I am familiar with the new Rigol DGxxxPro-line and its certain fundamental issues here the last few weeks in use, which makes me wanna look for alternatives
Is there any chance that you might elaborate and share your findings with us? Perhaps in the existing DG800/900Pro thread if that is more on topic?
Thanks in advance.
Ofcourse NE666
There are two licenses you can add in menu..ch & memory* (*2m to 8m)
It has a temp-regulated fan, that starts up after 3 to 5 minutes and pretty much stays on, even here in the wintertime, - you can get it to stop, by countering the heat with a small fan directed in the back, and the internal fan will cut off, but the fan will more or less constantly be on when in normal use.
When the fan is running, it's annoying as it is both whinny & cycles the fan with minute differences in speed, but could likely be optimized in firmware to an extent but also logical consequence on a unit simply 5½ cm thin, while being quite fast [625MSa/1.25GSa 16bits], but I had hoped it would be more silent after Rigol put so much emphasis on the last signal gen's fan-aspect [DG800 125MSa & DG900 250Msa] by making them passive with Rigols so-called innovative fanless-case design.
Sofar, I don't know if the DG800PRO series hardware-wise is the same as DG900PRO that in model hierarchy peaks at:
[
200MHz - 16bits - 1.25GSas - 32M] but I highly doubt that Rigol would roll out the red carpet, so a DG800PRO could be liberated up to those DG922PRO-specifications, when you have in mind what a DG821PRO starts at.
There is a new Firmware on the Chinese Rigol site (date 12-01-2024) it does seem to be the exact same 73MB GEL file for both DG800PRO & DG900PRO. [00.01.00.00.21]
The firmware & software values my unit arrived with [screen picture]
Worth noting these signal gens, do seem to get quite hot, a significant amount of the heat-flow are centered down at the table
Two aspects I really like, are the ability to run it from powerbanks and the 7" screen (1024x600) which makes adjustment & overall user input, way more enjoyable than my old signal gen FY6900.
Even though the screen on paper is merely 1" smaller than my Micsig STO-scope at 8" - it's still significantly smaller from the different aspect ratio of 16:9 vs 4:3 but for a Signal gen, 7" 16:9 touchscreen works well and hopefully this halfbaked mess of a UI where I constantly are meeting various bugs when cycling the menu, will be polished out.
I'm not in a position where I can be to harsh, as I am importing it fresh out of the oven from the Far East and seems to be a very early unit (serial 000013), and using its Western/english UI, while it hasn't been released yet in this region.
These new Rigol DGxxxPRO models have that kinky Rigol-num-dial-circle orientation that has been the norm on their PSUs for like a decade and seem quite hard to love & use (at least at first) I primarily use the touchscreen when adjusting values, works good..
The rotary knob is clickable and feels solid & rigid, not flimsy, and you can cycle the highlighted area around to the different segments, menus, etc. and when wanna go deeper, simply click down in the different menu layers.. works okay.
So far the interaction & input are a joy, but then again anything would likely be - when coming from the FY6900 user interface which are cumbersome to adjust settings on.
The boot-up time takes around 65 seconds, so quite slow, It runs Android 7.1.1
It got around 151 built-in waveforms from scratch, stacked into different categories.
You can sequence the waveforms to your heart's desire amongst the inbuilt (64 in-line with individual control of loop-values (max 256) & length
http://tinyurl.com/mr266mcjThe harmonics allovs up to 20 but also worth noting after watching Batterfly/Saelig's videos on the last gen, there seem to be some features missing' like some of the advanced waveforms, but most of these Batterfly/Saelig videos were done with a RIGOL DG992 signal generator (flagship) Will try to look through the EEVblog-thread on the last gen DG800 & DG900 series to get an idea if some of these features - not least centered around RF perhaps are being implemented with higher revisions, and wont figure on entry units like DG811/812..??
Screen dumps (35) of some of the values & limits on my unit
http://tinyurl.com/3p8w92aw [IMGUR]
In regards to the fundamentals, the datasheet & user manual will likely be better guidance, than my crude view.
https://www.batterfly.com/PDF/RIGOL/DG800-Pro/DG800Pro-Series_datasheet_EN.pdfhttps://www.batterfly.com/PDF/RIGOL/DG800-Pro/DG800Pro-Series_userguide_EN.pdfMy only comparable, hands-on Signal gen, is an FY6900/60MHz from Banggood GB/EU warehouse clearance sale..In regards to that unit - build quality, etc, it's night & day, which it should be, as the Rigol is more than 5 times more expensive.
The freq-counter allows up to 500Mhz with 7 digit res while DG900PRO opens up to 1GHz both allovs 8 modulation functions.
After 4 to 5 weeks of use, I am liking it more than I did the first weeks, not least after getting a better insight into what you can expect in this price bracket in early 2024, but the fan is annoying.
Will try to see if I can get it across on video, - I also have a temp-regulated fan in my Micsig STO/C-scope which is also quite thin at 5cm, and I have no issues with that fan, none - it gives a somewhat pleasant (for a fan) anonym background swoosh, where the DGxxPRO is a hysteric little whiny fellow, but it does look like it got a weirdly big amount of heat it needs to remove.
Two very important criteria for me' were mobility in lack of a dedicated bench-space & just overall easy interaction when adjusting and rigging waveforms, and both of these its does work well.
All the high current PD-able power banks I tested with work fine with it - 2x QD188-PD, Powercore24, USAMS-CD165, it stays in 15V PD from the start and uses around 35 watt.
The delivered price was a tad under 300 euros.. including both the 25% EUVAT and also the 22Euro VAT handling fee to PostNord.
Entry unit DG821PRO will likely be around that 300euro level when it's for sale in the EU, and 250 to 300US in the states, as the official retail-price in China is 1999CNY [250EURO] while upgrades are 499CNY each
I had hoped other people would be starting to get them about now, but according to both Eleshop & Batronix, it still seems to be some months ahead, and couldn't provide any stock estimates.
I purchased it under the AliExpress BF sale (November 2023), where the seller "Rigol & Fluke" made up a specific DG800PRO listing (after I asked, if he would) so I could take advantage of the Black Friday sale..
He made the listing on the promise I extended the delivery time, as they weren't available in China yet, though only a matter of a few weeks, and planned to be shipped in the first weeks of December 2023 which he more or less honored, as the date on the sig gen's counter FW is 12 dec 2023
A good seller I had talked with previously about new products on the CN market and It looks to be quite an early unit (sn xxxx00000013).
In Nov/Dec 2023 it was still up for debate in China how hackable the DG800PRO series is, but if you can hack a DG821PRO up the DGxxxPRO ladder it could be a price-attractive approach to obtain a potent 16bit signal gen with a good portion of memory.
Accessories incl. were LITEON 65W TypeC PSU, 4mm grounding cable, BNC cable [3D-FB], and USB-A to USB-B PC cable.