This is a placeholder topic for “Rigol DHO-814 Oscilloscope” comments.
Analyse signals on a 12-bit digital oscilloscope featuring 1,000,000 wfms/s in UltraAcquire mode. Detect anomalies with low-noise floor and 25 Mpt memory.
Read moreDoes anyone have any practical experience with this DHO814?
It seems to have all the fruit without the gruesome price.
Keen for a buy-once-cry-once tool that will last me a good while into my journey 
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Hi evan
I have never used this particular 'scope but the brand has been around for a loooong time.
I have not looked at the instruction book for this unit but you might find that it has quite a few features you may never use. Never mind about that as it will have many features you WILL use and this type of instrument can replace many other measurement devices.
Tip. Study the user manual thoroughly. Have some extensive play time with it. You really can’t hurt anything unless you go putting hundreds of volts on an input.
Once you get the hang of using it you will find this instrument the most useful piece of test gear you have ever had.
Cheers Bob
I said I have not used this one but I have used many others.
Tektronix, Hewlett Packard, Phillips, Marconi, Rhode and Swartz to name a few. Some are pretty up market.
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I bought the 900 (same thing but with logic analyzer). Love it.
Hard to use if your a beginner. Took me MANY attempts.
Also, gets hot, and runs slow.
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Do you have any other scope that is cheap?
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Hi Evan, Welcome to the forum!!
I’d put the Rigol DHO-814 Oscilloscope in the “worth buying properly” bucket for hobby and bench use. The big draw is the 12-bit front end, low noise floor, 4 channels, and decent memory depth - that tends to matter more in real use than a flashy spec sheet, especially once you start looking at analogue signals, power rails, sensors, audio, or mixed digital/analogue work.
Bob is on the money that Rigol has been around a long time, and Pix’s comment also matches the trade-off pretty well: lots of capability, but not the most beginner-intuitive thing on day one. That’s pretty normal for a serious scope.
And while I dont have experience with this exact scope, I do have experience with a spread of Rigol units (1054 and MSO4000 series) - both feel great to use.
If you want a cheaper option, the Rigol DS-1054Z Oscilloscope is still a very common entry point and saves a fair bit, but it’s an older 8-bit platform with a slower UI and less refined display. If your budget stretches to the DHO814, I’d still lean that way as the better “buy once” pick.
If you mainly expect to do microcontroller, I2C/SPI/UART, power supply, and general electronics work, the DHO814 should last you a good while. If you share the sort of projects you expect to tackle, it gets easier to say whether it’s the right kind of overkill or just the right amount.
Liam
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Thank you all
This will be my first scope.
I’ve been doing a lot of Dev for work, which is an industrial recycling timber place.
As I’m an ex-IT guy (55+) I’ve been interested in souping up all the doodads and add in more monitoring and reporting.
Everything so far has been using a selection of old phones (as cameras), Linux terminals, Arduino and whatnot.
I’ve enjoyed it immensely.
Some of the projects:
- AI identification of timber species based on end grain
- Forklift warning system for ingress proximity (users lidar!)
- Ruff briquette monitoring system (to stop it making Weetbix)
- Air quality monitors
- CNC spindle tool for making z-axis machining possible ($300k machine, no capability to do it!)
- Usage, counting, quality measuring and monitoring for a massive bandsaw and a 6-head moulder (80k and 250k machines with no stats packages!)
- In-forklift inventory scanning (barcodes, stock, photos)
I’m getting more ambitious with my projects now, hence the oscilloscope! 
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If you have experience in IT and you’re prepared to read a data sheet, then this scope will be good for you. 
Because you know the jargon, i.e. you know how to formally describe what you’re trying to do, you will be able to search it on the datasheet and make progress. 
If it’s your first scope, I would recommend practicing by using it on “known circuits”. For example, I used it on some of my early projects, circuits where I understood exactly what was happening. Because I knew what to expect, I could verify I was using the scope properly.
I made lots of mistakes in my early readings. Working on known sources is how I learned the difference between 10x and 50x probes. It’s how I learned how to center my readings on zero. It’s is how I learned that if you turn it off and on again, it remembers the last mode you were in and you have to reconfig it each time. 
Just my two_cents, quite possible you have a more experience than me and you won’t make mistakes as trivially as I did 
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ohhhh @Pixmusix I can GUARANTEE I’ll be letting out a lot of the magic blue smoke in these adventures.
You offer sage advice. I have much to learn. By IT I meant systems designs, programming and web stuff… never actual in-the-weeds designing of equipment (only just bolting servers and whatnot together, which is just LEGO really).
Have to admit Im enjoying this side of things much more. I see a HUGE future in customised business solutions for industry.
I especially enjoy the data gathering from “on the floor” and monitoring/managing actual production systems. So far, all the industrial businesses Ive spoken with absolutely DROOL over the opportunity to retrofit things like their 1990’s devices with upgrades to watch, record, overview and log activities. So many businesses have next to no data on anything going on on the floor is quite unreal.
Over the last 3 years (into it bigly for 5 months) Ive really appreciated the extreme talents of hardware designers - especially our crafty Chinese mates and their unbelievable doings. To that end, I’ve considered the following for my hobby setup:
- Rigol DHO-814 Oscilloscope SKU: DHO814
- Rigol DG-852 Pro Arbitrary Waveform Generator SKU: DG852PRO
- Rigol DM-858 Benchtop Multimeter SKU: DM858
- Rigol DP-932E Triple Output DC Power Supply SKU: DP932E
Its a hell of a lot of money for a hobby, but I dont drink and not into cars… so there’s that!
I don’t mind supporting CORE. I enjoy their videos and they’ve been generous with info
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Hi evan
Boy that is some hobby bench and you haven’t started on Radio Frequency (RF) yet. You might never get that serious and dig into that dark mess. Although we are seeing clock speeds and the like up into the several GHz ranges now. Don’t even think about viewing that. Could cost MegaBucks.
I applaud you for starting out with pretty good quality gear. All too often self confessed “newbies” attempt some remarkable measurements with the least costly instruments they can find. This is understandable from a financial point of view but all too often they will quickly find something this gear will not do or is giving erroneous results. Often there is nothing wrong with the instruments purchased but it is just not up to the task requested of it or the techniques in using it.
What I am hinting at here is just about everything in this category will have some limitations. As the quality ( and price) goes up these limitations become smaller. My point is it is important to be aware of any limitations likely to affect the task in hand and if necessary make some allowances. All good fun and you can get there in the end.
Cheers Bob
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@Robert93820 all hobbies have the dreaded Gear Acquisition Syndrome!
Im also into woodworking - don’t ever ask me what Ive spent on tools over the years. I simply will refuse to admit it!
I feel the joy of fixing things, hence my progression into this. It quite enjoyable, isn’t it
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I’m the same with a software architecture and IT background.
Remember a lot of people becoming makers may have never used linux, they have never coded anything before. They don’t know what an XOR is, or how to use it to solve problems. Those people will still become great makers don’t get me wrong, but you can back yourself because lot of your skills will be transferable
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Maybe… but it can cast a lot more
the right tool at the right time can save you alot of time.
While I accept people dont always have spare cash to by more tools, we see alot of issues here, where a signal capture would clearly show what happening. So without that you can suggest things that “may” fix it. When you can see it, you can see if you fix worked well or only just worked and should be tweaked some more…
Time = $$$
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