Is there a difference between an Agilent and Rigol Oscilloscope?

[Lawsen]

I am very familiar with the Rigol 1052 digital oscilloscope.  I have started to explore the Agilent DSOX2002A 70 MHz at 2 channels oscilloscope.  The Rigol 1052 does the same thing for way less money.  Agilent DSOX2002A costs $1,200.00 USD in California plus sales tax.  Rigol 1052 can be purchase on E Bay from Hong Kong, China for $399.00 or little less without sales tax and less than half the price.  Most oscilloscopes are probably not repair able without replacement boards.  These replacement boards often costs more than a new one.  Tektronix has a good warranty offering to replace the oscilloscope, if it stopped working.  The Agilent DSOX2002A has a nice probe and tool storage, screwdrivers, hand lens, and light, bin in the back top of the oscilloscope.  Suggestions and opinions are welcome.  I am not in the business, so I will pass, the Agilent DSOX2002A at 70 MHz is not for me.  I am still in the depression.  The Rigol works, but it does not has a tool storage bin in the rear top and the distinctive Agilent front panel, and made in Malaysia, better wages and not the Chinese everything.  It is not a part of the I Pod Foxconn girl or the Wal Mart Inc. made in China.  Unless, I get hired with someone, then I will not be able to afford an Agilent. 

Lawsen

[alm]

If the differences highlighted in Dave's review don't matter to you, congratulations, you just saved yourself about $800.

Yes, almost all electronics sold today is essentially unrepairable (unless it's something really simple like a capacitor), especially something complex like a scope. Brand name or no name. The only difference is that they may use more reliable parts and offer longer warranty, but I wouldn't count on either of them living as long as the old scopes like the tube-based Tek 500 series.

[Psi]

Yes, almost all electronics sold today is essentially unrepairable

That said though. If you can get hold of a service manual with full schematics and know how to repair electronics yourself. It's actually not that hard to repair even complex devices/equipment. They key is always the service manual, without it it's next to impossible.

Also, when you're fixing it yourself you might be willing to spend quite a bit of time on it if you seem to be making progress at finding the problem. Paying a repair shop to spend the same amount of time would cost a fortune.

I recently fixed a friends laptop that wouldn't turn on simply by taking it to bits and giving all the BGA chips a good blast with the hot air rework station.
It took 1/2 a day, but its always a nice feeling fixing stuff for people when they have given up hope.

[EEVblog]

If the differences highlighted in Dave's review don't matter to you, congratulations, you just saved yourself about $800.

That pretty much sums it up.
If you are strapped for cash, get the Rigol, it'll be an excellent and useful tool for you.

Dave.

[alm]

That said though. If you can get hold of a service manual with full schematics and know how to repair electronics yourself. It's actually not that hard to repair even complex devices/equipment. They key is always the service manual, without it it's next to impossible.

Good luck finding full schematics for anything complex like a DSO designed in the past 10+ years. Even the service centers do module exchange only in many cases. I believe in the nineties, Tektronix only did board level repairs on their mid-end and higher series ($10k+ or so), only for the mainboard, and only in selected service centers. So it's unlikely even service centers have access to full schematics for the low-end equipment. Why spend time and money on developing schematics if repair is not economical anyway? Schematics are also much less useful than they used to be due to the increase in complex, custom and proprietary silicon.

Agilent (HP) published full schematics for the 34401A DMM developed in the late eighties, but not for the more recent cousins like the 34410A (not even module level, let alone component level). For some time they were selling component level information packages (CLIP) for their expensive equipment (eg. 3458A) for a few hundred dollars, but I don't think they do that either for their more recent designs.

I recently fixed a friends laptop that wouldn't turn on simply by taking it to bits and giving all the BGA chips a good blast with the hot air rework station.
It took 1/2 a day, but its always a nice feeling fixing stuff for people when they have given up hope.

You may be able to fix bad connections, if you can find them. BGA issues with laptops are well known for certain chipsets, in that case the shotgun method may be worthwhile.

[mkissin]

That's not quite true. Although Agilent don't give full schematics for all of their test equipment any more, some do have them. For example, the service manual for the signal generator I have, the 33220A has full component level schematics included (http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/33220-90012.pdf).

[saturation]

If cash is an issue and you have electronics skill, it reads like a well chosen analog will be the best bang for buck instead of buying new.

[Zero999]

Why spend time and money on developing schematics if repair is not economical anyway? Schematics are also much less useful than they used to be due to the increase in complex, custom and proprietary silicon.

Yes, you need the code for all the firmware, along with the schematic to do anything worthwhile.

[Int 0]

Hello,
is there some boy that owns the Agilent DSOX2002?; if this is the case, would please tell me if the device is a good buy?. I´m still a little paranoid thinking that the new ones are made inside Rigol factories, like the DSO1002 did.

Forget my basic english, please, and thanks!.

Hernan

[jahonen]

Hello,
is there some boy that owns the Agilent DSOX2002?; if this is the case, would please tell me if the device is a good buy?. I´m still a little paranoid thinking that the new ones are made inside Rigol factories, like the DSO1002 did.

Forget my basic english, please, and thanks!.

Hernan

DSOX2000 is a completely different beast to the Rigol, see Dave's review and teardown.





Regards,
Janne

[shadowless]

If you look at 4 channel scopes available in the market, then the Agilent scope would really be a good deal. For my work the more channel the better and you can add digital channels if you need them too.

With the additional expansion possibility, you can choose what you need later without buying a whole new scope that you have already gotten use to.

If Rigol or Instek would work for your purpose then that should be fine. Won't loose much if you need to sell them and trade up later.


BTW why does the agilent scope make a hissing background noise?