Rigol Ds5000 series oscilloscope feedback

250MSa/s, ouch! I say, go for 1GS/s instead, it's well worth a higher $850 to 1600 list price. Actually, I'd spend a bit more and get an even better scope, but that's a matter of choice.

OK, I'm back, there seems some confusion about the Rigol specs and web prices. Is it true that a 100MHz bandwidth, 1GSa/s, 2- channel model from both companies would list at $1200 vs $1600?

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 Thanks,
    - Win

I am getting a new scope for my electronics hobby use. It seems this company is pretty new at this area but what really attracted me is the price and functionality. It has most functions of the tektronix tds 2000 series but at the half of price! I would appericated if some who used one these( DS5000 series) scope comment on their usability and reliability. I am looking at the DS5102CA.

cheers

1 Gs/s at _100_MHz_ vertical BW? icky poo. Bad, bad scope. No Scopey Snacks for you, boy. What a complete waste of space.

That's even worse than the one LeCroy tried to sell me several years back that had a 2 Gs/s digitizer with a 350 MHz front end.

When you call them on this sort of nonsense, scope salesmen will always say "Well, it's for antialiasing protection." This is total nonsense, because any sort of decent antialiasing filter would have to roll off by at least 40 dB by the folding frequency, and these things certainly do not.

Let the thing alias all it wants--but give me a decent vertical amplifier and no crapola.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Depends what you're doing. Debugging serial protocols and so on really needs a storage scope. A cheap digital scope is better for this than an expensive analog scope. This is why I have two scopes on my desk :) (actually three - the third one is capable of very long, slow sample periods - useful for battery discharge curves - it has about a day of memory at the slowest sample rate).

Ah, here again I would have a separate piece of equipment - I'd have a spectrum analyzer. I think the scope I use at work (HP 54645D) can do FFTs, and I know the Tek scope I have at home had an optional FFT module (that I don't own), but I never use these features - if I want to look at noise, I go to the spectrum analyzer.

PC-based instrumentation is not very useful to me because (a) I do all of my work on laptops, and most of this stuff is PCI (yes I know there are USB and PCMCIA options), but mostly because (b) I do most of my work in Linux.

I'd rather have standalone instruments that have the capability to connect to the PC, preferably using standard documented protocols that don't need proprietary software on the PC end. The spec analyzers we use at work have Ethernet and you can ftp into them to get screenshots, very nice feature.

have

Actually I have a TDS210, and that's only 8-bit :) But it was free! :))

equipment.

Yes indeedy; the one I want is $60,000. But I'd settle for a refurbished low-end model at around $9,000. I'd also settle for dumpster diving next time there is a cleanup at work, and putting together one good unit out of three bad ones.

Fair enough.

I don't really NEED an analyzer anyway, I just WANT it. If I get a job that would significantly benefit from it, I might work the price of the analyzer - or a significant percentage of it, at any rate - into the quote (disclosed to the client, of course).

From my limited experience the only usable digital scope is top of the line or close to top of the line digital scope. 1000-2000 series does not quality. If you're tight on $, go for analog. Even a cheap Instek will give you A LOT more bang there. My 2 c.

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Siol
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I agree. But a cheap PC based dig. scope does just as well for protocols and is sometimes better due to its vast memory for very long recording times. I specifically chose my PC based picoscope ADC216 for its 16-bit D/A (most are 12-bit), which makes for a pretty nifty audio band spectrum analzyer with usable dynamic range (12 bits sucks there. but its faster). This thing really helps with identifying noise sources.

I would love to see a reasonably priced 20-24-bit board with maybe USB 20 support and fast enough to do FFT up to 200KHz or maybe even more.

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Siol
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The tek scope has a 12-bit D/A, pretty limited for FFT. Most digital scopes have

12-bit A/D due to speed requirements. I went slow and 16-bit for the pc scope since i need it just for slow enough protocols and audio spectrum analyzer with >90dB dynamic range. Expensive top of the line tek with likewise expensive FFT module will do about 70dB and probably cost about 10x more.

Now a separate spectrum analyzer is another rather expensive piece of equipment.

I'm just proposing one reasonably affordable way to get away with pretty good performance. Sure, having everything stand-alone is great and having top-of-the line of everything is even better. Unfortunately not everyone can afford that.

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Siol

I'm not sure how useful a standard RF type analyzer is at audio frequency band. I kind of assumed it would not work or work badly, but hey, who knows. Have you tried it?

Siol

Hello SioL,

Often these won't work below 9kHz and their oscillators are kind of noisy. So even if you'd mix up to an IF you might not be pleased with the results. For audio work it is better to have a decent baseband analyzer. But I do my audio stuff with a laptop. Wish it had a 24 bit sound card but 16 bits is ok for most noise chasing.

Regards, Joerg

even if you'd mix up to an IF you might not be

I suspected it wouldn't, I never even tried to use it for audio. Somehow in my mind RF and AF are like apples and pears, didn't even occur to me to try to use it.

audio stuff with a laptop. Wish it had a 24 bit sound

What program are you using for FFT? I don't like the input anti-aliasing filters at the input of the sound board, even though I suspect they are probably poor.

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Siol
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Hello SioL,

even if you'd mix up to an IF you might not be

The real expensive ones with proper PLL oscillators do work. But they are several times more expensive (and heavier) than the usual portable EMC rig.

audio stuff with a laptop. Wish it had a 24 bit sound

filters

FFTScope from the Physics Dept of Rutgers University. One of the fastest FFT routines this side of the Klondike.

Spectrum Lab (ham radio oriented, DL4YHF) is also quite good. IIRC that one allows you to configure quadrature receiver blocks and other fancy stuff but I have never used those features.

Anti-alias doesn't bother me much since my area of interest is mostly below 5kHz. If it would bother me I'd have no problem buying a separate older audio card where things are discrete, prying it open and shunting any filter.

Regards, Joerg