New Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope

[Fungus]

wow, 134 pages of posts to a topic started almost 3 years ago. impressive.

Yep, and at least half of it is this same old crap repeated over and over.

People who can't see that $400 is amazing value for money* vs. those who can.

(*yes, even with 'quirks')

You demand perfection? Feel free to spend more and more money (in an endless quest - none are perfect).

You want to see 4 channels of 100MHz wiggly lines on screen at a bargain price? Get a DS1054Z - it does that brilliantly!

[Fungus]

Other then Tektronix or Keysight, has ANY scope manufacturer ever released a 'prefect' scope?  Or, again put another way, when did programmers all of a sudden get things right?

Nope.

eg. We're always being told by the GW-Instek boys that their 'scopes are perfect, but ... the GW-Instek bug list doesn't really read much better than Rigol's.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/a-review-of-the-gwinstek-1054b/msg1129541/#msg1129541

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* Fixed the system crash randomly which caused by the ¡§Advance Math¡¨ function
* Fixed the AD malfunction under certain circumstances
...
* Added USBDelay command in order to solve the USB data leaks for WIN10.
* Fixed the ext trigger of roll mode which may cause the system crash.
* Fixed the zoom state malfunction for horizontal position command.
* Changed the value range of trigger hold off command: the minimum value changed to 4ns from 10ns.

If that was Rigol they'd be like: "That's garbage!", but it's not, it's GW-Instek!

[newbrain]

wow, 134 pages of posts to a topic started almost 3 years ago. impressive.

with a wide range of opinions and perspectives, I thought I'd add mine.

The DS1054 is a low end oscilloscope. There's no denying that. I mean, seriously: $399?!

My degree is in electronic engineering from a few decades back. Needless to say, the magic of the DS1054 back then would have cost probably tens of thousands of dollars. Times change, eh?

I came to the eevblog some time ago looking for a good hobbyist oscilloscope. These days I work as a pure software engineer, but my heart is still in electronics. I was really happy to find Dave's review of the DS1054. That sealed my decision on the DS1054.

There are certainly many better, more feature packed, higher bandwidth, better this-n-that oscilloscopes. But for me, for hacking on the weekend - for the price - I really like my DS1054.

If you've come here with a similar situation, I say go for the DS1054. If you are a professional and the company has an unlimited budget, then buy something better, for sure.

But for a "basic" oscilloscope (I mean seriously, I started out with a dual trace analog tek many years ago that worked just fine, this one is awesome)....  the DS1054 can't be beat, yes, even with the occasional quirks.

The only thing I don't like? The fan. They could have spent just a few bucks more and included a silent fan. Feature requests? Well, the screen is somewhat small. An HDMI connector would be really awesome.

Just another opinion fwiw.

Change "gojimmypi" to "newbrain", "dual trace analog tek" to Fairchild 304-A, and I could have written this word by word.

[duracell]

1054Z is also faster and has more memory, but I am worried about the software bugs with 1054Z. 

And ... let's have a big round of applause for all the people who post endlessly about (mostly minor/unimportant) bugs in the DS1054Z. You've got people buying DS1102Es instead of DS1054Zs. 

Please post links to where "people" have bought 1102E instead of 1054z due to "minor/unimportant" bugs that have been reported here.

One of the posters was considering the E just because of reading all the Z bugs, just a few posts up...

that was me asking about 1054Z bugs and if the 1052E would be an alternative.
I was informed that most bugs are fixed, and that 1054Z is much better scope.
So I purchased 2 days ago a brand new DS1054Z 

So in the end, all good.

[duracell]

sorry if I caused any trouble with my question 

[Fungus]

sorry if I caused any trouble with my question 

No trouble at all. 

This is just business as usual around here. 

[metrologist]

Any consumer item at whatever price point should do what it says it will do in the specifications.

So... if you bought a car that cost half as much as rivals but only went 198km/h instead of the advertised 200km/h you'd take it back?

You wouldn't be able to see any value in it at all? You wouldn't be able to understand people recommending it to others?

Well, I think we are not discussing performance issues as much as pure functionality. It's more like:

- the speedometer is telling you 200km/h but your actual is different.
- the climate control does not control to the exact temperature you've set, maybe it's even 5C off.
- the sat radio is not getting reception of a few stations because of a programming bug.

This is common on cars, but are those valid reasons to negate the value of the entire thing.

Should I be able to get a refund for my MS Windows 10 OS because it did not support my old printer like the MS site said it should? Is that false advertising, etc.?

[Fungus]

This is common on cars, but are those valid reasons to negate the value of the entire thing.

The question is: Is there $400+ of value in a Rigol DS1054Z in the current market?

IMHO the answer is definitely "yes" (really it's more like $800+ if we compare the competition).

nb. Yes, there's valid reasons for buying something like a GW-Instek 1054B instead, eg. you're happy with half the bandwidth and less memory, you won't ever need serial decoders, you'd prefer a better FFT instead.

[rolycat]

Following the recent discussions in this thread I plan to add the following text to the FAQ section in the first post:

Some prospective buyers of the DS1054Z are concerned about software bugs. These have been extensively documented due to the instrument's huge popularity, but at the time of writing (February 2017) most have been resolved by firmware updates. There are likely to be a number of bugs with most newly launched budget oscilloscopes, but these typically have less visibility due to much lower sales volumes.

Unless you have specific requirements not met by this model, it is still the default recommendation in its price range.

Comments and suggestions for additions or amendments to this or other items are welcome as ever.

[bitseeker]

Hi Rolycat,

Thanks for updating the OP. Consider how many pages of posts there are, it may be helpful to have a link for newcomers to the thread to skip to discussions that began after the most recent firmware update. Jumping to the following post may be a good point since it answers questions about that update:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-ds1054z-oscilloscope/msg1101386/#msg1101386

[frozenfrogz]

Hi bitseeker,

getting a better entry point is a very good idea. While crawling the forum and searching for firmware related information to the DS1000Z series this was the right pointer for me.

Kind regards,
Frederik

_now proud owner of a new hacktivated DS1054Z

[asliyucegsm]

my friend
How do i set the oscilloscope settings i want to measure some signals in notebook repair with my rigol ds1054z oscilloscope
SPROM_DOUT
SPROM_CLK
Rx and tx signals
thanks

[frozenfrogz]

Hello asliyucegsm,

you might want to open an seperate thread for your question and be a bit more specific about what exactly you want to do, over in the repair section, or the beginners section.
If you are looking for some pointers to decoding serial communication via your scope, head over to Youtube for getting started.

Kind regards,
Frederik

[Villain]

is it still hackable with latest firmware? and the dp832 power supply too? great if someone knows this because i think of buying some new lab equip.

[Fungus]

is it still hackable with latest firmware?

Yes.

and the dp832 power supply too?

Don't know.

[1anX]

is it still hackable with latest firmware? and the dp832 power supply too? great if someone knows this because i think of buying some new lab equip.

Yes to both!
Recently did the same thing and bought both, have latest firmware installed, all good.

[Kenise]

This is a Newbie's thanks to all posts, good and bad, here and a special shout to Dave for getting me started.  EE is a new hobby this past year, retired young and need something to do.  Bought an old analog to learn a bit.  Decided to buy a DS and spent a month comparing all the options from PC Hantek and up, it was a wonderful month.  The 1054Z seems like I traded in my Chevy PU for the NCC-1701-D.

The only question I've searched and can not find.  Has anyone used DSER hack and needed warranty work done?  Did Rigol honor the warranty?

Kenise

[sainter]

If the unit still works, you can always delete installed keys.

[Fungus]

The only question I've searched and can not find.  Has anyone used DSER hack and needed warranty work done?  Did Rigol honor the warranty?

The options can be removed. I don't remember the command offhand but it's in this thread many times.

If you ever need it, just ask here...

[rolycat]

The only question I've searched and can not find.  Has anyone used DSER hack and needed warranty work done?  Did Rigol honor the warranty?

The options can be removed. I don't remember the command offhand but it's in this thread many times.

If you ever need it, just ask here...

The command is:

:SYSTem:OPTion:UNINSTall

But you shouldn't need to ask:

alsetalokin4017 has supplied clear instructions on how to apply this and other commands using telnet, and I have provided a link to them in the FAQ section of the first post of this thread.

As a partial answer to the original question, I don't believe there has ever been a documented instance of Rigol refusing to honour the warranty on a hacked 'scope, although it is obviously best to revert any hacks before returning it, assuming it is possible.

[Karel]

Using LAN connection:

Open a telnet connection to your scope, in a terminal enter:

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$ telnet 192.168.1.15 5555(replace the ip address with the one of your scope)

enter the following command:

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:SYST:OPT:UNINST
Or using USB connection, enter the following command in a terminal:

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$ echo ':SYST:OPT:UNINST' > /dev/usbtmc0

[Fungus]

As a partial answer to the original question, I don't believe there has ever been a documented instance of Rigol refusing to honour the warranty on a hacked 'scope,

It's certainly never been reported here

(and I'm sure there'll be a big fuss here if it ever happens)

[Daruosha]

It seems Rigol has given up on updates and bug fixes. We were promised to get the new update by end of January. Anyone knows about any upcoming news?

[hammy]

It seems Rigol has given up on updates and bug fixes.

No, there was chinese new year in february.

[Fungus]

We were promised to get the new update by end of January.

It was actually "January/February".

But as noted: It'll be March if New Year kicks in before they release it.