Bought a Rigol DS1054Z Oscilloscope -true beginner- now learning

[HB9EVI]

Another PRO DS1054. I've got the DS1104Z 2 years ago, I'm so far fine, but considering buying a 200MHz or 300MHz Scope for my VHF/UHF ham projects - but that's a different profile than yours.
Rigol is still working/improving/bugfixing the soft/firmware of those scopes, that's quite a plus, if you see the lousy update and bugfix situation with many low budget smartphone for example; I don't know about Owon or other lowcost brands, but too much bugfixing and improvement via updates you can likely not expect.

[b_force]

I never get the sense of 'learning kits'. Most of the time I think it's simply marketing BS.
There is nothing really difficult about a scope. They all have the same basic functions and some have simply some more.
Just get something that fit your needs.
So I guess the best advice for starters is, think about how you are gonna use your scope.
Are you really into digital stuff and you need to track signals/protocols?
Is it mostly just for audio, or are you developing switching circuits?

I personally am not very interested in digital protocols and stuff, but are mainly involved in high power switching circuits (power supplies, Class-D amplifiers and so on).
So basically I just only need a fast scope to see all the ringing and so on.

I also agree that it's not a bad idea to buy a cheap analog scope. For most things they are more than good enough (only a bit big)

[rstofer]

I guess it depends on which side you are coming from.  The test board isn't really about learning to use a scope.  The AC experiments are done at line frequency.  Nothing scope wise to learn.  Press the AUTO button and everything will work just fine.  Horrors!  Nobody uses the AUTO button!  Except me...

The board is about circuits.  Whether the user wants to have a quick way to view the difference between half and full wave rectification is really what the board is about.  Again, nothing scope related to really learn.  Set the time/div and V/div and it's all done.  Or press AUTO...

The trigger level and trigger slope experiments might be useful.

All of this can be done in other ways.  All of it is worth learning as soon as possible.  This just happens to be one way of getting there.  Clearly, there are others.

[bd139]

The auto button only exists because everything is buried in menus these days. To get a trace up takes ages if you've been fiddling with various settings. I, before I sold it, almost always started with the auto button as it set the thing back to a default state.

I like analogue scopes because I know where everything is and should be for each signal. It's just built in. I can get a trace up on a Tek 46x with my eyes shut.

[Gyro]

Your intensity is set too high! 

[bd139]

Hahahaha 

[Dutch RC]

So I've started playing with the latency setup PA4TIM made while I was there, He turned on a LPF on 250khz (he's using a 350mhz Hameg so way above the DS1054Z) and now I've been searching and am I right the DS1054Z fully unlocked does not have a Low Pass Filter?

The signal I get is quite noisy and makes it a bit harder to read, Not impossible tho could be better.

[Dutch RC]

Found a USB stick so could store a picture.

[HB9EVI]

If the channel is active, you can choose on the right below 'coupling' 'BW Limit' - that will add you a 20MHz LP

[PA4TIM]

My HMO-3522 has adjustable filtering, We had that at 250 kHz while testing. I used 10x probes and DC coupling. Trigger on the reference fotocell. I do not know the Rigol. I exited the led while testing with frequencies under 10 Hz

You can make a filter with some resistors and capacitors. In your case f.i. a 20kHz low pass filter. A 680 ohm series resistor  and a 10nF cap to ground. The output of the fotocell via the resistor to the 10x probe and the capacitor from the probe to ground.  If that is not enough or attenuates the wanted frequency to much it can be made with an opamp.

Use DC coupling because the frequency you are going to use is probably to low for AC coupling.

[Dutch RC]

Right now I have to test without function generator, Flashlight is @ 7Hz.
I set the probes and DS1054Z both to 1x
BW limit does make a difference.

I'll have to order some parts to make a filter,

[Dutch RC]

I found some parts inside a old desktop computer.

Is this right? It does make some difference with or without resistor, but I can't see any difference with or without capacitor.

[alsetalokin4017]

The unlocked DS1054z does have software filters: LP, HP, bandpass and notch. Look in Math>Operator, scroll down to Filter and select, then choose type and frequencies in the additional soft menu (second page) buttons.

[Dutch RC]

Thanks, now I get this purple line and makes it much easier to read.