New Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope

[Fungus]

btw. what principles does the scope follow when AUTO setting memory depth ?

Is it worth, on average, leaving it on a manual setting?

I vote 'no'.

You'd have to set it almost every time you use the horizontal knob.

[JPortici]

i'd say no.
the scope will always try to maximize wfm/s.. leaving in "auto" means better chance to catch the event. once you have found a way to trigger on it, set the timebase/amount of memory accordingly so you can trigger on the glitch AND have a good look at before/after

[k8943]

Brightness effect noted (!!) the pulse width distortion is nuts. Would never have figured that one out. Thanks.

OK I see there's a clear consensus to play with mem depth after everything else is right. One of the reasons I asked was that so far the scope seems to systematically use a mem depth setting that is VERY low compared to its capacity. Even accounting for numbers of channels and so forth. That seemed strange.

Will experiment more.

[metrologist]

I noticed the low memory depth too and figured they were making a trade-off with some other performance attribute. wfs seems likely.

[tcurdt]

Just received my DS1054Z. So far I am somewhat happy with it - but some of the UI I just don't get.
Right now I am struggling with the Auto Measurement Items.

I press a button and the item appears - but how do I make it disappear again?
The manual only talks about "activating" them.
When I press it again it says "Existed item!"
Let's forget about that grammar - but I must be missing something.

[xrunner]

Just received my DS1054Z. So far I am somewhat happy with it - but some of the UI I just don't get.
Right now I am struggling with the Auto Measurement Items.

I press a button and the item appears - but how do I make it disappear again?
The manual only talks about "activating" them.
When I press it again it says "Existed item!"
Let's forget about that grammar - but I must be missing something.

Page 6-26 of the user's guide -

https://www.sicamax.ch/downloads/mso1000zds1000z_userguide_en.pdf

[hexreader]

Just received my DS1054Z. So far I am somewhat happy with it - but some of the UI I just don't get.
Right now I am struggling with the Auto Measurement Items.

I press a button and the item appears - but how do I make it disappear again?
The manual only talks about "activating" them.
When I press it again it says "Existed item!"
Let's forget about that grammar - but I must be missing something.

May be wrong - but something like...

   Measure
     sel item
         (untick unwanted items)

Good luck with this annoying interface.  Rigol are forgiven for this crime, as the scope is cheap and has a lot of cool features/buttons

[tcurdt]

Just received my DS1054Z. So far I am somewhat happy with it - but some of the UI I just don't get.
Right now I am struggling with the Auto Measurement Items.

I press a button and the item appears - but how do I make it disappear again?
The manual only talks about "activating" them.
When I press it again it says "Existed item!"
Let's forget about that grammar - but I must be missing something.

Page 6-26 of the user's guide -

https://www.sicamax.ch/downloads/mso1000zds1000z_userguide_en.pdf

Thanks for the response but - not really. I tried that too.
I select "delete all" and they all disappear. (Yay!)
Then I select a single one and the rest of them appear again.

(Being someone who has worked in the UX area I want to slap whoever came up with that UI.)

[RoGeorge]

Indeed, it's annoying. This is how it always was.
The only workaround I know (in order to make the unwanted measurements to go away) is to cycle the power of the scope, but this is totally unpractical.

[tcurdt]

I just wanted save a screenshot to demonstrate - but seems like it does not like any of my USB sticks.
It just keeps saying "No USB disk!"

[tcurdt]

Indeed, it's annoying. This is how it always was.
The only workaround I know (in order to make the unwanted measurements to go away) is to cycle the power of the scope, but this is totally unpractical.

Urgh. At least it's not me then. 
Thanks!

[tcurdt]

I just wanted save a screenshot to demonstrate - but seems like it does not like any of my USB sticks.
It just keeps saying "No USB disk!"

Works now - after a restart. 

[bitseeker]

I press a button and the item appears - but how do I make it disappear again?
The manual only talks about "activating" them.
When I press it again it says "Existed item!"
Let's forget about that grammar - but I must be missing something.

The manual only talks about activating them because there is no way to make individual measurements disappear. You can hide them all or replace them with the ones you want.

Being someone who has worked in the UX area I want to slap whoever came up with that UI.

Yeah, you can take a swing once I'm done with them. It's one of the worst examples of interaction design I've seen in a long time.

[alsetalokin4017]

there is no way to make individual measurements disappear.

Wrong.

[alsetalokin4017]

It's one of the worst examples of interaction design I've seen in a long time.

Oh, I've seen worse. It's not so bad once you get used to it. "Pluses" and all.

[bitseeker]

there is no way to make individual measurements disappear.

Wrong.

Holy smokes! They sort of fixed it. You used to only be able to gray an item out, not delete it.

Unfortunately, it's still screwy as soon as you add a new one.

[RoGeorge]

there is no way to make individual measurements disappear.

Wrong.

Meh, not exactly.

First, it's cumbersome, and it is useful only to prepare a nice screen for a capture.
Second, as soon as a new measurement is added, the old (unselected or deleted) ones appear back, but as greyed out.

[bitseeker]

Second, as soon as a new measurement is added, the old (unselected or deleted) ones appear back, but as greyed out.

I remember that behavior, but when I try it on the latest firmware, the old deleted ones not only come back, but they're not grayed out. It's even weirder than before.

[_Wim_]

there is no way to make individual measurements disappear.

Wrong.

Meh, not exactly.

First, it's cumbersome, and it is useful only to prepare a nice screen for a capture.
Second, as soon as a new measurement is added, the old (unselected or deleted) ones appear back, but as greyed out.

What is also annoying, is when you change the font type of the measurements, only 3 measurements can be shown (that is normal because or limited space), but the scope still remembers 5!

This means when you want to add a measurement that is already displayed as invisible measure "4" or "5", the scope says "measurement already added". The only way to display that measure, is first to add 2 more other measurements that you do not need, and then select the one you need again...

[JPortici]

Brightness effect noted (!!) the pulse width distortion is nuts. Would never have figured that one out. Thanks.

OK I see there's a clear consensus to play with mem depth after everything else is right. One of the reasons I asked was that so far the scope seems to systematically use a mem depth setting that is VERY low compared to its capacity. Even accounting for numbers of channels and so forth. That seemed strange.

Will experiment more.

indeed. you are starting to see how deep memory is more of an obstacle most of the time because you need much much much more processing power and of course increased blind time to process all that additional data. the trick is low amount to get the triggering right and only then a single shot at full memory depth

I just wanted save a screenshot to demonstrate - but seems like it does not like any of my USB sticks.
It just keeps saying "No USB disk!"

also be careful that the scope will go crazy (recognize, no recogniza, save, not save, save only some data, ...) with memories greater than 2 (or 4) GB. it's written only in the troubleshooting guide. no mention in datasheet/related user guide section

[_Wim_]

I just wanted save a screenshot to demonstrate - but seems like it does not like any of my USB sticks.
It just keeps saying "No USB disk!"

Works now - after a restart. 

It really depends on the type/brand of USB stick. I experimented with all of them I had around, and a few of them work without any problems (older types with "only" 1 GB of memory). But these work always flawlessly, so I keep them for use the them scope only. 

[alsetalokin4017]

Some of these responses puzzle me. I have no trouble displaying just the measurements I want to show, turning others off, adding new ones or displaying old, previously turned off measurements. Of course I actually use the scope every day to make measurements (however quirky or wrong or misspelled they may turn out to be) so I am very familiar with how the system operates. It appears that some people weren't even aware of the "Select Item" list or haven't used it very much. I suggest playing around with this feature a bit; eventually it will "sink in" and you'll be able to use it to display what you want, without being troubled by the "greyed out, inactive but displayed anyway" problem. Use the "Select Item" list to remove undesired greyed-out items from the screen display.

Perhaps it may help to think of the measurement display as a sort of list buffer that holds the last five that you have selected and allows you to turn on or off any of those using the "Select Item" list. When you want to add a sixth one, it goes in the fifth place and pushes the rest down one position, and the old "first" one is gone. It gets slightly more complicated when you have Large or ExtraLarge fonts selected since only three or two of the five can be displayed at one time, or if you insist on displaying your chosen measurements in some particular order.

This means when you want to add a measurement that is already displayed as invisible measure "4" or "5", the scope says "measurement already added". The only way to display that measure, is first to add 2 more other measurements that you do not need, and then select the one you need again...

No, that's not right either, if I am understanding you correctly. You just need to use the "Select Item" list to turn off one of the measurements of the three that are displayed, then you can turn on the one you need again.

Sure, the Rigol software often appears to be a set of "kludges" that were cobbled together by a committee of junior programmers who have never actually used an oscilloscope... but who remember playing with those complicated Chinese puzzle boxes as kids.

But what did you expect, it's only 400 dollars.        Shouldn't you be happy that it even "pretends" to do measurements at all?   

[John at the Falls]

Unlocking features.
March 25 2017
I just got my brand new DSO1054 today.
Just want to report my experience.

Firmware is 00.04.04.01  (00.04.04 SP 1)
This is the version that was pulled down for upgrading an existing scope but I guess it is OK since this came from the factory with this version.

The upgrade went smoothly even with bleary eyes from staying up late playing with this thing.

People may want to read the release notes to see if a firmware upgrade is really necessary from the version they have.

I followed these instructions


Can not believe it only cost $400 USD. I will be using it to work on CNC systems and Arduinos.

I ordered 12 18650 batteries to make a DC power pack so I can have a Mains isolated system. I will post when that happens. It is only a bit bigger than some of the handheld units and much more capable at a lower price. Isolation is the only compromise I made when selecting this scope.



 

[madires]

Any news about the new firmware version? Someone mentioned January or February.

[alsetalokin4017]

I strongly recommend a burn-in period before making any changes to a newly-purchased scope. There is always a chance that you may have gotten a defective product that will at some point refuse to boot and refuse to allow you to remove the "hack", which may cause difficulty if you need to return it for a warranty replacement. You have a trial period of 30+ hours of use for all options except the 100MHz bandwidth increase. So use that time to confirm that you have good hardware and won't be needing to return the unit for vendor's or factory warranty service.