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Rigol DS2072

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Rigol DS2072When I first picked up the electronics hobby, I asked a simple question on the EEVBlog forum: Should I save for a month and buy the Rigol DS1052e (a good, albeit older, scope), or save for 3 and buy the DS2072. Answers were mixed, but most said to buy the DS2072. Then there was Dave (eevblog owner) that posted a video specifically covering the differences. I took all this, and proceeded to ignore it and got the DS1052e. It was a good scope. I used it for several months. But, the opportunity to buy the DS2072 came up, and I took it. Do I regret the first purchase? No. Do I like the DS2072 better, hell yes ((though, I will say, it’s a bit less intuitive, and far more complex. The DS1052e was cake to use, and just worked. I still struggle with doing some basic things on the DS2072, but I haven’t used it as much as the DS1052e)).

So, the real question becomes, what was a big selling point? The fact that someone on the EEVblog forums finally figured out how to hack the DS2072 up to the 200mhz version, and unlock all the options (making an $800 scope into a $2000 scope). I know the scope is miles ahead of my previous scope, but like I said, at this point in my hobby, a lot of it is bells and whistles. The screen is very nice. The 500µV/div setting is very nice. The display persistence is very nice. The LAN functionality, along with the huge memory depth is extremely nice. But for just looking at noise on a voltage rail, or on a CMOS/TTL line, there is very little difference in functionality. Sure, I haven’t found a really intermittent glitch yet that the new scope would catch with it’s 50,000 waveforms/sec update rate… but I’m not sure those are THAT common in repairs.

All and all, I really do like the scope. I think it will serve for several years, and using the trigger out, I could easily slave my old DS1052e off it, and get two more channels.

Would I recommend the scope? Yes, and no. I do like the scope, and I would buy it again in similar situations, but for someone just needing a scope, I would still suggest either the DS1052e for ~$300, or for less than $600, you can get the DS1074z, a 4 channel scope that has almost all the same features of the DS2000 series, AND two extra channels. And for a little more, you can add a 2 channel arbitrary waveform generator (AWG). Totally worth it! Only complaint about the DS2000 is really the seemingly unnecessary complexity.

Special thanks to tequipment.net for the amazing EEVblog discount they offer, excellent customer service, and overall, wonderful experience. Thanks!

[xrr rating=4.75/5]

Rigol DS1052E Oscilloscope

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Rigol_DS1052EThis review is long over due, since I’ve since purchased a new scope, but it needs to happen, so…

I purchased a Rigol DS1052e in May, 2013, to help with my electronics learning, and repair. I purchased the unit from Tequipment.net for just under $300 using their already low price, plus their 6% discount given to eevblog.com readers. Anyway, got the scope, and all and all, very happy with it. Yes, it’s old. Yes, the screen is small. No, it doesn’t have an analog-like screen, or amazing memory depth, etc. But, it works. And it works extremely well. It’s very easy to “hack” to a 100Mhz scope, and it’s worked great for everything I’ve used it with (repairing a couple multimeters, an LCD monitor, and a few other things). The scope has really been reviewed to death, so I’m not going to post a lot of really new information other than to say, if you need a scope, and have an easy $300 around (but not enough for the higher end DS2000 series), I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute to buy the DS1052e. Now, with the release of the DS1000z series, that might change my mind (since they’re not really much more, and offer features comparable to the DS2000 series), but for the money, it’s really hard to beat the Rigol. Yes, Owon, Hantek, etc all make similarly priced items, but I’ve never heard anything really positive about the scopes other than their price point. The Rigol works, and works quite well. The probes that came with it weren’t THAT great, but I picked up a couple of cheap 100mhz probes on the suggestion of an eevblog forum thread, and they worked quite well. The nicest thing about the other probes were that the compensation adjustment was on the plug end, rather than the probe end.

Scope control, and readout via USB to a computer works quite well as well. I never tried over RS232, or printing directly from the scope, but really, those seem a bit gimmicky for most things. The scope sat on my bench, so really, I didn’t need any of that stuff… just for it to work as a scope, which it did great! So if you need a scope, and only have $300 or less to spend, I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute. It works great, and I wouldn’t have been able to diagnose and fix the projects I had. Sure, a cheap analog scope probably would have worked as well, but why? =)

Spec wise, the scope compares pretty well to much more expensive scopes from only a few years ago (or even current Tektronix scopes). Build quality was very good, and the unit is quite light. Really the only complaint is the same thing many have said, is that the fan is pretty loud. At some point in the future, if I don’t sell the unit, I plan to open it up and replaced the fan with a near silent computer fan. Many have done this, and had good results. The biggest trick is getting the casing off without breaking the power button. But, hey, I silent scope would be much nicer. Even the DS2000 series is a bit loud. =/

[xrr rating=5/5]

My First Oscilloscope

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Rigol DS2072As I mentioned in my previous post with the TTi EL302P I’ve been extremely interested in electronics of late, and have been looking for a good Oscilloscope. The quest for a ‘scope lead me, like many others to eevblog’s forum. And at first, it seemed like it was going to be a Hantek or an Owon, but the forums pretty much changed this to be a question of the two Rigol options. The Rigol DS1052e ($330), or the DS2072e ($829). And the question really is do  you spend $330 on a scope and get something that’s about five years old, and lacks a lot of features, or do you buy something that’s about 2.5x more, and get something that’s modern, and has a lot more features than the older model.

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