Uni-Byte 0060 - FG 100 DDS Function Generator: NO! JUST NO!

Review of this little function generator. However, from the first moment we turn it on it starts out bad and just keeps getting worse. Hang in for the duration to seem some of the worst technical fails ever.
To their credit, the vendor immediately returned all my money, but Just can't help thinking they know what they are selling.
#fg-100 #electronics #functiongenerator #dds
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[@sorcererstan]

I just re-checked mine that I got several years ago and it's actually very nice waveforms all around, up to the max specs. Must have gotten lucky.

[@uni-byte]

You may have gotten your before the attack of the clones!

[@muppetpaster]

Same here...ordered one 2 weeks ago after seeing this, just to have a laugh...Have to say I'm powering it with 12 Volts..... And hey...What'd you expect of this, being just south of 10 dollars...I actually paid 7 Euro's.

[@electromagix]

me too a lucky one. got a unit with awesome performance

[@trcwm]

Great video! anxiously awaiting the follow-up.

[@shaunmorrissey7313]

I have one of these and I have to say mine behaves completely differently, I opened mine up and the construction is quite a bit deferent and the op-amps used are TL082C. Seems I have been lucky with my purchase.

[@uni-byte]

Nice! Do you remember the vendor you got it from?

[@shaunmorrissey7313]

@@uni-byte Hi, looking back I bought mine on the 6th of October 2021 from an ebay seller base in the UK. I didn't think I had it that long.

[@jcbu55]

Can the device be used as a sound generator? Thanks for the reply.

[@uni-byte]

If you get a working one it will generate audio frequencies.

[@jcbu55]

@@uni-byte I got mine now and it works great. 👍

[@uni-byte]

@@jcbu55 Good to hear!

[@8thsinner]

I had been looking at this to make my way into the pemf field just to experiment, Don't really know what i'm doing but if this is so crap, what other options are there in the pulsed signal offerings? My budget isn't crazy but could stretch for more than this unit goes for by a little. Is there even such a thing as a cheap, two channel adjustable voltage pulse generator that works and won't require an expensive oscilliscope to experiment with? I won't likely be going into the high kilahertz ranges, solfegios and such are mainly under 1000hz...

[@uni-byte]

The FeelTech FY-3200S has a fairly goo reputation and can be had for under $100.

[@8thsinner]

@@uni-byte I've been looking at a few now. CDEK SDS1102X UNI-T UTG962E OWON DGE2070 A little more cost, and i'm leading towards the first cdek, but combined pulsed generator and oscilloscope in one seems good, but I don't know what I might be missing.

[@uni-byte]

@@8thsinner I thought the CDEK SDS1102X was an oscilloscope? I have heard good things about the UNI-T and the Owon. I'm not sure what Owon's support is like but I do know UNI-T do not support their products very well.

[@8thsinner]

@@uni-byte Oscilliscope and generator...so it says at least, but I don't know, is it better to have both functions separate? I'm also not sure of the differences between wave generator and pulse... mm...help...lol

[@uni-byte]

@@8thsinner I know very little abut the CDEK, but I do think it's better to have your scope and FG as separate instruments. Any good function generator will generate bot waves and pulses. Both the Owon and the UNI-T will do this. They will produce any waveform you like.

[@georgehanekom5412]

I don't think I need a AWG for what I do just yet and I do have the little XR2206 kit in case I need to make a speaker beep. The local online retailer had this one for sale with one review that was terrible so I was really looking forward to your input. Also looking forward to see if changing the opamp works, I had a clone DSO150 oscilloscope go magic smoke on me and after ordering new ICL7660 (I think) IC's I managed to get it working fairly ok after that.

[@uni-byte]

The little XR2206, despite having issues of it's own, is head and shoulders better than this. I think I'm going to use NE5532 replacements. Others seem to have had luck with them. Good going on the DSO150!

[@TonyCasneuf-l8l]

Thanks for your video, the one i've bought doesn't even generate waves only bulbs coming out 😂

[@uni-byte]

Sorry to hear that. If you can check the output of the DAC to see if it's okay then maybe an op-amp replacement might get it going.

[@davidv1289]

Thank you for sharing - sorry, but I have to admit I had a good laugh at the waveforms - glad to hear you got your money back. Replacing the opamps would be interesting and the "clip and clean" method would probably be best in this situation - less chance of board damage. Regards, David

[@uni-byte]

You and me both! Yup, the "clip and clean" method looks best to me too.

[@mrv4757]

Well, the review seems to be missing a suggestion on a good generator within the same price range. The video is interesting anyway, so thanks for sharing.

[@uni-byte]

Problem is, there is nothing else in the price range. If you get one of these that works properly, or you have the skills to get it working (see the follow up video #0071) it's pretty good for the money. The next level up and your into the $75 range. But you do get a lot more in that range.

[@ivolol]

I saw a russian? video of a guy who had ordered a DIY 0-30V PSU board. Whole board worked fine [eventually], except... they had included dud opamps in the kit. So many problems on first start. And when he substituted some others he had on hand... also dud 'cus they'd be ordered from ali. He eventually made his own 'opamp tester' circuit (verify very basic comparator functionality) to find a portion of working ones out of what he had on hand, and finally the whole kit worked perfectly.

[@uni-byte]

The whole counterfeit chip thing seems to be getting out of control. For me, I tend to buy more for reputable outlets like DigiKey more these days. I do have some eBayer's I've used for years that have yet to pass me a counterfeit chip, but they usually don't have everything I need.

[@theDaftman]

well i have 2 of these, i use them for SSB setup, nothing wrong with mine at all, you must have got yourself a dad one.

[@uni-byte]

Yes, I certainly did. I had to replace the op-amps to get it working. They were fakes. You should look at the follow up video. the link to that is in the description. Look for "We fix the FG 100 DDS:"

[@theDaftman]

@@uni-byte Ok ill go back and look at that. thanks for all your time needed to edit and up load.

[@uni-byte]

@@theDaftman You're welcome. Thanks for watching!

[@ovalwingnut]

GR8T Infotainment. Thank you.

[@uni-byte]

Glad you liked it!

[@paulhall9713]

At about 15:00 I nearly choked to death.

[@uni-byte]

LOL! Thanks!

[@alasdair4161]

I made the mistake of building the kit version of the FG-085, and it is even worse. The FW has more bugs than a beehive.

[@uni-byte]

I wasn't even aware of that model. Is it just the FW?

[@markharrisllb]

I bought one of these when I first had my Hantek 6022BL. Even though I was extremely new at the time I realised it wasn’t helping my progression. Sadly I think the market will be mainly the very naive like myself and it does negatively impact on our experience and journey into learning electronics. Even sadder is that there are several KZbin videos praising them at the price.

[@uni-byte]

Yeah, things like this can be a real drawback to someone just getting their feet wet. Like buying a budding musician a $300 trombone. More likely to make them hate playing rather than excel at it.

[@aquinamedia4508]

Many thanks for the educational and buyer beware content! Could be an interesting follow-up video on swapping the op-amps.

[@uni-byte]

Yes, it will be revealing for sure.

[@tomigalik4052]

How many max amper can it produce in output?

[@uni-byte]

The original op amps are capable of about 10-15 mA. The ones I put in can do maybe twice that. So, not much. It really is a high impedance output and NOT a 50 ohm output like hey suggest in the information sheet.

[@muppetpaster]

Sure.....Amps output....😂😂😂 Funny man...

[@mdelabo]

It strange on your oscillo Mine wark very good!

[@uni-byte]

Yeah, it looks like some are good, others not so much. Watch the follow up video. We fix the problem.

[@jlippencott1]

One would think they don’t do any testing with such a reject rate.

[@uni-byte]

There was so much wrong with this I'd have to agree. I'd go a step further and say there is no quality control of any kind.

[@stargazer30721]

We bought one of these at work because it was inexpensive and if was damaged in the field it would be ok. Had all of the same issues our tech says. Buyer beware!

[@uni-byte]

Thanks for the additional info. It does seem the majority of them these days are tiny boat anchors.

[@jeanyluisa8483]

Those cheap function generators are sold by countless resellers. Even though they all look the same, they have different firmware versions and and some different hardware components. Thats why the many tests of this generator on KZbin show so different results. I bought one of them about 3 years ago and its as lousy as the one in this video. I bought another one 2 month ago. That one works fine, the sigals it generates are ok and it even has some more waveforms than the old one.

[@uni-byte]

This one was repairable. See the link in the description "We fix the FG 100 DDS".👍

[@jeanyluisa8483]

@@uni-byte Oh yes, now when you point me o that video - I have seen that video some time ago and ordered some N5532 to fix it. Problem is just, that I have no experience with soldering those tiny smd parts. My soldering skills are already bad enough at bigger parts. So fixing it is one of many projects for "later", when I am in the mood to try it. As I wrote I already have a new one of those FG 100 DDS and it works fine.

[@uni-byte]

@@jeanyluisa8483 Sounds good!

[@icollided]

Thank you for saving me $25

[@uni-byte]

You are welcome!

[@oldskeptic1513]

... once upon a time there was an expression, you only get what you pay for ... I do not think I'm the first to say, you've got a faulty unit as well ...

[@uni-byte]

I ended up fixing it and it turns out to be quite nice. See this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/joitgHaeqpaNg8U

[@oldskeptic1513]

@@uni-byte ... thanks, I shall ...

[@johnwest7993]

In my professional opinion, 'All broke ting'.

[@uni-byte]

Indeed it was!

[@SendyTheEndless]

More like.... DYSfunction Generator : >

[@uni-byte]

LOL! Just about sums it up.

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

I was dying laughing watching this. Pure garbage there. You could do just as good maybe better with a 555 and a breadboard.

[@uni-byte]

A 555 would be a dream in comparison to this in it's original state. After replacing the op-amps with real ones it turns out to be quite good: kzbin.info/www/bejne/joitgHaeqpaNg8U

[@dishepullisais2434]

05:00

[@kd5ozy]

what do you expect from chinese junk? spend a little money and get a good one

[@uni-byte]

Thanks for your comment. The point of getting this was for review as a part of the beginner's electronics tool kit I am developing. It may come as a surprise to some people, but there are some beginners that do not have the money to spend on a $600 function generator, or at least do not want to spend that kind of money (+$600 for a scope, +600 for a power supply, +++$$$) on a hobby they may abandon for one reason or another. That's they idea behind the beginner's tool kit. To put together a set of useful instruments and tools at a reasonable cost. These were once pretty good little generators, but doing this review we found out that that the market is being supplied with counterfeit components.

[@gordselectronicshobby3853]

The one I have works very well. You must have a problem with yours.