Siglent SDS2352X-E scopes

[Davy]

I was going to buy a SDS2352 but was put off by the 'sloppy wobbly' knobs on them, far too much play for my liking, are all the controls the same on all Siglent oscilloscopes?

Surely, there must be some better ones out there, all other brands can't be the same can they - any recommendations here please?

Dave

[tautech]

I was going to buy a SDS2352 but was put off by the 'sloppy wobbly' knobs on them, far too much play for my liking, are all the controls the same on all Siglent oscilloscopes?

Some encoder shaft play is normal in all modern equipment and while it seems disconcerting in reality problems and failures are nonexistent IME after handling 100's Siglents products over 9 years. 

You could save yourself a few pennies and get the SDS2202X-E and improve it however the 350 MHz probes shipped with a SDS2352X-E are certainly much nicer.

[Wimberleytech]

Speaking of this scope...I have one.  A little disappointed.
The thing decides to just lock up from time to time.  The only way out is to turn it off and then back on.

Anybody know of a workaround?

[FrancisM]

Hi,
Long time reader, first post.

I bought an SDS2352X-E two years ago for its lightweight and small form factor. I expected it to replace my Tek 2465B for troubleshooting out of the lab.
Like Wimberleytech, I'm somewhat disappointed by the way it behaves sometimes. It seems to happen when changing settings quickly, then all the knobs become inoperative.

Apart from that, nice litle scope.
I wish Siglent will have a more closer look at this issue.

Francis

[tautech]

Welcome to the forum.

When reporting bugs it's essential we also know the firmware version installed particularly if yours is 2 years old it should now be running FW 1.1.19R5.

To get a good picture for the engineers to address this you need make notes of what features you were using when any freeze occurred. Sometimes you can see a usage pattern emerge and that's really useful to get on top of unusual bugs.
Setting a User Default can be useful to regularly clear the scope of unnecessary settings that might be lurking in the background and impacting on performance.

[Wimberleytech]

Welcome to the forum.

When reporting bugs it's essential we also know the firmware version installed particularly if yours is 2 years old it should now be running FW 1.1.19R5.

To get a good picture for the engineers to address this you need make notes of what features you were using when any freeze occurred. Sometimes you can see a usage pattern emerge and that's really useful to get on top of unusual bugs.
Setting a User Default can be useful to regularly clear the scope of unnecessary settings that might be lurking in the background and impacting on performance.

I was running 1.1.17.  Today, I installed the latest version noted above.  However, I read the change notes and saw nothing of a bug fix for this issue.

In my most recent case, I left the scope on overnight.  Next morning it was locked up.  But I get your point (I am an engineer), without a repeated pattern, it is hard (impossible) to locate the problem.

I will try to capture the particular scenario that causes lockup.  I have a suspicion it may be related to cursors.

[FrancisM]

I can hear you Tautech.

If I never jumped in before, it's simply because I'm totally unable to tell you how to make the thing happen.
I tried to reproduce it on purpose but never succeded. It's so unfrequent and unexpected.
It happened first in the very early days while performing transistor curve tracing in XY mode. In this mode, the cursors aren't involved.
At the time, I wasn't used to this scope and overloaded the Y input. I just thoutgh it was that.

Since, I upgraded the FW at each release. It's now V1.1.19R5 and I had the issue at each of them.
Last time was last week while doing TDR on 50R cables I got from a friend. I loosed control but the curve on the screen was still refreshed.
There was no cursor or measurement active, but the buttons and encoders were no more responsive.

I will try to test further and harder.

All the best,
Francis

PS1: I thank you for your responsiveness and involvement on this board.
PS2: I'm a recent owner of an SDS2104X+, so you see, I'm confident.

[Analog4]

So has anyone had experience with the Siglent SDS2354X-E-plus?

[tautech]

So has anyone had experience with the Siglent SDS2354X-E-plus?

In what regard ?
Sold one a few weeks back and the 10x autosense 350 MHz probes that accompany it are very nice compared to the 200 MHz probes that are shipped with the 100 MHz SDS2104X Plus models otherwise they operate exactly like the 100 MHz models yet with the higher BW of course.

There's a few here with the 350 MHz models but most have been hacked and then to 500 the MHz BW upgrade option added as well.
Free option promo running on the Plus models currently:
https://int.siglent.com/info/detail-42.html
All about the Plus series here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds2000x-plus-coming/

[tautech]

So has anyone had experience with the Siglent SDS2354X-E-plus?

In what regard ?
Sold one a few weeks back and the 10x autosense 350 MHz probes that accompany it are very nice compared to the 200 MHz probes that are shipped with the 100 MHz SDS2104X Plus models otherwise they operate exactly like the 100 MHz models yet with the higher BW of course.

There's a few here with the 350 MHz models but most have been hacked and then to 500 the MHz BW upgrade option added as well.
Free option promo running on the Plus models currently:
https://int.siglent.com/info/detail-42.html
All about the Plus series here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds2000x-plus-coming/

Analog4, I should add the only things in common between SDS2000X-E and SDS2000X Plus are the manufacturer and the 2 GSa/s sampling rate as the Plus series are entirely 'next level' with the newer UI and 10" touch and mouse capable display plus a host of more features as well.

[Wimberleytech]

Locked up again today.  Just idling and being monitored via wifi.  Walked away to work on other things...came back in 4-5 hours and it is non responsive.

When it locks up, all you can do is unplug it.

BTW, in my 45 yrs using scopes...never had a Tek scope lock up.  I want to believe in Siglent...I own three of their pieces of test equipment.

[tautech]

Locked up again today.  Just idling and being monitored via wifi.  Walked away to work on other things...came back in 4-5 hours and it is non responsive.

When it locks up, all you can do is unplug it.

OK, approximate total ON running time ?

[Wimberleytech]

Locked up again today.  Just idling and being monitored via wifi.  Walked away to work on other things...came back in 4-5 hours and it is non responsive.

When it locks up, all you can do is unplug it.

OK, approximate total ON running time ?

Since the last lockup...maybe four days or so.  I let it run for long periods (if you turn it off, it loses the wifi settings).

[tautech]

Locked up again today.  Just idling and being monitored via wifi.  Walked away to work on other things...came back in 4-5 hours and it is non responsive.

When it locks up, all you can do is unplug it.

OK, approximate total ON running time ?

Since the last lockup...maybe four days or so. 

Ok thanks, will report.

I let it run for long periods (if you turn it off, it loses the wifi settings).

That certainly shouldn't happen.
When you go set the IP do you have DHCP turned OFF before you hit Save ?

[FrancisM]

Funny thing I discovered today.
Use a single trace
Set mem depth to the max : 28M
Set horizontal scale to 5ms/div
Look at the current memory depth :


And when saving to binary, I get my 35M bytes on the stick.
Do we have that much on board ? 

Francis

[Wimberleytech]

That certainly shouldn't happen.
When you go set the IP do you have DHCP turned OFF before you hit Save ?

OK, I think this was a 'user' error. 
When I turned it on today, all settings were correct.