SDS1104X-E - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: u666sa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2023, 05:01:16 am
content: It's 413 U.S. bucks. Is there anything better I can get for this price, under $499? Is there any place I can get this particular scope cheaper? Any promocodes?How is it going to be used?Cell phone repair, notebook repair, tv repair, rare car amp repair. I need to see signals and stuff. For example right now I have a monitor with lines and artifacts, solution might be to throw parts cannon at it and get new t-con and couple of flex cables, but it's also possible board on the LCD itself can be acting up. So I need to see signals. When I go with these problems on forums like vlab.su oscilloscope is a must. There is just so much you can probe with multimeter and LCR.Another candidates are Owon HDS2202S, the good thing about it is that it is compact and has build in signal generator.And another one is Hantek DSO2D15, same thing, cheaper, 2 channels, has build in wave generator, crappy protocol decoding, and needs heat sinks on chipset and better caps in power supply so it doesn't freeze.But I really wanted a professional grade, last you long long time, type of scope. Just another set of eyes. A game changer.Rigol MSO5074 unfortunately is out of budget. It's $999 presently.

author: mwb1100
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2023, 06:28:33 am
content: $413 is pretty close to lowest price on Amazon for the SDS1104X-E in quite a while. It has gotten as low as $390 in the past year, but there's no telling when or if that'll happen again.I think that the SDS1104X-E is currently considered the best scope in the $400 area (when it drops that low). Rigol is coming out with the new low priced DHO800 sometime in 4th quarter (it's already available in China). I don't know what the price will be, but I think it's expected to be low enough that it might put some pressure on the price of the SDS1104X-E. I think the Rigol DS1054z and Instek GDS-1054B are still considered good values in the $350-$375 area. Only you can decide if the extra $40-60 is worth it for the SDS1104X-E.If you want a scope now, $413 doesn't seem a bad price. If you can wait, there might be some deals offered closer to year end. But keep in mind this is only speculation on my part - it might turn out to be nothing.

author: Shonky
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2023, 08:23:23 am
content: Something like an Owon HDS2202S is not really in the same league as an SDS1104X-E. The Owon is a basic but portable scope. The Siglent has significantly more functionality, better screen, 4 channels, protocol decoding, FFT, bigger sample buffers, more triggering options.Unless you really need the portability I'd say don't consider the Owon. If you need a function generator consider something separate. It has its place but really it's not a fair comparison.

author: u666sa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2023, 10:03:03 am
content: Quote from: mwb1100 on August 03, 2023, 06:28:33 amI wonder if I could use a coupon or something to get a discount? I considered amazon prime, but that's only discounts for items in certain categories. I'm sure oscilloscope is not in that category.Perhaps a website other than amazon where it is listed cheaper?Yep, I'll agree $413 is an excellent price and I'm probably going to go with it. But I'm dreaming of 20% discount code!

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2023, 05:06:00 pm
content: There is a cheaper "U" version.But it's cheaper for some reasons. They removed an ADC and the ethernet plug, and that is enough for me to loose interest, so I don't know more details.Overall it's just an amazing piece of hardware for an affordable price.I've been thinking of upping the game a bit to an SDS2104X Plus cauze I like the bigger screen, and touch may be handy but the price difference is quite ridiculious. And then you still have to pay though the nose to get it complete such as power measurement software function function generator and Logic Analyzer. I'm quite flabbergasted by their "options" policy. You have to buy the hardware and software separately, and combined those prices go through the roof. Therefore I decided to just buy some "base model" and they can keep on sitting on the rest until the universe dies.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2023, 05:24:37 pm
content: Quote from: u666sa on August 03, 2023, 05:01:16 amI bought an SDS1104X-E for personal use last year, and I'm still sure it was the best choice in its price range.Quote from: u666sa on August 03, 2023, 05:01:16 amA lot of people say rather negative things about Owon and Hantek products. I think that's unfair. They have turned out some stinkers, but I've used cheap scopes from both of them that were good enough to get the job done. I'm not sure I'd chose them unless I needed something exceedingly cheap. I've seen people running practical courses using the low end Owon scopes, where the quantity needed made cheap an important factor. They had good results with them being shipped around a lot to run courses in numerous venues, probably not with the gentlest of handling by the shippers.Quote from: u666sa on August 03, 2023, 05:01:16 amYou want a lot for your 413 bucks. The SDS1104X-E is no flimsy toy. Its pretty solidly constructed, but you never know, even with things like Keysight products, if there going to be something fragile, like a rotary encoder, that proves troublesome over time.Quote from: u666sa on August 03, 2023, 05:01:16 amI briefly used someone's MSO5074 to fix something. While is has a lot of nice qualities, its ADC seemed noisy enough to be an influencer on TikTok. I have a feeling owning one might be a bit frustrating.

author: MathWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2023, 06:46:42 pm
content: You can't go wrong with the sds1104x-e, it does FFT and digital protocol triggering as well, like I2C and SPI. It's also very portable and light weight, compared to old CRT scopes, and most of them won't have 4 channels and certainly not FFT and digital triggering.They are more expensive than the Rigol 1054 types, but you get more options.I've had my 1204x-e for 3years, and so far no real problems. I pretty much stopped using my CRT scopes. If I had more bench space I'd still use them sometimes too.

author: mwb1100
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2023, 07:48:18 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on August 06, 2023, 05:06:00 pmSiglent has a note explaining the main differences:https://siglentna.com/application-note/differences_xe_vs_xu/One thing that page doesn't mention is WiFi support - I don't think the XU has it. The XU does have LAN (ethernet) connectivity, but not WiFi and not the web remote control - which is really nice. AFAIK the XU is not hackable.Tautech listed the differences between the SDS1202X-E and SDS1104X-E (there's a few things other number of channels and bandwidth):https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/yaot-sds1104x-e-vs-sds1202x-e/msg1988534/#msg1988534Keep in mind that the bandwidth difference doesn't matter because of the widely available hacks for SDS1104X-E licenses.As long as you understand the missing features, these could save you something around $100.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2023, 11:03:25 pm
content: Only now I looked up the Owon HDS2202S.I had not realized earlier that it's one of those DMM sized handheld thingies.I saw and liked the review from Kerry Wong youtube.Advantages of those are of course small size and battery powered (I am not sure if it's rated for isolated higher voltage measurements).But they also have quite big disadvantages:* Small screen.* Many less functions then a desktop scope. (* Much more cumbersome user interface (I'm addicted to rotary buttons)Bench top scopes have a much better UI, screen (for showing all those menu's and automated measurement parameters besides the trace itself), and also memory depth, FFT, logic decoding, averaging and filtering functions, and many, many more).Because of those differences, those handheld things are pretty much in their own category.I am confused why you are weighing your options between them.For the details you posted on the Hantek, I suppose you did quite some research, and have a pretty good idea of what you can do with them and what their limits are.For me, I think the market is divided about like this:Top brands, with many functions, but expensive:R&S, Tektronics, Yokogawa, etc, just the "well known" western brands.I don't know about LeCroy, I think the gave all their knowhow to either Rigol or Siglent, and I think they made stuff with horrible user interfaces.Very good price/performance ratio:Rigol, Siglent, with a slight advantage for the Siglent. And Micsig if you want a portable with a big screen.Most of the other Chinese brands. May be worth their money, but it may "vary":Hantek, Owon, GW Instek, Uni-T.You may have problems here, such as "expected but missing" functions, bad UI decisions or other.Toys & cheap shit:DSO Nano, Jyetech, Fnirsi. (Fnirsi is especially misleading because it "looks good" but beware!)My current scope is an old Rigol DS1052-E, but my next one is almost certainly going to be a Siglent.Something worth considering:If handheld and portability is a big advantage to you, then go for one of the cheaper Owon or Hanteks For example with a Owon HDS242 you have got a pretty usable instrument with two channels and 70MHz bandwidth for EUR140. (but maybe add the function generator for an extra EUR40 (feature creep?)).You can live with it for a few years and use the mean time to save up some money to buy a higher end scope later.I don't know your experience level with scopes, but such a handheld is decent enough to learn from and get a better Idea of the functions of a scope that are important to you.And even if you have a solid benchtop scope, it's still nice to have a small battery powered handheld scope as an "extra".

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2023, 03:09:53 am
content: Hantek would also go into the "Toys and sh**" category.The dso2xxx has lots of potential but seems developed by malnourished war prisoners.3 years later they barely fixed anything.

author: u666sa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2023, 05:13:55 am
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on August 07, 2023, 03:09:53 amWell obviously I'm going with SDS1104X-E, better to spend a little more and have something that will last 10 and more years and still be decent.I've did lots of youtube watching on hantek, it's nowhere near Siglent, and is even bellow Owon, however the bugs it has with freezing and stuff it's a simple fix. You have to install two heatsinks, one of those heatsinks on the left chip should be on double sided tape adhesive, because it is laser etched in the middle, the other chip on the right can be glued. Plus heatsink in the power supply, and change power supply caps to better brand and higher voltage. Then people install fans and on the USB there is place for anti-static IC, so you just solder it in.The portable Owon is kinda good because it's multimeter sized and fits nicely on the desk without cluttering the space, however, the battery life is just under 3 hours. In the U.S. market HDS2202S that's 200 Mhz with signal gen, costs $310, which if you think of it, just for a few dollars more you can have either 2 or 4 channel siglent, add $100 and you get SDS1104X-E. But in Russian market the price for this sing is just $230 -- thus it was on my consideration table.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2023, 06:11:47 am
content: Don't get fooled, it's not a heat issue.Initially caused by old FPGA fw, updating to fw3102/3202 mostly solves it, but still will freeze in long runs.When I leave it sampling a signal, waiting for trigger, go else where and come 20-30 minutes later, often it will be completely freezed requiring reboot.Trust me, I've tried everything, I replaced most decoupling capacitors with beefy tantalum ones, added extra filtering everywhere, heatsinks, prayed to several gods of different religions and several goats died for dark rituals.Nothing fixes this crap.Save another $200, get the siglent, enjoy not being bald / staying away of drugs for a few years more.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2023, 10:41:34 pm
content: Quote from: mwb1100 on August 06, 2023, 07:48:18 pmAll correct.