Siglent, arbitrary function generator

[F6FLT]

For most of our experiments, two essential equipments are needed: the oscilloscope and the signal generator.
I understand that if you don't have too many resources or are not too involved, you build your own cheap signal generator just for the application you want. But to invest, which one to choose? With the East Asian equipment, we have arrived at reliable and not too expensive products.
Rigol seems to be the brand of choice for many in our activity, but for my part I chose Siglent for my arbitrary function generator, an SDG2042x.

It's a two-channel generator limited to 40 MHz (when sold), but all the generators in the SDG2000 series are physically the same, and the top one reaches 120 MHz, not for the same price of course but just a matter of firmware. Like the Rigol scopes, Siglent generators are hackable.

Even without hacking, it is possible to exceed 40 MHz on the SDG2042x: just provide a waveform of several periods, e. g. 10, and the frequency will be 10 times the programmed frequency. The Easywave software provided by Siglent allows it, just enter "sin(10*x)", and it does the job. This software runs on a PC connected to the generator via Ethernet or USB.

But if you want to natively generate 120 MHz, and it's much more convenient, then you have to change the firmware. This is what I did (see the eevblog forum for the procedure, I can help). Thus our SDG2042x is transformed into SDG2122X!

We move from this:  https://www.siglent.eu/sdg2042x.html  to that:  https://www.siglent.eu/sdg2122x.html

Interesting, isn't it?