OWON HDS 200 Handheld Oscilloscope w/ builtin DMM/AWG

[MBY]

Yes. Couldn't help myself, so I've just ordered one (the 272S model) from Banggood. I've used them for years and I'm generally happy with Banggood. They have always refunded lost or broken goods and they are generally helpful, albeit sometimes in incomprehensible broken Chinglish.

Btw: Banggood always have things "on sale" and "drives" and the price is gonna jump around. Generally no worries if you miss a "sale", since it's often BS, will come back soon, makes no difference on the price, and so on. Of course, I cannot guarantee that the price won't rise.

[edsjac]

Hello everybody.

Could someone kindly do a teardown of the owon HDS200?

[1937]

Hello everybody.

Could someone kindly do a teardown of the owon HDS200?

...and make a firmware dump (if possible).
Thanks in advance. 

[TrendX]

Hello everybody.

Could someone kindly do a teardown of the owon HDS200?

Ordered mine almost 4 Weeks ago. Still hasn't even shipped. Contacted Banggood and they told me that it is sold out at the moment due to high request.

Hello everybody.

Could someone kindly do a teardown of the owon HDS200?

...and make a firmware dump (if possible).
Thanks in advance. 

If you explain how, I can dump as soon as my HDS272S arrives.
Are you able to modify such firmwares? I would really like my HDS to be able to generate a PWM signal which according to the manual is not implemented by Owon.

[1937]

If you explain how, I can dump as soon as my HDS272S arrives.
Are you able to modify such firmwares? I would really like my HDS to be able to generate a PWM signal which according to the manual is not implemented by Owon.

If you have never worked with arm controllers, recommend to practice first on a cheap development board (e.g. stm32f103c8t6), because if something goes wrong, you can get a brick. 

Assuming that HDS272S got the same architecture as Hantek 2D72,
the easiest way to make dump is to use ST-Link V2: 
1. Download ST-Link Utility
2. Connect ST-Link V2 to software debug ports on main circuit board (GND, SW_CLK, SW_DAT)
3. In ST-LINK Utility, specify Address: 0x08000000, with the size : 0x80000
4. Connect to Target, or press enter
5. Click save file button (File should be 512kB)

There will be an opportunity to try disassemble *.hex file.
But it is quite difficult to modify such firmwares (without source code).
Sometimes it's even easier to write custom firmware anew.

For me, like probably for many others, it is interesting to check firmware interchangeability between series Hantek 2000 and Owon HDS200.

[TrendX]

Owon boasts about the HDS having SCPI support to "facilitate secondary development". Could the dump be done via this?

[1937]

Owon boasts about the HDS having SCPI support to "facilitate secondary development". Could the dump be done via this?

Can't be sure without teardown.
SCPI just is software protocol.  I think there is similar circuitry and components.
If so, the firmware can be read by ST-Link (if reading is not blocked, of course).

[TrendX]

Sooo..

Today my HDS272 arrived. 272 you ask? Yes, Banggoog managed to send me a 272 without the AWG instead of the 242S I ordered.

But nevertheless I took it apart for you guys to enjoy or not enjoy the chinese craftsmanship.

Before showing the pictures I'd like to add that at least the unit I received is autoranging pretty fast in all functions and ranges I could test.

And since I don't have my old signal generator right now I could only compare the scopes on the siglents probe adjust.

The size comparison picture shows the HDS200 between my BM235 and my SHS810.

I have to say I'm very impressed with the build quality of the case and the accesories. No flexing in the case even with a lot of force.
Probe seems and looks fine and is compensated at the connector.
Multimeter leads feel much nicer than your average cheap chinese leads but nothing compared to the brymens.
Continuity is very fast, but not as instant as the brymens.

Overall I'm very, very impressed by the device for the price. Of course it is no competition at all to a fluke but for most people it will be fine.

Please excuse the crudity of the pictures, I only have a trusty old Canon S90.

I'd be happy to answer questions or try thing you might want to know.

[TrendX]

Teardown pics. Best I could do.

[TrendX]

Teardown pics 2. Best I could do.

[TrendX]

Short comparison with my BM235. Again, best I could do at the moment.

[edsjac]

Hi TrendX, firstly, thank you very much for posting the teardown! 

This will be very useful for us to decide to buy the HDS200.
Taking a rapidly looking at the pictures, it is possible to see some design problems with the owon hds200, like:

-Two THT resistors were placed and soldered apart on the PCB.
-Some SMD parts seem to be with too much solder (manually soldered ?).
-Near to the Q20 transistor, it seems to have two adaptation of smd components (capacitors ?).
-There is a stranger thing near to the resistor R202.

It is clear that these points are design errors since it is the first release (HDS200-MAIN-V1.0), but, these kinds of problems, do not happen in the first release of other more reputable brands.
However, considering the price, as you have mentioned, maybe it is a good choice, although here in Brazil, currently, US$ 1.00 = R$ 5.60  .

[janiorib]

Hi TrendX, firstly, thank you very much for posting the teardown! 

This will be very helpful to me to decide to buy or not the HDS200.
Taking a rapidly looking at the pictures, it is possible to see some design problems with the owon hds200, like:

-Two THT resistors were placed and soldered apart on the PCB.
-Some SMD parts seem to be with too much solder (manually soldered ?).
-Near to the Q20 transistor, it seems to have two adaptation of smd components (capacitors ?).
-There is a stranger thing near to the resistor R202.

It is clear that these points are design errors since it is the first release (HDS200-MAIN-V1.0), but, these kinds of problems, do not happen in the first release of other more reputable brands.
However, considering the price, as you have mentioned, maybe it is a good choice, although here in Brazil, currently, US$ 1.00 = R$ 5.60  .

Friend I have it also HDS272S version then I will post a picture of the function generator

[edsjac]

Hi TrendX, firstly, thank you very much for posting the teardown! 

This will be very helpful to me to decide to buy or not the HDS200.
Taking a rapidly looking at the pictures, it is possible to see some design problems with the owon hds200, like:

-Two THT resistors were placed and soldered apart on the PCB.
-Some SMD parts seem to be with too much solder (manually soldered ?).
-Near to the Q20 transistor, it seems to have two adaptation of smd components (capacitors ?).
-There is a stranger thing near to the resistor R202.

It is clear that these points are design errors since it is the first release (HDS200-MAIN-V1.0), but, these kinds of problems, do not happen in the first release of other more reputable brands.
However, considering the price, as you have mentioned, maybe it is a good choice, although here in Brazil, currently, US$ 1.00 = R$ 5.60  .

Friend I have it also HDS272S version then I will post a picture of the function generator

Hello janiorib, it would be cool!

Could you do the teardown of your hds272s? Thus, we can compare these models.
Thank you.

It would be nice to have pictures of the ADC circuitry too. By the pictures that TrendX has posted, it appears that the shielding of the ADC is soldered on the PCB, making it difficult to remove. So, we can not confirm the real sample rate of the ADC.

Other design problems that I observed:
-two THT capacitors, soldered near to the USB Type-C connector.
-a SMD resistor connected between the IC U34 and a capacitor.

[edsjac]

Guys, taking other looking at the PCB:

It looks like that the ADC is the IC U10, marked by the Chinese with code MXT208.

[TrendX]

The Shields are all soldered down. Since I may have to return my 272 to get a 272S I didn't want to desolder anything.

There seem to be some components missing on the AWG part of the pcb. Overall there are countless bodges on the board.

FPGA: EG4X20BG256

Multimeter Chipset: DM1106EN

Main Chipset: GD32F303

ADC: MXT208 (Seems to be a MXTronix MXT2088 which is also used by hantek an others)

The ADC has a specified sample rate of 100Msps so they are eighter overclocking it or lying in the datasheet.

[janiorib]

Guys, taking other looking at the PCB:

It looks like that the ADC is the IC U10, marked by the Chinese with code MXT208.

Greetings follows my contribution photos of the input module and other parts of the signal generator.
Extremely well done, rigid cabinet, easy to use buttons, inductive interface unfortunately not even having is a marvel. As already seen by the photos of our colleague, the pci does not have good quality of assembly as if it were a finished prototype. Plus everything works perfectly and fast in the functions more with time it should improve the construction on the assembly line and of course firmware updates, I had the hantek 2d72 and I tell you the Owon HDS 272s is superior in everything in terms of functionality, just ask for the PCB with components in the form of arrangements.

[edsjac]

Guys, taking other looking at the PCB:

It looks like that the ADC is the IC U10, marked by the Chinese with code MXT208.

Greetings follows my contribution photos of the input module and other parts of the signal generator.
Extremely well done, rigid cabinet, easy to use buttons, inductive interface unfortunately not even having is a marvel. As already seen by the photos of our colleague, the pci does not have good quality of assembly as if it were a finished prototype. Plus everything works perfectly and fast in the functions more with time it should improve the construction on the assembly line and of course firmware updates, I had the hantek 2d72 and I tell you the Owon HDS 272s is superior in everything in terms of functionality, just ask for the PCB with components in the form of arrangements.

Thanks for sharing!

AWG => DAC904 (14-Bit, up to 165MSPS), however, owon put it to work on 125MSPS.

As far as we could see, it seems that owon needs to make a better PCB design with more reliable assembling. Although, as said by The_Boots, TrendX and janiorib, the general functionality is good, despite the auto-ranging and the continuity test is slow.

[TrendX]

As I said, at least my 272 is autoranging adequately fast on all tested ranges (Ohms, DCV and DCI).
The continuity is almost instant, I'd say on par with cheap DMMs. Not as fast as the BM235 but very close.

After taking a look at the circuitry I didn't feel confident enough to connect it to the mains, but I will test it at low voltage AC as soon as I can.

[edsjac]

To complement the photos of the teardown:

https://photos.sigpipe.me/index.php?/category/69

As TrendX have observed, ADC (MXT2088) => Dual channel 8 bit, 100Msps (http://www.mxtronics.com/n107/n124/n181/n184/c692/attr/2630.pdf)

chinese translated by google:
On-chip reference and sample-and-hold circuit.
Each channel has 475MHz analog bandwidth.
SNR=47dB@41MHz.
Each channel has 1Vp-p analog input range.

It looks like the Analog Devices AD9288, however, with an incomplete datasheet.
https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/AD9288.pdf

[edsjac]

Guys, taking other looking at the PCB:

It looks like that the ADC is the IC U10, marked by the Chinese with code MXT208.

Greetings follows my contribution photos of the input module and other parts of the signal generator.
Extremely well done, rigid cabinet, easy to use buttons, inductive interface unfortunately not even having is a marvel. As already seen by the photos of our colleague, the pci does not have good quality of assembly as if it were a finished prototype. Plus everything works perfectly and fast in the functions more with time it should improve the construction on the assembly line and of course firmware updates, I had the hantek 2d72 and I tell you the Owon HDS 272s is superior in everything in terms of functionality, just ask for the PCB with components in the form of arrangements.

Taking another look:

There is more problem design on the ADC circuitry (third photo).
=> Components SMD soldered on top of other components. 

[gnuarm]

Taking another look:

There is more problem design on the ADC circuitry (third photo).
=> Components SMD soldered on top of other components. 

I see they use the same banana jack that was used on one of my meters.  I know this after the connector broke off at the PCB.  These are not through hole parts, they are surface mounted.  They are not surface mount parts either.  There is no gull wing like contact with the board, just the edge of the metal lead.  It's like surface mount soldering a through hole component without forming the leads.

[edsjac]

Taking another look:

There is more problem design on the ADC circuitry (third photo).
=> Components SMD soldered on top of other components. 

I see they use the same banana jack that was used on one of my meters.  I know this after the connector broke off at the PCB.  These are not through hole parts, they are surface mounted.  They are not surface mount parts either.  There is no gull wing like contact with the board, just the edge of the metal lead.  It's like surface mount soldering a through hole component without forming the leads.

There are a lot of other design problems with that PCB.
The hds200 PCB design is crap.

[tunk]

Here's another review (google translate from Russian):
https://5t4ggswx6el6seqrgrxnjoifc4-jj2cvlaia66be-mysku-ru.translate.goog/blog/china-stores/85072.html#mcut

[edsjac]

Hi guys, look at this:

It seems to be the same crap design of the Owon hds242.

=> Hanmatek HO52 50M

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005002339897106.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.21.4fd52c484gJfgX&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.13338.183346.0&scm_id=1007.13338.183346.0&scm-url=1007.13338.183346.0&pvid=e4bcb41e-d468-4a75-86bc-fd4c26951019&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.13338.183346.0,pvid:e4bcb41e-d468-4a75-86bc-fd4c26951019,tpp_buckets:668%230%23131923%2374_668%23888%233325%2319_3338%230%23183346%230_3338%233142%239890%236_668%232846%238107%231934_668%232717%237566%23872_668%231000022185%231000066058%230_668%233422%2315392%23845

Let's wait until someone to buy it and do a teardown.

Owon and Hanmatek have been using the same design for some instruments, such as the SDS1102 and DOS1102.