1) The DS2000 allows measurements on MATH - both horizontal, vertical, and all - so if any of that is missing on the DS1000Z, I suspect it's a bug:
3) Does the DS1000Z allow MATH functions using a REF waveform as a source? This is something missing from the DS2000 - and it would be nice if they would implement this function.
4) In another thread about the DS1000Z, there was some discussion of the fact that the DS1000Z appears to, at many voltage scale settings, to digitally scale (like a camera digital zoom) a smaller set (< 200) of the ADC sample values to fit the screen. This can result in a display that looks like it has horizontal stripes running through it (as in the following image). Unfortunately, Rigol fails to include this info in their datasheets (the DS2000 scales the 500uV setting). Any chance you might test this with a graded signal (such as AM signal) and see how many of the main scale settings (not the fine scale, just the coarse settings) this might be visible on?
In that case, I really hope it's a bug, but I'm worried it could be because the CPU can't handle it. I think I forgot to put that piece in the video, but I was complaining about how slow is everything (including saving a screenshot). It's possible that doing additional processing on top of the already slow MATH channel, might slow it down to a crawl.
I don't have a proper AM modulated signal, but I did take a look at some noise and indeed, the issue you're talking about is apparent on the lowest voltage scale (1mV/div).
I couldn't reproduce the exact thing you have in your screenshot (which looks like digital zoom), however I got something similar, but I don't think it's proof of digital zoom but rather an intensity grading issue. The reason for that is because there are visible spikes in my screenshots that are smaller in amplitude than the region with the same color grading, while the fact that most spikes are about the same amplitude could be due to the repeating nature of the noise:
Well, even on the DS2000, getting the Measurements menu to switch to the MATH channel (change color) is a little erratic. After you've turned on the MATH function (BTW, they won't work for FFT) sometimes you have to first press one or two CH buttons and then press the MATH button to get the measurements menu to switch. So if you haven't tried this yet, try turning on MATH then alternate between pressing CH1, CH2, and MATH button. Even if the DS1000Z can't handle doing ALL measurements for MATH, you'd think it could handle a maximum of 5.
Thanks for testing that. From other tests it seems as if the DS1000Z is doing it (digital zoom) a smaller amount at other scales too (< 100mv) - but if it's not too noticeable in the final image (which always gets upscaled by a factor of 2x for the 400 vertical pixels anyway) it at least won't be distracting.
Thanks for testing that. From other tests it seems as if the DS1000Z is doing it (digital zoom) a smaller amount at other scales too (< 100mv) - but if it's not too noticeable in the final image (which always gets upscaled by a factor of 2x for the 400 vertical pixels anyway) at least it won't be visually distracting.
I see, so the 2 pixels I was seeing in there are nothing out of the ordinary.
I took a better look at the screenshot you showed me and while the general feel is that of pixelation both vertically and horizontally, it still shows fine detail on the margins, which might mean that they're not doing any digital zoom and it's in fact just a case where their intensity grading algorithm fails.
Is the 1000z basically a 2000 series with a signal generator?
Is the 1000z basically a 2000 series with a signal generator?
No, the DS2000 has more bandwidth, more memory, more features, faster hardware, etc....
Hey! With your DS2000 more, more, more mantra, you left out "more money" and "less channels".
I'm not sure if this particular bit of information is apparent in the video, but I'm very happy with it and I think it's a great oscilloscope. It does fine with all 4 channels active, the problem seems to be when it's doing extra stuff.
Sure a DS2000 would be better, and even better yet would be two DS2000 or a DS4000. But where does it end? If you compare it, compare it against its correct pricerange, and I still believe it then is the best choice. @Marmad: Don't go telling people a entry level Volkswagen is junk just because you own a top level Audi.
Definitely handy for certain situations - but it (DS1000-Z) is not a 4-channel 100MHz BW DSO.
Definitely handy for certain situations - but it (DS1000-Z) is not a 4-channel 100MHz BW DSO.Isn't there an equivalent sampling feature? With that you can have a 100MHz oscilloscope with only 250MSa/s. Like that old HP 546000 series. Well, they say nothing about it... http://www.rigol.com/prodserv/DS1000Z/
250Ms/s is enough for 100MHz but it depends on the interpolation whether you get a pretty picture or not.
250Ms/s is enough for 100MHz but it depends on the interpolation whether you get a pretty picture or not. The more pressing problem is aliasing and I'm pretty sure you'll see lots of aliasing on this scope with 4 channels on. An interesting tests would be to feed the scope 62.5MHz (and a little bit) and display 1, 2 and 4 channels.