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Author Topic: Rigol DS1054Z -- Features, Usage, and... BUGS !!  (Read 73810 times)
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It's turtles all the way down
I was able to get the DS1054Z interfaced to the PC using UltraSigma and UltraScope software from Rigol. It seems to work well and gives a nice large display, but the layout is generic and does not look like the scopes user interface, however a lot of the controls are available. There is latency as expected.

I'll try using the LAN interface and see if it is any better.

I understand from one of Dave Jones eevblog videos that a fellow named Mahmed? (spelling) has written very good software to interface to a PC but I haven't yet found it, as it is buried in one of the lengthy eevforum blogs.

Here is the video where he mentions Mahmed's? software and the interconnects at about 1:05

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2qdtQkBKhc

Anyone know how to get to part 2 of this video? The initial youtube screen selection does not seem to bring it on.

Anyone who has used or can point me to a link for Mahmed's software it would be appreciated.

The scope is great and I keep finding new things it can do.

Regards, ION


---------------------------
"Secrecy, secret societies and secret groups have always been repugnant to a free and open society"......John F Kennedy
   

Group: Professor
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Can this scope count pulses?
e.g how many pulses occur in a rotary encoder between its index pulses (1ppr)...
   
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I was able to get the DS1054Z interfaced to the PC using UltraSigma and UltraScope software from Rigol. It seems to work well and gives a nice large display, but the layout is generic and does not look like the scopes user interface, however a lot of the controls are available. There is latency as expected.

I'll try using the LAN interface and see if it is any better.

I understand from one of Dave Jones eevblog videos that a fellow named Mahmed? (spelling) has written very good software to interface to a PC but I haven't yet found it, as it is buried in one of the lengthy eevforum blogs.

Here is the video where he mentions Mahmed's? software and the interconnects at about 1:05

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2qdtQkBKhc

Anyone know how to get to part 2 of this video? The initial youtube screen selection does not seem to bring it on.

Anyone who has used or can point me to a link for Mahmed's software it would be appreciated.

The scope is great and I keep finding new things it can do.

Regards, ION

I don't know about "Mahmed's" software but I think Jan Teunis's works pretty well. Of course it's for Linux.... Just follow the instructions. I've used it to show live scopeshots to people in the next room over the LAN even. (You can control and display the scope from any computer on your LAN.)

http://www.teuniz.net/DSRemote/
   
Group: Guest
Can this scope count pulses?
e.g how many pulses occur in a rotary encoder between its index pulses (1ppr)...

Hmmm.... it has a trigger function that can trigger on an arbitrary pulse number in a train...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8hf4_-Di3M

And it has a pretty deep memory, so you can set a slow timebase or "roll" to capture your pulses and then scroll through and count them manually...

But I don't think it has a pulse counter as such, except in the trigger function.
   
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I found user "marmad's" software (several updated vesions) on page one of the eevblog forum here:

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/software-tips-and-tricks-for-rigol-ds200040006000-ultravision-dsos/

file link:  http://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/software-tips-and-tricks-for-rigol-ds200040006000-ultravision-dsos/?action=dlattach;attach=73265

file name is "RUU_02_03. zip

This is for interfacing to a PC. Haven't tested it as marmad is still working on the revision for the DS 1054Z. See page35, 36

EDIT: tested the current version and it is not working. There are some dll's that came with the software that might need to be properly loaded somewhere?

PS Many thanks to TK for his excellent scoposcopy learning tools for this scope.
« Last Edit: 2015-10-25, 20:58:10 by ION »


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"Secrecy, secret societies and secret groups have always been repugnant to a free and open society"......John F Kennedy
   

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But I don't think it has a pulse counter as such, except in the trigger function.
An guy at a conference told me, that counting pluses with this scope can be used to evaluate rotary incremental encoders.  Do you know what "pluses" he referred to?
   
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An guy at a conference told me, that counting pluses with this scope can be used to evaluate rotary incremental encoders.  Do you know what "pluses" he referred to?

Probably this. I was just about to post this information here when I saw your post.

Just a couple of days ago Rigol released a new "firmware update" for the DS1000 series. It did include + and - pulse counters and edge counters in the Horizontal Measurements menu. But when the measurements are displayed on screen, they _misspelled_ the word "Pulses" as "Pluses" !!  I was just about to post the information here when I saw your post.

And also sometimes the counter miscounts. The new firmware also makes the scope respond sluggishly to the controls especially when all four channels are on.
 
I made a couple of videos over the last two days showing these problems, as well as the continuing Freeze Bug problem and the Math problem. The SP2 firmware update does seem to cure the Trigger horizontal and zoom errors.

Apparently there are several versions of the "Boot Version" loaded on various scopes. If you have "Boot Version 0.0.1.2" which is the one I have, your scope will probably have the Freeze Bug. If you have the later version 0.0.1.3 you probably don't have the Freeze Bug. The "Firmware" updates do not change the Boot Version, they only change what the scope calls "SoftWare Version".  The unlocking isn't affected by the new firmware and the bugs happen regardless whether the scope is unlocked to 100 MHz with all options, or "virgin" 50 MHz with only trial or no options.

And here's the biggest bugger of them all: apparently there is NO WAY that we know about to "roll back" and reinstall an earlier version of the "firmware" if you don't like the latest SP2 version. Several people on the EEVBlog forum besides me are pretty upset about this SP2 "update" situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MoYQ9wAK_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vJcK9xX1QA

I have sent several emails to Jason the Rigol USA technician whom I first told about the Freeze Bug some months ago. He'll have a can of worms waiting for him when he checks in Monday Morning (today) no doubt.

To display the full System Information, you have to press the key sequence _very fast_:  In the Trigger section, press Menu>Menu>Force>Menu then press Utility>System>System Info. If you do the sequence fast enough you'll see the full System Information screen with the Boot Version and other software bits listed. Keep trying if you don't get it at first, you really have to press the sequence very fast for it to work.  In the first video above I didn't press it fast enough, but in the second video I included a still image of what the full System Information screen looks like.

Grrrrrr...... I really think that "Pluses" thing is ridiculous, and the fact that the counter miscounts in some cases is also pretty outrageous. 
   
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Well... time does fly by when you're having fun, doesn't it.

Now... Rigol USA have actually sent me a _new scope_ and I've returned the old one that had the Freeze Bug. They offered to do this, I didn't ask for it originally. I also got them to send me the new one before I would box up and return the old one. So now I'm on the _third unit_ -- the first one had the bad CH4 glitch and was returned to TEquipment the first week I had it, the second one I've been using since April, and now this third one from RigolUSA. It was delivered with the SP1 firmware and the Boot Version 0.0.1.3... so it did NOT have the "freeze bug" which seems to depend on Boot Version 0.0.1.2.   O0  But it still DOES have the Math Trace Horizontal Error Bug at 500 ns/division. 

But... in the meanwhile I have noticed that the SP2 firmware does fix some other bugs that I've complained about, such as the "units" of Watts resulting from an A x V trace multiplication not being carried over properly to the Measurements and the All Measure table. And setup files containing Math did not load properly with the older firmware. Since I do use this Power Computation all the time -- in fact it is the most used function for me on the scope -- and I use stored setups quite often, I decided to upgrade the new scope to the SP2 firmware.

And right away I noticed this show-stopper bug. The Measurements simply _stop working_ altogether after some random time interval and there is nothing that can get them started again, except power-cycling the scope !! This happens when there is a Math trace on the screen. And _every measurement_ that the scope can make stops working, not just the ones that might be active when the bug hits.  Before I returned the "old scope" (#2) to Rigol I set them up side by side and tested them both simultaneously, and they both did the same thing: the Measurements stop after some random time interval and nothing can be done to get them started again except power-cycling the scope.  Once I confirmed that the New Scope (#3) didn't have the Freeze Bug I boxed up #2 and sent it off to RigolUSA for their testing. So now I'm using the #3 scope in my daily work, even though it does have this Measurements Fail bug.

Here are the three videos I've made documenting this new bug:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faCNVDCHMbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmaWf_33dqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6kFfy8sW68

I've reported this to Rigol USA and they immediately reproduced it on their test scopes. So there is no doubt about it, this is not "just mine" that is affected. They are supposedly working on a fix for it, have assigned a Case Number and so forth, so it's an Official Bug that they are trying to fix.  EEVblog forum members have also reproduced it. It seems that it is coming along with the SP2 firmware.

The "workaround" for now, seems to be to keep the Math trace turned OFF, and just turn Math on briefly when you need to read or record a Power measurement, then turn Math off again. But work fast, because when Math is turned on it can take just a minute or less for the Measurements to fail, and then you have to power-cycle the scope to get them working again. But also, sometimes it will run on for many minutes, even an hour or more, before the Measurements fail. The time-to-fail seems to be totally random.

So let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for a new Firmware Update "soon" that will fix this severe Measurements Fail bug, the Math Horizontal Error bug, and that stupid "Pluses" typo.
   

Group: Tinkerer
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Posts: 3055
Excellent work TinK!  I wouldn't be surprised if Rigol
were to take you on as a consultant/evaluator.  I'm
certain they'll come to realize how valuable you might
be to their efforts of producing products of quality and
reliability.


---------------------------
For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
   
Group: Guest
Excellent work TinK!  I wouldn't be surprised if Rigol
were to take you on as a consultant/evaluator.  I'm
certain they'll come to realize how valuable you might
be to their efforts of producing products of quality and
reliability.

Haha!  Good thought in a perfect world.   These days consumers are the beta testers and with designed obsolescence, manufacturers just move on to the next pile of junk, promising the next release will be far better with more features everyone wants.  But I'm hopeful--if TK cannot smack some sense into Rigol, nobody can.
   

Group: Tinkerer
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Sadly, what you've said is probably nearer the
truth of the matter.  Rigol seems to have an
unusually high level of technical incompetence
behind what has the appearance of a technically
impressive product veneer.  Strange things do
happen from time to time though.

In the sixties there was an Electronics Technician
assigned to Mobile Technical Unit Seven in Yokosuka,
Japan (U.S. Navy) who served as a consultant/technical
advisor to both Akai and Sony with the blessings of
Commander Naval Forces Japan.  Of course he couldn't
receive any payment for his "voluntary" services for them
but served as sort of a good-will ambassador.  He was a
real electronics whiz genius with certain limitations.
Today he'd be called a savant.   


---------------------------
For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
   

Group: Professor
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Posts: 3354
I've reported this to Rigol USA and they immediately reproduced it on their test scopes. So there is no doubt about it, this is not "just mine" that is affected. They are supposedly working on a fix for it, have assigned a Case Number and so forth, so it's an Official Bug that they are trying to fix. 
I hope that their "fix" will not be a patch that inserts more delay loops to mitigate little understood race conditions and lock contentions.
   
Group: Guest
You know what I would like to see...

I'd like to see Tinsel be sent a brand new Siglent SDS1102X for review.  It looks pretty nice, but if there is anything about it people would avoid, TK could find it.



I say this because I have looked for some unbiased reviews and just don't see any out there yet.
   
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Heh.... well, all the bugs I've posted about are things I've encountered in my normal ordinary daily use of the scope. I haven't done any deliberate searching for bugs, although once I find one I am trying to track down the conditions that are required to produce it.

One of my conclusions from this is that many people who own the Rigol scope just aren't really using it much, or using many of its features. Since I do, I find the bugs that they don't find.

I suppose I could repeat some of this work with the Siglent scope, if I had room for it somewhere.  Looking on TEquipment, I see that they aren't really even that much more expensive than the Rigol, either (but only 2 channels of course.) Nice looking display with that color temperature thing, and larger than the Rigol's screen too. It also has an optional Power Analyzer software package, but I can't find how much extra that costs.

But I'm tired, getting very tired.

You know what I would like to see...

I'd like to see Tinsel be sent a brand new Siglent SDS1102X for review.  It looks pretty nice, but if there is anything about it people would avoid, TK could find it.



I say this because I have looked for some unbiased reviews and just don't see any out there yet.


Am I supposed to be able to see the inline image? I see the image URL in my comment entry window, but I see only blank space in the actual comments on the thread itself.
   
Group: Guest
Here's something interesting. I got a "ScopeClock Essentials Kit" from Jan at Dutchtronix yesterday (just the PCB, the preprogrammed Atmel mcu and a couple of other parts) and I spent the afternoon putting it together with other, mostly recycled, parts from my Secret Stash,  and fooling around with it. It looks great on the analog scopes, and I was actually able to get an "acceptable" image with the Rigol. Low-end DSOs are notoriously crippled when it comes to good X-Y displays, but by fiddling with the horizontal timebase and the Mem Depth I found some settings that work OK. Still I wish I could get a full-screen X-Y display rather than the windowed one, but there it is.

http://www.dutchtronix.com/ScopeClockH3-1-Enhanced.htm



   

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It's not as complicated as it may seem...
Cool. :)
   
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I'm rebooting this thread since several of us now have the Rigol scope. Even after a couple of years I am still learning new features and the occasional bug or quirk, and I haven't even ever used its digital decoding features at all yet.

But I do know quite a bit about the scope and how to use its basic features. So if anyone has any questions, problems, needs information, or etc. about the Rigol DS1054z (or other DS1000 series Rigols) please let us discuss them here.  And in public, because there are many Rigol users in the world and the information we can share here may benefit them (lurkers and visitors) as well.

I'm talking about any issues at all concerning the scope, from noisy fans and tricky encoder knobs and funky probe switches, to remote control software, to proper use of probe and channel attenuation, Math features, advanced Trigger features, FFT, cursor measurements, etc. Anything goes as long as it pertains to the Rigol DS1054Z!

Don't be shy! Do post screenshots if applicable, or for more complex issues, shoot a short video for YT.


Some information, features and hints that may be immediately useful:

Most of the bugs discussed earlier in this thread have been fixed by newer firmware updates. The very most recent update is 04.04.03.02 from early February 2017, which is called 00.04.04.SP3 in the default System Info screen.

Screenshots can be easily saved to a USB thumbdrive (but not all will work, you need a small sized one that is Windows-compatible) by inserting the drive in the front panel hole, and after it is recognized by the scope, pressing the green "printer" button under the Help key at top right. Unfortunately.... the scope does not have a Real Time Clock so the file saved this way will not have the correct date and time stamp. Sometimes the screensaves can take a long time, for some reason (BUG!) especially if a complex setup is in use, but STOPping the scope with the RUN/STOP button can help it go faster.  You can select from several image formats in Storage>Storage>Picture>Pic Type

How to display full system information screen:
In the Trigger area on front panel, press very rapidly the sequence "Menu Menu Force Menu", then in the Utility menu press System>System Info.  This gives the full Software Version number as well as Boot Version, Board Version, startup count and etc. If you need to post this info, you can use your favorite image editor to black out your Serial Number if desired.

To get to the normal Default setup,  press Storage>Default. This will reset all channels to 1V/div, timebase to 1 us/div,  Acquire to Normal, Mem Depth to Auto, Sweep to Auto, and turn on only CH1 with trace and Trigger level centered.

To completely reset everything including Language to Factory Default (after, say, a freeze or really unusual behaviour) press the 5th-from-top Dark Grey menu button on the left side over and over while the scope is starting up. This will reset Everything but put you at the screen where you can select your favourite Language and start reconfiguring the scope to your liking. This does NOT affect installed or unlocked Options, they will still be there, so don't worry!

To have the scope remember the last used setup when you re-start, go to Utility>System>Power Set, and set to "Last".  But note a BUG here: The setting of "Bandwidth Limit" in the Channel menus goes back to Off, it doesn't remember if you set it to 20 MHz.


This is a great piece of kit, and is extremely capable but has its limits and quirks. The User Interface is not really all that intuitive and is the source of many complaints, but I think it is just a matter of getting used to it. The scope is waaayy more capable than any other that I know of in the price range and intended user community. Have fun, and don't hesitate to ask questions or report problems, issues, bugs, etc!
   
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It's turtles all the way down
Thanks for putting all that info together and for keeping this thread updated.

I haven't delved too deeply into the operation, the scope was a gift to myself after surviving my last physical operation (hospital). I figured it's now or never! I have a large Phillips DSO, and a large collection of TEK's tube and SS types and others going all the way back.

I really just wanted something that would print to USB, tired of trying to take camera shots of the 465 screen. This scope offers way more than I will ever need. At high frequencies readings on these devices will be only as good as the operator's experience working with HF circuits.

Experienced RF guys (I'm not one) would probably roll their eyes at the way some of us make measurements, and I'm sure there is much to be learned in the scopes application in this area, the pluses and minuses of the scope itself.

All in all, it is a lot of scope for the buck and I hope to take a crash course soon, so it is good to know you are out there blazing the trail for us.

Thanks TK


---------------------------
"Secrecy, secret societies and secret groups have always been repugnant to a free and open society"......John F Kennedy
   

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Posts: 1693
Thanks TK. I'm still in the unconscious incompetent stage of learning. I don't yet know what I don't know. Just your comment above has been helpful.
   

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The new firmware also makes the scope respond sluggishly to the controls especially when all four channels are on.
Most of the bugs discussed earlier in this thread have been fixed by newer firmware updates. The very most recent update is 04.04.03.02 from early February 2017, which is called 00.04.04.SP3 in the default System Info screen.
Is this firmware sluggish like the other one you mentioned?
Do you recommend installing it?

But I do know quite a bit about the scope and how to use its basic features. So if anyone has any questions, problems, needs information, or etc. about the Rigol DS1054z (or other DS1000 series Rigols) please let us discuss them here. 
Can this scope save its screenshots directly to an external computer that's connected to it via the Ethernet port?
   
Group: Guest
Is this firmware sluggish like the other one you mentioned?
Not as bad but I'm not bothered by it myself. Just turn the knobs slowly!
Quote
Do you recommend installing it?
Yes, because it (and the one before it) does solve some pretty severe issues such as the "RMS Bleedover" and some other math bugs. Also solves the Freeze Bug for early Boot Versions like 1.2.
Quote
Can this scope save its screenshots directly to an external computer that's connected to it via the Ethernet port?
Yes, using DSRemote or the software that came with the scope, UltraVision I think. (I never use it, DSRemote is much better, but is for Linux.) The save is initiated from the software on the computer though, not from the scope's "print" button.
http://www.teuniz.net/DSRemote/
   

Group: Elite Experimentalist
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Buy me some coffee
The one thing that bugs me with this scope!so far!,is this bloody !wait! rubbish--waiting for what?

Happily looking at a wave form,and then the scope freezes,and this green !wait! sign starts flashing in the top left corner--where the red !stop! show's when you push the stop button.

This can go on for minute's--but waiting for what?


Brad


---------------------------
Never let your schooling get in the way of your education.
   

Group: Professor
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Posts: 3354
This can go on for minute's--but waiting for what?
For the triggering event.
Putting the trigger in the "Auto" mode periodically triggers the scope even in the absence of triggering events.
   

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Buy me some coffee
For the triggering event.
Putting the trigger in the "Auto" mode periodically triggers the scope even in the absence of triggering events.

Well,not sure what you mean !waiting! for the triggering event.

One minute it is reading a wave form,then on comes this flashing !wait! light,and scope freezes.


---------------------------
Never let your schooling get in the way of your education.
   

Group: Tinkerer
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Posts: 1693
I have not seen mine freeze at all. I can try to replicate to make sure you didn't get a lemon.
   
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