Instek GDS-820C Oscilloscope

Tuesday, June 13. 2006

I bought this oscilloscope right out of college, as my first real oscilloscope. I'd used DSO's at school, and loved the interface and finally settled on this unit after reading a mention of it on superpositioned.net. The only other oscilloscope I've owned is a Bitscope 310U, but I had a difficult time with the interface.

Overall it's worked out really well so far, monitoring trigger bounces and digital outputs on my pic projects (up to 2Mhz signals).

Basic Details:
Dual Channel Color LCD Display
150MHz Bandwidth
Trigger Modes: Pulse Width, TV-Line, Event Delay and Time Delay
Math functions
Built-in Interfaces: USB, RS232, Printer Port

Problems:
Cooling Fan: When I first got the unit, the cooling fan made an unbearable grinding noise (any noise is unbearable when you paid over $1,000 for it) -- However I emailed Instek support and they promptly sent me a replacement fan! It's good to see companies so responsive to their customers. Since then I haven't had a problem except for the USB capture

USB Capture (6/2006): So far I haven't been able to use the "FreeView" software supplied, to capture images from the oscilloscope. I've installed the serial->USB driver, and the GDS-820C driver but the FreeView software does not detect the scope. I'll have to try reinstalling the drivers.

UPDATE: 7/3/2006 I got USB working with the oscilloscope. I'm not sure what changed however I did end up doing a full turn-off/turn-on of my system. Also I loaded freeview when the oscilloscope was turned off. Then I turned on the oscilloscope. After the oscilloscope was on, and I heard the device driver had been loaded by windows I clicked on the "connect to oscilloscope" button in Freeview. Magically it worked, and has been working since.

Virtues:
Quick Response from Instek: they responded to my email about the cooling fan really quickly and sent out a replacement fan immediately. They also promptly emailed me back about the USB problem, however it started working right after I emailed them, so I didn't really need help anymore.

Overall: Useful! I've been able to easily monitor any signal I've needed to so far. The interface is what you'd expect -- pretty easy to use, buttons and dials that mostly do what you expect.

Posted by Andrew in Bench Equipment at 19:58 | Comments (2) | Trackback (1)

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PIC Code, Verified
Well, the PIC18F2550 wasn't working for me so I changed to the PIC18F2520. I don't know why it was giving me problems, but it essentially was not letting me set the clockrate fuses correctly (and I seemed to be missing pieces out of my 18F2550.h file,

Weblog: Reconn's World Project Log
Tracked: Jul 05, 23:00

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My employer has an Instek GDS-840S oscilloscope. I too have been having trouble getting my laptop to connect to the 'scope to perform screen captures.

The notebook is an IBM ThinkPad T60, WindowsXP Pro SP2. I initially loaded the most current FreeView application witht included USB drivers from Instek's site, but I was unable to make a successful connection to the 'scope. Since then I've loaded the latest FTDI USB drivers as referenced on your http://www.reconnsworld.com/plog/categories/5-Oscilloscope-Capture-Program

page, but they did not help either.

Since you appear to have struggled with this same issue, I was hoping you could provide some guidance or assistance.

Note I tried contacting Instek yesterday, but I've yet to receive a response.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

Sincerely,

J.D. Wampler

#1 J.D. Wampler on 2009-06-16 14:19 (Reply)

hello,

I'm using GDS-820C.I can see spectrum in my PC trough USB. but I could not get Numberical values wich is for further process please tell me how can I read the values of the spectrum through USB or RS232 port.

Thanks in advance,
Regards,
Satya.

#2 satya on 2010-03-08 08:11 (Reply)

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Tuesday, June 13. 2006

Instek GDS-820C Oscilloscope

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