2 MHz Function Generator/Frequency Counter SFG-1002

I bought this instrument after reading the previous reviews. I HAVE NOT BEEN DISAPPOINTED!This instrument is excellent. You will have to let it warm up for an hour or so to become stable. What more can one expect? Not much.

This is a great signal generator. Sqaure wave is clean and crisp . And acceptable at high frequencies . Speaking of which , frequency meter is dead on ! Checked it against my own frequency counter and 2 different types of oscilloscopes. So yea good unit...mad scientist on a budget such as I need this . A similar unit at frys would have cost me closer to $200. When I open a worm hole to another dimension, I will owe credit to people who sell good and economical equipment.

April 12, 2016. This is in addition to the review that I posted below. Just want to add that 5 months later, in frequent use it is still performing as expected. In addition I posted a picture of it's installation in my modest Home Lab, it's on the lower shelf of the scope cart to the left of the workbench.************************************On the 21st Nov 2015 I received the Volteq SFG-1002 2MHz Function generator that I ordered. Most of what follows is from an email I posted to one of my mail lists right after it arrived. I ordered it on Wednesday and it arrived the same week. I didn't pay for Amazon's "2 day delivery", and I had no idea where it was being shipped from (my invoice said to be delivered next Tuesday). It turns out that it was shipped from San Jose Calif, less than 200 miles from here and the early delivery was a very pleasant surprise.When the FEDEX man gave me the box I was again surprised at the 'heft' of it, there had to be more than a flimsy plastic box inside! Upon opening it, it was indeed a nice surprise. The unit has a steel cabinet (top and bottom "clam-shells") with steel front and back panels (front panel has a plastic overlay). It is also a bit larger than I expected, a bit larger than my Sinometer Frequency Counter (especially in depth).However, when I powered it up it wasn't such a pleasant surprise! (Turned out to be my fault). The counter counted "random numbers" all over the place. I put it on the 1KHz range, set it for a sine wave, turned the output control up about halfway and connected it to my frequency counter. All the counter counted was 120Hz, no matter how I set the controls! Put the scope on the output and I saw a low level 120Hz ramp, sort of like what you might see on a faulty PS (I didn't measure the Voltage).SO, time to open the unit. This was easy enough, take two screws out of the rear plastic bezel or ring and the "clam-shell" top and bottom covers slip right off. Hmm, construction quality looks VERY good, especially for a Chinese product! Close examination didn't show anything obvious. . .Powered it up and started measuring PS Voltages (many of the Voltages are silk-screened on the PCB). WOW, ALL Voltages are WAY LOW (+/- 17 Volt rails were about 9V, ± 23Volt rails were likewise way low).Recheck the back panel 110/220 Volt select switch. 110/220 is printed on the case, switch in 110 Side. Just for grins, slide the switch to the 220 side while the unit is on. VOILA! Unit immediately starts to work/count normally. Check the Voltage rails and they're normal.Got ready to take two screws out to turn switch around, I notice that the printing on the switch itself DOES now say 110V, it's just that the printing on the switch itself and the cabinet don't match. Look at it more critically and I came to the conclusion that the marking on the cabinet is just there to tell you what the switch is for. . .Buckle the unit back up and leave it on for a few hours burn in. Whatever frequency I set, up to 2.5MHz the internal counter matches my regular counter digit for digit. Except for rounding as the external counter has more resolution. I was even able to count down to <.2Hz on my external counter (with a 10S gate time) even though it's only specked down to 10Hz.OK, how does it work (remember, this is after only 1 day's use).I've VERY impressed with the unit. I spent MOST of my professional life in the Military, or working in the Aerospace field, and did a short stint as a "Standards Lab Engineer" in the microwave lab at General Dynamics Pomona (HATED that commute). The final years I worked in a TV shop doing all their home and professional audio work. During all those years I got spoiled on high end test equipment!I feel that for a $108 (+ shipping), this piece of Chinese equipment seems to be very well built. Of course NOT up to HP, Tek or Fluke standards, but it IS just a fraction of their cost too. Very nice for a home lab, or even a school or light duty "Pro" use (where you DON'T NEED NIST trace-ability).It IS analog (except the counter), so there is a small amount of drift during perhaps the first 30 minutes (and I DO mean a SMALL amount).The range selection is in decade steps via push-buttons (1Hz, 10Hz on up to 1MHz), with good overlap between ranges (tuning range goes UP from the labeled range). The main frequency knob is a 10 turn pot with good resolution, I didn't have any problem cranking in whatever frequency I wanted, pretty easy within 1%, can be brought a lot closer with a careful touch on the Freq knob. I found the upper limit of my unit was about 2.56MHz (they also make similar models of 5 & 10MHz range, I didn't need that much range as my HF signal generators take over there).NOTE: There IS a single turn FINE frequency control, but I found that using it was touchier than using the main one. The fine control REALLY should be a 10 turn pot too (I may change it out AFTER warranty expires).Next step was to check the waveforms on the O'scope. Sine wave, triangle wave all looked good & clean, I put a 50 Ohm dummy load right on the output jack (with a BNC Tee) to measure the Square wave response on the scope, the output is 50 Ohms.On the lower ranges it looks very good, nice sharp square corners, on the higher ranges (100k & 1M) the 'leading' corner started to round off a bit. But MORE than good enough for a home lab, and far better than something like the Heathkit IG-18 that I considered buying!! I notice that the square wave is only specked to 1MHz, but it does go higher, in fact as high as the sine wave.I reiterate, this IS an analog instrument (one of my primary reasons for choosing it), you're NOT going to get pushbutton entry of frequency etc. It does have offset Voltage adj, symmetry adj (yes, you can change the waveforms from nice symmetrical square or triangle to a "pulse" or ramp, but you need to use it with an outboard scope for calibration. Ditto for setting the offset Voltage. By the way, it DOES also have CMOS and TTL outputs in addition to the main output.Another REALLY NICE feature is, this is a "Voltage Controlled Oscillator", the pots change frequency by adjusting an internal DC Voltage. HOWEVER, the unit ALSO has a "VCF In" jack. That is, you can control the frequency from an external DC source. I see where that could be very useful for doing "frequency sweeps" of circuits in conjunction with an O'scope etc. One would only need to make a small ramp generator to drive both the generator and the Horiz input of the scope. Of course with this particular unit that would only be good for the range of <1Hz to 2.5MHz.I also think that with a stable external DC supply and a couple high resolution pots one could use the "VCF In" to really accurately dial in an EXACT frequency, even closer than the 10 turn pot allows you to. I see where this instrument has a lot more possibilities than first glance would indicate.Of course only time will be the Real test. But I feel like I made a wise choice in this instrument.ANOTHER nice surprise. Like I already said, the silkscreen on the PCB board has a lot of stuff labeled. The fairly small manual is in better than average "Chinglish", but besides just being a user manual, it ALSO has block diagrams of the unit AND how to make the internal adjustments (including which internal pots etc) to adjust sine wave distortion, square wave response (would probably square the corners), frequency accuracy and other things. It looks like they they REALLY targeted the professional market more than the home hobbyist market on this one! I've NEVER seen Chinese equip come with those kind of instructions.All in all, for my purpose I feel that it was a good buy, much better than the Sinometer one I was also looking at.