Anyone have experience with these? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073P6TKQC/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8 There are a lot of positive reviews, but one gets the impression that most of those folks were more interested in audio or other low-freq stuff.
It’s probably OK for simple, uncritical low frequency hobby bench needs. Like most function generators, the maximum frequency quoted is for a sine wave and the distortion will probably be extremely high at that frequency. The other shapes are probably “good” for maybe 10 MHz at the most which would be 20 points per cycle at the quoted samples per second. Also don’t expect spectral purity. You might want to search on eevblog for any reviews or forum comments. Also, like many such cheap instruments, I think that it’s sold under many different company names.
Yah, for $100, I'm not expecting Hewlett-Packard. Just wondering if anyone has done any RF tests on one of these... Like dBm available into 50 ohms, FFT of the harmonics and D-A products, etc... Not really looking for VFO quality, just something to sweep some filters and such, up into the low VHF range.
Funny you mention HP. A friend just gave me his disused HP-8116A 50 MHz function generator, which was a standard in its day. It probably doesn’t even work as well as that $100 unit. And it’s big, heavy, and has an annoying fan. But it’s analog and from circa 1980, so I can forgive it.
Funny you mention that too! I "inherited" this super El Cheapo Chinese function generator....once I figured out the highly convoluted menus, it works FABULOUSLY....easily outperforms my -8116. I should shoot myself for saying this...but HP has passed its glory days. (And I can't afford any Keysight equipment)
I have been using one for a couple of years now. It works well for an inexpensive generator - certainly more that sufficient for my needs. I use it for troubleshooting and aligning HF gear mainly - and tinkering / homebrewing in the HF range. You will need attenuators - I have a bunch here, both fixed and step. It is very stable - never bothered to measure the output for amplititude, but appears to be close. It has some leakage along those lines, which I guess should be expected for the price. Mine came from Ebay for somewhere around $100. It is marked JDS6600, but looks to be identical to the Amazon unit. It has replaced one of those old boat anchor Navy generators in my shack. The shelf it was sitting on said "Thank You."
Looks very good for the price. I wish the reviewer would have shown the square wave, and sine wave harmonics, at much higher frequencies than what appeared to be 10 kHz on the screen.
I think I will too! BTW these units are available on eBay for less than $100, though the brand name may vary and you need to check if it's shipped from US or from China. Here's an example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/FY6800-60M...l-Function-Signal-Generator-K6X9/223514363894
Bought an FT6800 a couple of months ago. Check out the EEVBLOG forums under FY6600. Replace the master OSC with a better one and replace the output opamp with a pair of better ones. The PCB has the foot prints to replace the single opamp with a pair. About $30 in parts and you will have one heck of a deal. Best, KB1YFD
