Instek GSP9300B - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2017, 01:07:53 am
content: I have been through a great deal of misery with a Siglent SSA3021X. The seller has graciously agreed to a full refund less return shipping (my proposal). After lots of work I'm fairly certain the unit was defective. I still want an SA but I'm skittish about both the Siglent and Rigol options.The GPS9300BTG is more than double what I had planned to spend. Can anyone comment on the unit and Instek support? At ~$3500 is there something else I should look at? A tracking generator is a must, but lots of the stuff sold as options by other OEMs are not of much interest to my purposes. Instek includes them which is nice should the need arise. It's also got a wider range. DANL seems to be not as good, but there are many ways to lie in a spec sheet if one is so inclined. My biggest concerns are responsiveness with bug fixes and the software engineering processes of the OEMs. I don't like having new problems introduced by "fixes" to old problems.I want something that is reliable and trustworthy.

author: hendorog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2017, 03:36:58 am
content: For that sort of dough I'd get one of these :-http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Agilent-8561E-Spectrum-Analyzer-30hz-6-5-GHZ-w-TRACKING-GENERATOR-2-9-ghz/182099523943?rt=nc&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D47507%26meid%3Db0111dc58d8341be8d2b8af4efcb655e%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D272867401570&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2017, 09:46:20 am
content: Why do you need the tracking generator? IMHO: if you need a tracking generator you want to look at networks and in that case you are far better of with a (vector) network analyser because that also gives you phase en impedance information. With your budget getting a decent (but used) network analyser shouldn't be a problem.In my experience with GW Instek's current scopes they do come up with bug fixes, their documentation is complete and they respond to technical questions within a few days. However that may be different for other product lines. If you get the GW Instek spectrum analyser I recommend to get it on loan first and try it thouroughly.

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2017, 01:21:04 pm
content: An old HP SA or VNA is just that, old. I found a refurbished and calibrated HP SA on eBay for the same price as the Siglent SSA3021X. If it were a 5-10 year old unit I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but at 15-20 years old there are too many potential problems. The last time I used my HP 8601A sweeper it was fine. Now it has a PS fault. I've fixed almost all my gear at one time or another. My first good scope was a 20+ year old Dumont 1060 with a 30 day warranty. After about 6 weeks the horizontal sweep died. My recurrent sweep 5 MHz Heathkit was not up to the task of fixing it. Eventually I got a wonky Tek 465 that worked well enough to track down and fix the bad solder joints in the Dumont, after which I fixed the bad solder joints in the 465. Unfortunately I spent so much time fixing gear I never made any progress on my QRP transceiver project.When I started back playing with electronics I bought a Rigol DS1102E because I just couldn't face the Dumont and Tek. I never even turned them on to see how they were after sitting idle for 15 years.Thirty five years ago I built a DC 40 M receiver which did not work. At the time I had no access to anything other than my Heathkit scope and a DMM. I strongly suspected that the hand wound toroid coils were the issue, but no way to test them. I was pursuing a PhD at the time. So I had no budget and I was not an EE, so no access to the school labs. When I got the 8601A it confirmed that the passband was off by 400 KHz.I still want to build radios and other test gear, mostly the latter. So I need to build or buy filters. An SNA is sufficient. I'd love a VNA. I'm hoping to build one using the LimeSDR boards. My biggest interest is designing test gear that someone with limited budget can afford. The LimeSDR mini looks as if it might make a pretty good SA.True wealth is being able to ignore the subject of money with impunity. The easiest way to achieve that is hard work and thrift.

author: riscy00
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2018, 05:57:22 am
content: What went wrong with Siglent SSA3021X?

author: rhb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2018, 03:29:36 pm
content: I never figured out if it was a bug or HW defect. I asked to be informed, but never was. It intermittently produced a normalized trace with lots of oscillation at the ends of the sweep. There's a long thread about a spurious response issue. But I didn't get that far. A significant factor in sending it back was the UI was really annoying. Changing something in one menu changed things in other menus without explanation. When I got the intermittent bad normalizations that decided the matter.I've since come to the conclusion that everything made today has UI issues. Which is why I'm teaching myself FPGA programming on a Zynq so I can write FW that does reasonable things for my MSO. I've got a couple of Zynq dev boards, a Zynq based DSO purely for testing and a whole pile of bits and pieces on order. If my gigabit switch and USB hubs show up today I hope to have a Zybo Z7-20 and BeagleBoard X15 mounted in an old Dell Vostro 200 case with a gigabit switch, USB hubs with lots of power and a SATA drive by the end of the day tomorrow. At which point I should be able to shift my focus to learning Verilog, VHDL, Vivado and Zynq programming.