Rigol DS2000 vs DS4000

[olsenn]

I recommend to look into both manuals. The CONTENTS at the beginning show which triggers are built-in and which are optional that you have to pay for related to the DS2000. On the other hand there are new triggers that are not implemented in the DS4000.

Yeah, I took a very breif look into the UserGuides for the DS2000-series and DS4000-series, and it appears that the DS2000 has two or three triggering types not available in the DS4000, but they are all in the optional package that costs extra.

I read about quite a few bugs in both the DS2000 and DS4000 scopes, which is somewhat worrysome, but is it safe to assume that running a self-calibration will no longer brick the DSO? As long as these bugs aren't major things that either cripple functionality altogether, or crash the device to the point of it needing to be shipped back to Rigol, I'm hoping it will be okay.

[Gunb]

Yeah, I took a very breif look into the UserGuides for the DS2000-series and DS4000-series, and it appears that the DS2000 has two or three triggering types not available in the DS4000, but they are all in the optional package that costs extra.

I read about quite a few bugs in both the DS2000 and DS4000 scopes, which is somewhat worrysome, but is it safe to assume that running a self-calibration will no longer brick the DSO? As long as these bugs aren't major things that either cripple functionality altogether, or crash the device to the point of it needing to be shipped back to Rigol, I'm hoping it will be okay.

Yes, I think the trigger options can be bought later if necessary.

Hmm, I saw the 1st bug of the DS2000 in Dave's video. I did not follow the bug discussion of the 2000 here, but I had a quick view into the topics. Maybe these guys can give you better hints.

Related to the DS4012 I can say that I did not have many hard bugs. When I bought it last year I noticed that it sometimes started with the default settings when powered on, i.e., Chinese language although set up in English, and that the probe on the second channel was not noticed as x10 one automatically. I contacted the German Rigol support and the next day I got the update which fixed both bugs at once. After updating I had to self-calibrate the scope by connecting both channels with the connector behind and without any problems it finished the procedure.

Another bug I've noticed was when measuring with the TRACK cursors that you could not measure signals outside the screen. Might give you an example: you've got a pulse with a length of a few seconds. Zoom in to place the right cursor very accurate to the 1st edge, zoom out to see the complete pulse again and zoom in again to the second edge, placing the cursor accurate on the second edge lead to the result, that the first cursor lost its position each time it was not visible.

In February I've got an update from German support which fixes that problem. So, currently I'm happy with the scope, don't see hard bugs at the moment that prevent me from going on.

DS2000 is a newer, so there might be still more bugs.


Kind regards
Gunb

[Hydrawerk]

I would expect a decent quality from Rigol DS4000, because it is a rather expensive scope...

[olsenn]

I would expect a decent quality from Rigol DS4000, because it is a rather expensive scope...

That's a dangerous assumption, haha

[Hydrawerk]

Although I am probably not going to buy Rigol. 

[marmad]

The complete list of all currently known bugs in the DS2000 series is here - towards the bottom of the post. From my point of view - as someone who is writing software for the UltraVision scopes - the only serious bug is the one which affects reading sample memory from the scope to the PC - most of the other bugs are trivial or easily worked around.

It's true that Rigol has delayed releasing the next version of the DS2000 firmware, and this could be for a number of reasons. It might be because we have been continually reporting all of the bugs we have discovered in the last 4-5 months to Rigol (virtually every bug in that list was discovered by EEVBlog members participating in that DS2000 review thread) - giving them more and more stuff to continually work on.    A more likely possibility may be that Rigol knows what all of us DS2000 owners know - that in the current firmware, all of the 'options' are free for everyone indefinitely - and they want to try to put an end to that. 

[marmad]

In fact the waveform update speed still changes according to any conditions. 

Yes, as it does on virtually every DSO.