DS1054z : Very slow screen saving. Why ?

[JacquesBBB]

Sometimes,  making a  screen saving on the USB dongle is awfully long. I measured 4mn 30 s in a recent one.
Some other times, it is just about 10 s.

Why ?

The USB card is a recent and fast card and all save pictures are  png with size of about 50kb.

[AndyC_772]

My experience is that Rigol's USB Flash driver is very poor when it comes to compatibility. A different (not necessarily "better") USB stick might be better suited to it.

[Karel]

The solution is not to use a usb stick. Use lan or usbtmc connection and save the screenshot directly on your pc.
There are some good and free tools available to do that. Or wait 5 years for Rigol to fix it...

[Marcos]

Or wait 5 years for Rigol to fix it...

 

[alsetalokin4017]

Yes, "Why" is indeed the question.

If you "stop" the scope with the Run/Stop button, it helps to make the screensaves go a lot faster.

[Jeroen3]

Even over LAN it takes 30 seconds, the thing is just slow.
One advantage of using LAN, you can continue to operate the scope preparing the next image.

[Karel]

Even over LAN it takes 30 seconds, the thing is just slow.

Well, in that case I guess you used the wrong software. With DSRemote it take 5 seconds using usbtmc or 7 seconds using LAN.

[Jeroen3]

Yes, I know that in the linux heaven everything is better. Too bad the world mostly uses Windows.

[miguelvp]

I have a DS2000 series scope and the telnet port is not open so I modified some python code alex.forencich contributed and I can get captures in 4 seconds in Windows.

Link here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/python-based-instrument-control/msg676772/#msg676772
and here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope/msg676102/#msg676102

Would it work on the DS1000z series, don't know.

Edit: This was on Windows 7, I have upgraded to Windows 10 but didn't try it yet.

[Karel]

Yes, I know that in the linux heaven everything is better. Too bad the world mostly uses Windows.

Linux is the most used operating system in the world. Just not on the desktop. And that's not my problem because I don't care.
I use what works best to get the job done.

By the way, I didn't want to start a flame-war. I just wanted to say that your statement "the thing is just slow." is not correct,
at least not when downloading a screenshot via usbtmc or lan.

[ebastler]

Yes, I know that in the linux heaven everything is better. Too bad the world mostly uses Windows.

For Windows (and Linux too!) I recommend Peter Dreisiebner's "Bildschirmkopie".
The web page is in German only, but you will find the "download" link; and the software itself can be switched to English. Very nice and lean software for screenshots and sending SCPI commands. LAN and USB connections are supported.

http://peter.dreisiebner.at/rigol-bildschirmkopie-lan/

[Jeroen3]

I was using some python based thing.
I'll try the tool from your fellow german, since python is not known for it's superspeed processing.
iirc I tried it before. But something with unsigned USB drivers and vid/pid remapping made me abandon it.
I can always run lubuntu virtual machine if linux proves to be the only "fast" solution for now.

I did found that a small 512MB USB thumb drive won the speed award, telling me their software is not of very state of the art.
But the price wasn't either!

[ebastler]

I'll try the tool from your fellow german, since python is not known for it's superspeed processing.
iirc I tried it before. But something with unsigned USB drivers and vid/pid remapping made me abandon it.

Ah, right, I had forgotten about the USB driver installation. It's been a while since I installed Peter's program.

The USB driver is actually quite official (WinUSB from Microsoft), but for some reason a 3rd party innstaller is needed. Peter has a link and a few words of explanation on his download page, but that may be challenging to put into context if you don't read German. The USB driver installer has a web page in English, though: http://zadig.akeo.ie/

Peter is Austrian, by the way!  ;-)

[alsetalokin4017]

Yes, "Why" is indeed the question.

If you "stop" the scope with the Run/Stop button, it helps to make the screensaves go a lot faster.

Really. Just Stop the scope before you press the "print" button, and your saves to USB stick will go much faster.

They are still "unreasonably" slow, taking several seconds or tens of seconds, but nothing like the 4+ minutes it can take if the scope is Running and with all four channels in use.


I have used both Bildschirmkopie and DSRemote. For my purposes, DSRemote is my choice for remotely controlling the scope and saving screenshots over LAN.

[ebastler]

I have used both Bildschirmkopie and DSRemote. For my purposes, DSRemote is my choice for remotely controlling the scope and saving screenshots over LAN.

DSRemote provides remote control of the scope via a graphical rendition of the knobs, which Bildschirmkopie does not. Hence, if you work under Linux and want to remotely operate your scope via the PC, DSRemote is probably the software of choice.

I have not missed that functionality, since I prefer to work with the physical knobs and real-time display on the scope itself. In fact, I would love to just push a button on the scope to "push" a screenshot over to the PC, rather than "pull" it via a click on the PC. But to my knowledge Bildschirmkopie does not offer that either, presumably because the Rigol firmware does not support this?

[Karel]

In fact, I would love to just push a button on the scope to "push" a screenshot over to the PC, rather than "pull" it via a click on the PC. But to my knowledge Bildschirmkopie does not offer that either, presumably because the Rigol firmware does not support this?

The firmware supports it, the tmc protocol does not support it.
You need to set the usb protocol of the scope to "picture bridge" instead of "computer" and you have to connect a compatible usb printer directly to the scope.
Then you can print directly to a printer by just pushing a button on the scope.
edit: or print the file to a usb stick.

[ebastler]

You need to set the usb protocol of the scope to "picture bridge" instead of "computer" and you have to connect a compatible usb printer directly to the scope.
Then you can print directly to a printer by just pushing a button on the scope.
edit: or print the file to a usb stick.

You are right, of course; thanks for clarifying. A PC program that behaves like a PictBridge printer, i.e. receives and stores screenshots whenever the scope sends one to the "printer", would be quite nice. It would allow me to stay focused on the scope's user interface, and even keep the PC at a distance when space is tight.

I would prefer this to storing screenshots on the USB stick: The PC could add a time and date stamp, and I could quickly enter a meaningful file name at the beginning of a measurement session. Better than sorting through a jumble of images on the USB stick, because I was too lazy to clean up for several days...

Is anyone aware of such a "PictBridge printer emulation" program? (Would it work with a regular USB port, or does it need a client-type port on the PC? I am confused who takes what role in a camera/printer or scope/printer connection? -- Edit: The printer is the USB host, so this part should be straightforward for simulation on a PC. But a quick search did not turn up any suitable PC software, except for some presumably very expensive development/debugging tool for PictBridge client developers.)