EEVblog

Teardown of the new Uni-T UPO3000 series oscilloscope.
Forum: www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/ee...
#Teardown #Oscilloscope
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[@MarkFunderburk]

They gave up on the scope and sent it to you to see if you had any ideas on how to make it work.

[@BruceNitroxpro]

Mark Funderfurk , Oh, my God... so funny when you say the truth! ROFL

[@airrace1113]

Consultants are expensive!! Love their ingenuity.

[@booboyBL]

What a pile of c**p! Normally I'd ask you to send it to me, but I think you can keep this one. Do a reverse 'dumpster dive' on it.

[@Jedda73]

You almost get the feeling they sent it to Dave to get a better idea about how much their scope stinks

[@Richard_Ashton]

Is this a pre-production prototype? everything suggests it has been a test-bed for the final model.

[@psionicxxx]

My thoughts, exactly.

[@Arek_R.]

I used to work at a factory where sometimes trimcap wasn't enough and so some capacitors were placed manually, the quality was much much better and the product was only like $100. Here you have $1000 and looks like a playground for 10yo kids that learn to solder at school.

[@Arek_R.]

Second mistake they sent it do Dave. Dave don't give a damn, Dave will roast xD

[@MrDoneboy]

Made in China, Right? I miss the days, when the Japanese built far more high quality electronics!

[@denizkarl6554]

the best youtube channel about electronic i have ever seen.

[@TheDefpom]

Check out the solder ball between the resistors @9:00 !

[@giorgiovasta7128]

Very good description 👍🏻

[@wphanoo]

For a sub-thousand dollar scope I bought the Siglent SDS1204X-E and it's really good, 200mhz 4 channels. The hardware of the Uni-T seems fine, only the software seems really buggy. A lot of companies underestimate the complexity of software, for all types of products not only scopes

[@ImprEcr]

Looks nice... I enjoy your stuff that you review. Great stuff, keep that up!!

[@jcolonna12]

Im looking for a scope and would love a comparison of all the lower level scopes.

[@rymannphilippe]

Yes. Me too.

[@andrekoczka3777]

jcolonna12 buy a 1000 series RIGOL. You can‘t go wrong with those, reliable, and has everything an entry-level scope needs. Beats pretty much everything in the price range.

[@omfghai2u]

Get the "new" rigol or siglent. Rigol for the lower price, siglent for actually functional serial decoding etc.

[@DrTune]

Yeah Rigol DS1054Z I use it all daily and I have no complaints (esp for the $) apart from the fan noise, so I swapped out the fan.

[@DrTune]

however scopes will forever be useless as logic analyzers so don't get excited about UART or i2c decoding etc, just use USB LA

[@MrAwyork]

Two of the channels have different chips than the other 2. Top right region at 9:48 And watch crystal right next to an inductor, eeewww 10:00

[@DriverDude100]

Those are not bugs. They are Easter eggs meant for your fun.

[@Gengh13]

We all knew it was going to be bad, but it's good to know how bad. Thanks for the teardown.

[@gelecopter]

Dave opens front-end cans: Uni-T in all its glory. Its so uni-t -ish.

[@NilsJakobson]

At least you know they tested it and fine tuned, sure the method isnt the best but most of the china products dont get even tested let alone tuned to the spec.

[@FlakeSE]

Why oh why would they send reviewers a buggy & bodgy rev. 1

[@tmmtmm]

because it's Uni-T - rev. 1 is the last revision, then they release totally new hardware.

[@T2D.SteveArcs]

@Marnix Janse wow you would like to think a company that designs and builds test gear would know what they are doing! Have they watched a EEVblog teardown?

[@PowerScissor]

Obviously, this was sent by their competitor. Buy a competitor product, open it up, screw everything up, send it off for review....right?

[@DiegoSpinola]

watching scope teardowns is my ASMR

[@Boffin55]

It makes more sense if this was sent to you by Rigol or Siglant, than for UniT to sent out that buggy awful crap

[@PNWZombieWatch]

That's what I was thinking. What a great way to burn your competition. Get hold a prototype box and send it anonymously to him and watch him tear your competition a new one.

[@Joetechlincolns]

That wouldn't surprise me in the least.

[@drd9973]

I have always dreamed of owning a oscilloscope. I am saving up for one and waiting for the right one. So a low budget compare would be great. Thank you for your videos! I feel smarter because of you.

[@John_Smith__]

Dave thanks for starting the video with the price tag. It saved me 30 minutes of yt video watching :)

[@petaks01]

Thanks Dave, keeping my hard earned money and my old Siglent scope. Don't think I have seen one as buggy as this before.

[@mdevries8495]

Seems like a test device. Not sure why they would send you an incomplete product though...

[@theawt]

thumbs up for comparison

[@flapjackboy]

UNI-T living up to their usual reputation, I see.

[@electronic7979]

Nice item

[@user-gx7uq6iu1m]

Thanks for your video, I can see how workmanship inside the scope. Very amazing hand soldering work, 2 components in series and stacked up, burnt solder flux, manual soldering touch up. This is the state of art. I wonder why Uni-T sent this item to you. They should know you would open it and show on KZbin. If I were Uni-T, I would send a super perfect scope to you for review. Uni-T should fire the guy who sent this junk to you.

[@ghpicard]

Nice solder short on 7C57, near the bottom of the screen, @13:34

[@gglovato]

osciloscope pricing is getting ridiculous, everything with "passable" specs is close to 1K or more and they have all the useful features DRM-locked behind stupid options. They need to start doing GOOD ones for 500 and less(something with 250Mhz, digital phospor, good size screen, at least 2gsps per channel and 2 channels with all unlocks enabled, specially serial decoding!). ¿and more than 300 bucks for uni-t?, hell no

[@k7iq]

In between channel 4's double stack R and single R, looks like maybe a solder ball too.

[@hasenlamano]

Now that i see this i know I made a good choice buying a ds1054z

You need to attach a drill to get 300 BPS. Seriously, the more i see Uni-T products, the more i stay away and don't recommend.

[@user-pk8fr8ix6d]

What about 1000000000 bps? I think a huge gearbox is needed to set it to this rate

[@shadow7037932]

Their DMMs seem pretty decent for the price.

[@user-pk8fr8ix6d]

@@shadow7037932 unfortunately, they are often unreliable and don't meet their specs. As for their software for usb-enabled devices, it is horrible and lacks lots of functions

[@triodehexode]

Their clamp meters are pretty decent I got the same one as big Clive's for DC measurement and it's good. Perhaps scope are a bridge too far for them.

@@triodehexode Got a disastrous bench PSU from them. Didn't open as returned it for refund, was trash at around 12v and 24v. You could hear some kind of relay flickering. I ordered their USB meter too, same big Clive have as well, and it crapped out after 2 weeks. Really have the impression it's hit or miss, quality control is not there for most of their products. Really happy i chose my Rigol DS1054Z when i had the choice for a less than 1000$ oscilloscope. Uni-T was on the list at the time, but after the PSU, i decided i'd rather not take the chance.

[@greywolf271]

When adjusting bandwidth of rf amplifiers, we use a selection of caps to get better low and high end rolloff. That's called select on test

[@kmonyt]

Great video. Love the scope teardowns. Just way too many problems with this one. Since I bought a keysight scope, I'll probably never look back. Wouldn't mind trying another mainline brand like tek or lecroy or R&S. Just to see how they differ

[@RichardDePas]

Would like to see a shoot out of the entry level scopes out now.

[@girder123]

@7:38 looks like the bottom right pin of U2 isn't even soldered (frontend for channel 3)

[@ZXRulezzz]

@@Okurka. 13:38, 7C57 has a bit of snot solder shorting it

[@girder123]

@@Okurka. Yea, kinda seems like it. Still a pretty terrible job overall. Hopefully not in the final product.

[@Orbis92]

21:20: I am not sure, but it seems like the Sigilent hat its trigger at 6.2mV and the UniT at only 2mV for the piezo test

[@rbmwiv]

I’m surprised that you didn’t have to get the lab fumigated because of all the bugs in that scope!

[@kevincozens6837]

@12:30 you said the chip may be the boot flash. I would concur. The other thing to note is that there is a 6 pin header near by which is probably the JTAG programming header.

[@I_leave_mean_comments]

I wish someone would just send me scopes out of nowhere. I'll take it.

[@robbyxp1]

Nice review, nasty scope. The build quality !

[@kjur18]

Dave, maybe this fancy springy big ass wheel has velocity control? I ask because I don't think you ever used it.

[@simonbaxter8001]

That rework looks like it was done by a 3 year old and the boards haven't been washed ... I would be firing someone if they shipped a unit for review to Dave in that state! Especially knowing that they'll be opened and scrutinised by the electronics world.

[@michaelhawthorne8696]

Simon Baxter Very good comment.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Simon Baxter There is something called "no-wash flux" and some component packages that aren't sufficiently sealed to survive board washing. So leaving boards unwashed may be a technical necessity.

[@Spark-Hole]

Chinese always use used lead solder from old electronic gabage. ...... The composition is not right and It wont flow smoothly when solder.

[@simonbaxter8001]

@@Spark-Hole All solder will flow if you use flux. Half the problem with these joints is there is about 10x more solder than is needed! The quality of the workmanship is just BAD, very BAD!

[@hexarith]

Regarding the bad font rendering: To me this looks like they're using TI's embedded font library (which you automatically get a license for when using a TI embedded processor). Anyway, this library renders bitmap fonts. These fonts however are created from TTF using a custom tool, that ships with the library. And (unfortunately) the rendering quality heavily depends on the original font you're ingesting. I've spent an awful lot time of testing out various fonts and once I finally found font set that looked decent I even manually adjusted/fixed those few glyphs that didn't come out right.

[@trickyrat483]

Good heavens. What a bodge job.

[@Veptis]

"that's a bit how ya' doin" I need a scope as well, but that is a market sector too explore.

[@BobHannent]

An HDMI driver can be more expensive than the DAC for VGA, but worse than that they may need to pay royalties and certification for HDMI.

[@ab-fm2dj]

you can just output DVI over hdmi and not label it to avoid licensing fees.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Bob H The main SoC is the same as in a BeagleBone. Some BeagleBone models include the HDMI output chip for 5 to 10 US$ extra compared to nothing. The chips include onboard Ethernet minus the output chip and a single 24 bit video output that can drive the LCD and/or the video output with the same single signal, so resolution and refresh must be same for VGA and LCD.

[@garybarnes422]

Would love to see a comparison of sub AUD $1000 scopes.

[@dine9093]

It's a beaglebone chipset.

[@ZacksLab]

LOL. “So ya know... that’s tight as a nun’s nasty.”

[@gharbisalem1254]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@GeckonCZ]

You must be new here :)

[@AlfredoMazzinghi]

Priceless!

[@ZacksLab]

Hah, I’ve heard a few ‘Daveisms’ just from listening to the Amp Hour. Never heard that one before!

[@ayitsyaboi]

@@gharbisalem1254 please stop.

[@shaunzimmerman7593]

tight as a nuns nasty lol love your shows. best show for this kind of stuff. keep up the great work!!!!

[@user-ym6wr1im7j]

Great video I'm off to watch pugwall now.

[@LemmingGoBoom]

@EEVBlog HDMI also has licensing costs involved in using it.

[@0xbenedikt]

HDMI is an interesting deal. AFAIK you can save on the licensing cost if you print the HDMI logo onto your product. "If the HDMI logo is used on the product and promotional material, the per-unit fee drops from US$0.15 to US$0.05.". Source: www.semiconductorstore.com/blog/2014/licensing-costs-HDMI/654/

Uses the same processor as the SBC beaglebone which has an RGB LCD to HDMI converter. They should have got a very good deal on the VGA IC converter.

[@NivagSwerdna]

I take pride in my bodging and that is just embarrassing. Well done for taking it apart... I vow now to never ever ever consider buying a Uni-T scope! At the start of the video I thought I might beg for it as I would like a 4CH scope but by 9 mins in... it's not worth the shipping!

[@Elektronik-EXTREM]

rather buy an old oscilloscope from Lecroy or Rohde & Schwarz ... as such a uni-t. By the way, you always make very nice electronics videos! i can not speak english but i try my language.

[@michaelroberts1120]

Dave's mom must receive some pretty strange letters from her son.

[@ThePoxun]

hdmi licencing can be quite expensive for 'small run' devices

[@riajhasib8810]

I have never seen dave being so positive about the "Chong" capacitor before!

[@seeigecannon]

If you are still looking for the U.Fl coax connector (proper connector name) on the main board, I think it can be seen at 18:07. There is a relay above and to the left of the main heatsink, and what looks like the connector is at the 10'oclock position about an inch away.

[@bernhardreinel]

You mean right next to the unpopulated connector that he is pointing to at 18:08? Thought so as well. Maybe just different footprints for what ever part they can source?

[@tookitogo]

I think you might be right. Better view at 6:11.

[@jfkdkslslee]

And how about review of (low cost) handheld/portable scopes?

[@MortimerKadaver]

13:28 Capacitor 7C57 is short by welding-tin

[@TERRAOperativeOriginal]

Looks like thermal grease to me.

[@cfkn7049]

22:11 If you glue a Phillips screw head onto that "Multipurpose" dial, then you could change the value much faster by using a power screw driver. :)

[@asbjo]

Hehe, I think Dave just gave Uni-T some free RnD. Seems like a late stage prototype. Made for bug testing and all that. Sending it to Dave now, gives them a little time to fix things before they push it to the greater markets.. Well.. That would make sense at least.. But it is Uni-T, so this might be the actual release version, an if that, good God that is terrible Muriel.

[@jacksat2252]

woaw look at the solder joints on those 8512a at 8:17 and at 8:49 on pin 4 . Is there a QC over there. edit :correct timestamp

[@gamer388]

Yeah it's pretty awfull indeed. It looks like the pin isn't even soldered, you can see the copper pad still wow.

[@stanthesnail]

Well damn, now I have to give my scope a few good smacks to see what happens. Edit: found the details in EEVblog #983 in case anyone else is curious.

[@soothcoder]

What's the big knob at the top even do? I don't think I saw you use it. Does this thing have segmented memory?

[@vega1287]

if you are going to compare scopes maybe throw in some old scopes to compare buying a new one vs an older dso or even analog storrage osciloscope

[@kyleleclair4485]

I’m a Marine in America (Avionics Marine of the Year) 2019. I fucking love you Dave. You have been a pivotal evolution in my career sense 2015. Semper Fi from the USA.

[@bob505470]

im currently 15 seconds in and the skewed text on the right is driving me NUTS

[@Rainbow__cookie]

17:58 just a of the shelf pc fan looks like 80mm or 92mm

[@deviljelly3]

Awww... Be nice to UNI-T...

[@Slartibartfas042]

lol - Shenzhen Marketplace ran out of the proper resistors and condensors, so they had to stack some of them on this Scope! ;-)

[@wilman_studio]

Need to do a reverse dumpster dive on that one.

[@tomgeorge3726]

9:30 look at the mess around the lower end of the PCBs where it looks like a power device is soldered. You definitely have a PRE PRE PRE production model Dave...😮😮

[@saxyweed]

That's what I was thinking. Gotta be some early development piece

[@tookitogo]

Those are the BNCs. Large connectors like that are often hand-soldered when the rest of the board is all SMD or thin THT, as the thermal profile of a big connector is radically different from that of the small stuff.

[@mattj2217]

"It's raw!"

[@maksberlec4832]

OWON XDS series have a touch screen, 12 bit ADCs...

[@vega1287]

they use vga because using a d sub is cheaper as you dont have to pay royaltys as you have to with hdmi

[@madscientist132]

My 2017 UTD2052CL rendered obsolete....

[@ianwilliamtait9909]

I would have thought that it woud have been much more economical to just use the same board for each of the input channels. see 6:44 component designations like 4R3, 3R3, 2R3, 1R3 ETC Why two different board designs. Channel 2 and 4 have a small 16 pin chip near the top with a 5 pin chip nearby while Channel 1 and 3 have a large 16pin chip and no 5 pin chip nearby that I can see. I noticed that the earlier scope Dave showed parts of had the same arrangement ie. large chip and small chip and different component designations..See 6:32. I think there is also a bodge just below the same chip position on the earlier board just a lot neater done as not to draw attention to it. See channel 3.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Ian William Tait Maybe those 3 chips each handle both channels of the pair, they just didn't bother with an oddly shaped can that bridges the common area.

[@aurthorthing7403]

Would it be a good deal if they cut the price in half? Hard to pay over a grand for anything UniT makes, IMO.

[@simontay4851]

I wouldn't use it even if i was given it free. Certainly wouldn't spend over 1000 $/£/E on that. Id be wanting my money back.

[@aurthorthing7403]

@@simontay4851 I really like UniT multimeters but I can't justify paying what some of them cost.

[@simontay4851]

@@aurthorthing7403 My main handheld meter is a Uni-T UT61E. I like the 22,000 count and fast update rate. I works well. I can measure very small resistances. Ive added MOVs to 2 unpopulated positions that are missing to the V/ohms input, a backlight button, min/max button and auto power off. Also reinforced the amps input with thick copper wire on the PCB because the PCB trace is too thin for 10Amps.

[@simontay4851]

I also have the Uni_T DC current clamp meter.

[@aurthorthing7403]

@@simontay4851 I have a UT-139C. UT-210E, UT-58D and UT-33A. I like all of them better than anything I can buy at Walmart or Lowes for the same price. I would like to get a 61E but I don't really need another meter unless one of these malfunctions..

[@DoRC]

18:17 wasn't it right next to where you said there was an unpopulated one?

[@TheDigitalAura]

TimesBase? Surely that should be TimeBase

[@KG4JYS]

Rigol needs to get on the ball and send you a 4000. Better yet, they should just send you one of everything.

[@simontay4851]

What a buggy piece of crap. The UI is horrible and those bodges are disgusting with far too much solder. For 1000+ id want something A LOT better. The USB doesn't even work.

[@bergamt]

Yeah but it does have Ultra Phosphors

[@MrAwyork]

@@bergamt without a phosphor display ~~~~~ :D

[@flapjackboy]

@@bergamt It has what scopes crave.

[@johncundiss9098]

So, what is the keypad for? Is it for the "Phantom Russian Signal Generator" ?

[@trickyrat483]

It's there just for entering expensive license keys. :)

[@PsiQ]

I get the feeling that sigilent or someone else sent it to be trashed. not Uni-T themselve ;-)

[@intesral]

how to beta test your hardware for small money? send it to dave. ))

[@povilasstaniulis9484]

@11:56 It's really a surprise to see these really low-quality Sacon FZ electrolytics in a such expensive piece of gear. Also, why is that SanDisk flash chip on it's own PCB ? I guess they probably had a microSD slot in there for firmware debugging (eMMC and SD are electrically compatible). Also, what's the deal with those frontends ? Is this a prototype unit ?

[@BryanByTheSea]

Oh man is that scope bad.

[@Lucien86]

Warning! : EEVblog is Australian,, he may not show much subtlety and will show excessive honesty when reviewing your new scope.

[@michaelhawthorne8696]

That was a fair and honest review, thanks Dave. Maplin used to stock Uni-T stuff but they are no longer trading. Ohhh dear, that has got real issues, pretty much in every area. If they want to muscle into the scope market and play with the big boy specs, they are going to have to get their act together. Uni-T are not known for their quality Build or Spec but looking at this tear down, I won't be buying any time soon. I have 2 Scopes... a Siglent 1102 CML and a Siglent 1104 X-E More than happy with them. The 1104 comes with Serial Decode too..... what a rippa! Winner, Winner Chicken dinner.

[@chenli9734]

I doubt this scope was send by units competitors. I come from China. Unit compete hard with rigol siglent.

[@Matt47247523457]

hmmm is cap 7C57 @ 13:30 shorted with a solder dag? - i wonder if it killed the USB clock ?

[@TERRAOperativeOriginal]

I think that's just some thermal grease.

[@Matt47247523457]

ahhh

[@felixwurm1467]

I am using a very old Tektronix scope and even this feels way better than this, even with only a CRT scream.

[@simontay4851]

Only a CRT screen? Old CRT scopes are built like tanks with metal everywhere. only problem is they take up so much bench space.

[@kenabi]

i suspect the components used in the cans weren't passing QA tests so they got replaced.

[@_-Skeptic-_]

13:38 is that 7C57 cap is shorted with solder?

[@Gengh13]

Could be, judging by the general quality of the assembly. Nice catch.

[@TERRAOperativeOriginal]

It looks like it's just thermal grease.

[@Meow-hw5wi]

Nooooo... the MXT2004 IC is not a custom silkscreen but a Chinese brand high-speed ADC made by www.mxtronics.com/ .Datasheet for MXT2001: www.mxtronics.com/n107/n123/c883/attr/2752.pdf.

[@ThePoxun]

The only thing that could make any sense is that they accidentally sent you a pre production test unit

[@ianide2480]

Looks at my old 100mhz HP Megazoom, cost me $80, ya I'll stick with this... Being only a home gamer, I don't need anything in this price range so I cannot really comment to much more (what the hell do I know after all?)

[@radarmusen]

The button on the side looks a little Rigol'ish