Scoposcopy: Rigol DS1054Z Demo 1

OK, so here’s the new scope in operation. I demonstrate a few basic operations of the scope, including Power On Default and Last setting modes, Auto setting, use of Average acquisition mode, Loading a Stored Setup, the Delay (or Zoom) horizontal display mode, a Math two-operation trace display, changing the Measurement Fonts, etc.

All the controls have a nice feel to them and are easy to operate. The knobs and knob-buttons are quite sensitive so I think it pays off to go slowly and patiently — like a safecracker in an old movie. The overall impression is of very high quality and good ergonomics. It’s no lightweight; a very solid piece of construction and engineering design. Dave at EEBlog has taken one apart and reveals that the thing is as well-built as any top-line scope costing much much more.

There are a few strangenesses and things that could be better– see Dave’s EEVBlog review where he mentions those. So far I’ve only seen one thing that could be a “glitch” and that was in the behaviour of the fourth channel, sometimes it seemed to drift from baseline and then snap back to the set position. I haven’t tested this completely though, it may simply have been due to a loose probe or the particular circuit I was testing with.

Some people have complained about the Fan Noise of this scope but it does not seem unusually loud to me. It’s way quieter than the fans in my Topward power supply or the computer or airconditioner.

The probes included with the scope have also attracted their share of complaints and bad reviews, but as far as I can tell so far, these are adequate and actually have a pretty nice feel to them. Nice long probe cables too.

The only thing that seems to be “missing” from the DS1000 scope series is a Real-Time Clock. It would be nice to have timestamps on stored files, for example. But it’s nothing you can’t live without.

My overall early impression is very favorable, three thumbs up. We’ll see how it performs in a real-life measurement situation soon.

I’m really stoked to have this scope, and I’m eternally grateful to the people that helped to make it happen. Faith in humanity is restored!

(Just be careful of those UPS drivers… who knows where your packages will wind up… )

Software version 00.04.02.SP4
Board version 0.1.1
From new production.

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