New Zoyi multimeter+oscilloscopes - ZT-70xS, up to 50MHz/250MSps (nov 2022)

[chebo]

let's see what will happen... 

Nothing..

[beamertt]

Is it a common behavior, or it's my faulty unit?

In normal mode the signal look AM modulated with firmware 1.56
In high mode too but to a much lesser extent, the bottom of the waveform wobbles 3/4 division and the top 1/4 division.
With firmware 1.57 it's like yours, rubbish.

Thank you! I'm getting AM-like effect too. But it's fine when the frequency is reaching the Nyquist frequency limit (on primitive trigger and interpolation systems).

So the firmware V157 has a bug that leads to waveform distortions at high frequencies.
(Sorry for overemphasizing. I hope someone from zoyi will read this thread....)

PS: V156 is available here few posts up.

Just to confirm, I got my ZT-703S a couple of weeks ago and first thing I did was loading the latest firmware (V1.57). Happy at first but then, when I checked sinusoidal wave-forms above a few MHz the triggering seemed very unstable.

Thanks to this forum (which I think is great btw  ) I decided to go back to V1.56 and now I'm able to also see stable wave-forms until 30Mhz and probably above (30 is my signal generator's max freq).
So thanks to you guys I'm very happy that for me the scope is now working much better
But V1.57 for sure is not OK on my device so hopefully indeed Zoyi will patch this "glitch" soon...

[beamertt]

PS,
With v1.56 I now get trigger issues when zooming inthe timebase to 250ns/div and less on low frequent square-waves which I think is why Zoyi did the v1.57 patch 
I think it only occurs at frequencies below 480kHz (in Hi Run-mode) or 340kHz (in Normal Run-mode).
And then, when lowering the frequency in small steps, I get some "sweet spots" where it can trigger again without those "ghost" traces. (like FixyMixy's post)

Below the "sweet spot" frequencies that are properly displayed:
Run-mode Hi: =>          130kHz, 260kHz, 395kHz, 485kHz => above 485kHz always OK
Run-mode Normal:=>   96kHz  , 188kHz, 280kHz, 340kHz => above 340kHz always OK.

Let's hope V1.58 will come soon 

[xKertx]

There appeared a lot of newer pocket oscilloscopes with better specs recently, maybe they just understand that their device is not competitive anymore.

I don't think there is any better alternatives under 100€ price range (i don't concider Fnirsi any better).

[indman]

It's a pity that ajar171 has disappeared again. I had hoped that this person would be able to create a custom firmware for this device, but... I have no expectations from ZOYI in this regard.

[ychat]

I don't think there is any better alternatives under 100€ price range (i don't concider Fnirsi any better).

Have you considered ds4t252? Admittedly, there is no multimeter in it, and the FFT and the signal generator are rather limited, but as an oscilloscope it is fine. The touch interface is nice and intuitive once you get used to it, compact size.

[Serg65536]

Have you considered ds4t252? Admittedly, there is no multimeter in it, and the FFT and the signal generator are rather limited, but as an oscilloscope it is fine. The touch interface is nice and intuitive once you get used to it, compact size.

My arrived today. It's a great tool. 1mV maximum sensitivity!!! It's unique!
FFT and protocol decoding are very usefull!
Trigger is reliable, 2MB memory.

I'm very happy with it!

It would be very interesting to compare DS4T252 with the Zeeway DSO3D12.

[Kalki0]

Hi,

i received my ZT-703S today. Could anyone tell me where i could find a firmware newer than 139? When i download the firmware from the ZOYI Website, it is V139 .. and not 156 ?

Thanks

EDIT: Ok i found it. Google sent me to an old link on Zoyi website...

[apollo11fan]

What version firmware has been determined to be the best of what they've released? 1.39 or 1.56 or other?

[indman]

apollo11fan
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-zoyi-multimeteroscilloscopes-zt-70xs-up-to-50mhz250msps-(nov-2022)/msg6039727/#msg6039727

[tol]

What version firmware has been determined to be the best of what they've released? 1.39 or 1.56 or other?

Unfortunately, there is no best firmware at the moment. The recent version has some bug fixes and also some new bugs additions (read a few pages back in this forum). Many users still prefer very old versions (1.4x) because they work faster and more predictable, although they are also pocketful of bugs, but these bugs are mostly known and can be taken into consideration during measurements. Some mid-versions (I don't remember what exactly) have malfunctioning AUTO feature (it just doesn't work). Personally, I have no idea what version to use (I mostly use it as a multimeter now), but according to what people write here, 1.56 is better than 1.57, so if you are not sure too, use 1.56.

[Edmiri]

None. We had an opportunity to save this device because a user here was building a custom firmware but i think he abandoned the project. Zoyi would rather make a new device rather than fix this one's firmware. This device is a toy.

[xKertx]

...This device is a toy.

Well, it's definetly not a toy, because you can measure stuff with it. It is better than nothing and it can be useful tool if you know it's limitations and bugs.
Does anyone really think they can get a professional tool for 70 euros? You can add a zero to the price.

[beamertt]

I agree, i'm very impressed what this tool can do for this amount of money.  Just hoping that Zoyi will continue releasing firmware improvements for this nifty little gadget 

[tol]

Does anyone really think they can get a professional tool for 70 euros? You can add a zero to the price.

A cheap pocket oscilloscope without serious bugs is not a miracle anymore. It could be a miracle 3-5 years ago, but not now.

I'm choosing between DSO3D12 and DS4T252, they are comparatively cheap, and the owners of both devices say they are really cool and don't have noticeable bugs and problems. To say the truth, I don't know which one to choose, but it feels like any of them will be better than 703 with the trigger issues that cannot be fixed during more than a year (and I'm not sure it will be ever fixed). I think Zoyi looses time and a lot of prospective customers when it ignores the bug reports of the users, because new devices of the kind appear every year. If they cannot compete by making new powerful hardware, they could at least compete as a producer of reliable low-price tools. Producers should take fast decisions in this growing market, and Zoyi seems to be very slow in reaction and doesn't seem to be a user-friendly company. It's really difficult (= nearly impossible) to reach them and discuss their products. Maybe their company faces bad times now, and they don't have funds or engineers for further development, I don't know. Although we all value that they at least tried to release a few firmware updates for us, but they didn't bother themselves to test them before releasing, this is very sad! Well, we were all waiting for a wonderful firmware update 1 year ago (and it didn't come), so if I could recommend their products then, I definitely wouldn't do it now. Anyway, if they ever make a good firmware version, I would be happy to test it, because I really like the shape and the user interface of this device, it is really very easy to use.

[indman]

Does anyone really think they can get a professional tool for 70 euros? You can add a zero to the price.

A cheap pocket oscilloscope without serious bugs is not a miracle anymore. It could be a miracle 3-5 years ago, but not now.

I completely agree with your opinion. It’s not even a matter of price, but the fact that ZOYI, like the “famous” FNIRSI, very carefully do not notice feedback from customers. Or they simply ignore it. I also like the form factor of this device and I willingly use its multimeter, but when working with an oscilloscope I cannot trust its readings and what it displays on the display is in many cases questionable.

[idolclub]

ZT-703S Firmware v1.6.3

https://download.s21i.co99.net/8164272/0/0/ABUIABBPGAAg3NLCxwYooJaX1AI.zip?f=703S-%E5%9B%BA%E4%BB%B62025.10.16.zip&v=1760602460

[Emo]

In the file it is mentioned that the 250ns trigger issue as well as the wave form on high frequencies is solved

[Phb]

In the file it is mentioned that the 250ns trigger issue as well as the wave form on high frequencies is solved

 

Curtesy of google image translate....

[tol]

ZT-703S Firmware v1.6.3

I've made a few fast tests with my NE555 device. Auto trigger works in some time base, and doesn't work in others. Normal/single mode is more usable (at least more chances to get the signal at the trigger place), but there are strange artifacts in 25 and 10 ns time base. How to test: hold the signal at 50ns and view it at 10 and 25 ns. You can see this corruption even with the internal test signal. Besides, the realtime view of 10 and 25 ns is also far from being perfect (waves). This is in the standard mode. High speed mode is even worse: it looses the trigger from 500ns and below. Yet again, they did not even test their "bug fix" in all time bases before releasing this frimware.

As always, new firmware = new bug: when I'm trying to make a screenshot, the device just restarts without a warning and seem to reset some parameters to the ones that were saved the last time you powered off the device in a normal way. I tried to reset to defaults, but I cannot save screenshots anyway...

[indman]

Yet again, they did not even test their "bug fix" in all time bases before releasing this frimware.

Did you expect a miracle to happen?

[tol]

Did you expect a miracle to happen?

To say the truth, I don't understand how they release their firmware. It took me 10 minutes to make simple tests in all time scales with different signals and I found all this (and more bugs that were mentioned before but still not fixed), so why can't they do the same before uploading the new firmware to their server? It's not a difficult task to attach the probe to some signal and check the result and correct triggering in all time scales by pressing left and right buttons - even a 3-years old kid can do it! In reality, it's something like this:
Chen: Did you change at least anything in the firmware since the last month?
Sio: Yep, I did.
Chen: OK, our users from eevblog.com are requesting a new firmware version, so I will upload it right away...

[chebo]

Why are you talking about the new version 1.6.3? The official website still has version 1.5.7.

[tol]

Why are you talking about the new version 1.6.3? The official website still has version 1.5.7.

idolclub has shared a link for it a few posts ago so we discuss it to find new bugs. There is a chance that Zotek developers read this thread and will fix these bugs some day. At least it feels like the new firmware versions that they released lately try to fix the bugs that we discussed here just some time ago, so I encourage anyone to share the info about the bugs that you find in this forum.

[4lfre1re]

Why are you talking about the new version 1.6.3? The official website still has version 1.5.7.

Here is: http://www.szzotek.com/h-col-159.html



Regards... ;-)

... One question: which is the best version for ZT-703S...?