Products > Test Equipment
MHS-5200A function generator teardown / review / reverse engineering
SaabFAN:
Nice one, I'm ordering parts right now to try the mod myself :)
I'm curious why they used the AD812 instead of the THS3092 if it is more expensive. Maybe you should send them a link to your videos and show them how it's done (They may even give you their other Signal Gen for free to do some improvements there too :D ).
About my portability-mod: It is unfortunately necessary to use a 20C-Rated Battery to deliver enough PowerUp-Current. Something, I don't know what, loads down the rails and it is not capacitors, because the rails stay pulled below 2.5V even after a minute or so.
The overall price of modifying the unit to be portable is about 15 to 20€, depending on the battery-size. A little bit more if a 7.4V Battery is used because a different charger and a different Wall-Adaptor are required.
A 1000mAh lithium Battery is able to power the signal-gen for about 30 minutes with both channels terminated into 50 Ohms and outputting 1MHz Square-Waves @ 15V. Quite handy to lose yet another cable (Bench-Multimeter is also on Batteries) on my already crowded bench which actually is my Desk that is also occupied by my PC-Monitor and a 4-channel Audio Mixer :D
Would you say that with your modifications, this Signal-Gen has actual value and could be considered a bargain, or is it still highly preferable to spend 200€ more to buy a unit from Rigol/Siglent/Owon with similar/inferior specs in terms of maximum sine-frequency?
devttys0:
--- Quote ---I'm curious why they used the AD812 instead of the THS3092 if it is more expensive
--- End quote ---
All else being equal (unless I'm missing something), the THS3092 does seem like the better choice here. Given that these units are designed to a very low price point, my guess is that they somehow/somewhere got a really good deal on a large lot of AD812's.
--- Quote ---Would you say that with your modifications, this Signal-Gen has actual value and could be considered a bargain, or is it still highly preferable to spend 200€ more to buy a unit from Rigol/Siglent/Owon with similar/inferior specs in terms of maximum sine-frequency?
--- End quote ---
With or without the mods, I'd say it's still a pretty good deal for the price, just as long as you're aware of its limitations. With the mods its much more acceptable, at least for my needs, but it still has other issues (e.g., square wave jitter is still pretty bad, especially at certain frequencies).
If you want a good, trustworthy function generator, spend the money on a good one (I got an older HP/Agilent off eBay, it's great). The MHS-5200 is useful as a secondary function generator when I need more than one signal, or if I need two phase-locked signals, etc.
motocoder:
I know it's a more extensive mod, and maybe not do-able without the source code to the micro, but it seems like the output filter stage should be totally removed for square wave output.
krivx:
--- Quote from: devttys0 on August 26, 2015, 08:04:01 pm ---
--- Quote ---I'm curious why they used the AD812 instead of the THS3092 if it is more expensive
--- End quote ---
All else being equal (unless I'm missing something), the THS3092 does seem like the better choice here. Given that these units are designed to a very low price point, my guess is that they somehow/somewhere got a really good deal on a large lot of AD812's.
--- End quote ---
This seems likely if they are also using it in another product.
usagi:
--- Quote from: devttys0 on August 26, 2015, 08:04:01 pm ---
--- Quote ---I'm curious why they used the AD812 instead of the THS3092 if it is more expensive
--- End quote ---
All else being equal (unless I'm missing something), the THS3092 does seem like the better choice here. Given that these units are designed to a very low price point, my guess is that they somehow/somewhere got a really good deal on a large lot of AD812's.
--- End quote ---
or it could be a counterfeit ad812 which they get for a tiny fraction of the price. sorta like all the counterfeit lm2596 out there.
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