Rigol DS1054 vertical position response time slow/sweep issue

[Arkytype]

Fired up my Rigol DS1054 after a couple of years in storage. I noticed that the vertical position of the trace lags behind the rotation of the vertical position knob. I can start with the trace at the bottom of the display, rapidly rotate the control clockwise and it might take a second for the trace to react. Doesn't seem to matter if all four traces are active but I do notice a very slight improvement when the sampling is changed from Auto to the highest rate. Is this normal? When you've got all four traces active and you want to make their spacing relatively even, it takes forever to get the traces to follow the position control.

Another issue I discovered with this 'scope compared to my Tektronix 2247A is when you are viewing swept sine waves, the "point of origin" is in the center of the display. The waveforms then expand from that central location going to the left and right. Whereas the Tek displays the sweep with the lowest frequency to the left and then the sweep is easily viewed. I realize the Tek has a CRT with sweep circuits that (of necessity) start at the left side of the CRT.

Thanks in advance for your replies,

Lee

[Fungus]

Fired up my Rigol DS1054 after a couple of years in storage. I noticed that the vertical position of the trace lags behind the rotation of the vertical position knob. Is this normal?

Yes

When you've got all four traces active and you want to make their spacing relatively even, it takes forever to get the traces to follow the position control.

It updates when you stop moving the knob so helps if you move it in short steps (twiddle the knob instead of trying to do long turns).

You can also press the 'auto' button to lay the screen out nicely. It may change some other things though.

Another issue I discovered with this 'scope compared to my Tektronix 2247A is when you are viewing swept sine waves, the "point of origin" is in the center of the display. The waveforms then expand from that central location going to the left and right. Whereas the Tek displays the sweep with the lowest frequency to the left and then the sweep is easily viewed. I realize the Tek has a CRT with sweep circuits that (of necessity) start at the left side of the CRT.

You can move the trigger point left/right with the horizontal position knob but generally speaking it's more useful to have it in the center of the screen.

Analog 'scopes can't do this easily, DSOs can.

[newbrain]

Fired up my Rigol DS1054 after a couple of years in storage. I noticed that the vertical position of the trace lags behind the rotation of the vertical position knob. Is this normal?

Yes

When you've got all four traces active and you want to make their spacing relatively even, it takes forever to get the traces to follow the position control.

It updates when you stop moving the knob so helps if you move it in short steps (twiddle the knob instead of trying to do long turns).

You can also press the 'auto' button to lay the screen out nicely. It may change some other things though.

Moreover, you if you haven't updated the firmware in two years, some responsiveness improvements were introduced in a recentish firmware version (I might try to find the actual revision when I get to a real PC).

[Arkytype]

Fungus,

Thanks for  the helpful reply.

Yeah, if I "nudge" the vertical position, the trace will move sooner than if I try to make sudden major position changes. As you wrote, AUTO works  to help keep traces managed.

As you point out, the horizontal position can be used to start the sweep on the left-most vertical graticule but if you change the sweep parameters all bets are off.

Who at Rigol thought making channel 4's trace color dark blue was a good idea--damn hard to see in a sun lit room. A software hack to choose trace and background colors would be useful.

Lee

[Arkytype]

Thanks Newbrain,

So, I, like many Rigol DS1054 users, did the bandwidth/feature hack when I purchased the 'scope several years ago.

Will the new firmware update un-do those "upgrades" or should I leave well enough alone?

Lee

[MarkF]

I've done many upgrades on my DS1074Z after doing the hacks.  Including the latest.
Neither the bandwidth or any options have been lost.

Go for it.

[Arkytype]

Hello Mark F, et al,

OK, I copied the DS1000ZUpdate.GEL file to my FAT32-formatted USB drive.

When I plug the USB drive into the Rigol DS1054Z, I get the following on-screen message:
Flash Driver File System Init failured



Now what?


Lee

[MarkF]

Has the scope been able to talk to that USB drive before?
The scope doesn't like very large drives.  Try less than 4GB drive.

Re-format the drive and see if the scope can write a screen capture to it.

Try downloading the file again and put a fresh copy of the GEL on it.  And try again.
   http://beyondmeasure.rigoltech.com/acton/fs/blocks/showLandingPage/a/1579/p/p-0019/t/page/fm/0

[Arkytype]

Good point re USB thumb drive size. All I have are 16 GB. I've got a five-pack of 2 GB coming from Amazon Tuesday & will try again.

I've attached a screen shot of the firmware properties window which seems to indicate it is a compressed file. Do I need to expand it, and if so, how?

Lee

[MarkF]

No.  Do not modify the GEL file.  Copy the GEL directly to the USB drive.

If the scope can copy a screen capture to the drive, the drive is probably okay to read the GEL file for update.

[Arkytype]

Hello MarkF,

OK, found an old low-capacity thumb drive, saved a screen shot, updated the firmware and got a good self-cal.

Thanks for all the expertise.

Lee

[MarkF]

Glad you got it updated without any more problems