Cheap Rigol Oscilloscope from Ebay

**I've been looking at the Rigols too. I had a mate try to buy one in China for me, but he was unable to secure a brilliant price. It was only a little less than Emona's price. I suspect some price controls on the product ATM. How much did you save over the Emona price?

I'd be interested in hearing your further experiences with the product.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

Emona is $799ex

So with GST it's $880 + delivery. I paid $679 including delivery, saving >$200 They are usually more expensive than this on Ebay, but there is one particular guy (happyseeds) who has just got a new bunch of them for this price. He also has the same one listed under other currencies and it's more expensive. So AU listed ones are the cheapest. Item 350176778696. There is a big price jump to the 100Mhz model.

One noticeable thing so far is the cooling fan. Not overly loud, but noticable in an ordinary office. Many other similar scopes don't have a fan at all, so it's a bit of a difference. Not as loud as a 3000 series Tek for example. Not sure why it needs it, the air is barely warm after an hour. Takes around 30W in normal use.

The PC software works and looks ok. A virtual front panel lets you take control of the scope in real time.

Surprisingly hefty weight (a fair bit more than a Tek TDS200 series for example) , but that's a good thing when some control knobs need to be pushed often. The weight seems to come from the rather thick looking internal ventilated metal shield that covers everything inside.

Really nice feel on the controls and general handling, nice attention to details. Things like swing out tilting feet that snap solidly into place, big rear feet and a nice carry handle that locks into place.

The buttons light up nice and bright and even, almost too bright. The screen is also very bright and usable at virtually any angle.

Saving screen shots to USB stick worked fine. Comprehensive ability to file manage inside the scope.

Operation is quite responsive for a low end scope, better than I expected.

Need to use it in anger before getting a good feel for it's performance, but I really like it so far.

Dave.

** Thanks for extra info. Please keep us (me) updated when you use this thing in anger. If it's not too much trouble, perhaps you could post some screen shots and stuff.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

A couple of screen shots here (USB key dump):

Shows a 50MHz LVTLL signal, so bandwidth is pretty much as expected. I've had quite a few people ask about it now, so will have to post a full review sometime, or perhaps even some operational video.

As a baseline, compared to a Tek TDS210 or TDS1002, it's no contest, I'd never give back the Rigol. It's a superb scope for the money. Got a chance to use it for I2C and other digital debugging at work today and I couldn't fault it. Fast and responsive, and the big memory can't be beat. By far the best scope at this kind of price point.

Dave.

**That's a big call. Perhaps I best examine one of these things more closely. Thanks for the comments.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

Not a big call at all, it's obvious in fact when you look at what's available in this bottom end market:

- Rigol 1000E series

- Tek 1000B series

- Agilent DSO3000 series

- Lecroy WaveAce series

- Instek GDS-2000 series

- Owon PDS6000 series

(Have I forgotten any?)

The Owon is your classic chinese no-name junk, and doesn't have a 1G/s sampler so I'd rule it out right now. But if you want, the 250MS/s 60MHz 6K point memory PDS-6062S sells for $1100 in Oz or almost $800 on Ebay. No contest against the $700 ebay Rigol. For almost the same price as this rubish you can buy the Rigol locally from Emona, with more sample rate and a ton more memory.

The Instek aren't bad, but only have 25K point memory and are much bigger. Emona price is almost $1500. If you want the cheaper GDS-1000 series with

250MS/s then it comes down to $800 for the 25MHz unit, or $978 for the 40MHz unit. Again, no contest at all with the Rigol.

The Agilent DSO3000 is just an older rebadged Rigol 5000 series. Older firmware, less memory, bigger case etc. Again, no contest.

The Tek 1000B series is much more expensive and only has 2.5K point memory, again, no contest.

The Lecroy WaveAce series is not cheap I believe, but it's only got 4K point memory. Again, no contest.

The Rigol is under $700 on Ebay, (or under $900 from Oz), has 50MHz bandwidth, 1GS/s with 16K memory, or 500MS/s with a massive 1M point memory, and is very good quality. It simply cannot be beat, I recon you'd be a fool to buy anything else in this bottom end 50-60MHz market (I haven't priced the higher bandwidth market).

Dave.

Not a big call at all, it's obvious in fact when you look at what's available in this bottom end market:

- Rigol 1000E series

- Tek 1000B series

- Agilent DSO3000 series

- Lecroy WaveAce series

- Instek GDS-2000 series

- Owon PDS6000 series

(Have I forgotten any?)

The Owon is your classic chinese no-name junk, and doesn't have a 1G/s sampler so I'd rule it out right now. But if you want, the 250MS/s 60MHz 6K point memory PDS-6062S sells for $1100 in Oz or almost $800 on Ebay. No contest against the $700 ebay Rigol. For almost the same price as this rubish you can buy the Rigol locally from Emona, with more sample rate and a ton more memory.

The Instek aren't bad, but only have 25K point memory and are much bigger. Emona price is almost $1500. If you want the cheaper GDS-1000 series with

250MS/s then it comes down to $800 for the 25MHz unit, or $978 for the 40MHz unit. Again, no contest at all with the Rigol.

The Agilent DSO3000 is just an older rebadged Rigol 5000 series. Older firmware, less memory, bigger case etc. Again, no contest.

The Tek 1000B series is much more expensive and only has 2.5K point memory, again, no contest.

The Lecroy WaveAce series is not cheap I believe, but it's only got 4K point memory. Again, no contest.

The Rigol is under $700 on Ebay, (or under $900 from Oz), has 50MHz bandwidth, 1GS/s with 16K memory, or 500MS/s with a massive 1M point memory, and is very good quality. It simply cannot be beat, I recon you'd be a fool to buy anything else in this bottom end 50-60MHz market (I haven't priced the higher bandwidth market).

Dave.

David L. Jones wrote: ...

Now I know why I've seen your Tek on eBay:) Tom

It's my birthday.... Might even think of getting one myself if you think its so good. Tom

As well as an Agilent, an Hitachi, and an older Rigol! I've had lots of toys of late :->

I'm pretty darn sure I could re-sell this Rigol at a profit, but it's a keeper.

Dave.

David L. Jones wrote: ...

I still remember what I've paid for 8 MHz XT clone with 640 kB RAM, two 360 kb floppy drives and amber monitor... a lot more than my car was worth. Tom

Well, to be honest I'd rather have a $50K Agilent, but for $679 you do get an awful lot. Happy birthday!

Dave. P.S. It's interesting to note that I paid around $900 for my first brand new

20MHz CRO (a Kikusui 5021) back in the early 80's.

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I also ordered one last week, at that price and the published features/ specs, I simply couldn't pass it up ! Colour display was also a pleasant surprise for a scope in that price range.

Considering how much some of the older, used and lower spec gear sells for on ebay, I thought that if I got it and it turned out to be not much chop, I would just re-sell it on there. Not much risk.

From what you say, looks like I wont have to do that ;)

Looking forward to its arrival soon ;)

I can't go back to those old washed-out Tek TDS mono screens any more! Was forced to use one (TDS1012) last night for some bebugging at work, and it was pretty miserable looking (and the small memory was really annoying). The sceen on this new 1000E series Rigol is much better and brighter than the one used on the older 5000 series. More resolution would be really nice of course, but all these low end instruments settle on 320x240, with the exception being the super-cheap Owon units - too good to be true? - almost certainly.

That's what I figured as well.

My old ~12yo Tek TDS210 sold a few months back for practically the same price as this new Rigol. Silly when you think about it. And then someone paid $1000 for the 5000 series Rigol I had, albeit that was

100MHz and almost as-new.

Let us all know how you like it.

Dave.

Got one too. Arrived today (about 8 days door to door). Quite impressive for the price. I've yet to give it a good test but all the basic functions appear to be working and the build quality appears excellent.

I noticed just a couple of days ago that Rigol has a new 4 channel scope, apparently just showing up in the states. But, it doesn't have the 1M memory . It's very good looking, though. eBay item #260380435750

Yes, that's the 1000B series as opposed to the 1000E series being discussed. You loose the big memory, but you gain 2GS/s, 4 channels, independant vertical controls, and Ethernet interface. The other series is the 1000A series that ups the sample rate and the screen refresh rate, but again no big memory. A rather unusual line-up.

Dave.

**I just downloaded the user manual. VERY impressive. This was not written by a Chinese speaking person. It is very, very good indeed. A request, if you have the time, David: Could you post some screen shots of the FFT mode please?

If I can sneak this one past the boss, I'll but one.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

The 4 ch unit I mentioned apparently has had a hardware upgrade, and now offers

2000 wfms/s, like the 1000A series.