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Rigol MSO1104Z-S Mixed Signal Oscilloscope
4.0
The Rigol MSO1104Z-S Mixed Signal Oscilloscope with Arbitrary Waveform Generator is at the top of the low-end oscilloscopes offered by Rigol. This 4-input scope also contains a two channel arbitrary waveform generator along with a trigger/error output BNC connectors on the back of the scope. In addition to the analog inputs this mixed-signal scope has a socket on the front for a 16 channel Logic Analyzer (LA). The LA adapter is included along with numbered signal leads for all 16 channels and 16 ground leads. The leads are terminated with female header connectors which can be connected directly to standard circuit board header pins of can be attached to gripper probes provided for all 32 leads.
This scope has a standard bandwidth of 100MHz, an analog sampling rate of 1GS/s, a 30,000 sample buffer and 12MB of waveform storage upgradable to 24MB.
Unlike the venerable analog scopes of which you may be familiar, many, if not most of the functions are not controlled by switches and knobs but by a menu system accessed through buttons on the right side of the scope and also soft buttons flanking either side of the 7" 800 X 480 pixel display screen. Unfortunately, the screen itself is not a touch screen and I found myself touching the screen rather than the associated button! The menu items on the boundary of the screen cannot be switched off, stealing precious screen real estate which might have been used to display more of the four waveforms.
The 100MHz bandwidth is shared among the 4 analog and 16 digital channels. If two analog channels are used, they get 50MHz each, if 3 or 4 are used, they each are assigned only 25MHz. The Logic Analyzer uses 25MHz of bandwidth for each group of 8 channels. So if all four analog channels are being used, Channel 4 is switched off for digital channels 0 through 7 and analog Channel 3 is switched off for digital channels 8 through 15.
One of the great advantages of a mixed mode oscilloscope is that triggering can be set for both the analog and digital channels allowing the user to, for example, see the state of the digital lines when an analog condition triggers the scope. In one-shot mode, the display will show the waveforms at the moment of triggering and the 30,000 waveform points allows the user to scroll through the samples to observe the areas of interest and both analog and digital waveforms will be synchronized.
There are too many triggering and analog functions to mention here but one of the "Math" Functions is a Fast Fourier Transform so the scope can be used as a rudimentary Spectrum Analyzer.
The scope also provides an X-Y display mode where one channel controls the horizontal axis while the other provides the vertical axis. The resulting Lissajous pattern is ideal for displaying phase differences between the two signals in a way not easy to see in the standard time-domain presentation.
The arbitrary waveform generators allow the user to analyze passive circuits by running the output waveforms through, say, a filter and then running the output of the filter into one of the analog channels. There is a procedure for normalizing the signal path through the cabling so that the analysis can be as accurate as possible.
I purchased this particular oscilloscope because it combined all the functions I would need for my work without having to buy an Oscilloscope, Logic Analyzer, and Waveform Generator separately. The single unit is not as flexible as three individual pieces of equipment but for the price you get a lot of functionality.
In conclusion, I believe I got good value for my money and I highly recommend this very capable oscilloscope.
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Joseph Dempsey on
Apr 16, 2016
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Lots of functionality!
4.0
This is a nice, compact scope with a lot of functions for what you pay for. The user interface is easy and fairly ergonomic. Some data entry is a little finicky but nothing major or bothersome. Performance of the cope is good though it is a bit more noisy than I had hoped - in part due to the probes which are somewhat cheap production quality. But even with that, no complaints and no regrets.
Joost on
Apr 03, 2016
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RIGOL MSO1104Z-S
4.0
The Rigol MSO1104Z-S is a very good value for money scope. It works well for a small lab. Price offer by Tequipment is best. Shipping is fast. Online help chat is efficient. The scope came well pack.
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Vincent on
Aug 11, 2015
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