GDS-2000A series New economic oscilloscope by GW Instek comes to market

[grego]

Gonna have to try it with my old Sony MiniDV camera.  My wifes compact video camera is blurry as all hell for the close up shots.

[marmad]

@Greg:

I theorized in another thread that perhaps the reason most of the new DSOs with fast update rates (Rigol UltraVision, Agilent InfiniiVision X, R&S RTO, etc) don't seem to be implementing ALT trigger mode is either to maintain their wfrm/s speeds - or perhaps as an implementation difficulty that arises from using digital triggers. Since the GDS-2000A series seems to be one of the few (or maybe the only one?) that still includes this feature, I wondered if perhaps for your video (or even just as a written post here) you could do a single test?

Set the scope to any timebase you want (maybe 500ns is good since it's the fastest) and check the waveform update rate first with 2 channels and any normal single trigger (Edge, Pulse, etc) - and then with 2 channels using the ALT trigger mode.

I'd be very curious to see if the results shed any light on this issue.

[bonanz]

i would really love to see your video.

I was this close to finally pulling the trigger on a DS2102 and then saw this thread and the Instek GDS-2104A now looks very interesting to me... i like the 4 channels...

i really like the funcgen module, but it seems to not be able to load arbs...but then i saw the news of the 2000-s which marmad was thinking it appears it may be able to load arbs...

also, i think at some point i'd want to add a logic analyzer and the instek has that capability, and then i see the rigol 2000s with unused button holes and conspiracy theories and dreams of hacking up a scope run wild in my mind...

i love the work marmad has done with his remote software...that alone is almost a selling point for the rigol... uggh... now i'm all messed up...

back on topic.  VIDEO PLEASE grego  even blurry without hollywood lighting and makeup would be fantastic as long as your voice sounds like morgan freeman as you give your impressions of the instek

[Hydrawerk]

Well, have you seen these videos? https://www.youtube.com/user/gwinstek1975/videos?view=0&flow=grid

https://www.youtube.com/user/ITTSBEurope?feature=watch
bonanz Consider buying the GW Instek if there is a subsidiary near to your home. There is no GW Instek subsidiary in Europe, for example. http://www.gwinstek.com/en/globalsite.aspx

[bonanz]

thanks for those links, i had seen some, but not all of them. I take every demo stuff by the producing company with a slight grain of salt.  I'm curious about some of the signal processing stuf like FFT amongst other user impressions

[grego]

I'm trying!  I got some video shot with my old Sony DCR-PC100 (mini-DV tapes FTW!) but it's pretty crappy.  I'm still trying to assemble something while I scamper around looking for something that can do more high definition.

@marmad I'll give that a try Sunday or Monday - I'm going to be out all day tomorrow so won't be able to poke at it.

On the flip side guys - if you are in the US the support has been FANTASTIC from Instek.  Couldn't ask for me.  I found a crash bug, notified their regional folks and they got it through to the engineers already to verify and (hopefully) patch soon.

Also, they seem to like what I'm doing -- I mentioned on my blog I was waiting for a DG4062 and they offerred to send me an AFG-3081 to check out instead!  Mind you it's not a fair comparison - the 3081 is a $2700 list AFG and the DG, even at the "high" end is $1300.  I'm not really set up to review equipment here but I might have to anyway.  I was just doing the 'scope as a community contribution more than anything.

@bonanz if you only need a 2 channel scope I can't argue with the Rigol - it's a fantastic piece of kit.  If you want 4 channels though and like the idea of the MSO option the Instek is pretty damn good.  Don't go for the func-gen though as it sucks currently.  I don't even know why they have it.  5Mhz, and only does square, sine and triangle.  It's a waste of an expansion port if you ask me.  I have the LA16 on order right now and should get it next week so I'll be able to poke around with that as well.

[marmad]

@marmad I'll give that a try Sunday or Monday - I'm going to be out all day tomorrow so won't be able to poke at it.

Thanks, Greg. Looking forward to any/all info you report about the DSO. BTW, as long as you're in communication with GW-Instek, perhaps you can push them to actually start actively distributing their products in the EU (and I'd be more than happy to review anything they might lend me). 

Mark

[Hydrawerk]

Well, it's easy to buy a GW instek product in Europe or Czech Republic... But what would the support be like? You can buy at http://www.trinstruments.cz/stolni-osciloskopy or http://eshop.micronix.cz/merici-technika/elektricke-veliciny/osciloskopy/digitalni/stolni?page=8

[Hydrawerk]

GW Instek published an user manual for the plug-in function generator module. It's quite poor. Really basic. Even the WAVEGEN in my DSOX-2002A is much more advanced. Check the attached PDF.
There is in the manual:

Note:
Even though it is possible to install two function
generator modules, only one function generator
option can be used at any one time.

There is no way to have a two-channel function generator. The two BNCs at the front panel are only for fun. You will not get signal from both of them at the same time. 

[marmad]

Well, it's easy to buy a GW instek product in Europe or Czech Republic... But what would the support be like? You can buy at http://www.trinstruments.cz/stolni-osciloskopy or http://eshop.micronix.cz/merici-technika/elektricke-veliciny/osciloskopy/digitalni/stolni?page=8

This is meaningless - of course I know you can buy Instek in Europe; you can buy almost anything anywhere in the world. For a company to actively pursue sales somewhere is something totally different.

GW Instek published an user manual for the plug-in function generator module. It's quite poor. Really basic.

Dude, seriously? You are re-posting basically the same information that an actual owner of the DSO posted 2 messages before! These threads are long enough without repeating stuff that was just posted.

Don't go for the func-gen though as it sucks currently.  I don't even know why they have it.  5Mhz, and only does square, sine and triangle.  It's a waste of an expansion port if you ask me.  I have the LA16 on order right now and should get it next week so I'll be able to poke around with that as well.

[Hydrawerk]

OK, we all know that the function generator is probably basic, but till 11th April 2013 there was no specification published. There was no closer information. Grego didn't say a word about the PDF published.

[grego]

@Greg:

I theorized in another thread that perhaps the reason most of the new DSOs with fast update rates (Rigol UltraVision, Agilent InfiniiVision X, R&S RTO, etc) don't seem to be implementing ALT trigger mode is either to maintain their wfrm/s speeds - or perhaps as an implementation difficulty that arises from using digital triggers. Since the GDS-2000A series seems to be one of the few (or maybe the only one?) that still includes this feature, I wondered if perhaps for your video (or even just as a written post here) you could do a single test?

Set the scope to any timebase you want (maybe 500ns is good since it's the fastest) and check the waveform update rate first with 2 channels and any normal single trigger (Edge, Pulse, etc) - and then with 2 channels using the ALT trigger mode.

I'd be very curious to see if the results shed any light on this issue.

So I went and tried it this evening.  With multiple channels up, single trigger, no matter what kind of trigger I was using (edge, pulse, timeout, etc) and no matter what channel I selected it was consistently at 80k wfm/s @ 500ns.  Turn on alt triggering and things started getting a little wonky.  To be honest my picoscope couldn't figure it out frequency-wise so I don't have any "numbers" to display.

So to sum up - single trigger, no matter what kind and no matter how many channels, I was getting 80k wfm/s.  ALT triggering and I don't have a good answer, but I can say that it didn't appear to be nearly as quick just based on visual reference.

[marmad]

So to sum up - single trigger, no matter what kind and no matter how many channels, I was getting 80k wfm/s.  ALT triggering and I don't have a good answer, but I can say that it didn't appear to be nearly as quick just based on visual reference.

Thanks, Greg! So, it appears that using the ALT mode probably significantly reduces the wfrm/s;  which is no problem - as long as you're aware of the tradeoff - but might deter some manufacturers of fast update rate DSOs from including it, which is a pity.

[tequipment]

2000A is new but someone off EEVblog did buy one from me if not more than 1 person.
Thanks
Evan Cirelli

TEquipment.NET

[grego]

2000A is new but someone off EEVblog did buy one from me if not more than 1 person.
Thanks
Evan Cirelli

TEquipment.NET

Yep that was me.  If you're in the US folks tequipment was great for it - got it out to me quick.  No complaints about service or pricing.  And no, I'm not a shill - it really was painless and positive.

[grego]

I got news today from InstekUSA and from the engineers back in Taiwan.  They've already fixed the crash bug I found (which is nice) and have added high-res mode to the firmware roadmap as well.  Which is cool.  Makes me happy.

[grego]

Hopefully I'll have some better video over this weekend - just ordered a new Canon HF M500 camera so it should make my life a lot easier.  Stay tuned.

[Hydrawerk]

Could you post some pictures with FFT or mask test?

[EEVblog]

Hopefully I'll have some better video over this weekend - just ordered a new Canon HF M500 camera so it should make my life a lot easier.  Stay tuned.

That's got the HD CMOS Pro image sensor, it'll give you some great shots. I have the HF M400 as my 2nd camera and it works a treat. The internal mics are good too.

[grego]

Could you post some pictures with FFT or mask test?

See attached.  Found another bug in the process.  When you exit mask limit testing the min/max boundaries stay on the screen.  You have to clear it with the default button.

[grego]

Hopefully I'll have some better video over this weekend - just ordered a new Canon HF M500 camera so it should make my life a lot easier.  Stay tuned.

That's got the HD CMOS Pro image sensor, it'll give you some great shots. I have the HF M400 as my 2nd camera and it works a treat. The internal mics are good too.

Awesome!  Looking forward to it.  It should be arriving on Friday.

[Hydrawerk]

See attached.  Found another bug in the process. 

Thanks for pictures. The bug is really small.

[grego]

Yeah but its one of those "that's annoying" things that should be easy to clean up.

[grego]

Just received the DS2-16LA module so I'll be poking at that over the next few days.  Hopefully sometime next week I'll have a video review of the unit as a whole to show.

[grego]

Ok - first video complete.  Be gently, it's my first time.

http://youtu.be/kbNKVD-ZoIY

I'll try to be a bit more organized and go point by point through some of the more interesting features the next time.