I purchased a Rigol DS1102D 2 channel analog and 16 channel mixed signal scope a few years ago. For the most part I love the unit. It is small and portable allowing me to take it to the job site. But recently I have started to get annoyed by certain aspects of it.
1) Rigol seems to want to hide information. Why must one register and get permission to download the user’s manual and programming manual from their website? If I own the unit, I want my manual now. If I am looking at it for pre-sales questions, I might skip this unit because of the road block.
2) Why does my user’s and programming manual not match my device? A few minor errors would be expected and excused, but there are a few significant holes and errors.
3) Why do the FAQ style documents on their website not match the software/hardware that I have. Same model and version, but the Ultrascope setup documents look little like mine.
4) Why did they do a pretty good job on this unit and then miss the boat of some small key features? Like why can’t I set the trigger location to some percentage? I can set it to 50% but that is it. Most often I want it set to 10% or 90% for pre and post event data analysis. Its a real pain to do it on the Rigol.
5) Why does my user interface have a selection for GPIB address selection when the unit does not do GPIB?
6) Why when I try to use the RS-232 interface for remote control does the unit ignore me? It is never fully stated that it is implemented, but it certainly would seem appropriate considering the DB-9 on the back and the baud rate selection in the user interface. Nothing in the programmer’s guide indicates anything one must do to enable the interface.
Rigol made a good product, but failed a home run by not smoothing off the rough edges. Looks like some manager saw that it could be shipped, and then took off the developers on some other project. A little more attention to detail and they could really start to displace the higher end scopes like Tek and Agilent/HP.