Dave, thanks for coming back and reporting you impressions, glad it lived up to expectations as there is still precious little review info out there.
Looking back at the notes I made when I linked my previous versions, I noted that 1.0.23 was stable for me, later versions have seemed to concentrate on breaking an then fixing features. I don't remember seeing any new features on later versions. My guess is that the later releases have been more to do with achieving some level of common code base with the newer, higher bandwidth models, I suspect that the VDS1022 was 'complete' by 1.0.23. I don't know anything else for sure though, and in the absence of any release notes... The only way to know for sure is to dig into the code.
I haven't experienced the zoom followed by hang on capture issued - not something I've done to be honest. My suspicion is that if you're getting into a situation where timebase changes and the stored waveform doesn't, then the scope and s/w are likely to end up with different understandings of what the timebase actually is! potentially causing the hang. Have you tried restoring the timebase setting to what it was for the previous capture?
I haven't done much with the versions since 1.0.23 apart from the 'breakages' I mentioned (the reason for archiving them!). Not because I've outgrown it - I just haven't spent much time in my lab.
Thanks for the info. So far I've not noticed anything new past 1.0.23 either.
I have tried setting the timebase back to the original capture before proceeding, and it still hangs. Very odd - even 5k points is worth being able to zoom in (my TDS210 has only 2.5k and I zoom in with it all the time).
I'd be curious to know if you can reproduce the issue - just do a capture, stop the scope, adjust horizontal to "zoom in", then just start the scope again. For me it hangs very often. 1.0.23 recovers quite quickly, but you will still see a reconnecting message ... just would like to confirm it's not something "special" about my scope/setup.
Dave
Sorry for my lethargy last night, I'm fighting a bit of an infection.
Odd, I had installed 1.0.30 when I saw it, but hadn't got as far as plugging in the VDS. I just tried it (1kHz cal, Ch1) and came up with some strange results. It auto triggered ok, but when I hit stop and then clicked on the timebase it crashed immediately and repeatably. For some reason single trace was greyed out too.
I uninstalled 1.0.30 and installed 1.0.29, tried exactly the same and it worked perfectly. Manual or single trigger, whatever timebase I zoomed to after stopping and restarting. Never flinched.
Thinking it was another introduced 'breakage' I was set to confirming it by re-installing 1.0.30 (uninstalling 1.0.29 first). To my surprise if now finding that 1.0.30 works perfectly too. I've tried it many times in succession with across a silly range of zooms / unzooms and it hasn't missed a beat.
The only differences I can think of are..
1. I did the first 1.0.30 installation 'cold', thinking I must get around to plugging in and checking that (in fact I had to use the install F/W option before it would see the VDS). I think it may actually have been a 'clean install' as I've only recently brought this laptop up. This time, I did all the uninstalls / reinstalls with the VDS still plugged in.
2. The VDS had a few minutes to warm up before I uninstalled 1.0.29
3. 1.0.29 might have left something in the registry that 1.0.30 needs?
This is all on Win7 SP1 64bit pro by the way.
You might want to check for USB supply voltage, but I'm pushing my luck with a 3m USB cable at the moment so that sounds unlikely. Maybe try a different port though.
Sorry I couldn't give you a definitive they broke it in Version xxxx.
P.S. Just to be clear, I haven't seen any reconnect message - I think you may indeed have a setup issue.
Very strange... I've tried it on four different systems now with exactly the same results.
I too am using Win7-64 Pro (and on some of the systems Win7-64 home).
I've tried the cable that came with it, as well as other cables.
I measure about 0.36 amps, which is well within the 500ma spec. for a single USB port, let alone the dual port configuration of the supplied cable.
I've tried installing the driver that is included with the software, and the one(s) posted on the OWON web site.
I have determined that the two things I'm observing are unrelated.
Inability to zoom in/out is intermittent on later versions (sometimes works) but almost always works on 1.0.23.
The disconnect occurs when I stop the scope, and does not relate to zooming.
Once I press the RUN/STOP button (Upper right, turns from PAUSE to PLAY when scope stops), about 10 seconds later I get the "USB device has disconnected" sound from windows.
This ONLY occurs if I STOP the scope. If I set it to "normal" trigger and don't trigger it (so no capturing going on), the disconnect problem does NOT occur.
If I have device manager open when the disconnect occurs, it refreshes, but the scope stays visible (assuming it's a very brief disconnect).
When I press RUN/STOP again to start the scope, after a couple of seconds, I get a message window at the top "Write content err. and disconnect X" (this is the same message you get it you pull the USB cable while running, followed by one saying "Choose USB port ... (clears too quickly to read all of it)", followed by one saying "Initializing..." (same as when scope starts) and the scope starts running. This is with 10.0.23 - later versions usually hang at this point.
Before I install the drivers, it shows as "USB device" under "Other devices", NOT as "Oscilloscope" is described in the OWON driver installation document.
Once installed, the scope shows as "USB device" under "libusb-win32 devices" as described in the document.
I have not found an "Install F/W" option in the software ... I note that each software release has a directory called "$_OUTDIR/fpga/vds1022" which contains a large .bin file - I thought this was the firmware for the scope and is auto-loaded during "Initializing..." Is there some other option to install Firmware on the scope?
The "Install USB driver" option accessed via the state indicator in the upper left does not work, it runs a batch file which fails with access violations. I installed the driver by going to the scope device with device manager, and manually selecting the USB driver directory - this is the procedure documented in OWON's "USB_Driver_Install_Guide _V1.3".
It's funny ... perhaps I got a bad one, but in all other respects it seems to work fine.
Dave