Siglent SDS2000X Plus

[tautech]

Best bang for buck for the BW upgrade offer will be SDS2204X Plus to become the 350 MHz SDS2354X Plus which comes with fixed $75ea 10x SP2035A probes instead of the $39 PP215 probe.
https://siglentna.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2022/08/Probe_List_008102022.pdf

[2N3055]

Performa01,
I don't see the point of arguing further. I fail to see that you have contributed anything substantially useful to this discussion since my first post about wanting higher MHz rated passive probes with any scope BW upgrade.  I stand by what I've said.  Specifically...

Including 200MHz probes with a 200MHz scope will OF COURSE allow measurements at 200MHz, but it would be BETTER if the probes were rated higher than the BW of the scope.  Therefore, if one seeks to purchase a 200MHz Siglent 2000X Plus with 200MHz rated passive probes solely because of the free BW upgrade, if you get an scope-only BW upgrade to 300MHz or 350MHz WITHOUT any probe upgrade, it's even less of a desirable situation than the stock 200MHz scope with the 200MHz passive probes.  Will using 200MHz probes on a 350MHz scope make measurements impossible?  No! Of course, not.  But if you had the choice of 200MHz probes or 500MHz probes with a 200MHz or 350MHz scope, which would you choose?  No doubt the higher 500MHz rated probes, assuming they are quality probes.

And is all I was trying to say.

But then you chimed earlier in with all manner of arguing that in no way whatsoever nullified the truthfulness and accuracy of what I said. Actually, you took out the verbal sledgehammer and started talk about my having spread MISINFORMATION.  That was taking it a bit too far.

Again, I am ONLY talking casually about slightly better probes in light of a scope BW upgrade.  I am not teaching a master class on the topic, nor do I feel such a master class is really necessary.

On some level I'm quite sorry I said anything at all about wanting better probes (in terms of their MHz rating) because my comment directly led to this back-and-forth that does not directly pertain to the thread topic of the Siglent 2000X Plus series scopes.

https://youtu.be/7-Yr1nQ3dFI

All I can say that you should have read info on a link Performa included.

While passive probes have BW specification, in real life, your BW is going to be dominated by input capacitance. Period. Because physics.
If you look at some passive 500MHz probes, you will see that they will have slightly lower capacitance. That is going to be the difference.
If you take a 100MHz 200MHz and 350MHz probes with same input capacitance, performance will pretty much be exactly the same.

If you want better frequency BW but cannot go active probe route, a 50Ω 10x probe will give much better performance.  Literally 450Ω resistor at the end of coax will be much less loading on a circuit and better signal fidelity than 350 USD Hi impedance active passive probe.

Hence, I don't recommend people to give 4x 350 USD for 500MHz 10x passive probes. It is literally waste of money.  Get 100-200MHz probes with good quality and get the rest of the money together and get an active probe.


Biggest reason for buying 500MHz probes will be that they might be better quality, smaller, have better accessories and better ergonomy.

Master class about probing is always necessary. Most expensive scope and bad probing will give crap results guaranteed. If you understand probing you can get much better results with a 200Mhz scope than with a 1 GHz scope with bad probing while  looking at 200 MHz signal.....

EDIT: Typo. Thanks swmcl

[BillyO]

What I spoke of is not a tariff. It’s 10% sales tax.

We pay 13%.  I'm pretty sure there are not many places where you won't pay tax of some sort.

[swmcl]

Hi 2N3055,

You said, "If you want better frequency BW but cannot go active probe route, a 50Ω 10x probe will give much better performance.  Literally 450Ω resistor at the end of coax will be much less loading on a circuit and better signal fidelity than 350 USD Hi impedance active probe."

I think you meant, "If you want better frequency BW but cannot go active probe route, a 50Ω 10x probe will give much better performance.  Literally 450Ω resistor at the end of coax will be much less loading on a circuit and better signal fidelity than 350 USD Hi impedance passive probe."

Yes?

[swmcl]

The only active probe I can find is the SAP1000.  This probe fits to the SDA5000 series of scopes only.  Is this right ?

So 'because physics' it means one should not really bother with too much upgrading of bandwidth from say 200MHz on any scope ...  Yes ?

What about active probes on 12-bit scopes or the SDS6000 series ? 

[tautech]

The only active probe I can find is the SAP1000.

Siglent currently have 3 active probes to 2.5 GHz, see here:
https://siglentna.com/products/accessories/probes/active-probes/

This probe fits to the SDA5000 series of scopes only.  Is this right ?

No, also SDS6000A, SDS6000L and SDS7000A when it's forecast to be released later this year.

So 'because physics' it means one should not really bother with too much upgrading of bandwidth from say 200MHz on any scope ...  Yes ?

We can introduce signals into a scope via BNC cables too. 

What about active probes on 12-bit scopes ?

Current models with their limited BW don't support the existing Siglent active probes.

[BillyO]

An option would be to find a Tektronix 1103 probe power supply and get some used Tek probes like the P6205.

[2N3055]

Hi 2N3055,

You said, "If you want better frequency BW but cannot go active probe route, a 50Ω 10x probe will give much better performance.  Literally 450Ω resistor at the end of coax will be much less loading on a circuit and better signal fidelity than 350 USD Hi impedance active probe."

I think you meant, "If you want better frequency BW but cannot go active probe route, a 50Ω 10x probe will give much better performance.  Literally 450Ω resistor at the end of coax will be much less loading on a circuit and better signal fidelity than 350 USD Hi impedance passive probe."

Yes?

Yes, thank you.. Edited..

[tautech]

Promo link:
https://int.siglent.com/info/detail-68.html

[terrificground]

Currently there's a QC/production issue with these from Siglent's probe supplier.
Contact your supplier for more probe accessory packs and have them check they will fit too !

7/8 of my locating sleeves were defective. I checked with TEquipment, but they weren't interested in providing support. I'll have to see if I can get Siglent to send replacements.

[seronday]

After reading this message about bug fixes for the SDS6000A,

New firmware for SDS6000A models.

4.Fixed several bugs
DY-WTFK-202209237015: Zone trigger doesn’t work at some input frequencies

I wonder if the Zone Trigger Issue in the SDS2000X Plus as discussed here,
 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds2000x-plus-coming/msg4428769/#msg4428769 ),
will also be fixed ?

[JDW]

I wonder if the Zone Trigger Issue in the SDS2000X Plus as discussed here,
 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds2000x-plus-coming/msg4428769/#msg4428769 ),
will also be fixed ?

I haven't purchased a 2000X Plus yet, so I am looking at it from a would-be buyer's prospective.  I've watched just about every video on it.  Seems like the best scope to buy in its class.  However, I must say that the scope has been out long enough for the major bugs to have been fixed by firmware updates.  To hear that such a fundamental feature is still largely broken makes me concerned that Siglent really doesn't care.  Am I wrong?

[tautech]

I wonder if the Zone Trigger Issue in the SDS2000X Plus as discussed here,
 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds2000x-plus-coming/msg4428769/#msg4428769 ),
will also be fixed ?

I haven't purchased a 2000X Plus yet, so I am looking at it from a would-be buyer's prospective.  I've watched just about every video on it.  Seems like the best scope to buy in its class.  However, I must say that the scope has been out long enough for the major bugs to have been fixed by firmware updates.  To hear that such a fundamental feature is still largely broken makes me concerned that Siglent really doesn't care.  Am I wrong?

After seronday's reminder I immediately took it to the Siglent private forum after checking it hadn't been found by beta testers or reported previously. Why I didn't before, not sure but I may have been travelling.
They will fix it of which I'm 1000% confident.
If we get a beta version to check/test we can see what is fixed and sometimes weeks before public release.

[Peter_O]

snip:  To hear that such a fundamental feature is still largely broken makes me concerned that Siglent really doesn't care.  Am I wrong?

I had times with my Siglents, where I wished for more support. Then I checked prices with Rohde & Schwarz and got reasonable again:
I'm happy, Siglent is taking the task to steer a mid flight height between cheap and triple or even higher priced premium instruments. And to provide some service and support for all, including the hobbyists. It's a difficult tast to allocate engineers to all the different requirements and often it's a problem to have sufficient development capabilities at all.

[tautech]

After reading this message about bug fixes for the SDS6000A,

New firmware for SDS6000A models.

4.Fixed several bugs
DY-WTFK-202209237015: Zone trigger doesn’t work at some input frequencies

I wonder if the Zone Trigger Issue in the SDS2000X Plus as discussed here,
 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds2000x-plus-coming/msg4428769/#msg4428769 ),
will also be fixed ?

Thanks, now an accepted bug with a bug ID.
Now we wait for new firmware. 

[smallfreak]

7/8 of my locating sleeves were defective. I checked with TEquipment, but they weren't interested in providing support. I'll have to see if I can get Siglent to send replacements.

I checked with my supplier (Batter Fly). They talked to Siglent and reported that they have agreed to send 4 spare sets of probe accessories that have been verified to fit for free. When I got the tracking number a day later, I immediately checked the status.

The status was "delivered at doorstep". 

I went down to look - and IT WAS! 

I now have a complete set of fitting sleeves for my four probes. The replacement set were just 99% "complete" and there was a color ring missing in each, so I assume they grabbed some of their own. 

[sarahMCML]

Hi all,

I have a query about upgrading the software on my scope.
I upgraded it to 500 MHz when I first purchased it, but have never updated the firmware from its original version, which is 1.3.7R5.

It has FPGA Version 2020.09.23
UBoot OS Version 5.0
CPLD 03
Hardware 02-04.

What I'm unsure about is whether it can be updated further than version 1.3.9R6, or is that the hardware limit for this instrument? If it can go further, is it worth doing?

Thanks for your input.

Sarah.

[tautech]

Hi all,

I have a query about upgrading the software on my scope.
I upgraded it to 500 MHz when I first purchased it, but have never updated the firmware from its original version, which is 1.3.7R5.

It has FPGA Version 2020.09.23
UBoot OS Version 5.0
CPLD 03
Hardware 02-04.

What I'm unsure about is whether it can be updated further than version 1.3.9R6, or is that the hardware limit for this instrument? If it can go further, is it worth doing?

Thanks for your input.

Sarah.

It's never an issue with Siglent equipment. 
Hell, I'll even provide a link to the latest version:
https://int.siglent.com/upload_file/zip/firmware/Oscilloscope/SDS2000X%20Plus_V1.5.2R3_EN.zip

[BillyO]

What I'm unsure about is whether it can be updated further than version 1.3.9R6, or is that the hardware limit for this instrument? If it can go further, is it worth doing?

I had no issue doing the firmware update on my "improved" scope.

Since the improvement is done using valid license keys you can feel assured things will work fine for an FW update.

[sarahMCML]

Many thanks to you both. You've put my mind at rest.

Regards,

Sarah.

[refd]

My SDS purchase had similar reservations.  Will a future upgrade disable the features added but not necessarily needed.  I congratulate Siglent on their open upgradability.  For this reason I stick with Siglent for most of my test equipment. When I purchased my SDS2354X+ I opted for the features I could not do without (BW, 4ch and better probes)... in the event a future upgrade made the extras go away. But I have enjoyed the convenience of the extras like not having to drag out the Saelig.

Pay for what you need or will make you a profit. Enjoy the rest.

[tv84]

This is an unwarranted recurrent theme.

Siglent licenses that are generated with the (public and non-public) keygens are 100% equal to the "official" licenses. Not similar! They are exactly the same!

Regarding the current list of Siglent devices, Siglent will never "disable" any of those licenses because it would be disabling ALL licenses for all customers.

[Martin72]

Not similar! They are exactly the same!

Exactly this, nothing else.
I don't know where this misconception comes from, maybe people are irritated by the Rigol MSO5000 hack thread because you have to re-hack the scope after every update.
These are not "real" license keys, unlike the Siglent hack.

[tautech]

In reply to a few that have asked for WiFi capability for these scopes....

In another thread member Peter_O pointed us to a TP-Link device used in Client mode with his SDS2000X Plus where it accesses any local WiFi access point and provides an isolated (secure) LAN and WiFi connection.
https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr902ac/
Scroll down to #4 Client mode.

Although it can be USB powered specs say 2A so what a scope USB port will think of that I'm unsure. 
Nevertheless one is on my shopping list to evaluate.....

[2N3055]

In reply to a few that have asked for WiFi capability for these scopes....

In another thread member Peter_O pointed us to a TP-Link device used in Client mode with his SDS2000X Plus where it accesses any local WiFi access point and provides an isolated (secure) LAN and WiFi connection.
https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr902ac/
Scroll down to #4 Client mode.

Although it can be USB powered specs say 2A so what a scope USB port will think of that I'm unsure. 
Nevertheless one is on my shopping list to evaluate.....

Also MikroTik mAP Lite ..