Rigol DS1202Z-E entry level scope (200MHz, 2 channel)

[rsjsouza]

Drove me bonkers.  And *every* time you power up the scope you have to reset *everything*.

There is a setting that changes the power on behaviour from defaults to last used - page 197 of the manual.

(My DS4014 has a similar setting)

[rhb]

Thanks.  I searched for "power-on" rather than "power-off"

Reg

[tom66]

I'd be really curious of a teardown of this scope.  Wonder if it still uses the HMCAD1511 like the Rigol DS1000Z. 

Aside from fan noise and software bugs, and the serial decode being an utter pain, the DS1000Z is a nice scope... so this might be a good entry level instrument for people who don't need quad channels.

[martinot]

Drove me bonkers.  And *every* time you power up the scope you have to reset *everything*.

I agree that seems to be quite a strange default software behaviour/setting. It is good that it is indeed possible to reset the settings, but should not need to be the default mode.

[rhb]

It's a good instrument as is but if Rigol open sourced the FW it would be an awesome scope in a year or so.  Just give people the opportunity to fix the bugs and bad UI decisions.

My biggest complaint is the static menus on both sides of the screen.  The LCD is bigger than the DS1102E, but the active display area is about the same.

Sigh....
Reg

[rsjsouza]

It's a good instrument as is but if Rigol open sourced the FW it would be an awesome scope in a year or so.  Just give people the opportunity to fix the bugs and bad UI decisions.

This is something that more than one person had wondered. One example where this happened is the Owon VDS1022 (USB oscilloscope), where they bundled the sources with one of their versions of the software. Some nice folks hacked the software away and fixed and added swell customizations to the interface. The benefit in this case is that the software is fully hosted on the PC, where the user base (and expertise) is much broader.

My biggest complaint is the static menus on both sides of the screen.  The LCD is bigger than the DS1102E, but the active display area is about the same.

I personally like the two side menus, although on the DS2000 and DS4000 series they collapse. I had the impression the DS1000Z series did the same.

[rhb]

On every other DSO I have they collapse including the Rigol DS1102E.    Same thing with lots of my HP gear.   But not on the DS1202Z-E.

The DS1202Z-E has a 155 mm wide display, but only 115 mm of trace data.

I'd love to be able to write a spectrum analyzer app that let the user set start/stop or center/span, RBW, VBW, video averaging, etc.  Offer a waterfall color spectrum window, normalization.  There is so much you could do that would be incredibly useful to amateur radio uses up through 6 meters on a 100 MHz version and 2 meters on the DS1202Z-E.

When you look at the unpaid engineering efforts that have been devoted  to the nanoVNA it's staggering.  All because it was open source and people could do it without spending a lot of time trying to jail break the existing FW.

Have Fun!
Reg

[rhb]

Here is a test of the AFE response using an HP 8648C set to 0 dBm output at steps of 50 MHz except for an added point at 25 MHz.  The horizontal line is -3 dB.



Have Fun!
Reg

[duckduck]

I'd be really curious of a teardown of this scope.  Wonder if it still uses the HMCAD1511 like the Rigol DS1000Z. 

Aside from fan noise and software bugs, and the serial decode being an utter pain, the DS1000Z is a nice scope... so this might be a good entry level instrument for people who don't need quad channels.

I find it to be a good entry-level instrument. I use it for analog things. I wouldn't know what to do with another two channels.

I took my DS1202Z-E apart (well, some of the way) before I turned it on. You might be able to read the writing on the chips:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-discounts/msg3019280/#msg3019280

The fan on mine is not loud at all. I'm easily annoyed by fans and this one is a non-issue.