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Rigol DS1054Z Spectrum Analyzer Hack

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jpanhalt

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Mr. FedEx just delivered my Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope. I also lust after a hobbyist spectrum analyzer. There are several modifications of Rigol equipment described on the Internet, including at least two software conversions to give spectrum analyzer functionality.

Here are those two links:
https://hackaday.com/2015/09/22/a-better-spectrum-analyzer-for-your-rigol-scope/
https://hackaday.com/2012/10/10/giving-the-rygol-ds1052e-scope-a-spectrum-analyzer/

Do any member s here have experience with either or some other conversion?

John
 
On-T or Off-T, I can't get over the decision(s) to rename HP to Agilent, much less to Keysight, as if the name makes much difference in capital purchasing. If anything sounds like a cheap Asian import, it is Keysight. Most important, I wonder what a struggling HP paid consultants to find that name. Admittedly, I grew up professionally when Hewlett and Packard were still around. "HP" still means a lot to me.

Back On-T, there are some nice Agilent analyzers with LCD screens on e-bay for less than half of the low-end Rigol. I don't need GHz performance. If I can tune filters, great. If I can tweak my 72 MHz RC transmitter, that's even better. But, I have no desire or intent to get into GHz. So, a 100 MHz usable limit will fit my current needs.

John
 
Well, we now have
Hewlett-Packard - consumer
Hewlett Packard Enterprise - business
Agilent Technologies - Gas Chromatographs etc.
Keysight Technologies - Electronic Measurements

HP was well-known in the consumer market for printers, so they felt it would be easier for industry to deal with a new name.

HP and any convolution meant a lot more to me then than it does now.
 
John, i too have 1054z, haven't rigged it yet but planning it, as it's no longer under warranty :)
 
Please keep us posted on your progress. All I did was turn the scope on when received...no smoke is a good start.

Regards, John
 
Some people whine about fan's noise but i'll change it when needed.
 
Interesting complaint. My TDS210 is completely silent, which has led me to inadvertently leave it on for unintended periods. I sort of liked the noise. On the other hand, the TDS shows a live baseline; whereas, the Rigol shows a perfectly flat baseline. I kind of like the wiggles, because it lets me know it is alive. That small preference doesn't rise to the level of a complaint. There does seem to be more of a lag between a signal and its display with the Rigol, as if it were processing more slowly. That just may be some settings. The TDS default is not to average measurements. I need to find if the Rigol's default is to average sometime like 4 to 16 measurements. The Rigol also weighs more than the TDS, which makes me feel I got my money's worth. ;)

John
 
On the other hand, the TDS shows a live baseline; whereas, the Rigol shows a perfectly flat baseline.

Mine doesn't, and I wouldn't expect any digital scope to - perhaps you've got it set to a different mode?.

As for the fan, yes it's noisy, but I don't find that a problem.
 
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Well, we now have
Hewlett-Packard - consumer
Hewlett Packard Enterprise - business
Agilent Technologies - Gas Chromatographs etc.
Keysight Technologies - Electronic Measurements

HP was well-known in the consumer market for printers, so they felt it would be easier for industry to deal with a new name.

HP and any convolution meant a lot more to me then than it does now.
And you forgot HP optoelectronics, which today has become Avago.

On the other hand, I fully agree with the old HP test equipment and instrumentation business: its quality and performance were the world's best by a wide margin. No one else offered the breadth of instruments they had.
Tektronix did have better scopes, however.
 
And Varian had better GLC (early on), NMR was unmatched and some other spectroscopic instruments. PerkinElmer had great IR early on, but like everything it seemed to touch, PE started well but couldn't keep up the pace. I am probably one of the few people here who has used a PE GLC with a U-tube column and rubber gaskets and a PE mass spec. Both were disasters.

What I don't understand is why "rename" an extremely successful brand.

John
 
We had an HP GC and I toured the factory in high school. We had a PE spectrofotometer which seemed to work well. We had a number of RGA's, 4 Ametek's which were permanent parts of homebuilt systems. They were easy to self maintain.
One RGA part of an Auger electron microscopy I had to work on once. Finallly we bought an RGA leak detector which was either Leybold or Varian.

Tylan (now defunt, I think) made some extremely easy to maintain Mass Flow Controllers (MFC). Unit and MKS were other brands.

Tylan's readouts were not user friendly to us, so we made our own and/or modified theirs.

I forgot about the ground loop issue when I upgraded 2 six channel readouts to accept an analog input and make them easier to calibrate.
 
My first experience with "ground loops" was with a Varian GLC and an old fashioned strip chart recorder. I was getting a sharp "blip" every few seconds. The solution was to change the ground connections.

Hope you have a healthy and happy 2016.

John
 
You too, John.

The Tylan MFC's essentially were self-contained. When you try powering 6 from +-15 V, that was OK. The setpoint signal reference came from the MFC and a potentiometer, so no issues again, because the reference was at the MFC.

No problem reading because of pseudo-differential inputs. When you try to put a 0-5V source, it starts getting messy. Should always remember to make analog outputs current (always).
 
What I don't understand is why "rename" an extremely successful brand.

It's always totally confused me as well, there seems no point, it costs millions to do, and mostly it seems to go badly wrong.

A prime example would be the UK Post Office - they re-branded it as Insignia (and paid a company a huge amount to come up with that name), but everyone still called it the Post Office, and they were forced to re-brand back.
 
It's always totally confused me as well, there seems no point, it costs millions to do, and mostly it seems to go badly wrong.

A prime example would be the UK Post Office - they re-branded it as Insignia (and paid a company a huge amount to come up with that name), but everyone still called it the Post Office, and they were forced to re-brand back.
The same happened in Finland. The finnish post office was Posti, then some idiots changed it in 2007 to Itella, which does not mean anything in finnish and then 2015 changed it back to Posti !
 
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A prime example would be the UK Post Office - they re-branded it as Insignia
I remember the new name (that never really happened) as Consignia.

Re-branding and Re-naming is a business world activity which some of the vile useless creatures which pass for "management" believe is necessary to re-vitalise the customers and employees.

Cynical? Moi?

JimB
 
The same happened in Finland. The finnish post office was Posti, then some idiots changed it in 2007 to Itella, which does not mean anything in finnish and then 2015 changed it back to Posti !
Haha, yeah that was one hilarious moment....somebody had cash to burn it seems
 
John, I just made that firmware hack that opens all features incl 100mhz bandwidth. was easy.
 
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