Siglent SDS2000X Plus

[Martin72]

From the specsheet.

[nctnico]

Because you can get 50 ppb for 25 dollars. Which is 20x better. Scopes aren't very good at vertical accuracy so really good horizontal accuracy can be exploited for measurements if you get clever. 1 ppm is okay, my regular scope at work is 20 ppb. You have a rise time at 500 MHz of about 700 ps, but you only know the time axis to 1 us/s. That's sort of boarder line if you are trying to find the time between pulses that occur slowly which is something people do when say counting signal photons arrival times in labs. There are plenty of other examples out there where what you care about is time not amplitude and for that just 20-50 dollars extra on the BOM can improve performance by 20-50x what this unit has.

What you on scope need is low jitter. Absolute timing error of 1 ppm on timebase set to 1us is 1ps. Unless you sample at 1 terasamples/s, that is not a problem..
You measure precision  time intervals with precision time interval counters, not with inexpensive advanced entry level scopes. That Lecroy (I'm going to presume) you talk about buys you cheap apartment....

Sometimes you need the height and the delta of pulses. The scope I'm referencing has a OCXO, it is an RTO2000. Its worth something like 60,000.

The question is whether such low phase noise does you any good. The absolute trigger jitter makes it hard to resolve pico seconds anyway and the Siglent has a digital trigger which focusses the crossings in 1 point and thus smears out the pulses allover the place. All in all you don't really need an extremely stable. low noise oscillator in an oscilloscope. Anything which contributes less than a few ps of uncertainty over a time span of 1us is good enough.

[drwho9437]

It really depends if you need the absolute time and height of two pulses to continue my example. Consider if an energetic particle hits a detector where the pulse height/area is a function of the energy deposited and I need to know the arrival time of the two pulses (as well as the areas). I can't really do that with a frequency counter because the height might be small (and dispersion might change the area/shape relative to the height) for one energy and large for another. If the accuracy of the time base is 1 ppm, then I know the time scale on the bottom to a fractional accuracy of 1/1000000. In the case of this scope given the sample length is only 200 Mpts, and the sample rate is 2 GSPS, then we have 1/10th of a second maximum capture length.

This means the time precision is about 1000 times better than the accuracy. If you captured a correlation between two pulses with two of these scopes exactly at the limit of their memory then the error in time could be as large as 200 ns between the two scopes in the 1/10 of a second. That's a shift of of about 400 samples between the two units if they are at the opposite extrema of their spec. If however their clocks were calibrated to 20 ppb, then it would only be 8 samples.

In truth the absolutely accuracy is less important in most cases than the stability. If you look at this decay process that's generating these particles again and again, the arrival times can be averaged though still not captured by a simple timer/counter unless you build a custom discriminator for the experiment. This is why the short term stability is important. It really just depends what you are doing with the scope. I do scientific measurements all day, both at home and at work. These tools aren't generally designed for us as we have weird corner cases but generally link all my instrument's 10 MHz inputs to a master when doing time correlated measurements and care about absolute time accuracy.

Anyway you cannot expect all instruments to be class leading, I get that, but it is possible to get better time bases than what is in most scopes for not very much money.

[Martin72]

I think, this "problem" or task example won´t touch any sds2000x+ user...but nice to know though.

[tautech]

Alternative ways to 'skin this cat' worthy of some study and thought:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/the-_official_-siglent-sds1202x-e-thread/msg1262719/#msg1262719
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds1000x-series-oscilloscopes/msg1182630/#msg1182630

[TK]

I received my scope today. Three days after ordering from Germany. Excellent service. Sadly Miyagi's update method did not work. I get a refused connection when I try to TELNET in with Putty. The scope can see the startup.sh file that has the telnetd but I dont think its reading it on startup. Any thoughts?

Did you pay any import duties to DHL?

[thinkfat]

Don´t forget to post your experiences with your new siglent - Any comment from a real owner would be useful.. 

Looks like, if all goes to plan, I'll have an SDS2104X+ delivered by DHL in the next few hours!

And does it arrive ?

No, the delivery was rescheduled, to after the holidays

Arrived late afternoon today. Not unboxed yet.

[stafil]

Can you use the hack to upgrade the 2 channel version to 4 channels? The hardware is there, isn't it?

[TK]

Can you use the hack to upgrade the 2 channel version to 4 channels? The hardware is there, isn't it?

It looks like the 2 channel version only has 2 inputs.

[stafil]

Can you use the hack to upgrade the 2 channel version to 4 channels? The hardware is there, isn't it?

It looks like the 2 channel version only has 2 inputs.  https://www.saelig.com/product/sds2102x-plus.htm

Oh, thanks.. I was looking at https://siglentna.com/product/sds2102x-plus/

[douggoldberg]

A bill has not arrived for duties yet.

[drwho9437]

DHL's website seemed to suggest they would not deliver it until duties were paid if there were going to be any. Maybe others have had more experience with importing such things, but that is how I read it.

https://www.dhl.com/en/express/customs_support/duties_taxes/duties_taxes_receivers.html

3rd from last and 2nd from last bullets.

[tautech]

DHL's website seemed to suggest they would not deliver it until duties were paid if there were going to be any. Maybe others have had more experience with importing such things, but that is how I read it.

https://www.dhl.com/en/express/customs_support/duties_taxes/duties_taxes_receivers.html

3rd from last and 2nd from last bullets.

Yeah that's how they roll for me on the odd occasion I bring a single unit into NZ. Just call their help line with the tracking # and a credit card handy.

You can search their site with the tracking # and see each time it's scanned and normally it gets flagged if there's any import charges due. If they have your info on the shipping label they might even get in touch instead of needing to hunt them out. They might require proof of purchase so have a pdf of the invoice handy too.

[thinkfat]

Don´t forget to post your experiences with your new siglent - Any comment from a real owner would be useful.. 

Looks like, if all goes to plan, I'll have an SDS2104X+ delivered by DHL in the next few hours!

And does it arrive ?

No, the delivery was rescheduled, to after the holidays

Arrived late afternoon today. Not unboxed yet.

Unboxing done, it's now on my bench replacing the venerable Rigol DS1054Z. I really like the industrial design, it looks way more professional than the "Chinese Baroque" of the Rigol.

Playing around with the FFT right now. Overall a very nice instrument.

[TK]

DHL's website seemed to suggest they would not deliver it until duties were paid if there were going to be any. Maybe others have had more experience with importing such things, but that is how I read it.

https://www.dhl.com/en/express/customs_support/duties_taxes/duties_taxes_receivers.html

3rd from last and 2nd from last bullets.

My experience with DHL is that they put packages on hold if there is outstanding custom duties and you receive a call from the local office to settle payment before package is delivered.  UPS and Fedex deliver the packages and then they send you the invoice.

[douggoldberg]

No bill has arrived from DHL. I've had the scope since Friday. I really like this instrument. Going to try some Bode plots of an amplifier using the sig gen. So far its a gem.

[thinkfat]

No bill has arrived from DHL. I've had the scope since Friday. I really like this instrument. Going to try some Bode plots of an amplifier using the sig gen. So far its a gem.

Maybe there's no customs duties, but I'd make sure that you're not responsible personally to pay some sales tax or VAT in your country...

Since you mention Bode plots - I have a Siglent Wavegen that's craving to be hooked up to the scope

[stafil]

Looks like welectron is out of stock,  SDS2000X Plus is becoming as scarce as toilet paper

[thinkfat]

Batronix had stock when I looked a week ago.

[jemangedeslolos]

Still in stock at Batronix. Im so close to order one just for testing 

For DHL, I always have to pay before the delivery. So it seems that someone got a good deal 
With coronavirus, there may be holes in customs.

[stafil]

Batronix had stock when I looked a week ago.

Do they have an EEVblog discount?

[Martin72]

Don´t know, but you got the possibility to add a coupon code.
Welectron disclaim to have it on 17.04. on stock again.

[thinkfat]

Dear Easter Bunny...

[Martin72]

 

He´s loving colouring the eggs...

[tautech]

Dear Easter Bunny...

Not thank you Easter Bunny ?