Rigol Letter Designation Meaning

[nathon]

Forgive my ignorance please. I am looking for an upgrade to my HP 54501A Oscilloscope. I heard that Dave (and others) recommend Rigol. So I was looking at the DS1104E. However I also see Z, C, CA and other types throughout the different models as well.

What do these letter designations represent? I heard Dave say at whatever show he was at that the -S designation means it has a signal (analyzer/generator?).

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking to hopefully get as much machine as I can for around $1,000-$1,500 US. Hopefully eliminate as many other machine (function generator, etc) purchases as possible at the same time. Not sure what's possible though. Used is also okay if you know some good places for that (so long as it's not hammered).

Thanks & cheers!
Nathon

[nathon]

Oh, just FYI I'm also looking for a good Rigol multi-output power supply. These will be used on a non-commercial home bench. Looking to spend less than $2k US for some upgraded, modern equipment.

[Bored@Work]

Even if there is some logic (I doubt it, seems to be Rigol "marketing" decides), Rigol might change that logic tomorrow. The only thing that will work out is to meticulous compare specs and prices.

BTW, there are also some instruments with A, D and U suffixes.

[nathon]

Well that stinks. I can't even find all the different designations for the 1104 on Rigol's page so far. I'll probably just have to print out all the ones I'm interested in and start circling the differences.

[Mark_O]

Forgive my ignorance please. I am looking for an upgrade to my HP 54501A Oscilloscope. I heard that Dave (and others) recommend Rigol. So I was looking at the DS1104E. However I also see Z, C, CA and other types throughout the different models as well.

What do these letter designations represent? I heard Dave say at whatever show he was at that the -S designation means it has a signal (analyzer/generator?).

Hi, Nathon.  No forgiveness required.  The 1000CA scopes are Rigol's older series.  Like, 3 generations back.  After that, they came out with the C series (and the CD version with the LA), which is when they started becoming known.  The E-series (and D-series variant with LA) is the one you saw all the raving about here, due to the hack.  They were the economical option for the past few years.  And they're still available new.

Things have shifted a bit recently.  The new DS2000 series has no suffix, though they're being replaced with the A-series soon.  The 1000 series has been revived with the 1000Z-series of 4-channel scopes.  The "-S" suffix (note the dash) is used to indicate that a signal generator has been added.  The DS1000Z-S is available now (DS1074Z-s and DS1104Z-S, with the middle two digits indicating bandwidth, and the last digit the # of channels).  Eventually DS2000A-S models will be available, and I suspect you can figure out what that means now.

[Maturola]

Forgive my ignorance please. I am looking for an upgrade to my HP 54501A Oscilloscope. I heard that Dave (and others) recommend Rigol. So I was looking at the DS1104E. However I also see Z, C, CA and other types throughout the different models as well.


Thanks & cheers!
Nathon

NO letter: Basic model
A: Advanced model
E: Educational model, with less connectivity options
D: (Digital) Mixed-Signal - Logic Analyzer
AD: Advanced + Mixed-Signal
CA: This is the only one I don't know, I believe it is Compatibility Advanced - IT comes with a wider series of Trigger support

Z: New Generation of lower end Scope, 4 channels and something they call ZWave
-S: Signal Generator

[Carrington]

NO letter: Basic model
A: Advanced model
E: Educational model, with less connectivity options
D: (Digital) Mixed-Signal - Logic Analyzer
AD: Advanced + Mixed-Signal
CA: This is the only one I don't know, I believe it is Compatibility Advanced - IT comes with a wider series of Trigger support

Z: New Generation of lower end Scope, 4 channels and something they call ZWave
-S: Signal Generator

I think that is correct.