Many thanks for your interesting review of the FNIRSI SG-004A signal generator and process calibrator meter. Greetings from Stockholm ( Sweden ) and Jan Eklöf
They are very powerful units, given their cost and size and especially when compared to other process calibrators on the market. I think Fnirsi may have labelled them as 'Signal generators' because of their extra functionality and to appear to a wider market than a traditional process calibrator would. The range option allows you to scale the input or output, so you can work in engineering units rather than the raw voltage or amps. So if you have a 4 - 20mA pressure transmitter with a 0 - 10 bar measurement, you can set the input function to 4 - 20 mA and the input range to 0 - 10 to simulate the pressure range. Then when you inject the transmitter the meter shows the mA reading and the corresponding pressure value in the range window. The 24V function can be used to power transmitters either as an auxiliary voltage as you had it wired or using the input terminals it can power a two wire loop-powered transmitter. It looks like yours also has a bit of instability in the measurement function with a fair bit of movement in those last two digits. I would really like Fnirsi to address that with a firmware upgrade so it can then be used a bit more for calibration rather than function checks at the moment.
Hi, what a cool comment! Kudos to you, that what this channel is all about, sharing knowledge and learning... well and a lot of review in the way 😁 thank you so much for your explanation and detail. Really appreciated. Thanks for watching!
Have you ever put one of these SG-003A on a scope? The one I just bought from Amazon is noisy as hell. Both on CC & CV they are very unstable also - even as measured on the units own v-meter let alone on my fluke and owon DMMs and my scope. I was mostly interested in this device as a low level CCS standard/tool for testing things like phototransistors and as a standard voltage ref for GP use (volts, mv etc that a bench supply would be sloppy at)... but this thing is capricious. As an example, on cv at 3v output (any voltage is same result generally) if you go from a 10k load to 1M, the voltage level changes 100mV! I am not familiar with PLD process meters so perhaps they dont need very tight equipment - but I couldnt IMAGINE this being useful for any sort of testing application. BTW I had it BOTH connected to PC and not connected to PC, with minimal effect (little less noise when not connected - but nothing compared to its general tolerances). I expect a precision v source to have some drop, but not on the level of 100's of mV's for 100's of microamps changes - plus 180mV or so noise SMH.
Hi, true to be told, no I haven't tested on the scope. I will to see if mine have both those issues you reported or is just a bad batch. Thanks for watching.
@@TechCornerTV I thought I deleted these comments - it turns out I had some noise source in the area causing problems. But it is still informative to see how these actually perform on a scope.
@@bertbronson8395 I have to confess that I'm a bit overloaded with work, a huge queue of devices to review. I am really glad that you sorted out. When possible I will try to that analysis. Thanks for your feedback.
Hello, yes and we have to take these videos as reference. I'm not testing this at lab with temperature controled environment and all testing devices professionally calibrated. So, take this more as reference. Temperature might be a factor, yes. Thanks for watching.
Did you ever try to convert any engineering unit to Pt100? My device never displays a value above 10.0 °C (103.9 Ohm). The only purpose I bought this unit is to convert 4-20 mA to a Pt100 signal, but it doesn't work. Latest firmware update didn't help.
Hi, sorry no, I didn't... I will put that in my backlog, but to be honest I'm so behind with the videos, that I don't know when I will have a chance to test it. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this video. Specialy the part of testing the in- and output on the same device. I am alwas scared to blow up my meters with that kind of testing.😃Now i can try it without any problem. On my device, SG-004A the 24V output is 24V output, measured on a calibrated Fluke 28II. So it is ok now. Bought the SG-004A last week.
Hi, you're welcome and I am really glad it could help. As you see in my videos, I always use this SG-004A to test the mA part on every multimeter I review. Thanks for watching and your comment.
The second format is if you wanted to map the 4-20 mA to an enginnering Units. By default 4-20mA is ranged to 0-1000 but you can change this to what ever range you choose. I actually find this ranging to a process engineering unit useful for temperature, pressure, and percentage open for valves.
According to the manual it can be controlled under MODBUS Slave mode and at the end of the manual there are tables of MODBUS functions. But, the manual does not describe how to connect the wiring. Does anyone know how to communicate and control this device using MODBUS (RS485) ?
on a windows computer the device will show up as a com port when you plug in the usb cable to your computer. you will have to write software to communicate with it over that com port using the Modbus map at the end of the manual here is a link to a more detailed manual for the modbus communication img.wqdres.com/res/0/20231229/88578d747c8e46bc8625bde800fc921b.pdf
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Many thanks for your interesting review of the FNIRSI SG-004A signal generator and process calibrator meter. Greetings from Stockholm ( Sweden ) and Jan Eklöf
Hi Jan, it was my pleasure. Glad that it was helpful. Thanks for watching. Greeting from the sunny Portugal 😁
Is it support to test pt100 loop?
that some powerful tools considering their sizes . anyway have been expecting this video for a while.
Hi Andy, glad it was helpful. They really are nice tools and I don't even know (yet) how to use everything they do. Thanks for watching.
They are very powerful units, given their cost and size and especially when compared to other process calibrators on the market. I think Fnirsi may have labelled them as 'Signal generators' because of their extra functionality and to appear to a wider market than a traditional process calibrator would.
The range option allows you to scale the input or output, so you can work in engineering units rather than the raw voltage or amps. So if you have a 4 - 20mA pressure transmitter with a 0 - 10 bar measurement, you can set the input function to 4 - 20 mA and the input range to 0 - 10 to simulate the pressure range. Then when you inject the transmitter the meter shows the mA reading and the corresponding pressure value in the range window.
The 24V function can be used to power transmitters either as an auxiliary voltage as you had it wired or using the input terminals it can power a two wire loop-powered transmitter.
It looks like yours also has a bit of instability in the measurement function with a fair bit of movement in those last two digits. I would really like Fnirsi to address that with a firmware upgrade so it can then be used a bit more for calibration rather than function checks at the moment.
Hi, what a cool comment! Kudos to you, that what this channel is all about, sharing knowledge and learning... well and a lot of review in the way 😁 thank you so much for your explanation and detail. Really appreciated. Thanks for watching!
Hi,
in frequency output, it is not clear what voltage comes out and its impedance
Hi, ohhhh... ok, nice to know. Thanks for sharing and for watching.
Have you ever put one of these SG-003A on a scope? The one I just bought from Amazon is noisy as hell. Both on CC & CV they are very unstable also - even as measured on the units own v-meter let alone on my fluke and owon DMMs and my scope. I was mostly interested in this device as a low level CCS standard/tool for testing things like phototransistors and as a standard voltage ref for GP use (volts, mv etc that a bench supply would be sloppy at)... but this thing is capricious.
As an example, on cv at 3v output (any voltage is same result generally) if you go from a 10k load to 1M, the voltage level changes 100mV!
I am not familiar with PLD process meters so perhaps they dont need very tight equipment - but I couldnt IMAGINE this being useful for any sort of testing application.
BTW I had it BOTH connected to PC and not connected to PC, with minimal effect (little less noise when not connected - but nothing compared to its general tolerances).
I expect a precision v source to have some drop, but not on the level of 100's of mV's for 100's of microamps changes - plus 180mV or so noise SMH.
Hi, true to be told, no I haven't tested on the scope. I will to see if mine have both those issues you reported or is just a bad batch. Thanks for watching.
@@TechCornerTV I thought I deleted these comments - it turns out I had some noise source in the area causing problems. But it is still informative to see how these actually perform on a scope.
@@bertbronson8395 I have to confess that I'm a bit overloaded with work, a huge queue of devices to review. I am really glad that you sorted out. When possible I will try to that analysis. Thanks for your feedback.
@@TechCornerTV No worries... time is precious.
This small error cannot be due to the temperature.,The calibrations if I'm not mistaken are done at 20 degrees ?
Hello, yes and we have to take these videos as reference. I'm not testing this at lab with temperature controled environment and all testing devices professionally calibrated. So, take this more as reference. Temperature might be a factor, yes. Thanks for watching.
Surely the 24 volts output is for checking 24 volt 4-20mA loops l.e. temperature or pressure transmitters.
Hi, probably, the function is 24V Loop Detection. Thanks for watching!
Did you ever try to convert any engineering unit to Pt100? My device never displays a value above 10.0 °C (103.9 Ohm). The only purpose I bought this unit is to convert 4-20 mA to a Pt100 signal, but it doesn't work. Latest firmware update didn't help.
Hi, sorry no, I didn't... I will put that in my backlog, but to be honest I'm so behind with the videos, that I don't know when I will have a chance to test it. Thanks for watching!
See the configuration of range and output limits. Everything is configurable.
Very nice product for the price. Thanks for the review Hugo.
Hi, yes, I liked very much! Thanks for watching
Can I use it to find data and clock signal of mobile phone cpu?
Hello, don't think so, this is more to be used as a signal generator than signal analyzer. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for this video. Specialy the part of testing the in- and output on the same device. I am alwas scared to blow up my meters with that kind of testing.😃Now i can try it without any problem.
On my device, SG-004A the 24V output is 24V output, measured on a calibrated Fluke 28II. So it is ok now. Bought the SG-004A last week.
Hi, you're welcome and I am really glad it could help. As you see in my videos, I always use this SG-004A to test the mA part on every multimeter I review. Thanks for watching and your comment.
The second format is if you wanted to map the 4-20 mA to an enginnering Units. By default 4-20mA is ranged to 0-1000 but you can change this to what ever range you choose. I actually find this ranging to a process engineering unit useful for temperature, pressure, and percentage open for valves.
Hi, thanks so much for sharing that and for watching! 💪👍
According to the manual it can be controlled under MODBUS Slave mode and at the end of the manual there are tables of MODBUS functions. But, the manual does not describe how to connect the wiring. Does anyone know how to communicate and control this device using MODBUS (RS485) ?
Hi, there are some pages in the end of the manual with the connections to all those cases, modbus is not there? Thanks for watching.
@@TechCornerTV no, MODBUS connections are not explained there
on a windows computer the device will show up as a com port when you plug in the usb cable to your computer. you will have to write software to communicate with it over that com port using the Modbus map at the end of the manual
here is a link to a more detailed manual for the modbus communication
img.wqdres.com/res/0/20231229/88578d747c8e46bc8625bde800fc921b.pdf
Top d+++
Hi, thanks for sharing and watching!