Rigol 'Scope(s)

[pwdrive]

Anyone here got/used one, for a radio receiver project (hopefully) It'll need to go reasonable at 30 Mhz, 2 channel job would probably do.


Seen various utube shots/reviews etc but now asking on the forum.

Not interested at the moment in boat anchor 'scopes.

Posted on UKVRR also.


Lawrence.

[Mark Hennessy]

I saw it there first, so my reply is over there: http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showp...ostcount=3

[ppppenguin]

As Mark said, that Rigol is a hell of a lot of scope for the money.
http://www.rigol-uk.co.uk/Rigol-DS1054Z-...s1054z.htm

At that price I should just buy one as a useful addition to my scopes. Might look at a wider BW version if available for not too much more money. It will be vast improvement over my only digital scope, a Tek TDS210

A Tek 547+1A4 (4 trace 50MHz) has sat under my bench for ages. A lovely scope but never gets used. The shame is that it's worth more for its ECC88s (6DJ8) than as a complete instrument.

[AlanBeckett]

A Tek 547+1A4 (4 trace 50MHz) has sat under my bench for ages. A lovely scope but never gets used. The shame is that it's worth more for its ECC88s (6DJ8) than as a complete instrument.

So have I
On the other hand I have a 475 which is good for 200MHz if I use my Sunday Probes.

Alan

[Mark Hennessy]

The Rigol can be "hacked" to 100MHz, but mine seems to be almost flat to 100MHz anyway. I probably won't hack mine while it's still in warranty, if at all.

[ppppenguin]

My main scope is a Tek 2465B. 400MHz of lovely analogue.

At one time I had a Tek 585. This was the just about the last hurrah of valve scopes. They were trying to make a 100MHz scope but could guarantee 85MHz so that's what it was spec'ed at. Not a very nice instrument though perhaps mine was a poor specimen. It was designed for all out speed so the display and other things suffered.

[Mark Hennessy]

We have a few 24xx models at work, including the 2465B. They're good, but not the most reliable things in the world. Essential to keep the covers on otherwise things cook!

We also have a lovely old Philips PM3295 (IIRC), which is a 350MHz beast. Ignoring the 50MHz difference, it's every bit as nice to use as the Tek, and was a fair bit cheaper at the time. Only fault is the LCD backlight inverter only works occasionally (it's an old EL type - might be possible to replace with white LEDs today?). Given the choice, the Tek would be the logical one to rescue because more of them were made and they are much better known and spares can be found if you're patient. But part of me likes to support the underdog, and there's no doubt that Philips made some great test gear. Still, no-one ever got fired for buying Tek, to coin a phrase

Today, I'd buy HP Agilent Keysight if spending real money. Tek aren't really in the game at the moment - no-doubt they'll fight back in time... The only problem Keysight have is their "megazoom" ASIC - it might be blisteringly fast (in terms of waveform updates per second), but the sample memory is on the ASIC, so is tiny compared to the cheap 'scopes that just use DDR3...

It's well-known that Rigol OEM'd the entry-level Agilent 'scopes a while back, but Rigol learnt rather too much during this! A friend of a friend works for Keysight, and denies this ever took place, but the evidence is pretty conclusive.

[AlanBeckett]

I've used Philips 'scopes in the past and liked them a lot.

Alan

[ppppenguin]

This is the one that I'm tempted by: https://www.rigol-uk.co.uk/Rigol-DS1104Z...s-plus.htm

Though it seems like a lot of extra money for 100MHz BW and the waveform generator.

The Rigol website isn't wonderful, there seem to be several overlapping ranges of scopes without a clear distinction between them. The 200MHz+ models are much more seriously priced. Also most of the scopes they offer aren't in stock.

[Mark Hennessy]

Of course, with that model, you're getting the option of the logic analyser as well - you have to buy a kit (presumably the pod) - but they omitted the hardware on the 1054Z to keep the price to an absolute minimum.

Of course, getting 100MHz from the DS1054Z is quite feasible if you're prepared to hack it (very easy by all accounts). You can also enable all the other software options (like protocol decoding) at the same time. Those come with a 30 day trial - that's 30 days of operation, rather than 30 calender days, BTW. Personally, I probably won't hack mine until the warranty expires, if at all.

You're probably looking at the UK distributor's website. Not that the official one is much better http://rigol.com/ UK: http://www.rigol.eu/?CountryID=GB

Stock does seem to be a problem - they can't make them fast enough! For the first 6 months of the DS1054Z, they seemed to be on permanent back-order. I was happy to wait for things to settle down - give them a chance to (hopefully!) debug the firmware. I also decided not to make too large an investment in something that is still a bit of a new quantity, relatively speaking.