amazon or eBay from a Chinese seller, you're not in much better a position.  Where is the Hantek Service Center for North America again?  Oh, yeah, Shenzhen.

[Lauris]

They did send me another, and I've been happy with it since.  I'm uncertain on the logic voltage levels, I'll have a look at it tonight and see what I can find.

About warranty issue looks like yugpmoc got some closer experience with it...  Can you uncover more details about it? like where you bought oscilloscope from? Was it hard to get replacement? What extra costs you had for this replacement?

[dtomazini]

Hi Guys,

Please, could anybody confirm if is true one of those reviews from amazon:

But there are many things which will make the scope crash. And connecting to a PC via USB can make the scope lock up and become completely unresponsive without a specific tool that does not come with the scope. Beware, do not connect this scope to USB, unless you have updated to the latest firmware 1406160 AND have the software rescue tool on hand. Otherwise your scope could be a brick until you can get customer service from China or find help on a forum.

I have the opportunit to get one of these Hantek MSO5074FG here in Brazil, but if is true that Hantek doesn't give support for international customers, may be i couldn't get the firmware update to solve the USB bug (freezes).


Thanks
Daniel

[dtomazini]

Hi Guys,


Recently i received this firmware ("dst1kb_func_hantek_mso5074fg_20141110.0.up") upgrade from the equipment seller.

Anybody has already saw/used this file, doing this upgrade ?.


Thanks
Daniel

[benjamin545]

i just received one of these yesterday for $489 from china. its the first real scope i have ever had or used. (i have one of those build it yourself jyetech dso-062 scopes but its nothing comparable really.). so far i like it and think that it was a good bu for what all you get with it.

when i decided to buy it I couldn't hardly find any reliable information about it other than its manufacturer specs and the fact that its mostly based on hanteks other DSO line. so the analog channels are probably the same as they are on the other models. i dont have much of a way to test its 70mgz bandwidth other than the awg built into the thing.

something i couldn't find any information on was the logic analyzer and awg that are built into the scope. the manufacturer supplied information seems pretty accurate, except of course it mentions a input range and voltage threshold both of 0-3v for each logic channel. thats pretty meaningless and stupid. i cannot say what the max input voltage is but ive put a little over 6 volts across the logic channels and they were fine. and it looks like they trigger off of exactly 1.5 volts. it is true that there is no decodes for the analog or logic channels. there is also strange that they seem to have channel 0 separated from channel 1-7 for the logic analyzer. its an 8 channel logic analyzer but channel 0 is in a different color and there is a row of dots across the top of the screen when the logic analyzer is active and channel 0 is all on its own side there. its unnecessary and doesn't make much sense. the biggest issue with the logic analyzer is the fact that your probes, while standard and expected probe clips, are on 11 inch pieces of wire that all go back to a 26 pin ide header. when you see pictures of the hantek mso5074fg on the internet you see it as that mess of wires included in the kit. heres the big problem with it. the gray wires are the channels (8 of them) there are 5 black wire that are ground, and the other 13 (the entire bottom row of the ide header) are blue, and they are all not connected or whatever. so for the logic header, you have way too short of a wire from the scope to your device, (11 inches) and you have a huge mess of unused wires. this seems like it would be an easy thing to make a replacement for, im thinking an ide header connector with two 6 conductor wires that go to two individual little blocks that break out the channels into two sets of 4 probes, each set with 1 or 2 ground probes. this way you might be able to add some option to the breakout blocks, like voltage dividers or input protection, i don't know what would all be possible, but something definitely better than what they provide.

as for the AWG. ive done some testing with it and again, i haven't used any other AWG other than a little elenco build it yourself 1mhz generator that while functional, is not nearly the same thing. the only lock ups ive had with this scope so far have had to do with the AWG, and its been while i was making changes to the signal parameters. i cannot speak for arbitrary waveforms or loading something from a computer and playing it. i haven't done any of that, i also haven't dealt with its AM/FM mode and don't know much about what it does, but its basic features, sine, square, ramp, trap, and exponential, i can talk a little bit about. it has a 25mgz frequency cap on everything. and thats not so bad i think. at lower frequencies, (1 meg and less) i was reading pretty good signals, the square had a little distortion i guess on the corners but i think that may be entirely because i was not properly sending the signal to the scope, (just stuck the 10x probe into the 50 ohm signal generator jack.) and the supplied probes with the scope, (model PP-90, says its an 80mhz rated robe) seem to be pretty poor quality. i have a couple of the cheapy ebay $8  black 100mhz no name probes i bought for the jyetech scope i have and they seem to be a lot better at making the square wave shape at higher frequencies. now i understand that for square waves, being able to clearly read harmonics with very  low Db loss is important, and thats why i think that at 10mhz and above i really lost a lot of the square wave shape, because i start hitting the point where the supplied probes and the scopes 70mhz bandwidth limit wont show very many harmonics when looking at a 25mhz or even a 15mhz square wave. but otherwise of not for the AWG is it has a 3.5 volt max peak output, in the settings they will allow you to set the amplitude of your waves to have a 3.5v peak, and they will allow you to set an offset of 3.5v, but together you cannot go over 3.5v or you will clip, and it WILL allow you to make settings that can clip.

other than that though, the build quality of the scope seems pretty good, i had a front bevel sticker that was a little off and had to cut a sliver off with an exacto knife, and also, like previous models from hantek, some of the trimming around the buttons and the bnc's are a little rough. nothing seemed off center except the sd card slot seems a little too high up behind the cut out.
the knobs and buttons all feel a decent, nowhere does it feel like easily breakable plastic other than the pop out feet on the bottom. this model, unlike some of the earlier 2 channel models, has a small fan, and its noticeable, in fact i know that it makes a very high pitch but very quiet nose from the fan. the fan is probably a good candidate for replacement with a better one. it does push some air however and it is noticeably warm air, so its pretty safe to say it was a necessary addition.

ill say again i have no real experience with oscilloscopes so i don't have any more information right now as to how good it is at being a scope. it seems reasonable enough to me right now though, and if anyone wants to know anything else id be glad to share.

[Lauris]

Hello.

So finally I decided to get this scope also, and just today received it. Well I'm not one of the most experienced users, but so far all seems almost ok apart 3 things:
1. it is crashing more than you would like it to happen, tho not as often that for me it would become irritating.
2. LA sometimes stops working it seems, basically I can see analog part looks like working, but in LA screen no lines appear - restart fixes the issue until next time.
3rd. and most critical in my case. that is either I don't know how to use, but for me it looks like with LA enabled all info saved is one you get on screen and you can't zoom in/out or scroll it. Anyone have same issues?

Model: MSO5074FG
Soft version: 3.2.35(141110.0)
Hard version: 10020x540282051002

[benjamin545]

i did some testing with the LA looking for the same issues you were having with it and i found them as well. they have a sample memory issue. i didn't really have any issue in normal running mode, i could move up and down the waveform and all the logic channels were fine. its when i went into single acquisition mode that i had issues. your right, it only could read about what was in the screen at acquisition. trying to scroll before or after that caused it to have problems like not showing anything and eventually reset. these along with the AWG issues make some sense, since these are kinda the most recent things to be tacked onto the platform they have been working on for a few years. its kinda sad that they didn't catch this, but whatever. the big thing when you find these bugs is to report them so they can reproduce them and fix them., so, how we do that?

[Lauris]

Well tried to write to Hantek support, will see how and when they will respond if they will do that.

also spotted other bit annoying issue - basically every time menu is opened or closed (looks like jumping between menus doesn't have same effect) waveform is being cleared from screen.


Some news:
"Scope-LA" started to work. I mean part when I was unable to review analog and LA signal (move it and zoom in/out). This case happened with no reason after I connected scope to PC. After disconnecting review was still OK, same as after scope reboot.
Mystical, scope is fixing itself, or I'm starting to know how to use it.

[benjamin545]

I haven't tried using it connected to pc yet. Someday I'll give it try. For now. Have you tried the awg yet.? Can you see of you get the crashing bugs when setting stuff in there.

[Lauris]

Well with awg I just checked very basics - working or not, that is set up for 2 or 20 MHz sine wave. With that setting awg was working- well checked with same scope. Haven't done any more serious tests.

also noticed that triggering is basically not working on short signals over longer time. I failed to get any trigger events with signal which appears for like 100ms every few seconds. Tried triggering on analog channel and LA.