MSO5074 vs DSOX1204A

[Martin72]

I have narrowed it down to MSO5074 or DSOX1204A.
Do you have any advice for me?

Yepp…

Buy both of them and return the one, you don´t like...

The rigol I´ve owned over a year, got my experiences with it - But none with the keysight, cause I don´t have it.
Bet none got both too here…

Yes, the rigol is full packed with features.
8 GSa/s you won´t find it in this priceclass, also the 100Mpt memory or the waste amount of math functions, or the waste amount of trigger functions, or the screen size, or the build-in 2 ch awg, or, or, or , or…..
In it´s raw priceclass you´ll find nothing competing to this.
But this is my opinion only, cause I don´t know the keysight.

[stafil]

Didn't know it was such a sensitive topic when I started this thread sorry..

I looked a couple of videos of the GW Instek scopes, and I have to say, I didn't like the look of their UI that much. Regarding Siglent, I have tried a loaner SDS1004X-E, and wasn't wowed by it, also am a bit put off by Siglent reps promoting them here, so I crossed that off my list too. (Yeah I know, not really technical reasons, but I have to start somewhere).

Ended up ordering both MSO5074 and DSOx1204G. Will try them both for a month or so and will sell the one I like the least. So keep an eye on this space for a bargain super lightly used scope in the near future

Special thanks to Gandalf_Sr for making the effort to demonstrate SPI decoding.

[Martin72]

I have tried a loaner SDS1004X-E, and wasn't wowed by it, also am a bit put off by Siglent reps promoting them here, so I crossed that off my list too. (Yeah I know, not really technical reasons, but I have to start somewhere).

I give my 5074 away for the new 2104X+ and until now I never regret it.

[tautech]

I have tried a loaner SDS1004X-E, and wasn't wowed by it,................

It's a entry level DSO with a lot of capability, no more, no less.

Your expressed budget indicated you were looking further up the ladder hence the suggestion to look at SDS2104X Plus where in this price bracket you will be hard pressed to find a more capable DSO.
Good luck with your search for the perfect scope....that has yet to be made.

[stafil]

I have tried a loaner SDS1004X-E, and wasn't wowed by it,................

It's a entry level DSO with a lot of capability, no more, no less.

Your expressed budget indicated you were looking further up the ladder hence the suggestion to look at SDS2104X Plus where in this price bracket you will be hard pressed to find a more capable DSO.
Good luck with your search for the perfect scope....that as yet to be made.

I didn't mean to offend anyone using Siglent or the product itself. I am sure that if the first scope that I tried was the Rigol 1054Z, I would be probably going for the SDS2104X instead. Just thought I explain my (flawed) reasoning for narrowing it down to the two.

Plus my opinion doesn't really mean much since I can't really tell if a scope is good or not.

[skander36]

Bet none got both too here…

I and Tk for sure , even if was 1000A model I think that 1204 will be a better experience .
Knowing both I will go for sure for Keysight .

[Mr. Scram]

Didn't know it was such a sensitive topic when I started this thread sorry..

I looked a couple of videos of the GW Instek scopes, and I have to say, I didn't like the look of their UI that much. Regarding Siglent, I have tried a loaner SDS1004X-E, and wasn't wowed by it, also am a bit put off by Siglent reps promoting them here, so I crossed that off my list too. (Yeah I know, not really technical reasons, but I have to start somewhere).

Ended up ordering both MSO5074 and DSOx1204G. Will try them both for a month or so and will sell the one I like the least. So keep an eye on this space for a bargain super lightly used scope in the near future

Special thanks to Gandalf_Sr for making the effort to demonstrate SPI decoding.

I like the seeing for yourself approach! Let us know how you get on.

[jemangedeslolos]

The touchscreen is very useful but it's not a reason to remove buttons.
Even the cursors I move them with knobs, It's more precise and efficient.

Not sure. If the cursors 'snap' to a trace then a touchscreen works really well. Even better than a knob. But it greatly depends on whether the touchscreen was added to the UI later on or the UI was build to support a touchscreen. IOW: wether a touchscreen works well or not greatly depends on how it is integrated into the UI. You can't make generalistic statements.

I have to take a closer look at this, I'm not used to using touchscreen for cursors, my reflex is to put my hand on knob....
But I'm not sure that Rigol's UI is as good as R&S or Keysight UI on this kind of thing.

[moore]

It's been a month, I'm curious what you concluded in this comparison, stafil.

[stafil]

It's been a month, I'm curious what you concluded in this comparison, stafil.

They are both excellent and are both overkill for what I need them. If I would had to chose only one, it would be the MSO5074, mainly because with hacking you get so much more.

[Keysight DanielBogdanoff]

I think we'd all be interested in a pros/cons list of both if you're willing?

[luma]

In the month since this thread was posted, Rigol has released yet another update for the MSO5000 series, this time adding Bode plot functionality.  Bugs are being fixed (not that I personally have had problems with that) and features are still being added.

[stafil]

I think we'd all be interested in a pros/cons list of both if you're willing?

It's like asking a Black Cab taxi driver to give his opinion on a Ferrari vs a Lamborghini

I love the look and feel of the Keysight and the overall interface. Somehow everything is where I would expect to find them, and my hand just magically goes to the right knob. One, basic in my opinion, feature that I did miss was the statistics. I don't understand why it's not there when even the $300 Siglent has it.

On the other hand it's mind-blowing how feature packed the Rigol is, even more so when hacked. I don't think I will ever out-grow it, and if I didn't have a GAS I would probably never need to buy another scope. If I was pressed to find something negative, then that would be the feel of the buttons. They feel too soft, which together with the sightly more sluggish UI, some times leave me in doubt if I pressed them or not.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself, I would have advised me to get the Rigol, hack it and be happy. But I will definitely not selling my Keysight now that I have it.

[NoisyBoy]

So you are keeping both?

[stafil]

So you are keeping both?

Definitely!

[jemangedeslolos]

So you are keeping both?

Definitely!

I think you bought othersscope , right?
SDS2000X+ or GW Instek ?

[skander36]

One, basic in my opinion, feature that I did miss was the statistics. I don't understand why it's not there when even the $300 Siglent has it.

Statistics actually is in the application , but not in this HW ID.
I found it when I experiment with HW ID's  but I don't remember what was . Three years ago . It was functional but not he other functions, so change it away .
I will keep my Rigol 5074 but I need also a Keysight scope , for it's behavior (responsive, fluent , fast). I'm stick with a 2000 series but it is an old line and I don't know if will be replaced by DSOX1200 series with new specs - 200k wfw/s / 2Mpts . Maybe DSOX1200 is more apropriate ...
@Keysight DanielBogdanoff - what is preparing Keysight for the future with 2000 series ?

Thank you !

[eutectique]

Maybe some SPI decoding.

Definitely not Rigol MSO5074! Never! It is a dysfunctional piece of junk not fit for purpose.

Their SPI triggering is completely utterly royally screwed big time. The documentation shows that the same is applicable to MSO7000 series, which is comparable in price with Tektronix.

I wonder if the Rigol's product manager, system architect, head of SW development, and head of QA responsible for this magnificent blunder are still employed. A decent company would throw them out without a second thought.

[2N3055]

Maybe some SPI decoding.

Definitely not Rigol MSO5074! Never! It is a dysfunctional piece of junk not fit for purpose.

Their SPI triggering is completely utterly royally screwed big time. The documentation shows that the same is applicable to MSO7000 series, which is comparable in price with Tektronix.

I wonder if the Rigol's product manager, system architect, head of SW development, and head of QA responsible for this magnificent blunder are still employed. A decent company would throw them out without a second thought.

With do all respect, in your other post on SPI triggering, it's still not clear if you are doing something wrong, or if MSO5000 has a bug for that use case. Nobody else replicated your problem. So would you please be kind and calm down a bit and figure that out first, before going to crusades...
P.S. For the record I don't like new Rigol GUI concept and don't have Rigol MSO5000/7000 or anything from that line..

[eutectique]

With do all respect, in your other post on SPI triggering, it's still not clear if you are doing something wrong, or if MSO5000 has a bug for that use case. Nobody else replicated your problem.

Yes, I am collecting the evidence, taking screenshots, and will make a post about it.

[2N3055]

With do all respect, in your other post on SPI triggering, it's still not clear if you are doing something wrong, or if MSO5000 has a bug for that use case. Nobody else replicated your problem.

Yes, I am collecting the evidence, taking screenshots, and will make a post about it.

Make a note that your packets are 64 bits not 32bits.. So you need to setup SPI for 64bit word and make first 32bits a filter and set rest of the 32 bits to to the end to x (don't care). And when it triggers, trigger point will be at the end of the packet, because that is the moment in time trigger circuit had it's condition qualified.

[TK]

Maybe some SPI decoding.

Definitely not Rigol MSO5074! Never! It is a dysfunctional piece of junk not fit for purpose.

Their SPI triggering is completely utterly royally screwed big time. The documentation shows that the same is applicable to MSO7000 series, which is comparable in price with Tektronix.

I wonder if the Rigol's product manager, system architect, head of SW development, and head of QA responsible for this magnificent blunder are still employed. A decent company would throw them out without a second thought.

it was working when i tested a year ago, something broke in the firmware update. It happened the same with the siglent sds1104x-e, i could not trigger on a specific byte value and tautech confirmed the bug. The difference is that Rigol is always silent. They don’t publicly accept or deny anything. The best serial decoding is keysight. They had serial protocol triggering since the 54622D days or before (uart, spi, i2c and usb trigger). It is fast. If they say 200,000wfm/s that is what you get. The new siglent 2000x plus claims 140,000wfm/s but i cannot get more than 2,000 even with dot mode and the lowest sample memory possible of 10kpts. They are all toys with lots of marketing tricks except for keysight

I have a comment about the keysight dsox1200... the linux based scope is not as responsive as the wince scopes. Even when keysight made it boot minutes faster, it shows the waveform but the little busy signal does not allow you to start operating the scope for some extra time... a marketing trick in my opinion because early reviews said it takes forever to boot

[skander36]

The new siglent 2000x plus claims 140,000wfm/s but i cannot get more than 2,000 even with dot mode and the lowest sample memory possible of 10kpts. They are all toys with lots of marketing tricks except for keysight

I have a comment about the keysight dsox1200... the linux based scope is not as responsive as the wince scopes. Even when keysight made it boot minutes faster, it shows the waveform but the little busy signal does not allow you to start operating the scope for some extra time... a marketing trick in my opinion because early reviews said it takes forever to boot

I'm am sure that it does, but not all the time . Only at certain timebase (10 ns) and signals with over 200 KHz.
On Rigol5074 I can get 500k wfw on 10ns timebase and over 500KHz . In rest of the cases wfw rate is as you say few K's .
Thank you for info about responsiveness of DSOX1200 series . I don't know why they leave WinCe for Linux .

[TheSteve]

I don't know why they leave WinCe for Linux .

Because M$ won't sell them licenses after a certain date, so they have no choice.

[skander36]

I don't know why they leave WinCe for Linux .

Because M$ won't sell them licenses after a certain date, so they have no choice.

Yes, but they can use Windows IOT or Windows 10 for ARM .
They already have Win 10 on some series .
Maybe Linux Embeded was a better choice for they but it seem that need some polish ...