Does Rigol make a profit on DS2072A since it's built with higher performance? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ecklar
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 12:57:16 am
content: Does Rigol actually make a profit on the DS2072A? I ask because the 2072A is built with higher cost 56Mpts memory depth and 300mhz BW and other performance components that come at a cost and is then firmware limited to perform as and sold as a much lesser scope. It seems like selling a solid gold pen as a gold plated pen for gold plate prices.So the question is, since it really contains higher performance parts, is the DS2072a in itself profitable or is it some kind of loss leader. Are they really selling so many of the 200Mhz models to make up for it all?I am not of the belief that Rigol purposely put out a machine they knew would be hacked. I think they overestimated their security measures. They under engineered.

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 01:00:11 am
content: QuoteWhy do you care?QuoteThen lay out your facts.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 01:46:52 am
content: You can ask the same question about any other major oscilloscope manufacturer.

author: Dago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 06:51:23 am
content: Component cost is probably fairly little off the scope manufacturing cost so probably doesn't make much difference if it has "high performance" parts or not.It's probably more cost for the manufacturer to have multiple different versions of essentially the same product to manage instead of just using whatever 20$ more on parts.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 10:30:50 am
content: Quote from: dannyf on January 20, 2015, 01:00:11 amI've spoken with head Rigol people directly, they are not happy with the hacks, and they know they can't do much to ultimately stop it, but it's not "by design". Companies like this are too, for want of a better word, bureaucratic to do something like that.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 10:31:54 am
content: Quote from: Ecklar on January 20, 2015, 12:57:16 amAlmost certainly.Not as big as they'd like, but I'd bet they do.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 12:22:05 pm
content: How much does DS2072A cost to make?I would guess the majority of the cost is in three components: the two FPGAs, and the ADC.The ADC is a 2GSa/s interleaved ADC (2ch x 1GSa/s) which could cost around $200 to $300.The FPGAs probably cost $60 to $100 each.The 800x480 LCD probably costs under $15.Frontends are cheap. Rigol mostly use a passive front end with some active VGA/PGA circuit. Cost very low maybe $25 per channel. The trigger is a fast comparator or possibly just done on FPGA.After that you've got a small-ish DSP probably ~$30 plus DDR2/3 (pretty cheap) and then stuff like the case, fan, power supply, misc electronics.So I do expect Rigol have a good margin... but they also have a large R&D base, and they probably won't sell more than 1 million units in the product's lifespan... which means they have to account for this.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 12:43:34 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on January 20, 2015, 12:22:05 pmIIRC Rigol supposedly uses Chinese clone of NS/TI ADC made by mxtronics, so probably less than that.

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2015, 02:26:51 pm
content: It is quite difficult to know if a business makes money economically.Accounting wise, it is very difficult to drill profitability down to the product or product line levels. For most businesses, that's the holy grill of accounting.So even if you could talk to a Rigol insider, I would be surprised if they can see so with a high degree of confidence.