Teardown Sinometer VC2000 Frequency Counter - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: med6753
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 05:01:55 pm
content: Just purchased one these and was curious to see what was inside.Some specs from the instruction manual:Top removed. Main board in center with crystal oscillator and power supply. Display board above.Close up of main board. There is a trimmer cap just to the left of the crystal "oven" for calibration adjustments.Some crappy solder work for the RG-174 coax to the board. Plus that input shield isn't flush to the board.Close up of the display board. I didn't pull it from the front panel.The primary wiring. Looks OK although the ground isn't wired. I suppose that's OK so the entire unit is floating. The power supply uses a 7805 regulator and Chinese caps.So far the counter seems pretty accurate as near as my limited equipment can verify it. Of course it's no HP or Agilent. Other than some dodgy soldering seems decently built and OK for a hobbyist like me.

author: firworks
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 05:48:07 am
content: Very interesting internals... It's pretty nuts how the quality varies so wildly. The connectors look pretty nice, heatshrunk connections onto the switches. Then those coaxial connections are just atrocious. At least that's something you can easily rework yourself. I looked these up on eBay and Amazon and was a little surprised by the price. It was higher than I was expecting but I guess that's still cheap for a frequency counter or pretty much any piece of test gear. Thanks for the gutshots.

author: crispy_tofu
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 06:15:29 am
content: Very cool, thanks for sharing.

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 08:25:27 am
content: The price is 210CNY on Taobao (about 33USD or 43AUD)

author: pascal_sweden
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 11:51:32 am
content: Nice deal for a frequency counter!Just wanted to point out that the FeelTech FY3224 Signal Generator (described in another thread here) also has a built-in frequency counter, which might be good enough if you only have to measure up to 100 MHz.https://youtu.be/07BOm0UKJk4?t=641Some people even reported that it can measure up to 225 MHz, depending on the signal level.

author: firworks
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 03:55:03 pm
content: Quote from: gamalot on March 28, 2016, 08:25:27 amThat seems reasonable for 33$. I was seeing it more in the neighborhood of 80-90$ which seemed high. Where is it 33$?

author: mos6502
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 06:00:35 pm
content: Quote from: firworks on March 28, 2016, 05:48:07 amYeah, that can be deceiving in Hung Long Dong equipment. Under that nice heat shrink, things are barely tacked on or often completely loose.Pic is of my ZD-915.

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 07:34:40 pm
content: Quote from: firworks on March 28, 2016, 03:55:03 pmOnly In Chinahttps://s.taobao.com/search?initiative_id=tbindexz_20160329&ie=utf8&spm=a21bo.7724922.8452-taobao-item.2&sourceId=tb.index&search_type=item&ssid=s5-e&commend=all&imgfile=&q=vc2000+%E9%A2%91%E7%8E%87%E8%AE%A1&suggest=history_1&_input_charset=utf-8&wq=vc&suggest_query=vc&source=suggest

author: pascal_sweden
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2016, 10:27:58 pm
content: No matter how cheap it is, one can question why they don't do a better soldeering job, and whether there is no QC Quality Control whatsoever?Why do Chinese companies use those gold QC labels?Maybe the Victor branded unit has better quality inside? Somebody with a Victor branded unit here on this forum who is willing to open up his unit and check the soldeering work?

author: D3f1ant
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2016, 04:52:50 am
content: No it's just a bad. Here is some of the fine craftsmanship inside a Victor VC3165 2.4GHz counter. They better than not having a counter but only just.

author: GEuser
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2016, 06:24:27 am
content: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/victor-vc3165-counter-straight-outta-the-box/