Oscilloscopes: Tek vs. Rigol

If you're happy with what you have, be happy :)

He is too annoying to watch for 9 minutes.

The 50 and 100 MHz Rigols are as good as the corresponding Teks, in some respects better, for 1/3 the price.

We researched 1 GHz scopes, and wound up with a Rigol. It's great.

As previously noted, my Tek DPO2024 is crap.

The really good Tek scopes are the isolated-input TPS series.

Yeh, which Teks do you have?

Anything TDS or newer is new-management crap. After the numeric (three, four and five digit model numbers) classics, they lost their advantage. Somewhere around there, late 80s or whatever.

What's astonishing is how long they've held their market image. Like, three decades and counting. I can't think of any other market where perceptions are so thoroughly out of sync with the products. I mean, people buy cars, for example, not quite as infrequently as they buy scopes, but everyone knows how bad such-and-such car maker is, almost on a daily basis. Economists should study it, or something.

Obligatory deferral about high end stuff, but... well, for $200,000, they damn well better have something usable (even if it runs Windows 7..). For that much, I wouldn't even fly a tech to your door just to wipe your ass...I'd do it personally!

As for Dave... man, that's an oldie, #13? He's a better show these days (though his voice is just as grating :-p ), try some videos in the hundreds (there's, what, 500-600 to choose from?).

In my opinion, he's generally more gracious than he ought to be: probably, he's weighing price more heavily than I would. Some things that would really annoy me, he doesn't mind so much. I think the most recent example that comes to mind, a Rigol bench supply with the keypad arranged in a circle around the knob, not a square matrix. He commented negatively on it, but didn't really hold it against it. But I think usability, form and style are more important.

Point being, if anything, he's going easy on them. So if he says it's crap, IT'S CRAP! And yes, they literally rebrand Chinese stuff, Tek and Agilent both -- so get a Rigol or Instek or something straightaway. They're relative newcomers, and they work to a price primarily, but their products are always improving. (One example: Dave found a thermal issue in said Rigol PSU; they fixed it and sent out replacement boards to everyone! Another example: the early DS1xxx's used to be pretty clunky, worse even than, like, the TDS1002s and such. Nowadays, they're far better, with modern features basically for free. $400 gets you a lot now!)

Tim

You and me both. What is annoying is most of what he presents can be done without video, let alone his nails on a chalkboard voice.

The question for most people is used Tek/HP versus new Rigol. Or perhaps Tek/HP boat anchor versus a very portable Rigol.

I have seven Teks and one Owon, and I used to have more, including a 7 GHz 7704A digitizing scope. I'm a fan of the higher-end Teks from before they started doing Windows. Their two drawbacks are that their sample memory tends to be too short, and that the TDS700 series has very slow knob response, especially with slow sweeps.

The Chinese ones tend to have very slow update rates. The Owon, which is otherwise OK, tops out at 20, count'em, two zero per second. You can miss a lot of important stuff at that rate.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

In signal averaging mode, my DPO2024 sums one new trace into the average per second.

Knob response isn't just slow, sometimes it ignores you alltogether.

His presentation skills got better. Less bobbing back and forth at the camera lens. ;-) "Unique non-scripted overly enthusiastic style" pretty much describes the videos; I do find a lot of them quite interesting. There's also a web forum at the main eevblog site. Good stuff.

Also, probably the only source for test equipment reviews. I haven't come across any others that deserve mention.

Cheers

"John Larkin"

( re: Dave Jones' EEVblogs )

- Steve Irwin style.

.... Phil

My own experience is that Rigol stuff is OK in absolute terms but when the price is factored in it's often a very good deal. Having said that when I wanted a 1G scope I bought a Lecroy for twice (at least) the price of the Rigol that John has an I don't regret it at all. I notice that I, and anyone working for me, always chooses to use the Agilent DMM rather than the Rigol and that the Rigol DS2072 scope comes further down the pecking order than the decade older CRT based Agilent

So my verdict is that Rigol is currently mostly good enough and pretty cheap.

I've never owned a Tek scope !

Michael Kellett

"John Larkin" "Phil Allison"

Actually, I know Dave, he lives not too far from me in Sydney.

We have spoken on the phone a couple of times and *jousted* many times on "aus.electronics" in the past.

Dave is very much a DIGITAL guy while I am an ANALOGUE guy.

I work for myself while Dave has worked for big firms.

So we have SFA in common, really.

Starring in one's home movies and publishing them on the internet is NOT something on my "to do" list.

Or wrangling alligators ........

.... Phil

Yes, indeed! I managed to catch the FLIR E4 thread just in time to pick up a mod-able unit. For that alone, I'll learn to pronounce "CRO" with a proper accent. ;-)

"Spehro Pefhany"

Hookers and drug dealers make a living from what they do too.

Don't make is a good thing.

.... Phil

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has a few

-Lasse

Mike is also a frequent contributor to the eevblog's forum. Reasonable, since everybody in Australia knows everybody else, right? ;-)

"John Larkin"

She has dozens of U-Tubes, nearly all electronics related.

Here is one is about a cool PCB from an Apollo rocket.

.... Phil

We bought a Owon, (as a "show 'scope.) The display had a limited viewing angle. And Rigol's are a bit better in that regard.

One good way to look see the long delay's in cheap 'scopes is to check out the X-Y display with some slow signal. The Rigol spends ~1/2 it's time reading the inputs. (They should make DDS's with a slow x-y mode. like the roll-mode for slow y-t, read the input and send it to the display,.) I've got both a cheap TEK (1001 or something?) and cheap Rigol. I grab the TEK first, mostly because the interface is better. I like having one gain and offset knob for each Y-input. The cheap rigol shares one set between inputs.

The Tek is also a bit better when it's input is over driven... though nothing like an analog 'scope.

If one is comparing cheap Rigols and teks for finding intermitent signals, then it's hard to pick. The rigol has a longer memory depth, the tek refreshes faster, but still misses stuff.

George H.

The champs for update rate by far are the Infiniiums.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Nice voice, very pretty for a male in drag.