Author Topic: Any reviews or experience with this function generator (MHS-2300A)? (Read 55183 times)

listener192 · « **Reply #25 on:** February 01, 2014, 03:31:14 pm »

I was sent a supposedly later copy of the MHS-2300A operation manual however, it is no different to the first.

I have determined the Trace mode functions TF, TA, TD,link ch1 to ch2 for TF (frequency, TA (amplitude) or TD (duty cycle) settings. The trace mode ON/OFF in ch1 sync menu I have not figured out yet.

pomonabill221 · « **Reply #26 on:** February 01, 2014, 07:43:24 pm »

Nice looking piece.
I did notice that even on the ebay listing, the square wave and ramp displays show an undershoot/overshoot, just like you are experiencing!
The scope they are using doesn't seem to display the termination being used and they do spec the generator with a 50 ohm impedance.
Not too bad for $100 though... your teardown looks pretty good as well, with a huge ground plane! Good to see that, but wonder why the over/under shoot?
Kinda shows a impedance mismatch somewhere....

vivaT · « **Reply #27 on:** February 19, 2014, 09:21:03 pm »

I just ordered on of these and the software does exist for the Chinese market. Hope we can get it for the rest of the world as its not to bad looking :

betfe · « **Reply #28 on:** February 23, 2014, 12:01:44 am »

Hi!

I purchased a MHS-3200 and now like to send arbitrary waveforms to the device. I succeeded to make link with a USB cable via CoolTerm (Mac), but see no response from the device, for example when I send :01,r23,000 (which is requesting frequency on CH1).

I read in the thread that others have succeeded in talking to device.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Betfe

Siptu · « **Reply #29 on:** February 23, 2014, 12:52:44 pm »

download the software here: http://avbdeqlnbg.l6.yunpan.cn/lk/QEqZ5BiAS5hac#/-0

ValGlu · « **Reply #30 on:** February 23, 2014, 11:23:05 pm »

Did mirror MHS2300.zip 110 Mb
http://yadi.sk/d/jYggs3t_JRNbt

betfe · « **Reply #31 on:** February 24, 2014, 04:43:43 pm »

Thanks for this link.

I installed all software using Windows XP (as virtual machine on Max OS X). Still I'm not fully there, as the communication seems to be there (USB initialized as COM4) and information transmitted from application towards MHS2300, but I get no response from MHS2300 at all.

I'll try now to install the software on a 'real' windows machine and see what that will bring.

Betfe

betfe · « **Reply #32 on:** February 27, 2014, 09:56:24 pm »

Connection works on genuine Windows machine.

Thanks for your help!

Betfe

listener192 · « **Reply #33 on:** August 02, 2014, 11:47:18 am »

Hi,

Does anybody know what 2.4" TTF display is used in the MHS2300A?

I dropped a test lead on mine and cracked the screen.

Thanks

Barry

listener192 · « **Reply #34 on:** August 31, 2014, 12:08:05 pm »

For anybody that needs a new display for the MHS-2300A this is the item I found that did the job.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=16535477602

MrShhh · « **Reply #35 on:** October 29, 2014, 11:03:22 am »

I just bought one of these, it's pretty good for the money.

Has anyone worked out how to set the sweep frequency start and end points? The manual says the values must be put into Mem 01 but I can't get anything into or out of the memory and the mhs2300setup.exe is missing from the CD supplied.

PS the 2 software links above don't seem to work, has anybody got the mhs2300setup.exe file handy?

Thanks!

PlainName · « **Reply #36 on:** October 29, 2014, 12:54:12 pm »

Quote

can't get anything into or out of the memory

Can't check at the moment, but I think from the main page you select the channel then set the frequency and whatever, then scroll down two pages and select 'SWEP', select the modulation via the Smod button (F3), then hit save. After that you press Run and it does the job. Note that pressing run without hitting save doesn't do anything.

Ummm.. The start and end points... set the frequencies for channels 1 & 2 then from the main page select F5 (Mem) and on that page are the save/load buttons. Select memory 01 via the rotary knob, hit save, bosh.

I have the CD but it comes to about 120MB so won't pass many email filters. If you know of somewhere I can upload it I'm happy to do that.

MrShhh · « **Reply #37 on:** October 29, 2014, 01:21:11 pm »

Thanks very much

If i follow your instructions, the Frequency defaults to 42MHz (!!!) and starts sweeping sweeping upwards indefinitely. And when i save something to memory and then retrieve that same memory slot, it just says "empty". It seems like the firmware is corrupted or something.

I don't have anywhere to upload 120MB to just now, i'll see what i can do about that....

Ton · « **Reply #38 on:** November 20, 2014, 10:29:30 pm »

Hi

Just for information, the original manufacturer’s Web page is
http://www.mhinstek.com/

All in Chinese, but with google translate it works reasonable well
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://www.mhinstek.com/

looks like at least earlier they have been able to supply costumer service in English, to earlier posters
it might be worth a try

Ton

keithglos · « **Reply #39 on:** November 21, 2014, 08:38:38 pm »

Glad to see this thread is still going.

I bought a MHS2300a early 2014 branded "Spooky2", which is used for self administration of medical treatments.
The board is rev 321.c so may have modified firmware. I would estimate about 5000 of these sold worldwide.

The USB/serial interface is Silabs cp2102 which is powered from the USB, though the generator requires its power adaptor. Easy check for this is Microsoft stand alone .exe free download "USBview.exe" also from www.spooky2.com/forums.
Full free software controlling most functions is from www.spooky2.com, which uses only 57600 baud rate, changeable from the generator controls.

Can anyone tell me how to access the firmware, and if it is writeable?

Keith

rgarnett1923 · « **Reply #40 on:** January 19, 2015, 11:21:04 pm »

Bought one and got it just yesterday.

Great little instrument. User controls and display are excellent. Got it going without using the manual in about a minute. The manual for the instrument is very good if you do want to know more.

Had a bit of trouble installing the software from the CD as one of the directories had chinese characters. I removed these and everything installed perfectly.

Software is also very good, very easy to use even though there is no manual for this. RS232 over USB worked perfectly.

Arbitrary signal generation is good. It is very easy to create a signal in Matlab, export it as a csv file then load it into the software and then write it to the device. See attached file of a 20 point neuman multisine.

Only limitation is the small signal buffers (only 1024 points each), but this is not a major problem for most applications.

wieslaw · « **Reply #41 on:** January 22, 2015, 03:25:05 am »

Hello
I also bought recently that generator.
Looks good and works so far, although I was not as lucky as you were. My disk with the software is corrupted and can not install anything to connect this generator to PC.
The seller gave me link to manufacturer to download the software.
Very slow connection and had to try at least 10 times, before the file downloaded.
This file is corrupted in the same way and will not install.
Is there any way that one of you, having working copy of the software, can share it with me please?
Thank you,
Wieslaw

PlainName · « **Reply #42 on:** January 22, 2015, 10:48:32 am »

My previous offer stands: if you know of somewhere I can upload a ~100MB file I'd be happy to do so.

JJalling · « **Reply #43 on:** January 22, 2015, 11:10:35 am »

Quote from: dunkemhigh on January 22, 2015, 10:48:32 am

My previous offer stands: if you know of somewhere I can upload a ~100MB file I'd be happy to do so.

I can host the file if needed. You can contact me by mail or pm if you want.

BR Jonas

PlainName · « **Reply #44 on:** January 22, 2015, 12:57:50 pm »

You are a star - PM sent

JJalling · « **Reply #45 on:** January 22, 2015, 01:09:18 pm »

Quote from: dunkemhigh on January 22, 2015, 12:57:50 pm

You are a star - PM sent

Glad I can help! The file has been uploaded here:
http://eevblog.jalling.net/MHS2300.zip

To anyone wanting to download the file, don't hesitate to contact me in case of problems regarding the download.

BR Jonas

wieslaw · « **Reply #46 on:** January 22, 2015, 11:51:20 pm »

Thank all of you willing to help.
JJalling - your link works.
Program installed and works now. (no any problems)
Thank you so much

radupraznaglava · « **Reply #47 on:** March 31, 2015, 01:16:26 pm »

Hello
I also bought recently that generator, software version R2.87.
The device and the software works as expected.
Beware of settings Func/LRC. It must be OFF.
LRC is a checksum that 'Control Sofware' not generate.

Tested on following operating systems:
Windows XP/32
Windows 7/64
Windows 8.1 / 64 (virtual machine).

Maximum supported COM port speed is 57600.

Best Regards,
M.V.

idpromnut · « **Reply #48 on:** March 31, 2015, 04:08:44 pm »

Quote from: Pasky on January 28, 2014, 05:31:14 pm

I don't get a nice flat square wave, instead there is a sudden rise and then sudden drop, I'll post captures later, even at very low frequencies and amplitudes.

This looks a lot like "ringing" which can happen if there is too much capacitance on the output.

jkellers · « **Reply #49 on:** April 11, 2015, 08:50:05 pm »

Hi All,
I just bought the 5MHz function generator directly from China. It took 2 weeks for delivery. I had emailed with a Sales Engineer beforehand, and contact was OK. So I bought it despite that the fact that very little information is available over the internet.
The unit came with an USB cable, a CD (software and manual), 2 BNC to croco cables, and a US style power adapter (I am in Europe, but what the heck). So all OK.
Interface has 8 buttons and a rotary dial. It functions very intuitively. The software on the CD installed OK (you need to unpack the archive onto a separate stick, or so, for installation. Otherwise, the installer will not find files. You can download the pack also at http://www.mhinstek.com/down/html/?80.html -- Chinese page, but English software version). The core of it is a National Instruments Lab View module. Not fancy, but functional, clean and quick to understand. To get sorted on the basic functions was easy. For "specialties" like burst, sweep, frequency measurement it makes sense to look into the useful manual. FSK modulation I could not get to work, log sweeps are not possible though I found someplace that they should be. Arbitrary waveforms are very easy. You can draw by hand, or import a CSV form Excel.
How about signal quality? To put the following into perspective: In my previous life I used to work in an electrotechnical lab and operated all sorts of very expensive and high quality signal generators. Now I use a function generator only privately for hobby stuff. So I pay more attention to the bucks than for the bang. This said, I tested against a freshly calibrated Agilent Digitizing scope. I will only give qualitative impression here.
Stability was very good. As you may expect from a DDS generator the two channels are well linked to each other. Lissajous figure did not 'rotate' over time. Frequency I found accurate and stable. Output voltage I found almost 10% too low, but I could re-calibrate the device directly over the interface and the rotary dial (no trimmer poti needed). Afterwards I found voltage to be within a few percent for all frequencies, waveforms, duty cycles, and amplitudes. Distortion I did not check since for it is OK as long as a square looks like a square.
Conclusion: Good deal and perfect for my needs.
Best,
Jay


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Author Topic: Any reviews or experience with this function generator (MHS-2300A)? (Read 55183 times)

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