New Zoyi multimeter+oscilloscopes - ZT-70xS, up to 50MHz/250MSps (nov 2022)

[kloetpatra]

In the Measurements section, what is the difference between FCNT and FREQ? I'm translating the manual and I don't have the meter handy.

FCNT: hardware counter based on the trigger. It will display 0.000Hz when trigger level is set outside of waveform.
Freq: software analysis of the waveform in the display memory. It will display --.-- if it can not determine the frequency.

[gtroc71]

I cant seem to open any of those links for firmware 1.2.9
Does anybody have an alternate link or could upload it here?

[black6host]

I've attached the 7zip file with 1.29.  I installed it on my 703S that had 1.10 and boot 1.0.14 (not the .15 boot) and it installed with no trouble.

[jeremybh1]

EDIT: One major fault appears my lack of understanding behind a menu option.  Earlier I complained the maximum delay time before the screen turns off was 120 seconds.  It appears if you select the setting "OFF" this actually means the display stays on. 

Another issue is the entire feature set of the multimeter is behind one button.  I often cycle between continuity and diode mode, yet these plus two other functions are behind one button so I have to press press press to get to what I want, meanwhile three other buttons side next to it doing nothing.

A custom firmware community would be awesome.

Or a voice to the developers would be ideal but judging by my inability to navigate the chinese language forums I don't think my ideas will be heard.

[jeremybh1]

Thank you
The steps were:
Older laptop with windows 10
.7z extracted

Zoyi 703 turned off and unplugged
F1 and Power button held together, turns on to USB DISK mode
then connect via USB to computer
Navigate to Flash -> firmware folder
Copy and paste ZOYI-703S-FW-V129.ZTK into this folder
Device immediately recognises a new update and it self flashes (no confirmation required)

[jeremybh1]

I chose to remove the plastic screen guard and replace it with a glass screen protector instead.
My mind 'knew' the screen was the same size as the Canon R6 and I happened to have a spare glass protector on the shelf.
4 screws to loosen
Plastic pry tool into middle of black rubber either side of case and it pops
6 screws to remove from logic board and 1 from each BNC jack
Pop out thick guard, leave bezel in place
Apply glass screen protector (or even a matte one!)
Reassemble.
The unit looks more professional as the screen appears totally flat.  It looks like the black levels are better and glare is more tolerable.
Can recommend

[jweaver]

I just got my 703S and am really happy with it.. I bought it to work today to show it to colleagues and connected both channels to the test output expecting to see 2 identical traces

But whilst my yellow line show the correct waveform, the blue line is flat... After decreasing the amplitude, the wave came into view but its 10x smaller than the yellow channel..

I have swapped the probes between the channels and the cables are not the cause.. Its got nothing to do with the 10x switch on the probes.. And I have the 703 set to 1x... But even if I change it to 10x it doesnt' actually do much.

In order to see both traces, I have the yellow channel set to 1v per division (Peak to Peak 2.5v), and the blue trace to 100mV (peak to peak .25v).

The correct voltage I am measuring is 2.5v so the blue side is wrong.

As its exactly 10x, I am assuming that this is a software issue, but I can't work out what I am doing wrong.

Anyone else seen this?

Jon

[RAPo]

 Did you set the same sensitivity on both channels on the 703S?

I just got my 703S and am really happy with it.. I bought it to work today to show it to colleagues and connected both channels to the test output expecting to see 2 identical traces

But whilst my yellow line show the correct waveform, the blue line is flat... After decreasing the amplitude, the wave came into view but its 10x smaller than the yellow channel..

I have swapped the probes between the channels and the cables are not the cause.. Its got nothing to do with the 10x switch on the probes.. And I have the 703 set to 1x... But even if I change it to 10x it doesnt' actually do much.

In order to see both traces, I have the yellow channel set to 1v per division (Peak to Peak 2.5v), and the blue trace to 100mV (peak to peak .25v).

The correct voltage I am measuring is 2.5v so the blue side is wrong.

As its exactly 10x, I am assuming that this is a software issue, but I can't work out what I am doing wrong.

Anyone else seen this?

Jon

[jweaver]

Did you set the same sensitivity on both channels on the 703S?

Where do I set the sensitivity? Do you mean the X1/X10 option on the probes? And the x1/x10 option in the settings?

If we are talking x1/x10, both probes are X1 and changing between X1 and X10 in the menu doesn't actually seem to do much, other than changing the voltage value..

Is there another option I have overlooked?

Edit: I think i have worked it out.. I didn't realize you could change between Ch1 and Ch2 in the menu.. And when I found this, noticed that the X1/X10 could be set independently.. Mine were different, so I have set both channels to X1 and its working now....

So ignore me... Thanks.

[RAPo]

Yep, thats what I meant.  Great, you've figured it out. Have fun with this lovely little device.

Did you set the same sensitivity on both channels on the 703S?

Where do I set the sensitivity? Do you mean the X1/X10 option on the probes? And the x1/x10 option in the settings?

If we are talking x1/x10, both probes are X1 and changing between X1 and X10 in the menu doesn't actually seem to do much, other than changing the voltage value..

Is there another option I have overlooked?

Edit: I think i have worked it out.. I didn't realize you could change between Ch1 and Ch2 in the menu.. And when I found this, noticed that the X1/X10 could be set independently.. Mine were different, so I have set both channels to X1 and its working now....

So ignore me... Thanks.

[jweaver]

Is there any benifit of installing 1.29? I have 1.27 but I always like the idea of having the latest software.

Are there any new features? I notice that the TXT file inside the zip is not English, so is the firmware safe to install on an English device?

Edit: Ignore me again.. Just read back and saw the release log.. No harm in installing it, so I will give it a go when I get a minute.

[Randy222]

Is there any benifit of installing 1.29? I have 1.27 but I always like the idea of having the latest software.

Are there any new features? I notice that the TXT file inside the zip is not English, so is the firmware safe to install on an English device?

Edit: Ignore me again.. Just read back and saw the release log.. No harm in installing it, so I will give it a go when I get a minute.

1.29 is bigger than 1.27

[black6host]

I just got my 703s a couple of days ago and I must say, I'm very happy with it.  My main use for it is as a repair tool on my bench for audio device repair and kit building.  It's a pretty solid machine and once you use it the interface becomes easy to work with.

Hah!  That yellow sticker over the ports used for amperage measurements made it quite clear not to forget to take it out of amp mode and not use those ports for measuring voltage.  Of course I removed it right away as I needed to measure mA on a kit I'm building.  And of course, after forgetting to change the leads back to the right ports I was taking voltage measurements like a dummy.  I had my power supply set to 9 volts with current limiting at 400mA.  I wasn't getting good voltage readings, go figure, lol.  I'm happy to say that there was no damage to the DUT or the meter so there's some amount of protection there.  All bets would have been off with no current limiting and it's not something I plan on doing again.  But it survived.

All in all I am very happy with it and would buy it again.  I do have a nice Siglent on the bench but I prefer having a sacrificial scope, lol.  Plus, it's just so damned convenient when you just want quick measurements and an easy way to get a signal trace.  5/5 stars.

[Randy222]

I just got my 703s a couple of days ago and I must say, I'm very happy with it.  My main use for it is as a repair tool on my bench for audio device repair and kit building.  It's a pretty solid machine and once you use it the interface becomes easy to work with.

Hah!  That yellow sticker over the ports used for amperage measurements made it quite clear not to forget to take it out of amp mode and not use those ports for measuring voltage.  Of course I removed it right away as I needed to measure mA on a kit I'm building.  And of course, after forgetting to change the leads back to the right ports I was taking voltage measurements like a dummy.  I had my power supply set to 9 volts with current limiting at 400mA.  I wasn't getting good voltage readings, go figure, lol.  I'm happy to say that there was no damage to the DUT or the meter so there's some amount of protection there.  All bets would have been off with no current limiting and it's not something I plan on doing again.  But it survived.

All in all I am very happy with it and would buy it again.  I do have a nice Siglent on the bench but I prefer having a sacrificial scope, lol.  Plus, it's just so damned convenient when you just want quick measurements and an easy way to get a signal trace.  5/5 stars.

Yes, but the scope needs to work right to be useful.
We are all still wondering if the mystery 1.29 has fixed anything?

[Luvticus]

Can anyone verify a distortion in some waveform views? I connected a 1:100 probe measuring mains voltage (220V) and got the following distortions every 13th cycle (I counted the cycles from one to the next appearence of the distortion by using the move function of the oscilloscope). A similar picture I got on connecting a DC-AC power-inverter that was powered by battery (so there is nothing wrong with my mains;-). 13 cycles of 50 Hz are every 260 ms, I guess. Maybe there is something in acquisition of the signal not so perfect? I used the normal mode (not highspeed-mode) and the actual newest 1.29 Firmware from the DT830-site in which they fixed some problems.



Here are some more strange distortions, I collected:




Another bug in highspeed-mode not in normal mode with the 1.29 FW is the squashing of the waveform after pressing the cursor-button.




I hope that zoyi will fix that and maybe also implement the 1:100 Probe selectability for getting correct values with this kind of probe.

[m72]

When I choose a bit of phosphor screen I view the same strange. Not all time but very often.
FW 1.2.9

[Vapor8]

Just received my Zoyi ZT-703S, purchased from the "ZOYI Official Store" on Aliexpress about 7 days ago. Surprised to see a Boot and FW not previously mentioned - BOOT: V1.0.16 & FW: V1.3.0

Literally just got it out of the box, so haven't been through it to try and determine what's different in this fw compared to 1.2.9...

[Randy222]

Just received my Zoyi ZT-703S, purchased from the "ZOYI Official Store" on Aliexpress about 7 days ago. Surprised to see a Boot and FW not previously mentioned - BOOT: V1.0.16 & FW: V1.3.0

Literally just got it out of the box, so haven't been through it to try and determine what's different in this fw compared to 1.2.9...

Wondering if they (or someone) is just up'ing the version # in the same boot & FW files to make it seem like the device is coming super "fresh"?

This is why we really need the official vendor to post up some release notes and the downloads to the FW's.

[Luvticus]

When I choose a bit of phosphor screen I view the same strange. Not all time but very often.
FW 1.2.9

Jitter would look similar, difficult to see in your jpg. If you use the original bmp-file of the zt-703 screen-copy function and convert it directly to png for uploading here would show your curve more detailed...
I hope, Zoyi also implements in future firmware saving directly to png instead of bmp, would be possible to save 10x more screencopies in the limited memory of the zt-703. One guy in the dt-830 forum already asked for implementing that, beside some more functions ...

[fk0]

Hello...

  I want to ask anybody who owns ZT-703S. It is able to save captured waveform into file?   Not as a picture, but as text or binary file, which then can be parsed by software.  I read the manual, and as I understood, it is only writes pictures into the memory.  Looks like a joke. Who need picutres?  I can photo a screen by phone.  But, for example, if I need analyze some CAN/LIN/RS-485 data packets, it would be convenient to have possibility to record packets and analyze records on PC.  And if waveform can be saved, how many samples?

[ksxx]

Hello...

  I want to ask anybody who owns ZT-703S. It is able to save captured waveform into file?   Not as a picture, but as text or binary file, which then can be parsed by software.  I read the manual, and as I understood, it is only writes pictures into the memory.  Looks like a joke. Who need picutres?  I can photo a screen by phone.  But, for example, if I need analyze some CAN/LIN/RS-485 data packets, it would be convenient to have possibility to record packets and analyze records on PC.  And if waveform can be saved, how many samples?

I have ordered one but not yet received it. I dont expect this option to be present, but I agree that this would be a very useful feature. The OWON multimeter scopes have that feature (and a PC app) but only 8k sampling memory vs 128k of the 703S.

[Edmiri]

Can anyone tell me whats the minimum value capacitance it can measure? Its not showing any digits on small ceramic capacitors.

[csuhi17]

Can anyone tell me whats the minimum value capacitance it can measure? Its not showing any digits on small ceramic capacitors.

Range     Resolution   Accuracy
9.999nF    0.001nF    ±  (5.0%+20)

Maybe above 0.020 nF.
But I don't understand what is the point of writing the pF value on the display, when the minimum inaccuracy is +20 count?!

[Edmiri]

Because i can add in series another capacitor that i know the exact value and then get the first cap value.

[csuhi17]

Because i can add in series another capacitor that i know the exact value and then get the first cap value.

Even so, the inaccuracy of the device does not disappear.
What I mentioned above.

If you want to measure a small value 0.03 nF capacitor whose true value you do not know.
And you connect a 1nF capacitor "in parallel" with it.

Then if everything is with 0% tolerance, it should be 1.03nF.

But due to the measurement inaccuracy of the instrument, you can measure here. ±(0.0515nF+0.02nF) that is
1.03nF-0.0715nF = 0.9585nF
and
1.03nF+0.0715nF = 1.1015nF
value between

But you won't be able to calculate from this how much the smaller 0.03nF capacitor is.

Since the inaccuracy is related to the measured values in %, if you try the same thing as described above with an 8nF, the inaccuracy will be greater, because of course the 5% of the 8nF is much larger than that of the 1nF.

With the 20 count inaccuracy, I don't understand why they didn't cut off the last, smallest digit and write 2 count instead.

I apologize if it is difficult to understand, I struggle a lot with google translate