I have a Rigol DS4024 scope that developed a bad time/div rotary encoder in a few months less than 3-yrs. By the time the control was driving me crazy I had only two weeks left on my warranty and contacted Rigol and they wanted me to ship it back to them for repair and it would take at least two weeks or more before I would have an oscilloscope to use again. That is unsatisfactory, I can't do anything without a 4-chan scope working at all. I had a job to finish and even a scope with a goofy time/div was still a scope and better than none.
A few days beforr my warranty expired I call them up and asked what the repair cost would be. They told me if I waited until the warranty expired, the price would be almost 50% of the original purchase price, and in any case I would have to go out and find and buy packaging and pay the shipping and insurance cost to get it to them. Paying this much for an out of warranty repair was out of the question.
So I called back and asked them to send me a new rotary encoder and I would willingly void the warranty and fix it myself.
They said that is not their policy.
So I called back and asked to to sell me a new rotary encoder.
They said they were in the business of selling equipment, not spare repair parts.
So I decided to fix it myself. After a few hours of searching around on the net I found an equivalent rotary encoder for a few dollars. I ordered two and got them in two days to my door.
Next I attempt to dissemble the device and find that their service information fails to show the location of a screw in the back that needs to be removed. However, searching on the web, I found help in a getting the information that I needed to remove the decal in the back.
However then I discover how poorly designed this device was. It is necessary to peel off the whole front adhesive decal(this is the whole face of the oscilloscope that labels all the controls, etc.) to access the 3 screws that are hidden beneath. Somehow later, after repair, providing I didn't damage the adhesive that glues this, I would have to stick it back on again. I decided, that this oscilloscope was just a piece of junk if I had to go through all that to service it.
So I decided I would not be interested in selling this instrument later, it would be ok with me if I could just repair and use it. I just had to deal with this and carefully located the hidden screws underneath the decal and cut a small circle with an Xacto knife and removed the screws. I carefully stored the circuiar cut outs to makeshift glue them back on after the repair, but I knew I would easily see the repair work on the decal when I finished.
Once I could access the wiring underneath the front panel I saw the extremely cheap delicate printed paper-thin flat cables that needed to be so carefully removed from their socket to replace the rot enc. Despite being careful, moving things around during the repair, I managed to damage one small flat printed cable and spent over five hours fabricating a replacement
After I put the who thing back together again it worked fine. But, whew! what trouble to repair.
I somehow want to compare this scope with my old Tek 575b that works perfectly after almost 50-years..but I can't! In terms of easy of repair and fabrication, it fails to meet the standards I seen in and old DVD player or a VCR, which are remarkably much easier to service.
If I had to buy another scope it wouldn't he a Rigol.
.