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| Should I buy a Rigol MSO5000? |
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| TurboTom:
Batronix (probably on behalf of Rigol) lists Rigol's DS/MSO 2000 and 4000 series "obsolete" -- for understandable reasons, the DS/MSO 5000 and 7000 series are probably meant to replace them. Their really old platform, the DS6000 that didn't see a firmware update since almost half a decade, is still in their "current portfolio", maybe since they haven't got anything else (yet) that is specified up to 1GHz bandwidth. That's a real anachronism... And I guess this means that firmware support for the 2000 and 4000 models has ended with the recent updates for these two models (January 2019 / July 2018, respectively). So verly likely we can expect Rigol to focus their efforts on the new series / platform. I wouldn't be surprised if an "MSO5000A" will be released in a year or two that provides a somewhat "polished" hardware and also includes internal, selectable 50 ohms termination for the inputs, just like they did with the 2000 -> 2000A modification. Well, just a few thoughts on the situation... Cheers, Thomas |
| Martin72:
--- Quote from: petemate on April 04, 2019, 09:15:24 pm ---Hi guys, I have the almost mandatory DS1054Z which covers many of my needs, but I have started to consider purchasing an MSO5000 for better performance and a function generator(which I don't have in my "lab"). I would probaby buy the MSO5074(to get four probes) and then hack it to all options, which will set me back around 1100 EUR. Thats completely doable, as far as I can tell. Then I'll sell my DS1054Z, which can bring in just short of 300 EUR, bringing my total expenses to 800 EUR for a nice-spec scope and a function generator. I know the function generator isn't up to par with a separate unit(its only 5Vpp), but its most likely enough for me(I need line-level audio signals and perhaps some PWM stuff for SMPS control). What are your opinions of the MSO5000 series? I am especially interested in the front-end overdrive recovery, which is apparently much better than competing scopes and allows you to measure low-voltage signals superimposed onto high-voltage signals(e.g. drain-source on voltage on a switching node). The EEVBlog review sort of knocks it for firmware bugs, but I assume that most of those are fixed now? --- End quote --- In my opion, the MSO5000 is the best buy for the money. In contrast to some others here I own one since december and of course, it have some issues - but it´s "brandnew", last month was the first firmware update released. You can´t expect a fully working digital scope out of the box for this price - even 3....5 times expensive ones didn´t. And most of the issues doesn´t disturb me at work, because they aren´t that big as you can read about it. So I can wait patiently for forthcoming updates, no worry about it. The MSO5000 got tons of memory, unbeatable samplingrate ( for it´s price), lot of useful (and less useful) features, a big ( dim) screen...I can´t see any scope at this price which is comparable. Rigol itself compares the 5000 with the 2000s tek and keysight models and this is the right range. For me it´s a great scope. For 1100€... Fully official armed it cost about 5000€ - for this price, I wouldn´t buy a MSO5000 for sure, in this range there are better scopes (especially R&S and perhaps the new siglents). But I paid 1100 and know what I get for. With the hack a real burner, not more, not less. |
| NoisyBoy:
Agree with your points from a historical perspective. My view is that we cannot guarantee there will be no policy change in the future, all it is required is a new product manager with a money making reason for the senior leadership. Hence there is risk to justify a purchase decision based on the assumption that the scope can be hacked in perpetuity. --- Quote from: Fungus on April 05, 2019, 07:09:45 am --- --- Quote from: NoisyBoy on April 05, 2019, 06:38:59 am ---Back to OP's original intend, I think it is dangerous to assume a 5074 can be unlocked for full capability indefinitely. --- End quote --- Nah, I think it's a pretty safe bet. The people in the hacking thread simply know too much about the system now. eg. Rigol changed the root password from the Xilinx default in the latest firmware update? That might have just been to stop it being pwned by botnets. (b) They've been selling hackable 'scopes for decades when it would have been easy to close the "holes". eg. The DS1054Z would have been nothing without hacking. With hacking they sold a million units (rough estimate based on no data whatsoever). and, (c) There's no way in hell the MSO5000 can compete in the market without hacking. $5000 for all options? That's a complete joke. $999 for the 70Mhz version? That's almost worse - their competitors sell 200Mhz 'scopes for half that. --- End quote --- |
| rsjsouza:
I understand nctnico's points about releasing unfinished products. Unfortunately testability costs real cash and time, thus the entry level market that SigRig operates is prone to vaporware and beta testing pushed to customers. My experience with Rigol was always avoiding getting their products in the ramping phase. I got a DS1102E years after it had matured (2012) and, three years later, I sold it and got a DS4014 on a bargain from their clearance store. This helped me save myself from the massive grief that other users experienced - especially for the DS4000, where the price tag was much higher. I have no experience with the newer models from SigRig, but the reports here indicate this is not so different. |
| TK:
The maturity issue with the new Rigol scopes is a different matter... as they took the ASIC route, if they have any design flaws (like not having high resolution capture, not doing serial decoding in HW, etc), they will stick with the lack of those features for a long time until the next revision of the ASIC is released and in some cases they can compensate by software, but some limitations or bugs will never be resolved for a scope that was already sold. It is something like what is happening with Keysight with their ASIC and the sample memory being too small.. |
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