Hi guys
First post here. I'm very new to EE tinkering. I recently started playing with Arduino and RasPi, and I have a couple of UNI-T devices (UT61E DMM and their UT325 thermocouple logger).
I just bought my first ever scope, the DS1054Z. I should get it tomorrow (paid extra for Saturday delivery!)
But I've just realised I might have possibly made a bit of a mistake. I really wanted a 'PC' scope, ie one I could control from the PC. A lot of the sampling I will do will need to end up as PC screenshots, and anyway I'm a software/developer type guy - I'm most comfortable on the computer by far.
I thought I knew what the UltraScope software looked like, because I watched this video showing UltraScope, from Rigol UK:
But I've now realised that that software is only for E, B, CA and D scopes. Not Z! Z has different software, and after I scanned through Dave's full YouTube review (which I'd not yet seen fully) and right at the end he goes on a massive tirade about how the PC software 'sucks arse' etc
Seems like it has no remote front panel capability for example, and lots of annoyances.
So maybe I should have researched a bit better
Though the DS1054Z was already way more than I had planned to spend on a scope (I originally thought I might buy one of those £50 Chinese USB scopes, until I read more about them on EEVBlog. Then I thought about the PicoScopes, but the DS1054Z seemed so overwhelmingly better in all respects I thought I should stretch my money and get that. Anyway, my point is that probably there isn't a scope that I could have bought for £280 or less that would be way better for PC connectivity than the DS1054Z? And if it was it definitely wouldn't have all the features of the DS1054Z.
Anyway, I've bought it now. So my main question is - do Dave's comments from the January review still apply, or have there been any updates to UltraScope for the DS1054Z in the meantime? Maybe it's a bit better now? Does it provide remote front panel access, like I saw the software for the E, B, CA and D scopes?
Secondly, what third party software is available? I did already see in this thread (or maybe another one) some software that could do long duration wave capture or something similar.
Could anyone be so kind as to let me know if there's any other software I should know about for the DS1054Z? Anything I should definitely use as well as/instead of Ultrascope?
I don't mind if I connect via USB or LAN, either is possible for me.
I'm sure this is answered in many places - I have done some searching and reading but it's quite hard to find it in this huge thread so I hoped maybe someone could quickly point me in the right direction
Thanks in advance!
PS. Once I get it I will definitely be attempting the FW hacks/upgrades to get 100mhz and hopefully unlock other features as well.