OWON VDS1022I Quick Teardown (versus the Hantek 6022be)

[Gyro]

Just adding a link to a thread on the use and timing of the trigger output from the other day, which might otherwise get lost...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/owon-vds1022i-trigger-out/

[indman]

Florentbr has done a very great job of improving the software and has released a new version 1.1.1 of cf13!
It's a nice gift from him for the New Year's holidays.
Gyro,in the new 1.1.1 of cf13 the icons in the main menu have changed their size! Have you experienced this version yet? Will you be updating your set of beautiful icons?

[Anthocyanina]

I'm having this issue with the last few versions from florentbr. When i open it on ubuntu 20.04, it opens in a strange position on the screen, and i have to drag it to another monitor which is above and to the left of the monitor it opens in so that i can position it properly on the screen. Anyone else having a similar issue? thank you!

[Gyro]

Gyro,in the new 1.1.1 of cf13 the icons in the main menu have changed their size! Have you experienced this version yet? Will you be updating your set of beautiful icons?

Hi Leon, I haven't used the new version in anger yet, but I have installed it next to the previous one. I have to say that I mostly like the new icons that Florent is coming up with - the trigger is better (closer in understandability to mine - I never liked the silly Owon lightning bolt), the Save/Pin is very clear now too. I'm not as keen on the new Display (too thick) and Mark Cursor ones compared to the previous version though.

He has achieved a good consistent 'theme' though - It always bugged me that I changed the Owon ones that I simply couldn't stand (or understand in isolation) but, while they were more colourful, there was no consistency between them.

I may have a go at editing the icons again, but while Florent is coming up with new variations, there seems less point. I'll be sure to post any tweaked ones that I come up with, but I haven't seen how the new ones look in a bitmap editor yet, so don't hold your breath. I may just try brightening them up with a bit more colour. I'm not seeing anything there that I can't live with (unlike some of the Owon originals, and it feels a bit 'picky' for me to be making small cosmetic changes while Florent is putting in all the hard work.

[Gyro]

I'm having this issue with the last few versions from florentbr. When i open it on ubuntu 20.04, it opens in a strange position on the screen, and i have to drag it to another monitor which is above and to the left of the monitor it opens in so that i can position it properly on the screen. Anyone else having a similar issue? thank you!

Sorry, I can't offer anything in the way of linux observations, but I wouldn't hold back on posting an issue on florentbr's github page. He is very responsive, and worst (best?) case, it can simply be understood and closed.

[indman]

I corrected some errors in Russian translation of menu items, as well as in the list of hotkeys in the new 1.1.1 of cf13. I also upgraded icons Run-Stop,AutoSet,SingleTrigger with 48x48 resolution to the ones I like better. For those who want to get these changes,I attach ready-made archive owon-vds-tiny-1.1.1-cf13.jar. It must be written in place of the original one from florentbr.

[Gyro]

Good to see your effort on the translations.

I had completely forgotten about the Autoset / Run / Single icons (I was looking at the Menu ones). Your changes reminded me what I had previously changed them to. Your new ones look much better. 

[indman]

Florentbr has once again delighted released a new version 1.1.1 of cf14!

[yoga]

Good to see your effort on the translations.

That reminded me to thank you for all the efforts you had put into this oscilloscope tear down that became a gamechanger for me.
I have no engineering or electrician background even though I did my own solar power roof , so I rely on the opinions and arguments of others what might fit best for me.
I had a budget limit of 60€ and wanted a Hantek 6022BE, but ordered a 6022BL, did my first connection with hscope on a 4 year old tabled running android 6 and achieved my first callibration and the first 230 V measurement with a dedicated x100 probe as you had recommended it in several topics about the non i version and others. But it went wrong cause I did not get the sine wave I was looking for, but jumping values from 2V to 241V without any clue until I asked myself why those voltages jumped up and down without any real graph except short lines up and down. And then I got it: the Hantek 6022 series did not even support ac coupling which even chip diy handheld oscilloscope did and I could not believe.

From that moment I was sure I had to sell the new Hantek and get a Owon instead, even though not willing to go for the 1022i and its 20€ higher price. But finally after fidling around with the 220 measurement where I had taped one connection to avoid any short I thought I had to go the 1022i route. Was a long and winding road to get all the knowledge what x10 and x100 probe really mean and how it would work, also the question of android and app support, how to connect, calibrate and power such device till I ordered the Hantek and held it in my hand. Main purpose is to check cheap chinese solar inverters for pure sine wave quality after I had gotten 2 bad ones claiming to have pure sine inverters which are modified sine inverters with a 4 or 5 step sine wave in each direction. Works, but we had issues and 2 new TV (about 3 year old) died recently without a cause except that the solar power connection is quite close to that outlet where the TV plug gets the power from.
And the bigger part should be the RC model area especially flight controller and bus signals .

So thanks a lot for sharing the idea and helping others to get safely into the hobby.

[Gyro]

Speaking for myself, and hopefully for the others, it has been a fun learning experience doing a teardown and analysis of a (then) new piece of hardware, and helping others to understand its strengths and limitations. While we have helped to improve the S/W in some ways, most credit must go to Florentbr (who isn't a forum member) for his major efforts to re-write and add many features to the S/W.

[yoga]

Yes, that is also true and easy overlooked too as I had also overlooked the age of the topic: 7 years ago you did that

I mean it needs someone to create the critical mass and to bring a stone into the rolling as we have a saying.
That is what you achieved cause others picked up the essentials of what you had found out: good hardware, software might need some more care

and Florentin was one of them as maybe Martin Loren for the hscope app on the android version which I use cause I had a good, but 5 yaar 8 inch pure android 6 tablet laying aorund with a high res screen - and within a second it got his second or better 3rd life and usage once I had plugged in the micro USB adapter I had laying around from Pi Zero projects and as smartphone  otg adapter for USB storages.

Finally Thundertronics made a yt review of the vds1022i starting from the very beginning and first steps for beginners which is also very helpfull for all those new coming into electronics, especially those who are new into solar power, solar generators and the quality of the pure sine waves many chinese claim to have but are modified ones. That was my route into getting one cause otherwise I would only have gotten such OSD 150 from JYE tech or a 50€ handheld one for my RC hobby to get into the flight controler and servo outputs.

Here is a link to the detailed review and how to use it for beginners especially for those who will read along these 700 comment long topic.

For those like you most likely old stuff but for me the best source to make my decision after I had purchased a hantek 6022BL that worked with hscope pretty well but not with ac cause it has no ac coupling. Not a big deal cause I will sell it easily to someone else having it here inside the EU, but I had lost time and now went even further for the VDS1022i instead of the non isolated 20€ cheaper one.
thx again

But I have one question you might be able to answer: wasn't that scope back in 2014 or so a lot ahead of the whole competition considering that it still stays on the top of the competition spec wise ?
And do you know about hardware iterations and improvements over those 7 or 9 year long production lifecycle ?

[indman]

yoga,The link to the video of VEGETA is from its on the previous page(26).There are not many in this thread and it is not difficult to read it carefully, so as not to repeat it several times same thing.

[Gyro]

But I have one question you might be able to answer: wasn't that scope back in 2014 or so a lot ahead of the whole competition considering that it still stays on the top of the competition spec wise ?
And do you know about hardware iterations and improvements over those 7 or 9 year long production lifecycle ?

Yes, it's fairly unusual for a product to last that long in the market, although I think the Hantek 6022 and Rigol desktop scope have had similar lifespans (certainly I referenced the 6022 in the original post). Bench PSUs for instance, have changed a lot (mainly for the smps worse) in that time.

We know a reasonable amount about the hardware changes over the years. Mine is a very early one, with quite a few hand mods, it used a switching regulator for the negative analogue supply rail rather than the later linear one (which may account for it having a lower supply current than others have reported). It is also the only one that doesn't have a connection between the case and the probe grounds, it also has a dedicated sync decoder for analogue video - fairly redundant these days.

Later revisions then added copper foil to make the case ground connection to the input shielding cans and linear -ve regulator (strangely, from traces that others have posted, neither of these changes seems to have changed the noise levels on the most sensitive ranges). Later still, the case grounding was done by naked traces along the edges of the PCB. At some point, the dedicated video sync decoder was removed and the functionality included in the FPGA.

Most recent of all seems to be a change in FPGA manufacturer. I'm don't know whether this was due to cost of supply issues. I think Florentbr is the only one who really knows about that one as he included images for both in his recent releases, you can find a bit more detail in one of the closed issues on his Github S/W page. That is the only change that is tied down to a specific Serial Number range. The other historic changes (while they are probably tied to S/N, and certainly PCB revision) are less well defined.

Hantek seem to have concentrated on keeping the 6022 as cheap as possible during this time, I don't know what cost reductions they have introduced, but it still doesn't have AC coupling and relies on the PC S/W and USB speed for it's triggering functions. The 6022 thread (referenced in my original post) shows the inventiveness of owners, including the OpenHantek S/W and add-on switchable input coupling implementations, but I haven't followed the thread closely.


P.S. The FPGA image has gone through a few versions over the years, presumably bug fixes or performance improvements - Owon are hopeless at documenting changes!

[common_ground]

New version 1.1.1 of cf15  - from Florentbr.

added :
noise filtering ( very good )
improved FFT
etc.

works on linux great.

Thanks Florentbr.

[Gyro]

Wow, Florent really seems to be pushing the boat out on useful new features! I wasn't expecting to see another update for quite some time yet.

Installed correctly on Win7 X64.

Thank you Florent.

[horo]

I had a budget limit of 60€ and wanted a Hantek 6022BE, but ordered a 6022BL, did my first connection with hscope on a 4 year old tabled running android 6 and achieved my first callibration and the first 230 V measurement with a dedicated x100 probe as you had recommended it in several topics about the non i version and others. But it went wrong cause I did not get the sine wave I was looking for, but jumping values from 2V to 241V without any clue until I asked myself why those voltages jumped up and down without any real graph except short lines up and down. And then I got it: the Hantek 6022 series did not even support ac coupling which even chip diy handheld oscilloscope did and I could not believe.

You do not need AC coupling if you measure a pure AC signal like 230V mains, it is only needed if the signal has a big DC offset. With a x100 probe the 230V AC will result in a 2.3V AC signal at the scope (this is a sine wave going from -3.1V up to +3.1V what can easily displayed with the 6022 out of the box. You have to connect the GND of the probe to N or even more safe to PE. I also did mains measurements with 6022BE and hscope with my DIY 1:100 attenuator, I did also the same measurement with OpenHantek6022, see screenhot on github:
https://github.com/OpenHantek/OpenHantek6022/blob/main/docs/images/screenshot_mainwindow.png

And nevertheless, if AC coupling is needed you can either use a simple DC breaker or do my AC modification that is also supported by OpenHantek6022: https://github.com/OpenHantek/OpenHantek6022/blob/main/docs/HANTEK6022_AC_Modification.pdf

[Gyro]

You do not need AC coupling if you measure a pure AC signal like 230V mains, it is only needed if the signal has a big DC offset. With a x100 probe the 230V AC will result in a 2.3V AC signal at the scope (this is a sine wave going from -3.1V up to +3.1V what can easily displayed with the 6022 out of the box. You have to connect the GND of the probe to N or even more safe to PE. I also did mains measurements with 6022BE and hscope with my DIY 1:100 attenuator, I did also the same measurement with OpenHantek6022, see screenhot on github:
https://github.com/OpenHantek/OpenHantek6022/blob/main/docs/images/screenshot_mainwindow.png

And nevertheless, if AC coupling is needed you can either use a simple DC breaker or do my AC modification that is also supported by OpenHantek6022: https://github.com/OpenHantek/OpenHantek6022/blob/main/docs/HANTEK6022_AC_Modification.pdf

You should never connect the probe ground clip of a scope to mains Neutral. This is a dangerous practice which could cause a serious accident. With the Hantek 6022, there is no USB isolation, which means that any potential difference between N and PE will pass through the ground lead, USB connection and PC PE ground connection. While this potential difference should be small in a properly wired installation, if there are high current loads on the circuit, it could be capable of sourcing large currents though the above loop, due to resistive drop in the Neutral conductor between the distribution panel and the load. Small voltage difference doesn't automatically mean low current in this low impedance situation.

Even with the USB Isolated VDS1022I, connecting the ground clip to Neutral isn't safe. If accidentally mis-connected, it could cause the casing to become live (clips can slip too), and potential damage if the other probe clip is connected to PE. The USB isolation will protect the PC USB port, but not the user touching the case or probe clip.

Connecting the ground clip to PE is safe as long as the mains installation is safely wired and the connection secure (clips can slip).

The proper solution for scoping mains is either a high voltage differential probe or an isolating transformer, but whatever you do, you should never attach a probe ground clip to mains Neutral.

[Gyro]

Just a note that Owon S/W V1.1.3 is now available on their website... http://files.owon.com.cn/software/pc/OWON_VDS_C2_Setup.zip

I haven't tried it, but have noted that this now contains five FPGA firmware images, so may be relevant to owners of very recent units if they are not behaving as expected.

[ajlenze]

Florent has released a new version (1.1.3-cf16) of his alternative (some may say better) VDS1022 software (https://github.com/florentbr/OWON-VDS1022).  I tested it on two Linux (Xubuntu) machines and one Windows machine, with four brand new VDS1022s and one old one.  It works perfectly!  Wow, that was quick!

A.J.

[Gyro]

He doesn't hang about! 

Thanks Florent.

[ajlenze]

Now that all my new VDS1022s work great, what's the next logical step.  Tear them apart, of course!  So I took one of my new unit apart - two screws, it's probably the easiest teardown imaginable - and sure enough, it's a brand new PCB, labeled VDS1022_2.2 2021.08.18.  I took pictures of both the top and bottom, in case they'll interest anyone.

A.J.

[Gyro]

That's interesting, it's good to see a latest version in the flesh., thanks for undoing those screws!

Just some observations...

- The board looks nice and clean, you used to get flux residues and fingerprints. I can't see any bodges... ah, it looks like they've bodged an extra (or bigger) capacitor next to U20.

- They've switched to a GOWIN FPGA. The originals were XILINX but I've no idea what the three intervening ones were. I hope, for Florent's sake, that they've stocked up on them this time!

- They're still using the same PCB for I and non-I versions. The isolated DC-DC converter footprint is different to the early versions though. I wonder what they use now (useful to know in case somebody wants to upgrade to the I version). They've also beefed up the optional (non-I) zero ohm resistors bridging the ground planes on the bottom of the board, maybe for improved EMC performance (or possibly, signal integrity).

- There's now a nice clearly marked JTAG header footprint. I notice there's also an unmarked header footprint on the opposite side of the FPGA.

- They've added an unpopulated push-button footprint, probably Reset for debug use?

- There's a new 3 pin through-hole connector footprint near the input regulators, maybe external power during development. [EDIT: No, duplicate serial port connector]

- It's interesting that, after all these versions, they've still retained the footprints for the serial interface. I wonder if they ever used it. [EDIT: Well, if they've added a duplicate connector, they must do during development]

- They've put the dedicated Video Sync decoder IC back, I thought they'd cost-reduced that out. Otherwise they analogue side looks the same, if it ain't broke...

- The Analogue -VE rail regulator is still a linear one. My early version has a switching regulator, with a lot of bodgery around it (I think it has lower overall USB supply current though).

[Mihail]

Great oscilloscope.
It is a pity that there is no software for android.

[Gyro]

I've just noticed that Florent has released a new version of his alternative VDS1022 software. It now includes full screen X-Y mode, plus some fixes for later units...  https://github.com/florentbr/OWON-VDS1022

Thanks Florent!

[Anthocyanina]

I've just noticed that Florent has released a new version of his alternative VDS1022 software. It now includes full screen X-Y mode, plus some fixes for later units...  https://github.com/florentbr/OWON-VDS1022

Thanks Florent!

Thanks Gyro for continuously updating this thread each time Florent updates the github repo 

About the full screen XY display, I don't see an option, but it looks like this now, instead of the XY part being at the top left. Is this what's meant by full screen? thank you!