I can't go back to those old washed-out Tek TDS mono screens any more!
Was forced to use one (TDS1012) last night for some bebugging at work, and
it was pretty miserable looking (and the small memory was really annoying).
The sceen on this new 1000E series Rigol is much better and brighter than
the one used on the older 5000 series.
More resolution would be really nice of course, but all these low end
instruments settle on 320x240, with the exception being the super-cheap Owon
units - too good to be true? - almost certainly.
That's what I figured as well.
My old ~12yo Tek TDS210 sold a few months back for practically the same
price as this new Rigol. Silly when you think about it.
And then someone paid $1000 for the 5000 series Rigol I had, albeit that was
100MHz and almost as-new.
Let us all know how you like it.
Dave.
Well, It arrived early this morning, I have played with it now for
about 3 hours to get used to "driving" it and see what it can do, and
I have to fully agree with the comments posted so far :
Its a brilliant unit, and outstanding for the price.
The display is fantastic, the colour makes a big difference in quickly
identifying what is happening and what goes where. The "Math" traces
coming up in blue makes it really easy to identify for example,
compared to having 3 white traces on a mono unit.
(black on white background with TEK)
It a vast improvement over mono screen units I have used in the past.
Note, I haven't used a colour display Oscilloscope before, so I cant
compare the display quality to a TEK or HP unit.
Am now in the process of studying the PDF manual for it, there is a
LOT more that it can do that isn't immediately apparent.
Build quality seems solid and quality, knobs and controls have a good
"feel" when using, and a lot of thought has gone into the product.
I think the Chinese (or some Chinese companies at least) are going
through the same stage that the Japanese once went through, they
originally made (and were known for) cheap but poor quality products,
and with time they improved their quality, learnt more as they
progressed and then by the 70's they were well known for making high
quality products, still at pretty good prices.
Unless you specifically need a 4 channel or higher than 50MHZ unit, or
with specialised features, then I don't think you can go past this
Rigol for the price -
Especially with the trackable international EMS shipping included !!.
PS:
I just opened the rest of the mail that arrived today, and found
Farnell Select 46.
Note on page 3, their cheapest TEK with similar features and colour
screen is TDS2002B at $2200 AU (60Mhz 2 channel). This might be
available cheaper from sources other than Farnell, but I'm certain
it's still going to be a huge difference in price over the Rigol.
