For some time now I have been considering the purchase of a DSO. Having seen many favourable (and some unfavourable) comments about the Rigol DS1054Z, I was considering a purchase based on price only. I’m a hobbyist and although I would like a useful instrument, I can’t justify spending several hundreds or even thousands on one.
I have also looked at PicoScopes, but anything with a comparable spec to Rigol and Sigilent was way higher in price by comparison, especially considering that the latter are complete standalone scopes.
One thing that holds me back from the DS1054Z are the negative comments and the fact that there is no external trigger port. I have a Thandar LA160 logic analyser device that connects to a scope using a vertical channel and an external trigger input. It is an old device operating at only 20MHz, but it has 16 channels and it works nicely on my analogue scope, but it might be useful to use it on the new DSO. However, the absence of the external trigger is an issue and led me to think about other instruments from Rigol, Hantek and Sigilent.
Hantek do not seem to compete on features. Sigilent do not seem quite up there on features vs price point but come close. So what about one of the better Rigol scopes?
Well rather than around 350 pounds I would be looking at twice that much, difficult to justify, but maybe worth considering if it was a good long term investment. An MSO1074Z with built in logic analyser sounds appealing, but AFAIKT the only difference, except for a slight increase in default bandwidth is the logic analyser. It does not have an external trigger input, but with the LA built in this might not be necessary anymore – although it has been usefull on a couple of occasions on the analogue scope. On the other hand, I am sure one could find a standalone or PC connected logic analyser for less than the 350 pound difference. Just briefly looking at Amazon reveals a few USB connected devices for less than half of that.
Then there is the DS1074B. It has 4 inputs and an external trigger and 2Gsa/s vs 1Gsa/s, but no logic analyser. I had to smile at the description ‘High definition 5.7" display (320 x 240)’. Do they not realise that even in the late 1980’s 320x240 would have been low resolution – EGA (640x480) being the default standard resolution at the time. It is perhaps a reasonable resolution for the size of display but by no stretch of the imagination ‘high definition’. Even screenshots of the higher resolution (800x480) DS1054Z look a bit rough sometimes. I can’t believe manufacturers are still sales pitching this kind of nonsense! That aside, the price point is another 50 pounds higher but given the 2GSa/s sample rate, perhaps worthwhile.
So I guess I am looking for advice on whether either of these more expensive scopes is worth buying over the DS1054Z. Can one of the input channels be used as an external trigger perhaps? If so, this would solve my dilemma with the external trigger and it would then be a more straightforward shootout on features.