Issues buying Rigol MSO5074 Logic Probe on Amazon - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: HighTekChemist
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 24, 2025, 06:00:14 am
content: I just received a new Rigol MSO5074 via Amazon, and sold by a well known equipment dealer in the U.S. Of course, one of the big advantages of this scope is the built-in 16 channel logic analyzer, so I also got the PLA2216 Logic Probe. Although the picture online showed a fully outfitted 16 channel probe with 16 ground leads, 16 signal leads, and stated it came with grabbers, what you get is only enough leads and grabbers (20 each) for 10 logic channels! Rigol's manual specifically states the necessity of having a ground lead for each signal being monitored due to excessive bounce and crosstalk. They also recommend twisting the ground lead around the signal lead. These grounds are isolated and you can't use one or a few for all 16 channels, yet they charge you $400.00 for a 16 channel probe without a complete set of leads, and this is Rigol, its in the paperwork with the probe that you only get 20wires and grabbers, even though it was not shown or stated as only coming with a 10 channel lead/grabber set! Amazon was useless, no way I could get through to them, they wanted it sent back and when I mentioned the scope would only work with this probe, they wanted me to send that back too! My fault for trusting Rigol and their picture without reading the reviews. Turns out, I'm not the first to realize this was an issue. I will follow the reviewer's path and call the equipment reseller that supplied Amazon with the equipment to see if they will make it right. I will also suggest they alter their add to reflect what Rigol is actually supplying or get some extra wire and probe grabbers for the proper 16 channel probe their selling.I hope this helps a future buyer,Barry

author: mwb1100
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2025, 06:37:51 am
content: See this thread for a little more info:-If you purchased a RIGOL PLA2216, how many test leads and grabbers did you get?It seems Rigol changed the packaging to have only 20 leads and didn't bother to update any of the images or even maybe documents.I don't know how much success you'll have with Rigol - maybe they'll send some extras if you complain effectively enough? I think they expect you to not need a ground lead for each signal pin and that sharing ground leads will work OK: 1 ground lead per 4 signal leads (which may well be true for many situations).For $400 (or whatever it costs now), I wouldn't think they'd need to penny pinch on leads.update: The Rigol NA site has aPLA2216 user guideupdated in July 2023 that states the kit includes only 20 each of leads and grabbers. Disappointing.

author: egonotto
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2025, 07:35:53 am
content: Hello,with the Siglent SPL2016 Logic Probes you only get 20 grabbers.Rohde & Schwarz is even stingier. With the Logic Probes of the RTA4000 you only get 16 grabbers. No grabbers are available for the ground connection. It could also be that the grabbers for ground at 5 GS/s should no longer be used.Best regardsegonotto

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2025, 08:34:09 am
content: Quote from: egonotto on February 24, 2025, 07:35:53 amWhich is enough to populate all flying leads......if required.....but then we must be careful about ground loops....and LA probes are not designed to accommodate such !Then if we use the LA probes in a MSO setup where probe leads are grounded too, it's debatable if we even need LA ground leads.Maybe if the Bus rate is really fast.....

author: egonotto
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2025, 09:18:39 am
content: Hello,I didn't mean to criticize Siglent, but I think 4 grabbers for ground is more than enough.However, 0 grabbers for ground at Rohde & Schwarz is already very little.The DSLogic U3Pro32 mentioned in the linked thread also has only 4 grabbers for ground for 32 channels.The DSLogic U3Pro16 has 2 grabbers for ground for 16 channels.Best regardsegonotto

author: mwb1100
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2025, 07:20:09 pm
content: Quote from: egonotto on February 24, 2025, 09:18:39 amThis is good to know. I have had success using 1 ground for several signals like SPI (my uses are not particularly high frequency), but I always wonder if I'm taking a shortcut that will bite me at some point.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 03:47:56 am
content: Interesting! I actually looked up the listing on Amazon, "https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B07L4VWSF1/ref=acr_dp_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=two_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar", and the OP is right; everything says 16 channels and I didn't see anything about it only including ten probes. But if you read the reviews you will see that several other buyers complained of the same thing in some of the reviews. One of them dated Jan 21 of last year! (2024) That said, I've never had a problem with returning anything to Amazon for a full refund. But what I suspect is really going on here is that the OP wants Amazon toforcethe seller to supply the full set of probes for the same price. But IMO that's unreasonable since that OP should have found that the set only had ten probes posted in the reviewsbeforehe bought the set,andhe has the ability to get a full refund from Amazon.

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2025, 04:04:26 am
content: Quote from: HighTekChemist on February 24, 2025, 06:00:14 amCitation required. Recall this is the forum which has documented and reverse engineered the probes:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/another-low-cost-la-probe-for-rigol-mso5000-by-oliv3r/?all