Our New (possibly faulty) DS1054Z (and it's channel amplitude discrepancies)

[Fungus]

Thanks for the great news, Adam. And thanks to John at Emona for the great customer service. Maybe Rigol was already going to release an update, maybe not. Either way, it doesn't hurt to have more vendors influence change.

It's overdue.

During the first year they released an update every quarter (more or less). It's been over six months since the last one.

[bitseeker]

Yeah, back in October.

[adamboon]

Just got an email from John:

Hi Adam - new firmware has been released. I won't get a chance to try this for a few days so I'm hoping it fixes the RMS issue.  Let me know how you go.

http://int.rigol.com/Support/SoftDownload/3

Best regards
John South

The Changeling Indicates:

v00.04.04.00.07  2016/07/19
     - Added the full-screen display in the XY mode
     - Modified the Trace data of average sample mode
     - Fixed the bug of system halted for wave persistance in the Zoom mode
     - Fixed bugs about Measure

[bitseeker]

Yep, no mention of the RMS problem. Some reports from other forum members are that the "Pluses" typo hasn't even been fixed.

Have you tried the new firmware? Did it take care of the issues you're currently encountering?

[adamboon]

I loaded the new firmware and re-did the self-cal but didn't get a chance to check if the problem was solved.  Will check it as soon as I can.  I had been using VpRMS though (in previous firmware), it works okay.

[adamboon]

RMS bug still exists... 

[bitseeker]

Yes, there's a very lively discussion about the RMS bug in the BIG thread. It seems the other problems (math, freeze, etc.) are fixed, though.

Perhaps sending feedback to John will be helpful, so he knows it's still an outstanding issue.

[John at the Falls]

I guess the same question for the Instek.  I went with the 1054z because it seemed like it was getting lot of love on this forum.  Also I liked that I got it through an Australian Distributer.  I was also looking at Hantek, Siglent and USB Picoscope models.  I don't need 4 channels, or fast speeds.

.... Recently I bought Instek GDS-2204E and it is like day and night compared to Rigol. If you are fine without hacking the scope and don't need getting serial decoders  for free by doing that (which I'm sure most people don't need but say it as 100% argument why you must buy it and then hack), GDS-1054B is much better deal, and the most of all it can be trusted, cost even a bit lower than DS1054Z.

Great advice about alternatives to the Rigol scope. I think anyone considering the Rigol should also look at the GW Instek line. I have been studying my new 1054 for the past 2 days and am happy with it. I do not feel comfortable with the hack but I purchased this based on features per dollar when I actually am not tightly constrained by the cost. I am just using this to build CNC equipment. But I thought it would be nice to have all the features just in case.

"Features per dollar" and "just in case" are not the best reason to make a purchasing decision.

I think when one knows exactly what they are working on, it is easier to make a good purchase without overspending on features. But I bought this scope because I do not know exactly what I am working on and need to learn.