Oscilloscopes Made Easy #1 - Introduction to Oscilloscopes (Rigol DS1104Z)

Welcome to my oscilloscope tutorial series. This is an introduction video, so I just cover the bare minimum and mention a couple of crucial safety points. Later parts will go into detailed operation. Expand for more info.
Full disclosure: Rigol are lending me the unit seen in this video.
Model: Rigol DS1104Z
URL: www.rigolna.co...
Dave Jone's "How NOT to blow up your scope" video going into more detail on the ground clip issue: • EEVblog #279 - How NOT...

[@ZippletTech]

Thank you for all of your kind comments on these videos. It's very clear to me that more parts are desired for this series. I apologise for the lack of updates to this series, I don't have the cash to buy an oscilloscope at the moment. I'd like to carry on with this in the future when I can.

[@tokin420nchokin]

You really do explain stuff well. Thanks

[@cyberwasp461]

Please continue with these tutorials. I just bought a scope and have been watching every tutorial I can find. People tend to skip practical applications and that how we learn!!

[@WereCatf]

I've got a second-hand Rigol DS1104Z and I have no idea how to use the damn thing. As such, I appreciate these kinds of absolute beginner friendly videos that start from the simplest of things.

[@clarksouthoff3840]

A great resource. Well done. Thank you for video. I bought a Rigol 1202ZE. It does not heat up the room like my old (operational TEK 545B). 88 tubes. I am trying to get young people interested in electronics and "Making things". The Rigol display brings signals to life.

[@hangtenboy]

Thanks, Rigol! Great video as well, Zipplet Tech!

[@GlennMartinez]

Great intro! In Hawaii we have many old homes wired with ONLY two wires outlets. A Hot black wire and a White Neutral that is ground ONLY at the meter socket, if at all. As an licensed electrician contractor, if we in’s talked a NEW outlet we had the option of installing a properly grounded (to GROUNDED METAL WATER PIPE) or installing a GFI outlet. The GFI outlet did NOT have to be grounded. The argument is the GFI is measuring an imbalance in electrical flow between Hot going out and the electrical flow returning on the White wire. Any imbalance tripped the GFI. It would seem that if an technician were to always use a portable GFI protector cord ( less than $40) they would be protected from injury from shock and equipment protected. Further more if the GFI whip cord was plugged to power using a three prong to two prong isolated adapter, they keep GFI shock protection and are TOTALLY isolated from ground. I do believe using an ungrounded GFI meets National Electric Fire Code for safety. What is your opinion?

[@jcook793]

This was super helpful for getting me started using an oscilloscope for the first time - thank you!

[@kesterbelgrove818]

I thank you in 2021 for your video, it helped me so much with the setup and understanding of my 1054Z scope.

[@KendraAndTheLaw]

Thanks! Just got a Rigol DS1202 which is identical to this one, except just two channels (also does 200mhz). So your video got me going quickly.

[@cdunne1620]

..brilliant, you’re a natural teacher, thanks very much

[@masteryoda394]

Thank you very much, I just bought the DS1102Z-E on Aliexpress and this tutorial will be very helpful.

[@oldschoolizzy2096]

Thank you for the walkthrough. My professor does not walkthrough the use of the oscilloscope and I have to rely on the lab book, which is not helpful either. My other classmates feel the same way. Thank you again!

[@robertbutwell5211]

Really informative for me. Excellent presentation. Thanks

[@wscamel226]

We use these in our lab at our University... exept I don't know how they work... Maybe I finally will understand!

[@stonededge]

Hi! Just picked up my scope and also living in Japan (got the same model from Yahoo Auctions). Would love to see a few more introduction videos :D

[@broklee]

Awesome tutorial, super helpful!

[@sincerelyyours7538]

First time I caught your channel, I wish I'd seen it two years ago. I have the same scope and also live in a 50 Hz region of Japan. As you say, grounds are a problem here, but I paid extra to have Type B three-pronged wall outlets installed in the one room of my house that I use for my electronics hobby. As of 2008 all new Japanese houses were required to have polarized outlets installed, but they are still only two-pronged, and oddly, the appliance industry was not required to follow the same rule so all new appliances still come with two-pronged, non-polarized plugs. Care should therefore be taken when plugging in any light-duty appliance built for the Japanese domestic market. Only heavy appliances like air conditioners and washing machines come with grounds, but they are generally just pig-tails so should be plugged into a dedicated outlet equipped with a grounded screw terminal. I also use an isolation transformer on my bench to isolate my DUTs from the house ground while leaving all my test gear safely grounded. This reduces the chance for shocks when working on tube radios and other high voltage equipment, but does not completely eliminate it, so care should still be taken.

[@JapanoiseBreakfast]

Thanks for making this! Made me realize that I'd completely forgotten to install the colour coded strips on the probes :)

[@johnrobinson4445]

I searched your channel using the search terms "Japan Ground" and could not find the promised videos. Can you link them? Thank you.

[@supremechi]

This is some cool stuff! Great video!

[@adriansanchez4875]

can you connect a musical instrument such as an electric guitar or digital piano to it and see the shape of the waves?

[@mdmazbahuddin5592]

How to transfer voltage vs time plot on excel? When I transfer my .csv data into excel I got voltage vs sequence instead of time. How can I fix it?

[@althuelectronics5158]

Arduino mpu 6050., ant all sensors Modyool. I2c camunicesion. The best ocsiloscop please recommend sir

[@RastaJediX]

I can't find the grounding video.

[@greensasque]

Great videos, was hoping to see more but I see you got into other projects.

[@naderhumood1199]

Good job Dave. ......👍

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

About the 50MHz bandwidth, is that per-channel, or shared between the channels? Under the supposition that it is per channel, that would allow a total of 200MHz across all channels (1Gsps @ 5 samples per cycle of displayed signal). If only one channel is in use, is the bandwidth improved?

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

@reeder 76 Thanks for the reply. What you say is what I had suspected, though it wasn't clear in the video , but in the meantime, I've bought a digital scope anyway - a low-end Rigol 4-chan scope, but it will be adequate for what I need.

[@Passco666]

Yeah I have experience. I made a mistake and connected ground to Life.. color was good, but you know you can connected in reverse. It activate protection and my PC lost some USB port and inductor are blown :)

[@ArtOfVinylTurntableRepairs]

Thank you so much for these videos! It has been a great help. Can I probe USB powered things if the scope is grounded?

[@SLEAZY808]

Hey there. If you haven’t fried anything, the best thing to do is use an unplugged laptop. You can also write to EEPROM if your using avr/arduino and power your project using an isolated ground on a bench supply. Be careful that you don’t short your mains earth ground to anything connected to your mains referenced voltage. The mains earth pin on your socket is directly connected to the ground plate of the BNC on the scope.

[@zundfolge1432]

I somehow accidentially went into the utility area of the scope and now my auto function is disabled. Will say AUTO DISABLED if I try to use the auto function. Very frustrating as I use that function all the time!

[@TravisTerrell]

Wow, that's a LOT of noise from the mains! I can only that much if my scope cable is accidentally crossed over the 120v cord for my lamp or something. Any idea why you have so much? Does it present any issues when you're testing? (The square wave for compensation looks pretty okay, at least.)

[@johnrobinson4445]

Useful but might want to script out what you want to say in advance. You sounded a bit scattered. The use of verbal markers ("And now let's talk about....") to separate topics would be helpful for listeners. Your speech almost has a stream-of-consciousness quality. This is not optimal. Otherwise, very nice.

[@amratsingh5206]

I have mains voltage of 262V , I measured it with my multimeter which is NOT true rms. Power voltage in Rigol DS1054z specs is 100 V to 240 V. What should I do?

[@f.a3202]

try using another multimeter which can measure true RMS to measure mains voltage. there shouldn't be more that 230V

[@Harlequin43]

Plz give a link to the vid where you talk about dealing with ground in Japan.

[@gorillaau]

Speak with someone knowledgeable in your area. Local regulations comes into play here. For example: connecting the earth wire to a metal gas pipe is okay in some parts of the world.

[@althuelectronics5158]

You please telme. See I2c camunicesion data. The best ocsiloscop. Pl recommend sir

[@POLMAZURKA]

draw pictures of the grounding problems...

[@guillermoyanez1805]

DEaR SR IAM AN OLD TV TECH WHEN I MOVE TO ANOTER HOME I FIND THAT SCOPE IS BROKEN SOME OF SWITCH i WOUL D LOVE TO KNOW WHERE I CAN BUY THE WHOLE SWITCH BOARD

[@capri2wd]

Nice start to the tutorial, I think this one will be awesome. Do you have any recommendations for a lower budget good bench scope? Unfortunately this one is a tad pricey for my budget :( my hand held dso nano is awkward as hell to use and can be unreliable (I was warned at the time but was all I could afford). Thanks for moving in to the more tech related videos, I like your style of explanation (and I can understand your explanations well)

[@AlainHubert]

@capri2wd Did you know that you can buy the much less expensive DS1054Z instead, and hack it (very easily) to transform it into a DS1104Z ? Of course, since Mr. Delphi was sponsored by Rigol for producing this video, he obviously could not tell you that himself...

[@antoniofilipe70]

Hello. Very Nice vídeo. Can you teste a situation of Hight Frequency Transient with this oscilloscope? Like a mini-motor conect to the eletricity home net. I'm a geobiologiste and the so call "durty eletricity" it's an important matter of safety at home. I'm from Portugal and I'm already a fun. Thank you very much!!!

[@lalmuanpuiamizo]

About grounding, if i use isolation transformer and float the power ground prong, like connect to nothing, will that simply means it will short to nothing else i probe. Won't that be safer (not for user, but for scope)

[@lalmuanpuiamizo]

Thank you. I think the only difference between putting isolation transformer and breaking ground on scope or DUT is just personal safety. If i put it on the scope side, I'll sacrifice personal safety with scope safety, like, I never have to worry about where i probe, is that correct?

[@eddy2561]

Can't see the damn entire scope, pull back and watch the camera display!!!

[@KTFG]

Good info

[@martin-ot]

Okej!

[@koggism]

He knows how to use a scope but is videocamera skills need a lot to be desired

[@kalashnikov5038]

Can you actually catch more scammers with the "Scammer Button App"? It's legit fun to watch that.

[@kalashnikov5038]

Actually, I will not desubscribe, instead, I am subscribing to you! You do make helpful tips, yes, you have earned a subscriber! :)

[@deejay7339]

@@ZippletTech Those videos were hilarious, but good luck on whatever you pursue. Your videos got me into this kind of content and were better than the likes of Kitboga.

[@albrechthilker9072]

Before buying a Rigol be aware that this is chinese quality. Have a look at these ugly bugs: electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/517690/rigol-ds1074-oscilloscope-shows-very-wrong-timing

[@hassansyed5661]

Which Oscilloscope is better alternative to it?

[@albrechthilker9072]

I can't tell from own experience. But higher quality is surely more expensive, like Rhode & Schwartz or Tektronix. By the way: The Rigol bug that I reported is still not fixed after so much time!

[@hassansyed5661]

@@albrechthilker9072I need it for AES

[@kingblade6563]

One of the poorest vids on the use of an oscilloscope I have EVER seen

[@adic9091]

I am going to be brutally honest here: so much rambling for a tiny bit of useful information.

[@yousini]

We cant hear you, my vacuum makes less noise