Owon SDS7102 v/s Instek GDS-1102A-U - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: pfm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2012, 03:02:15 pm
content: I have narrowed it down to these two scopes. The Instek is ~$100 more than the Owon. What I would like to find out is what about the Instek would justify the extra $$. I know it has a lifetime limited warranty (and I suppose emphasis is on ‘limited’ rather than ‘lifetime’). These days almost all scopes in that price and bandwidth range have comparable specs but the one thing that will make or break for me is the quality of the front end and the adc. I don’t care as much about bandwidth or memory depth as I do about dynamic range, noise and sensitivity of the scope.Please advise…Thanks!P.S:- the gds-1102A has been replaced by gds-1102A-U but the “A” is still obtainable for ~$30 less than the “A-U”.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2012, 04:08:45 pm
content: Instek typically produces the better quality. However, when we had in issue with an Instek instrument their "support" in Europe turned out to be useless. That might or might not be different in the US.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2012, 04:40:11 pm
content: Support, reputation and build quality. There is an Instek USA than can be worth that extra cost compared to a Owon. There are old reviews comparing Rigol 1052e and a similar Instek, including tear down reports or models in the line. Its hard to quantify, but there are clear differences in quality in Instek, based on those reports.

author: pfm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2012, 02:38:28 am
content: Yes I saw the found the "teardown" pdf of the Instek. It said something about 4 adc AD9288 chips, so I suppose thats interleaved just like all other scopes ?

author: rf-loop
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2012, 08:40:15 am
content: I do not know Instek quality or quality issues. What I can tell about Owon I have see rising quality (example front end reconstruction, changed relays, redesigned pcb's for better and more reliability with my own eyes.Overall building quality is good today. (well, still I hope they continue developing it better)And I have see that Owon RMA procedure work in practice. In one example case Owon care all things. DHL pick up failed from door and returned ok to door. Also I hope they continue developing customer after sales care but of course this is also distributors work what they want easy forget!. Also I respect Owon in one thing: They are not copycats.This Canadian - Chinese company design and develop themselves they equipment but they also develop themselves.. This is small part of bigger group, they do not think they are Agilent or Tektronix. They play on they own segment.Here something, using Instek AD.Of course Instek have advantages over Owon and Owon have some advantages over Instek.Owon have big 8" 800x600 native resolution good quality Innolux TFT panel.Owon have build in Lithium battery option. Nice also for floating measurements.I have not seen any good lab test for Instek BW flatness and frequency response.I have seen Owon test and what I can tell without any knowledge about comparable test with Instek. Instek loose this game and it loose it clearly. But this is opinion and I have my professional experience for this opinion, but I can not proof it. If I want proof it I need buy one Instek and I do not want loose this money only for proof this.About interleaving itself.Interleaving is NOT problemifit is well done! Interleaving is only way to do high speed oscilloscopes!But also it can use for make cheap low speed (1GSa/s) oscilloscope with cheap easy way.Interleaving principle itself is not at all any problem. It can not talk that oh this is interleaved so it is bad. No, this can not say. It may be bad but it maybe also good. There are different methods to do it. All know that simplest and cheapest can not do best.But how to make very good interleaved ADC, it is not easy and it is not cheap. Look inside some Agilent or Rohde&Schwarz hybrids/asics. This is coming also to chinese manufacturing through they own designs (including Taiwan province).Cheap simply interleaving with many separate ADC's around of PCB as "magpie's nest" and clocked "somehow" etc just as things made with cheapest method... well it is just crap or nearly crap... with good adjustment (selfcal) procedure it can be just acceptable for some level. (just as Instek/Atten/Siglent/Rigol/Hantek etc. Some do it better some do it...It is not easy case to put 8 or 10 pcs 8 bit ADC for perfect parallel working so that timing is good and have low jitter and also that all ADC's are matched with levels.I do not accept thinking: Interlieaved is bad, not interleaved is good. Such an assertion would be reckless and unfounded.Attached is Instek advertisement but maybe they have missed something... (?)

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2012, 04:03:18 pm
content: Thanks rf-loop for those many insights and that attached photo is priceless. I think the pros you outline in your post are worth far more than $100 difference, and are great to have should the user go the Owon route versus the Instek. The cons is the kind of warranty the owner may need after purchase, should it malfunction based on 'unknowns' in quality or production assembly.Perusing Amazon and eBay, I see the Owon is now sold by many US based sellers, some offering pre-testing and 30 day returns. This helps quite a bit as the 30 day windows gives you more time to test it. After 1-2 weeks or working properly, its unlikely to break on you from a production error.I agree fully, interleaving is not an issue if done correctly, its done by many makers. There is an archive thread on eevblog on how to quickly test for bad interleaving: unexplained spurs during FFT.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-chat/rigol-ds1000e-series-possible-errorfail-in-sin%28x%29x-interpolation/msg39317/#msg39317For example in the Rigol at 50 MHz, I occasionally see spikes at 300 MHz doing FFT, far above the scopes rated bandwidth. It very likely coming from interleave artifacts.

author: dean
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 28, 2012, 02:50:39 am
content: I have Instek GDS-1102A-U and Atten ADS1102CML. When i need make measure, i take Instek, when i have time to do what is interesting, i looking Atten for new bugs. In other words, i trust the Instek GDS1102A-U, but, i like big Atten screen.