Marte78

[Marte78]

Hello,

I would like to pose a question to the forum friends, I want to buy a digital oscilloscope and am deciding between two models:

the first is the Rigol DS1102E which has a range of 100MHz, 2 channels among other features, but I've seen some videos on youtube, in which owners of this and other models of the same series as the DS1052 have problems with the firmware, here below is the link to the videos that I commented:

 





The second prospect is the Instek GDS-1072A-U, which has a frequency of 70MHz and a lifetime warranty.

If anyone has used any of these models or both, I would appreciate to give me their opinions on which I should buy.

thanks   

[saturation]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/new-instek-scope-gds-1072a-u/msg62080/#msg62080

Either is oK.  Based on Amazon.com pricing, for extra $150 you pay for less MHz on the Instek, you get a lifetime warranty by a reputable company.  Insure you read the warranty conditions of what 'lifetime' really means; in the case of Fluke 87V lifetime was defined as 10 years after the model line is discontinued, IIRC.  Rigol has had its share of bugs with the new firmware, but most are resolved and existing ones are mostly assembly issues, so for both scopes its essential to have an authorized distributor you can return the defective one for an easy replacement. 

I've never heard of anyone complain of bugs or defects in an Instek scopes though, in my years at eevblog, but there are less discussions about their products than Rigol, Hantek, Owon Agilent, and Tek.

Dave has done the world a service by the tear downs, one thing you notice in Rigol is that they do not use non-name components [mostly, it seems the maker of their rotary encoders and plastic knobs are not as good as their choice of electronic components], even in the 1000s series, giving it a high probability of living far beyond its warranty period, but like all infant mortality periods or when the item is fresh out of factory, it has to live well for the burn in time to insure you don't have one with an assembly defect.  This is were the 3 years is more than generous.

[Marte78]

thank you very much, saturation, your response has clarified the issue.

Best wishes to you too 

[Nirios]

I've never heard of anyone complain of bugs or defects in an Instek scopes though, in my years at eevblog, but there are less discussions about their products than Rigol, Hantek, Owon Agilent, and Tek.

I purchased a GDS-1102A-U and it came with a nasty bug of completely corrupting the USB flash drive when trying to save the sample memory to the flash drive.  I contacted Instek support, gave them my serial number and current firmware version.  They quickly replied with a zip file of the latest firmware which fixed the bug. 

IMO, +1 for Instek.

[Marte78]

Thanks a lot Nirios, again heard from the experience of the community members helps a lot, this makes me decide more by Instek k

[harm]

Looking for firmware for GDS-1152A-U (or GDS-1072A-U/GDS-1102A-U) scope.
Is it available?
Thanks!

[Nirios]

Yes, the firmware can be found from one of the resellers.  I forget which version it is, but I have 1.06 if anyone needs it (PM me)

http://www.tequipment.net/Software/Instek/GDS-1000-U-Series_Firmware.zip

I believe it will work for all GDS 1000-A-U series scopes. (1102A-U, 1152A-U, 1072A-U)

IT WILL NOT work for the older GDS-1000A series scopes.