Rigol DHO804 Test and Compare Thread

[Martin72]

Looks a bit yellowish-stained in comparison

In "real" it is even more yellowish looking.
In the group photo with all the scopes I currently have, the shiny display of the 804 stands out clearly.
When switched on, you notice the 7 (8?) years difference between the two UIs (804/DS1054Z).

[Fungus]

Seems like the DHO800 screen is much brighter than the DS1054Z.

[Martin72]

The camera makes it look brighter, but yes, the display is also slightly brighter in "real life" at the same setting.
And, above all, clearer.
I don't have to compare much to realize that this is simply no longer a fair comparison.

[Martin72]

Bodnar pulse...Rigol doesn't seem to have always been so particular about bandwidth, if you look at the risetime of the 50Mhz scope.
Otherwise, the respective display speaks for itself.
Speaking of the risetime measure, that's something I don't like about the new model.
This display of the measured value could be solved just as discreetly as with the 1054Z.
Or at least transparent without the whole rectangular "strip" on the side.

[ebastler]

Yes, the DHO800 is a bit wasteful with screen real estate. That's a general theme, I think -- UI elements that work well on the 10" screen (with 1280*800 pixels) still take up the same number of pixels, and hence a larger percentage of the screen.

By the way: In DHO1000 videos, I see that the curve display area is compressed horizontally when the results display pops up on the right. But your screenshot shows the results bar overlapping the grid area. Is there a switch somewhere where you can select the desired behavior?

[Martin72]

UI elements that work well on the 10" screen (with 1280*800 pixels) still take up the same number of pixels, and hence a larger percentage of the screen.

I can't remember what it was like with the 4204...I should still have screenshots though.

Is there a switch somewhere where you can select the desired behavior?

Good question, I´ll look for it.

[Martin72]

I took the 1104X-E home with me today, so I have a total of 5 different scopes here.
Well, the 2104X+ has to go back on Monday, but I can use the two smaller ones a bit longer.
Let's see what I can manage this weekend.

[Fungus]

What's left to test?

[Martin72]

I think I'm done with decoding, I would have to go through triggers again, then I would test the display of more complex signals, pass/fail test, then I wanted to test the menu navigation/user-friendliness again, see where the feature differences are between old and new scope, compare FFT, noise test I still wanted to do...
Oh, and go through the acquisitions, especially the ultra acquire mode, which I still haven't fully understood, except that it can produce beautiful graphics.
Just a few things like that.
I will compare it with the two other small ones as far as the equipment is concerned and then only "internally" for me, as long as nothing noticeable comes out of it.

[Martin72]

Is there a switch somewhere where you can select the desired behavior?

Good question, I´ll look for it.

There is nothing about this in the settings or in the manual.

[ebastler]

Is there a switch somewhere where you can select the desired behavior?

Good question, I´ll look for it.

There is nothing about this in the settings or in the manual.

Thanks for checking! Then either Rigol have chosen different ways to show the measurements + traces on the DHO800 vs 1000 -- which would make some sense given the different screen sizes. Or maybe the DHO800 version is the newer one and will show up on the 1000 with an upcoming formware update. (Or it has already and I was looking at older screenshots and videos.)

[Martin72]

which would make some sense given the different screen sizes.

I had looked at my "old" screenshots from February, I think that's exactly why.
You simply have enough screen width, with the 800 the boxes were not compressed and instead the window with the measurement results was made transparent.
But it's true, that could be taken over from the small model.
Something for the wish list...

@others : Here (starting at appx 1:15) you can clearly see the compression when activating the sidebar:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-hdo1000-and-hdo4000-12bit-oscilloscopes-launched-in-china/msg4717715/#msg4717715

[Martin72]

The ultra acquire mode still leaves me baffled.
You can conjure up impressive images on the screen with it, but somehow that's about it.
I had sent various glitch signals to the scope, but they were more noticeable in normal mode and with the appropriate triggers than in ultra acquire mode.
On the contrary, the glitch is not visible in this mode.
If no one can provide me with a corresponding picture/test to the contrary, I will check off this mode as a gimmick.

[Fungus]

The ultra acquire mode still leaves me baffled.
You can conjure up impressive images on the screen with it, but somehow that's about it.

I think the idea is to see events "in context", ie. you can see the event and what came before/after it all on the same screen (in 3D or whatever).

[ebastler]

The ultra acquire mode still leaves me baffled.
You can conjure up impressive images on the screen with it, but somehow that's about it.

I think the idea is to see events "in context", ie. you can see the event and what came before/after it all on the same screen (in 3D or whatever).

But in most time domain applications, you can also do that paging through conventional memory segments one at a time, and get a much better view of the signal in each segment.

I would agree that UltraAquire is mostly a gimmick, although you can certainly find specific use cases where the visual correlation of the neighbouring events is helpful. Analog TV images might look nice as a 3D landscape, or topographical scans or the like. 

EDIT: Once I get to actually use my new DHO1000, I will dig out my old homebuilt scanning tunneling micoscope! I was always too lazy to write proper PC software to visualize the acquired scanned profile, but UltraAquire should handle that job nicely. 

[Neutrion]

Today I tested the waveform updaterate.
Based on the first table of rf-loop measurements, with a sine of 600mVpp and frequencies from 1khz up to 40Mhz.
As you know, with rigol you can't make any settings regarding vector/dots or lin / sinx/x, it only works as it is.
Memory mode is set to Auto, beforehand I made sure that the aux output is actually set to trigger out.
The trigger out signal has an amplitude of 3.3V and a single pulse width of 100ns.
The updaterates appear as bursts with pauses in between, which was to be expected.



Things worth noting:
from 5ns to 500ns the rate remains almost constant, between 1µs and 5µs it drops only slightly and between 5µs and 20µs it shows the halving at every timebase change that I know of.
But then from 50µs it drops drastically from 4 digits to 2 digits, for whatever reason.
The early minimisation of the sample rate is also interesting, it is already reduced from 100µs.
The memory points remain constant at 625 kpts from 50 µs - only at 500 µs does it rise again to 781.25 kpts and then drop again to 625 - whatever triggers this, especially as 781.25 is a rather crooked number.
I will have a look at the ultra acquiremode, how to use it and then create a table from it.
First attempt was "unsuccessful", I also had max 20000wfms/s in ultra mode.
Can't be right, so I'll look for what went wrong.

Hi Martin!
Thanks for the waveform update test, but the problem with it is, that the memory depth what you got
set is much lower then the advertised aviable memory of the scope, so these numbers do not
allow a real comparison with other scopes in the same price range, or similar mem depth.
To not to talk about allowing more than one channel which would be obvious with a four channel scope.

[Martin72]

Setting was auto-memory management.
If I wanted to make a direct comparison, I would have to have the same circumstances, otherwise it makes no sense.

[Randy222]

Been watching lots of write-ups and vids on DHO800 series.

Am I correct on this, getting the 804 to the 814 via "upgrades" is easy?

[Neutrion]

Setting was auto-memory management.
If I wanted to make a direct comparison, I would have to have the same circumstances, otherwise it makes no sense.

Yes I know, but the point was to know how does it work with the advertised memory enabled. I think with a few kpoints the 1104x-e could also get to some astronomical numbers.

[Martin72]

Been watching lots of write-ups and vids on DHO800 series.

Am I correct on this, getting the 804 to the 814 via "upgrades" is easy?

Yes...Look into the hack thread.

[Martin72]

Working with the DS1054Z is like traveling backwards in time.
I hadn't noticed this before, but now, with the DHO804 in direct comparison, I have to say:
Farewell and thank you for once arousing my interest in a private scope and fulfilling my wish to own one.
But your time is simply up, no one should buy you anymore, given the DHO800.
A small example of how it could not be more drastic.
50mV/div, then stop, then enlarged to 20mv/div.
As I said, time's up.

[Randy222]

Sorry if I missed it, what is the -3db of the 804 when brought up to 814 100MHz level? Is it near 185MHz?

Also, if ch1 triggers from ch4, can you still get full 1.25Gsa/s on ch1 ?

[Martin72]

Hi Randy,

Measured -3dB point lies on 200Mhz.

Also, if ch1 triggers from ch4, can you still get full 1.25Gsa/s on ch1 ?

Just tested it - samplerate will be then reduced to half although only one channel is active..

[Fungus]

Sorry if I missed it, what is the -3db of the 804 when brought up to 814 100MHz level? Is it near 185MHz?

It's exactly 199Mhz.

Also, if ch1 triggers from ch4, can you still get full 1.25Gsa/s on ch1 ?

No.

[tautech]

I'm still waiting for an explanation of the Siglent's FFT problems shown in Dave's review of the DHO800...

It has been revealed Dave can't drive FFT properly.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sds1104x-e-in-depth-review/msg5195079/#msg5195079