New Hantek DSO2X1X models?

[DavidAlfa]

I made a folder with all I could find about the DSO2x1x.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Tqk8YbL_M3S0vtk7h_cZ-01U2idIaqqx

Original dumps are welcome!

[DavidAlfa]

Guys, I found it so laggy and bugged that I'm thinking on returning it and buying the DSO4102C.
Seems way better on the video reviews I found. Also allows 200MHz hack.
Any thoughs?

[imk]

Guys, I found it so laggy and bugged that I'm thinking on returning it and buying the DSO4102C.
Seems way better on the video reviews I found. Also allows 200MHz hack.
Any thoughs?

Hello David

Well i sounds like you have received your DS02xxx and not so happy with it, i am sorry to hear that.
Did you apply that fix that HanTek sent to me as i found it helped, also I just did a calibration and it went thru without error (Although it did take a few minutes).

As for buying another Hantek I have seen on other threads people saying they are buggy.
So to changing model may just result in less functionality and just as buggy, maybe the devil you know rather than the devil you don't.
Maybe a better solution is to get on Hanteks case for a fix and remind them of these forum threads.
Remind them that these threads will damage there reputation and future sales.
Maybe threaten them with a really bad video YouTube review.

Maybe post a letter to David Hoo (Head of Sales) at #35 Building, No. 780 Baoyuan Road,High-tech Zone, Qingdao, Shandong, China 266114
Mentioning the above, I think i will be dropping them a letter, only going to cost a a pound of two for postage and a "Letter Often Means Something"

imk

[upsss]

What is the direct email address technical support at Hantek for on these DSO2X1X scopes?

[imk]

What is the direct email address technical support at Hantek for on these DSO2X1X scopes?

http://www.hantek.com/About#hantek_contact

Bottom of page

[QuitButton]

Hantek have a "support" forum at https://www.eediscuss.com/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=44


Maybe we should start some threads there detailing the bugs we're finding...

[DavidAlfa]

Really? In 5 minutes the bugs are countless.
They have spent hundreds of hours developing it. Or do they have blind or impaired engineers?

[Algoma]

I like Hantek's Hardware design for the given price, its the software guys that need some new Talent on their team.

There are references in the firmware to other (previous) models, it very much looks like they're re-using an existing core firmware that hails from their USB scopes at its core, kludged together to work with the newer hardware.

The software guys seem to be having a hard time, especially when the CPU is far weaker processing wise than the capture engine itself. Many of the bugs appear to be mostly timing related towards missed events.

[imk]

I like Hantek's Hardware design for the given price, its the software guys that need some new Talent on their team.

There are references in the firmware to other (previous) models, it very much looks like they're re-using an existing core firmware that hails from their USB scopes at its core, kludged together to work with the newer hardware.

The software guys seem to be having a hard time, especially when the CPU is far weaker processing wise than the capture engine itself. Many of the bugs appear to be mostly timing related towards missed events.

Hello Algoma,

Software eventually works and hardware breaks down, the trick is to ensure the former happens before the later. :-)
This can only be achieved by rigorous testing which I am afraid is driven out at this price point.
Best we can do is Name and Shame them into doing something about it.

imk

[ebastler]

Guys, I found it so laggy and bugged that I'm thinking on returning it and buying the DSO4102C.
Seems way better on the video reviews I found. Also allows 200MHz hack.
Any thoughs?

You are disappointed with Hantek and hence are considering to buy another Hantek? 
Assuming you are based in Europe and mail-ordered the scope from a European vendor, can't you just return it and look for a different brand (from the same vendor or elsewhere)?

[DavidAlfa]

Well, I've seen videos of the DSO4102C in youtube and it seems a lot more stable and responsive.
I don't mind some sluggish performance or ocassional lockups if I can save a lot of money, since it's for hobby use.
But the 2xxx is too much! Just change the time base few times...bang!
I have to reboot it every 2 minutes.... absolutely unacceptable.
This is worse than Windows 95 era jokes, "Now includes a bag of reset switches for free!"

[imk]

David,

I am testing with my DSO2D10 ch1 off ch2 on and wired to Gen Out.
The Gen i have tested with Sine, Square and Ramp from range 100hz to 1mhz and can cause the scope to freeze by rotating the Sec/Dev timebase knob more rapidly than the display is refreshed at. If however I rotate the Sec/Dev one click at a time and await for the display to refresh and settle then the scope does not seem to freeze.

As you know i have upgraded from dso3kb_20210416 to dso3kb_20210510 and the situation has now improved.
As when i was on dso3kb_20210416  I could crash the scope buy adjusting trace Vertical Position or Vertical Volt/Dev or V0.
So it seems Hantek has made some progress, so maybe if we get on there case they will fix the worst of these and other bugs.
I think too early to give up as this DSO2D10 is lot of bang for buck :-)
What you think?

IMK

[DavidAlfa]

I don't know what to think. Hantek has been selling it for 6 months.
The development might have took months or even years (F1C200s came out in 2017).
But they released a big pile of **** that couldn't even be called "beta".
Maybe alpha-1. Which means it boots and does something.
And then very slowly start fixing things. I just hate the sell-now, maybe-fix-later thing.


Decided to flash sw 20210517 and stop the hacking for a while.
It seems prety stable. I've hit the buttons and knobs like there was no tomorrow, no lockups for now.
Undefined settings doesn't seem to cause any trouble. Signal gen works too.
Did they hack themselves? It's "undefined" the master hack that enables everything?

I think someone complained about the signal gen not going below 100Hz.
Well, at least in 20210517 version, it goes down to 0.1Hz.
However Fmax is different for each wave type:
- Sine: 25MHz
- Square: 10MHz
- Ramp: 1MHz
- Exp: 5MHz
- DC mode works.(Previously greyed out). Amplitude is disabled, and you adjust offset.

But the offset is way off!
- 1V=1.2
- 2V=2.4
- 3V=3.6
- 3.5V=3.9

It happens in all gen modes.

Calibration: In DC and AC modes it seems ok. But setting coupling ton GND the signal goes negative, 1/2 division below ref.

Trigger works pretty nice, but not perfect. Ex. 1Vpp test signal:
In 50mV/div or more it shows great.
In 20mV/div and below it moves like crazy. Clearly trigger not doing ok.

The decoders work really bad. Most of the time they don't find anything, or they're wrong.
A big issue there: Memory depth is limited to 4K in when decoder is enabled. So you won't get more than few bytes...
Zooming causes a line to be drawn over the decoded data.

PC software: I installed the drivers, windows recognized the device as "USB Test and Measurement Device (IVI)".
But neither DigitalScope or WaveEditor were able to connect, complaining with message "The device is not connected".
Edit: After reinstalling the driver with the scope already connected, it worked.
The custom waveforms can be set up to 25MHz too.

HR mode looks a lot better!

[AndrewBCN]

...
The decoders work really bad. Most of the time they don't find anything, or they're wrong.
A big issue there: Memory depth is limited to 4K in when decoder is enabled. So you won't get more than few bytes...
Zooming causes a line to be drawn over the decoded data.
...

First, thank you for your detailed review of what works and what doesn't on this $200 DSO.
Regarding the protocol decoders, I have found that an incredibly cheap $8 USB logic analyzer + open source sigrok software is a much better tool than any MSO/DSO: you get a much larger and better screen, many, many more protocols and more flexibility in how the data is displayed, a huge memory depth, etc.

So I think it's a matter of using the right tool for the right job. Likewise for the function generator. If you really need one, it's much better to have a separate instrument on your workbench.

Apart from that, it's undeniable that this relatively new Hantek DSO has a few firmware issues, but Hantek has been coming out with firmware updates quite regularly, so I would expect these bugs to be ironed out over time, and they have not prevented me from using the DSO for its original basic purpose, which is observing waveforms.

[imk]

David, many thanks for detailed report.

Your finding pretty much same as mines after installing dso3kb_20210510.
As far a Decode function is concerned I have only used it on a sort UART message of twenty bytes or so and it works well after bit of setup fiddling.
If you can't get Decode to sync up try power off, sometimes you have to do it twice to get the scope to start up cleanly.
One thing that really messes up the decode function  is Auto Set eg. Get Decode setup and working then press Auto Set.
And i have twiddled for ages trying to get Decode to work properly again, power cycling scope twice and Decode works again.

I think accepting scope performance for what it is price limited and hassle HanTek to fix these reliability issues is a good approach.
And little logic analyzer if you want to decode big data streams.

imk 

[DavidAlfa]

Yeah, I have one of these 24MHz cheap analyzers since long time ago.
Sigrok does great, also sealae sw 2.x (Big improvement over 1.x)

[imk]

Yeah, I have one of these 24MHz cheap analyzers since long time ago.
Sigrok does great, also sealae sw 2.x (Big improvement over 1.x)

David i think you are in good position to do serial decoding job etc.
So you need to decide if you want to exchange your DSO2 for something better and get a separate signal generator.
Or hang on to the DSO2 and bagger hantek into sorting the unwelcome features.
I think i am sticking with the DSO2 as is ok go no go scope for me as now i have resized on the house my man cave has limited space.
So  this little all in same box really suits my needs now.
I'll start this afternoon to write letter to HanTek as this morning am going to meet electronic friend i have known for 50 plus years.
To take a look at this old cossor scope he has found in loft, seems to lack protocol decoding  :-)
imk




 

[DavidAlfa]

Protocol decoding was not the main reason to buy it. It just was a nice plus.
The usb analyzer can do a lot better, with no limits at all. You can capture huge data frames as long as you have enough memory.
But the other bugged stuff do need fixing!

Thats scope might be the oldest I've ever seen! Not even BNCs! 1KHz BW?

[QuitButton]

Iv'e just been having a peek though the xml files and notice there's a calibrate and a calibrate_user mentioned in the files. 

I've now got the feeling we as users shouldn't be touching the two calibrate setting we see in the updated firmwares and we've (thanks to Hantek) have screwed up the factory calibrations of our scopes.

  

I think I'll return mine. There's a lot to like about these scopes, but until such time as Hantek can get a working firmware its not worth the struggle.

[AndrewBCN]

In case anybody wants to try recompiling the kernel, here is a possible config file:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thirtythreeforty/businesscard-linux/master/board/businesscard/v1/linux_defconfig

The patched linux kernel version 5.2.2, a dtb, and lots more information can be found here: https://github.com/thirtythreeforty/businesscard-linux

If you are stuck at any step, PM me and I'll do my best to help.

[DavidAlfa]

Stuck at step 0! I know nothing about kernel compìling.

[imk]

Iv'e just been having a peek though the xml files and notice there's a calibrate and a calibrate_user mentioned in the files. 

I've now got the feeling we as users shouldn't be touching the two calibrate setting we see in the updated firmwares and we've (thanks to Hantek) have screwed up the factory calibrations of our scopes.

  

I think I'll return mine. There's a lot to like about these scopes, but until such time as Hantek can get a working firmware its not worth the struggle.

I only see one calibrate options in my menus?
I have been testing my scope with dso3kb_20210510 most of afternoon displaying simple sine and square waveforms over wide range of speeds and haven't been able to crash it.

Yesterday when testing UART triggering and decoding  a 1hz refresh rate short serial message i could crash the scope regularly in RUN mode by adjusting Dev/Sec rapidly.
It didn't happen in Single Seq trigger mode, so it seems that during a re-display if i changed the dev/sec i could cause it to hang.
Hence I think this is a repeatable bug that should be easy to fix, anyone else done similar test and have repeatable hang.

imk

 

[AndrewBCN]

...
Yesterday when testing UART triggering and decoding  a 1hz refresh rate short serial message i could crash the scope regularly in RUN mode by adjusting Dev/Sec rapidly.
It didn't happen in Single Seq trigger mode, so it seems that during a re-display if i changed the dev/sec i could cause it to hang.
Hence I think this is a repeatable bug that should be easy to fix, anyone else done similar test and have repeatable hang.

imk

Well done, imk. 

I think finding reproducible bugs and reporting them to Hantek politely is more likely to get them fixed than simply returning the DSO to China. 

[imk]

...
Yesterday when testing UART triggering and decoding  a 1hz refresh rate short serial message i could crash the scope regularly in RUN mode by adjusting Dev/Sec rapidly.
It didn't happen in Single Seq trigger mode, so it seems that during a re-display if i changed the dev/sec i could cause it to hang.
Hence I think this is a repeatable bug that should be easy to fix, anyone else done similar test and have repeatable hang.

imk

Well done, imk. 

I think finding reproducible bugs and reporting them to Hantek politely is more likely to get them fixed than simply returning the DSO to China. 

Hello Andrew, Many thanks for the thanks.
Spent couple of hours this morning testing this lockup and on simply sine/square waves NOT ONE SINGLE LOCKUP so dso3kb_20210510 is much better than dso3kb_20210416 :-)

Then setup DSO2D10 in RUN MODE UART Trigger/Decode on a changing 20 byte serial message repeated ever second.
===== Thank you Arduino for great little IDE that makes writing testing jigs soooooooo easy =====
Left it running for hour or so and NEVER locked up once, then slowly (One Click Per Msg Refresh) twiddled the Dev/Sec for ages and NEVER locked up once.
Then twiddled the Dev/Sec rapidly and within a few seconds I could cause the DSO2D10 to lockup, powered off/on and fault is repeatable.

Then repeated the above in STOP MODE and manually armed the trigger and could NOT get the DSO2D10 to lockup.

So it seems that if the DSO2D10  is refreshing the display/prepping  the view post trigger in RUN MODE then it is sensitive to rapid changes to the timebase Sec/Dev control.

I have in much more detail with photos sent it of to Amy at Hantek and am looking forward to a positive response.
Next I shall test the other serial protocol trigger/decodes  starting with i2c.

But i think i deserve respite from scope testing for few hours so getting the solder iron out as getting flux fumes withdrawals :-(

All best imk

[DavidAlfa]

I found a little annoying bug. The usb drive doesn't get mounted automatically in 20210517 SW.
However when you go to Utility menu and click Update, it gets mounted.

This can be seen on the console. The usb drive was plugged for a while (+1minute) and nothing happened.
After pushing update:

Code: [Select]

[  427.926037] phy phy-1c13400.phy.0: Changing dr_mode to 1
[  427.931558] read not supported msg id 2
[  428.582770] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using musb-hdrc
[  428.809222] usb-storage 1-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[  428.872963] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1:1.0
[  429.926631] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[  429.939195] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 30240768 512-byte logical blocks: (15.5 GB/14.4 GiB)
[  430.019892] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[  430.030880] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[  430.102795] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[  430.333670]  sda: sda1
[  430.353794] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
[  431.295795] FAT-fs (sda1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
0:Got Signal with value mount

It doesn't even appear in the system.
It's like the USB controller is disabled, or stuck in device mode, not noticing a USB was connected and changing to Host mode.
After boot:

Code: [Select]

# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002

After clicking update:

Code: [Select]

# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0930:6545