shoud i buy a Rigol DS1054z or Hantek DSO4102C osciloscope?

[JorgeRamos1]

hi i am an electronic starter and i reacently thought  in buy my first osciloscope but i dont know which osciloscope is better for a starter  like me so im triying to looking for the better option between  cost and funcionality , so what do you   recommed ? a Rigol DS1054z or Hantek DSO4102C

[janoc]

Is that even a contest? The Rigol is a 4ch scope, that Hantek is only 2ch. That alone would be enough to decide between these two. If you activate all the options on the Rigol, you will get a lot more capable scope and probably for less money than the Hantek to boot.

Also Hantek is not exactly known for high quality construction and bug-free firmware of their scopes. If you want a more comparable alternative to the 1054z look at the newer Siglent scopes instead.

Finally, unless you absolutely have to (or the price difference would be so small as to be stupid to not take it), don't get too hung up on the built-in signal generator. I have bought my 1054 without it at the time when this scope came out because the user interface for it is terrible, even though the generator itself is decent. And it made about 200 bucks price difference. External generator with actual knobs and buttons (even a low end cheapie like the Feeltech ones) is much more pleasant to use.

[Adrian_Arg.]

I have a rigol ds1054z with all the options and the 100mhz, small projects of electronics and arduino, the truth really esttoy 100% satisfied for u $ s 331 student price I can not ask for more.

[JorgeRamos1]

thank you very much for your advice  i will buy a Rigol DS1054 instead

[txescientist]

+1 vote for the Rigol

Do not like the Siglent user interface...

[Edison]

I have Hantek 4202C - choice of combination with generator - saving space on table - separate generator better - sufficient for now and I am satisfied - shown in the topic: Whats your Work-Bench/lab look like? Post some pictures of your Lab. 

[Mechatrommer]

Is that even a contest? The Rigol is a 4ch scope, that Hantek is only 2ch.

yes its a contest because of the arbitrary generator and cheaper price of the DSO4102C. i looked into DSO4104C, the price is comparable to DS1054Z and each control knobs for each channel can be appealing to some people. but well, i still pick the DS1054Z because of the long memory feature (this open up to many other measurement possibilities) and the same boat with other who prefer separate FG, but this is personal preferences. ymmv.

[janoc]

Is that even a contest? The Rigol is a 4ch scope, that Hantek is only 2ch.

yes its a contest because of the arbitrary generator and cheaper price of the DSO4102C. i looked into DSO4104C, the price is comparable to DS1054Z and each control knobs for each channel can be appealing to some people. but well, i still pick the DS1054Z because of the long memory feature (this open up to many other measurement possibilities) and the same boat with other who prefer separate FG, but this is personal preferences. ymmv.

Well, the Rigol has also a built-in arb gen if you buy the -S version.

And re price - the Hantek I have seen for almost 500 euro here, 1054z is for 400, including VAT + all options from Batronix (so no need to even hack it, apart from unlocking the bandwidth). Even the 1074Z-S version with the generator is some 730 euro. Given the 2 extra channels and all the protocol decoding and other things you can do with that (even though it has some major limitations), the Hantek is still not a good buy, IMO.

[FotatoPotato]

I have the rigol scope and I love it to bits! If you get one i would recomend doing the software hack that converts it into a 100mHz scope with all the extra features unclocked forever. Its not hard to do and there are plenty of tutorials.

  for the rigol scope 

[EEhopeful.]

The hantek 4204c is a 4 channel 200 mhz oscilloscope with free decoding and it also have can decoding which the rigol does not have, and it was recently 389. It is about the same price also on ali express. The only thing it does not have is the long memory but everything else is better. It also does not have the rms compensation problem that the rigol have. What good is low price if you can not measure rms correctly?

[janoc]

The hantek 4204c is a 4 channel 200 mhz oscilloscope with free decoding and it also have can decoding which the rigol does not have, and it was recently 389. It is about the same price also on ali express. The only thing it does not have is the long memory but everything else is better.

Yes, but the OP's question was about DSO4102C, not 4204C. The latter is a bit better deal, given the 4 channels, but this entire series has only 64k memory/32k dual channel and that is only a paid option, default is 4k??? That is completely ridiculous.

The Rigol has 24M (12M standard without options). That's a huge difference, certainly more important than the 200MHz bandwidth vs 100MHz on the Rigol for a beginner. What good is having something like a CAN decoder when you have only 32k of memory to record the data in? On such a low memory scope the protocol decoding is mostly a gimmick, IMO. Now to be fair - Rigol DS1054z doesn't use the full memory for decoding neither, it decodes only what it has on the screen and you have to scroll through the captured data to see everything - which is also retarded. But at least you can actually capture the data (and then potentially decode them offline on a PC).

The same with waveform update rate - 2k/s on Hantek, 30k/s on the Rigol - good luck hunting for glitches. Don't think that the Hanteks have intensity graded display neither.

What I like on the Hantek scopes is the set of vertical controls per channel (Rigol has multiplexed controls) and that it has the 500uV/div range (Rigol doesn't or rather it doesn't work if  you try to enable it).  But those are really minor issues, IMO.

(the specs are here: http://hantek.com/en/productdetail_3_12167.html )

It also does not have the rms compensation problem that the rigol have. What good is low price if you can not measure rms correctly?

Don't worry, Hantek has plenty of bugs of its own.

And buying a scope from AliExpress is nuts, IMO. It is easily the most expensive instrument a beginner will buy, good luck trying to get a warranty repair from a Chinese seller should anything go wrong with it. So comparing AliExpress prices with regular western sellers is crazy. And even then Batronix manages to have the same price, including VAT - which one would have to pay on import on the Hantek device from AliExpress here (without VAT the Rigol is some 330 euro).

Really don't see how the Hanteks are a better deal here. DS1054z is still an amazing deal, despite the age. If you want something different and/or more recent, then the newer Siglents are major competitors in this price bracket. But Hantek? Not even close, IMO.

[EEhopeful.]

 I do not know where are you getting your information. The Hantek 4204C have the full 64K available, it is not an option. I called circuit specialists, who were selling this for 389 and confirmed it, and many other data. As you said, the rigol can only decode what is on screen, the hantek does not have that problem. You can capture data on the hantek also and 64 with one channel and 32 for 2 channel will be more than enough for any newbie. The 4 channel 200 Mhz outshines the rigol, and no rms bug. The hantek does have intensity graded display, maybe not as good as the rigol but does have it and looks pretty neat on dot mode.And regarding the bugs, a user of this model recently posted a video of all the bugs he found on the hantek. In less than 3 months hantek released 2 firmware update that corrected ALL the bugs this guy found. Rigol can not do that for a single rms issue that have been linguering for 2 years. And what is worst, the previous rigol firmware did not have the issue. Regarding price, as I said before it was 389 from a USA dealer with 3 year warranty from this same dealer here in the USA, not China. And aliexpress is a pretty good place to buy stuff. I have a very nice phone for 2 years that still beat the crap of some new phones coming out and not a single issue with it. There is another user of the hanteks that bought from ali express on youtube, and when he had a problem, they sent the whole board to him and fixed his problem. I do not know of other chinese companies that release a firmware to fix specifically bugs that a single user posted in youtube, much less that put out 2 firmware updates in less than 3 months. To each its own. For a begginer, I do not think that he will need a long memory over 4 channels and 200 Mhz. Here the video I was talking about. Look at the comments section to see the firmware upgrades. For the price, I would get the Hantek over the rigol.

[Mechatrommer]

The Hantek 4204C have the full 64K available, ... will be more than enough for any newbie.

granted, but still 375X shorter then Rigol. how long are you going to be in newbie section? well, most of us started with 12K iirc memory DS1052E, when there is 4 ch 24Mpts Rigol we are willing to upgrade, so it depends, its the buyer's money. we here only to advice something for the long run. the fact that most here are still recommending rigol because its just working as it should, yes there are bugs and caveats but not really serious stopping from real work. Pluses is permanent joke but we know what it is. rms we can calculate in brain. the video you show are very serious bugs, if we have that kind of bugs in rigol, we will recommend hantek here first hand. hantek deserves to fix that immediately if they want to compete with the venerable rigol. so assuming hantek GUI is just as good as current rigol FW, or even better like the previous DS1052E, we still think twice or thrice to throw away the long memory feature in place of individual ch control and FG feature, which we can buy separately. if one day we buy more advance FG, then hantek's built in FG will become a dead weight. ymmv.

anyway recently i purchased ADF4355 FG which give nasty effect at 100MHz, with 20Mpts FFT pc post-processing, helped me find the culprit harmonics/oscillation at 300MHz and every other details, and then later i can spot verify in somewhat limited but hobby friendly priced KC901V SA / VNA. if i only use KC901V to find them all it will take ages to move freq span bit by bit... maybe next time i can add feature to pc sw to LA decode the 24Mpts 2-4CH if i have a long communication in serial line, if you think you can decode long data at 30fps small screen, or bit by bit trying to re-trigger many times the shifted or the next (earlier cropped) data just like the way i do with my KC901V SA, then suit yourself.  i'm not sure if hantek can provide similar support in PC programmability.. ymmv.

[janoc]

I do not know where are you getting your information. The Hantek 4204C have the full 64K available, it is not an option. I called circuit specialists, who were selling this for 389 and confirmed it, and many other data.

From the above Hantek page, it says this:

Record Length:
Maximum 64K samples per single-channel;
Maximum 32K  samples per dual-channel (4K, 32K optional)

Whether that's accurate I don't know but I would assume the manufacturer puts correct data on their website?

And re the rest - I am not going to argue about that, have better things to do. If you think that decoding from 64k of RAM is good enough (32 or even less because typically you use multiple channels e.g. for I2C or SPI), I don't know ...

BTW, that RMS bug you are constantly harping on has been fixed in 2016 already:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope/msg1026339/#msg1026339

...FG feature, which we can buy separately. if one day we buy more advance FG, then hantek's built in FG will become a dead weight. ymmv.

But FG  is available for Rigols as well, just one needs to buy the 200 euro more expensive 1074Z-S version (it is not a software option so if you want it you must buy a version with it).

[jgalak]

I bought a 1054z a few months ago.  It's nice.  But I'm kind of wishing I'd spent a bit more and gotten the Siglent SDS1104X-E

[Adrian_Arg.]

I went to the Siglent SDS1104X-E oscilloscope as an alternative but the final price was US $ 500 + US $ 113 + 50% Customs tax in Argentina total $ 919 and the "RIGOL DS1054Z"  with all released completely covered me. needs and the total price was U $ S 610.- and I am really very happy with the team, but everything depends on the capacity of the pocket, mine is not big.

[jgalak]

Totally reasonable - here in the US the price difference is small, but we have it good in that regard compared to the rest of the world.  I paid $350 for the Rigol, and the Siglent is $500 (shipping is comparable between the two, and often can be found free).  In your shoes, I'd probably stick to the Rigol, too.