I've been doing stress testing on the two-channel memory sample reading bug of the Rigol (
#13 in this list) in order to try to quantify things better, so that Rigol will fix it in the next release.
My results so far are as follows:
AUTO (single) / 14kB / 140kB / 1.4MB / 14MB / 56MB / AUTO (dual) = Reading is SUCCESSFUL (either BYTE or ASCII mode):
7kB* / 70kB* / 700kB / 7MB / 28MB = Reading
FAILS [*sometimes] (whether BYTE or ASCII mode):
If anybody else is interested in testing their Rigol, I've written
a new piece of software (Rigol_Sample_Memory_Read.zip) (also attached below) to automate the testing of all sample depths.
To use it, you don't need to do any setup or have any input signals to the DSO; it's irrelevant - the software will turn on and off the appropriate channels, set the memory depth, and try to read.
To run every memory depth, just select "ALL" for single and/or dual channel modes, and click "RUN".
NOTE: it takes time to read 7MB, 14MB, 28MB, and 56MB memory depths (the software inserts a 350ms pause after every packet from the DSO - and a 750ms pause between switching memory depths) - so use 'Break' if you want to exit ('Clr Text' to empty the message output box).
If the total received bytes don't match the acquire memory depth setting, the software will display the result in
RED (
FAIL).
For testing ASCII transfers, you have to use a different technique. Since the number of ASCII bytes is unknown for a given memory depth, select only ONE memory size to test, set 'Repeats' to 3 or 4, then 'RUN'.
If each repeated test gives exactly the same number of ASCII bytes returned, the result is SUCCESSFUL. If the tests return different numbers, the result is a FAIL.
You can also use the 'Repeats' setting to run multiple tests on one memory depth. For example, if I run the 7kB memory read test 10x, it seems to fail ~50% of the time.
Please report back findings here for compilation and delivery to Rigol.
The image shows the results of a test run on all possible acquire depths; 4 settings failed (70kB / 700kB / 7MB / 28MB):