Rigol DS1054Z changing units and vertical scaling

[michalK]

Hi,

Recently I read quite interesting article about controlling high current pulses from supercapacitors using IGBT device.
Unfortunately it's written only in polish:
http://www.portalnaukowy.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=229%3Asterownik-duego-tranzystora-igbt-do-superkondensatorow&catid=51%3Aelektroprojekty&Itemid=120&limitstart=1

What caught my attention is an interesting feature on Tektronix oscilloscope on one of the photographs.


As you can see in the upper right cornerof the image the delta value (difference) between cursors positions is expressed in amperes and in this example has a value of 1.47 kA! I was wondering if Rigol DS1000Z series scopes also has such feature. I checked the manual and I was playing around with it for a while. From what I found out it seems that it is possible but there are some limitations. You can change displayed units but there are only four options: W, V, A, U. To change the scale, for example if I want every 1V on the input to be displayed as 10A on the screen I need to change the probe multiplier/divider.
But there is one major drawback - you cannot put any value you want, for example if 1V should be displayed as 4A or 17A, etc.

How is that solved on different Rigol scopes and on other manufacturers devices?
Do you have any other suggestions how to solve that "problem"? (well, that's not exactly a problem, I'm just curious )

[Guni]

It's just some kind of description available in some scopes like this Tek.
On DS1000Z you can use Display->Label Edit or CH1->Label and you can write what you want: kV, MV....

[michalK]

I don't think it's a description feature. On Rigol  label is added as a marker on the left side of the screen at zero position for particular channel.
On the picture above the vertical scale was changed to 500A/div as you can see in the bottom left corner.
I was just wondering if there are some scopes that allows you to change it more freely than it is possible in Rigol.

[tautech]

I believe you are looking at a current waveform from a current probe.
Ch 1 set for 500 A/div, Ch 2 set for 10 V/div.
Possibly a setup for Power Analysis.

TEK kindly incorporated an amps unit of input with a range of attenuation that matched their current probes.
It was very convenient to access and use and 1 reason I've hung on to a TDS2012B.
Many modern DSO's don't either have it or it is arkward to access or calibrate or it is buried in menus.

Without some easy calibration method or matching attenuation(mV/mA) how can you be sure you have the correct setup.

[electr_peter]

You have two major settings for scaling on DS1000Z series:

• V/A/W/U label setting
• Probe attenuation setting (0.1/1/5/10/100/1000 etc.)

However, this does not allow to have arbitrary scaling - only 1/5/10 steps.