Rigol DS1202 Z-E scope review

I bought this scope 9 months ago. I have now used it enough to give it a reasonable review.
Not a bad scope, some annoying bits, but overall much nicer to use than the USB scope I bought previously. Physical knobs and buttons are so important.

Compared to just 20 years ago, real test equipment has become affordable to electronic tinkerers like me.

[dack]

On the Rigol, you can eliminate the noise by selecting Acquire->Mode->High Resolution. This averages neighbouring ADC samples, which reduces the bandwidth and the high frequency noise. Note that this is different than averaging mode, which is for averaging periodic waveforms. High Resolution works for non-periodic waveforms, and is useful any time you just don't need to see the very high frequency stuff.

[superciliousdude]

Regarding saving stuff onto your NAS from the scope, the Rigol is fully controllable (including dumping raw samples) via USB or ethernet. I have my 1054Z (with 100MHz and other features unlocked) set up via the LXI LAN interface and I control it via a python library. The nice thing is that the regular UI is also usable so you get the best of both worlds. Obviously, these days I use the R&S RTB2004 much more because speed and features, but that is like 10x the price of the Rigol. Still the Rigol is very capable and probably still the best hobbyist grade scope.

[joeg.]

Hi Matthias
When you press the mode button repeatedly, the scope steps through the selections. Pressing any other button locks the selection. This way is easier than pressing the rotating intensity/selection knob which usually locks in the selection you don't want.
Joe

[SquintyGears]

The problem with the USB scope is that it's a ridiculous concept to emulate the knobs of the real thing in the UI.
If it was an interface actually designed to be used with a mouse and keyboard with just rolling menus and entry fields you can just scroll (like all editing software uses) it would just become a question of the poling rate and boot time between the two.

[roberthoople]

I just got this scope earlier this month, as my first* real learning scope. It was pricey for my budget and I thought of going with a USB scope (because I'm still a beginner), but between the slow response, tying up a PC and the universally terrible interfaces they all seem to have, it just made sense to invest in a real physical scope that would get me reliably through the next few years of learning. I think the Rigol was probably a good choice, and I look forward to watching your videos and seeing it in use as I learn.

Bit of story time: Ironically, after telling my Uncle that I bought the Rigol scope, he gave me an old Tektronix 546B analog 4-channel storage scope that he used when he was an instrumentation technician. It's been sitting in a dusty storage area for a long time and needs new probes and a lot of work to clean up. I imagine it'll need most of it's pots cleaned. The crazy thing is, this old scope is almost too heavy for me to lift. It's a monster!

* Bit more story time: This new Rigol scope is technically my second scope, because that same Uncle gave me a vintage (1950's) EICO tube-based CRT scope when I was a teen, but I never learned how to use it, so I would just hook it up to my stereo and play around with it until it displayed something cool looking. When I lost it during a move, I was very disappointed that I hadn't got around to learning how to use it properly, but in my defense, we didn't have all these awesome creator/educator channels like yours back then to teach me what I needed to know.

[ahbushnell]

A note on probes. 10x setting has the full probe bandwidth. The 1X setting has a reduced bandwidth.

[joelandersson]

"An analog scope doesn't have a cooling fan"
*My Tektronix 535 scope/space heater is clearing its throat* 🙂

[Superdoxin]

RE: the fuzzy trace, that's an on-purpose feature you can turn off. Somewhere in the display settings you can set it to "precision" mode. It'll then downsample the trace so it's exactly one sample per pixel on the display.

[ssaasszza]

I have 1054 but it seems quite similar. In i2c decode mode you can change from ascii to hex you need to use up/down button on the right to the screen to change menu. Secondly there are some nice python libraries to communicate with the scope and this open lots of possibilities ;)

[tom]

Interesting review, the bugbears remind me of my time working in an NMR lab, the lower field instruments would have various 200MHz scopes of a similar style but I'd often grab the 1 GHz Tektronix MDO4000 series scopes for the real work. One of the simple bits I loved was have a knob dedicated to each cursor! Of course they're a little beyond the hobbyist budget, as was the 8GHz scope we also had for really fun stuff.

[benoitvannoten]

25 years ago, a colleague of mine (who was also airplane pilot) was teaching his son how to drive. Before actual riding, his son had to muscle memorise where any button was and how to use it. The test was: being able to do it blindly with the eyes shut.
The idea is of course to be able to keep the eyes on the road/traffic for safety reasons..

Try to do this with a modern car.

[jamesbennet]

Scroll down in the decode menu and you can choose if you want hex instead of ASCII. The Rigol scopes often have an Ethernet or USB-B port on the back for connecting to your PC too.

[matambale]

I bought that same scope a few months back. When using that parameter setting dial/button...press it in and rotate it *while it's still pressed*, then release it once you've got the selection you want. Little bit tricky at first. And if there's a long list of selections, well, you may have to be a bit of a contortionist - or go back to

[GoldSrc_]

As others have mentioned, when you have the probe in the 1X position, it limits the bandwidth to something like 2 or 5 MHz I think.

[rolandgdean]

I find these videos SO interesting and I TRY TO KEEP UP but when you said "high frequency transient", all I could think of was a homeless man that was in the same place every day when I was a kid.

[Kolajer]

Man, this gives me old AvE videos flashbacks.

All that's missing is a Hakko soldering iron.

[Anymouse]

Re: selector knob hard to push without rotating:
Instead of using the knob, you can push the same button you used to access the dropdown menu multiple times to select and then press "clear" to close the menu.

[roboman]

Have you looked at those cheap 30$ usb logic analyzers? Very useful.
Also the more expensive ones usually have a channel or two for analog.

[WJCTechyman]

When I had my brief stint at Conestoga College Doon campus studying computer engineering technology the Tektronix digital scopes we were using were easily CA$2000 each and that was fall 2004. With companies like Rigol and Keysight made oscilloscopes more affordable for the average hobbyist.

[zaprodk]

First switching converter is the active PFC, the other is the main stepdown transformer.