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Nice and handy electronic load

4.0

Great, sturdy, and easy to use electronic load. I like how 3 pre-built load functions are easily accessed with just the push of the APP button. My only complaint is no connector cables. Could have come with even two to make things easier, but otherwise no issues.

Verified Purchase Patrick McFarland on Feb 21, 2023 I found this helpful (0)

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Serious defect on the back, but good value for money

4.0

On the backside AC selector, housing switch-lettering and manual description do not match. This error has not been corrected for years. Apart from that, the device works satisfactorily. I would like that not only the expensive 3031 for the simple 3021 model would be shown as an advertising image (3021: no colored buttons and b/w lcd display).

D.Sporer on Dec 22, 2021 I found this helpful (1)

Good Load - Bad data writing

2.0

I had this unit working very quickly, and it performed the DC load function well. However, the data recorded to my USB stick would often swap the Current and Voltage values. I contacted Rigol tech support, and they were very responsive. They acknowledge it was a bug but had no ETA on when the bug would be fixed.

Verified Purchase Brad Medford on Sep 07, 2021 I found this helpful (0)

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Excellent for price

5.0

No problems, great performance for price.

Verified Purchase Matthew Schinault on Jan 24, 2021 I found this helpful (0)

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Great product

5.0

Nice product and great price

Alvin Shi on Aug 15, 2020 I found this helpful (1)

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Excellent for Price

5.0

Good product, no issues, usb features are great.

Verified Purchase Anonymous on Aug 11, 2020 I found this helpful (0)

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Excellent for Price

5.0

Good product, no issues, usb features are great.

Verified Purchase Anonymous on Aug 11, 2020 I found this helpful (1)

Not ideal for low current

3.0

Purchased this DL3021 for both higher and low power applications. I work on several projects that have current usage under 10mA. So the first thing I did was power up the load, connect it to my power supply at 5v, type in 600 ohms constant resistance (~8.3mA) and turn on the tap. And guess what? Nothing happened, it was like the load was off. It starts to work at 9-10ma and is stable after about 12ma. I called Rigol and they confirmed this is as designed. The load works great at higher power but this was a deal breaker for me and I ended up returning the unit a couple of days later and getting a different brand not sold at TEquipent. Oh, and as other people have mentioned in their reviews, the UI is annoying but usable. All the UI issues mentioned are still present.

Verified Purchase Paul on Jun 09, 2020 I found this helpful (1)

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Highly Recommend

5.0

Excellent automation features

Verified Purchase Matthew Schinault on Feb 03, 2020 I found this helpful (0)

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Rigol DL3021

5.0

The DL3021 Product functions as advertised. I found no defects or misrepresentations.

Anonymous on Jan 19, 2020 I found this helpful (0)

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Great Electronic load in its class

5.0

I had a chance to gauge this electronic Load for the past year. It has all of the practical functions for the load testing. The most useful for me is load current switching to check Switching power supply stability. It even displays it on the screen. Programming is also fairly user friendly.

Anonymous on Dec 08, 2019 I found this helpful (0)

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It's working!

5.0

A good compromise between cost benefit.

Verified Purchase Reinaldo Alves on Sep 30, 2019 I found this helpful (0)

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DC Circuit Fault Testing

4.0

This piece of test equipment is a absolute must for testing electronic DC circuit breaker projects, measuring fault current & response time and fault delays and calibrating internal current and limits. I absolutely like this, Setup is a simple and easy to use, in the past I used power resistors and light bulbs for testing that were not absolute and difficult to set up.

Verified Purchase John Wilson on Feb 08, 2019 I found this helpful (0)

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It works... well enough

4.0

The DL3021 works well enough to take care of the tasks at hand. For light loads it's hard to tell whether the sense probes are really being used... but maybe that's a case of operator error. In the end I skip them as I can't see that they are having any impact on the measurement. Having the USB on the front panel is a great improvement over the DP800 series where it's on the back panel.

Verified Purchase Matt on Jan 11, 2019 I found this helpful (0)

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It does what it does

5.0

Doing some power supply design, using this electronic load to test the systems. It is easy to set up, not much to say, it just works. Just wish the input binding posts were banana jacks.

Verified Purchase Anonymous on Nov 06, 2018 I found this helpful (0)

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Solid product, great value

4.0

My immediate uses for the Rigol DL3021 are for testing solar cells, development of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), and testing the power and filtering circuitry for custom microcontroller-based devices. The DL3021 has performed very well so far with testing solar cells. The setup and use is simple and high precision data is quickly and easily gathered. I've only just started using the unit for UPS and other device development, but so far performance has been great. I also have the Rigol DP832 Programmable DC Power Supply. These two units are the same size and are designed to stack together. The rubber corner protectors interlock and leave plenty of room for air circulation. I am very happy with how these two units fit on top of one another on my bench. I agree with the other reviewers that cite a few operating shortfalls in the DL3021. In particular I find the awkward entry of decimal values (you must provide the leading zero) to be non-intuitive, prone to error, and just plain annoying. Likewise, the knob functionality in the entry or modification of values is primitive. The functional context of knob rotation should depend on how the user has initiated numerical entry. In addition (if it is supported by the underlying hardware) I would like the knob to respond to rotation velocity and acceleration. It seems like at lease some of these issues could be readily addressed with a firmware update and I am hopeful that one will be issued soon. As pointed out in EEVblog #1023, the input posts lack a transverse hole and do not include an axial banana plug receptacle. Although instrument operation would be compromised by using banana plug leads in many cases, I feel that this decision should be left up to the user. The combination of these missing features complicates connection to the input posts. Overall I am very happy with the DL3021 and I look forward to doing some detailed, precise engineering work.

Asa Wilson on Oct 13, 2018 I found this helpful (2)

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Great tool for your power supply and battery test

5.0

I was looking for a decent load for my research lab and after checking some other competing loads, finally narrowed my selection to this. Till now it didn't disappoint me.

Verified Purchase Roomi on Oct 03, 2018 I found this helpful (2)

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Good and bad - read EEVBlog

5.0

There are some design flaws in this product so please be aware and check EEVBlog forum for detailed reviews before purchasing RIGOL DL3021.

Verified Purchase ikorin on Sep 25, 2018 I found this helpful (0)

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Great Piece of Equipment

5.0

I mostly use this to test new cells for battery packs I make, and it has performed flawlessly. It has the ability to log all the measurements which is great for getting the curves. It's also used to test custom power supplies which I build for projects.

Verified Purchase Jason Chamblee on Aug 14, 2018 I found this helpful (4)

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DLE021

5.0

I purchased this to test RC airplane batteries and it has done every test I imagined. I also have used it to test power supplies for various amateur radio projects.
One of the best test gear purchases i have made.

W4YN on Jun 29, 2018 I found this helpful (1)

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Good Equipment

5.0

Although I have used all the modes, my needs are mostly CC and battery testing. I have used it load testing several power supplies mostly linear type and weeding out weak batteries from my rechargeable inventory. It does exactly what I want it to do. I have several pieces of Rigol equipment so I didn't think it was difficult to use. I am happy with my purchase.

Chuck on Apr 02, 2018 I found this helpful (0)

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I'm Happy

5.0

I have used this on 4 power supplies and did some battery testing and it does all that I want it to do. I would have liked a larger one, but couldn't handle the price. I have several pieces of Rigol equipment, so the operation seemed intuitive to me. My only complaint is I would like to see a printed users manual included, the quick start is a waste.

Kale on Mar 03, 2018 I found this helpful (0)

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Good but hopefully will get better

4.0

Functionally the DL3000 works as intended. It does fulfill my needs but has some quirky user interface issues you need to be careful about. The most significant User Interface issues is easily seen when setting the current in the CC mode. When you enter a number that is not an integer (1.25 for example) the unit works as expected. However if you enter a number less than 1 (0.25 for example) you MUST enter the leading zero ("0.25") , If you enter ".25", the entry is interpreted as 25!! This is not wrong as such but is very dangerous . The front panel control includes a rotary knob but unfortunately this is not used effectively, For example in the CC Mode it increments the least significant digit which is 1mA. Increasing at such a low rate means you generally won't use the rotary control. you would expect that the rate of adjustment would increase if you turned the knob faster but that is not implemented in the current firmware. Very disappointing. The PC interface provided could be very useful. It works but is implemented very poorly. It has so many bugs and quirky interface issues that it is not practical to include them in the review. Looks like it was created by an intern over the weekend. Despite these problems the product is useful and a good addition to my test lab. I am hoping that firmware upgrades are on the way!

awr on Dec 06, 2017 I found this helpful (2)

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Good value but has its quirks and bugs too.

3.0

Functionally this unit works as advertised and is very good value for money. Unfortunately with the current version of firmware it has some significant flaws.

Panel layout is OK although it is odd that the primary functions (LOAD ON/OFF, TRANS, SHORT) are in the midst of a sea of buttons rather then being conveniently located near the output connectors.

The user interface has many issues, some of which can lead to operational problems. For example if you want to set the output current (in CC mode) to 0.5A you MUST enter the leading zero otherwise you will select 5A (the decimal point is ignored without the leading zero). This is not just a matter of inconvenience, it means you can accidentally enter a number if you don't press the first digit correctly.

The PC interface ULTRALOAD (Windows) is clearly a work in progress. It was rushed to market and poorly tested. There are too many issues to put into a short review. The RECORD window would be useful if you could set the vertical scale range. This is sort of set by the RANGE value, but it is buggy and has to be accessed from the CV menu to set voltage, and from CC for current regardless of what mode you are in. Also scaling for the current graph is actually incorrect. For example displaying a current of 4A (which should be full scale on the 4A range( indicates more like 3A). Talk about poor testing! If there was more space I would give a complete review and I would be happy to provide feedback directly to Rigol as fixing the many issues would produce a truly great product.

Having said all of that this is a useful device, and better still if Rigol addresses the many firmware/software issues soon.

Tequipment and Rigol factory Response: Thanks for the detailed feedback. RIGOL works hard to make improvements that make instruments easier to use for our customers. All of your firmware and software comments have actually already been identified. While we can't commit to when a new revision will become available, we do have plans to make some usability improvements in this new device. Feel free to contact us directly with other suggestions as how you use the instrument is important to us. I find the easiest way to utilize the record function on UltraLoad is to record the data to a file and then open it in Excel where the scaling can be optimized for analysis. The UltraLoad graph shows basic visualization, but easy scaling of that graph is something we would like to improve. I'm glad you are enjoying the instrument and please drop us an email directly at RIGOL so that we can let you know when a new version is available.

awr on Nov 02, 2017 I found this helpful (6)

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Rigol DL3021

3.0

The electronic load works fine. The problem I have is that the advertisement for this model actually has a picture for the DL3031 of higher model while the DL3021 is the same except that all the color in the images of the front face is actually represented as grey or white buttons. I just wanted an accurate image of what I was buying or some information indicating that the model I purchased had a different or B/W front face. This company sold me the product at a fair price but did not do their homework and propagated the false claim of their supplier. I would hope that this company is more than a drop shipper and knows/inspects what it sells so that the statements made in their text or images in their ad accurately reflects what is being sold.

Tequipment Response: Thank you for your feedback. The image we had is one we have for the product as a series. We will update the image. Please contact us and we will give you a 5% credit for the issue and feedback. Thanks.

Gary Washington on Jul 16, 2017 I found this helpful (3)