Rigol 1000Z Family - Some features permanently free - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: joeyjoejoe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2018, 12:37:26 am
content: Just got this email from Rigol - feeling the pressure I guess and want to keep their edge... I don't suspect it's in reaction to the unlocks since they don't add the 100MHz feature free.

author: sanman
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2018, 04:12:58 pm
content: That's great! Now, how about a firmware update the gets rid of all the option/key nonsense and liberates all the old scopes!

author: extronic
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2018, 01:05:43 pm
content: Is anyone who has bought Rigol DS1000z and haven't upgraded?

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2018, 04:30:44 pm
content: Quote from: extronic on July 08, 2018, 01:05:43 pmSome people are afraid it will affect their warranty.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 06:05:48 am
content: i got an email. free upgrade 1054 to 1074? meh, i can be a better dealer...

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 08:20:58 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on July 12, 2018, 06:05:48 amMaybe you get a new sticker for the front panel.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 08:35:28 am
content: All the options are free anyway

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 09:15:28 am
content: Quote from: Fungus on July 12, 2018, 08:20:58 amcertainly! i got a photographic grade printer, few self sticky papers and plastic laminatesbut anyway only muggles do care on which sticker

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 06:33:00 pm
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on July 12, 2018, 06:05:48 amWhile it may be "meh" compared to the free RIGLOL upgrade to 100MHz, I actually find this quite surprising. To my knowledge Rigol has never offered bandwidth upgrades for this scope, whether free or at a cost. I wonder whether this is an official Rigol offer, or a "creative" dealer at work... Would you mind sharing the name of the dealer?

author: stj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 06:34:00 pm
content: uh i dont know, i think if you produced a sticker with 100MHz etc on it and changed the name to RIGLOL it would be funny.

author: Old Printer
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 11:14:57 pm
content: While Stock Lasts. The kind of thing you see before a new model comes out, maybeThough they are still trotting out the 1052E's

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2018, 11:34:48 pm
content: The dealer is like meguro or something i've deleted the email.its a local dealer to us since its a 'dot my' domain. i dont think rigol will give any concern about unofficial upgrade from warranty pov since they dont give a sheet on riglol website like forever, their silence for years give clue that its deliberately compatible embedded in the fw, they actually fooling us (in a good way) since the beginning.Otoh why should i change the sticker to Riglol lol? Lets change it to 'Keysite' or 'Tektronics' thats more certainty should void the warranty.Otoh the 'while stock last' means you should rush to get one NOW. If the stock last in 10 years, then 10 years the offer will valid, imo.

author: stj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2018, 10:47:40 am
content: to be fair, the stock of that model does sell fast.i have been noticing that when checking prices & stuff.i dont know how many are out there, but it must be huge!

author: Keysight DanielBogdanoff
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 13, 2018, 03:46:10 pm
content: My $.02:Among scope vendors, free bandwidth upgrades are considered a bit of a taboo. Not that it doesn't happen, though. With the advent of license keys to upgrade BW, we're a little afraid that it could snowball into a regular thing and make the entire market less profitable. Remember, a big chunk of the market is schools & businesses, not hobbyists. That's why something like a hack is a convenient workaround for the issue. The hobbyists get their "upgrade" through the hack, and the vast majority of schools/businesses keep it stock.I wouldn't read too much into the "while stock lasts" line, it could definitely just be a legal thing.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2018, 04:15:16 pm
content: This is basically market segmentation and it doesn't work in the long run. It merely alienates customers and gives them a purchasing maze to crawl through looking for the important figures of capital expenditure and TCO. I think the hardware people have merely jumped on the miraculous idea put forth by the software industry about 25 years ago.Unfortunately if you look at the software industry now, even the largest stranglehold players are losing this battle.There will be a peak as the hardware becomes near commodity (it's almost there bar high end) and the market will return not to what features can be segmented out in a product but what features are available from day one without investment. I'd hate to be the people selling upgrades (all vendors) and $1000 EEPROMs (Tek) then.Watch the product lines shrink back to base level hardware in the next decade. Unless it's a real bit of hardware that needs to be plugged in and does something that the restriction depends on then it's going to go away. If it doesn't happen I'll eat my hat and it's a big one which will give me indigestion.Also to note, if you think the commercial or educational institutions aren't hitting riglol the moment the box arrives, you'd be surprised.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2018, 05:42:10 pm
content: survival of the fittest, economy will find its balance, naturally, sentimentally or forcefully. scope vendors' point of view will be different from consumers esp tightly budget consumers like many here. and then there are another consumers with thick pocket and after sale service as a priority. i have a brand name equipment in another arena, and then i have another cheap china brand in this arena, both went to repair station at different point in time. i can tell my experience with cheap china brand is much better (the other is being a japanese brand with local repair service available) but that is my personal experience in this tiny country, others may be totally upside down.one sad truth i figured out from my own "speculation" (i maybe mistaken i'm not an economist) a "well educated" companies will factor in the "possible profit" that can be gained by their target users in their products/services pricing. more profit = more expensive equipments/services even though the same or simpler complexity compared to equipments aimed at low profit users. this is especially true in softwares, and to some extend in hardwares too. so in bad analogy is like company A selling products to company B at expensive rate by squeezing the effort (profit) from company B at some proportion, its sounds bad but its my thought as a user. this may also has something to do with the company A liabilities, bigger higher end company = bigger liabilities. but this will put low margin users out of the league. so cheap china is like a savior to these people, and a big savings to other businesses, schools and universities. i think the market demand will be mainly decided by market segments at the bottom of the "food" chain (not the middle man company B) and i believe big companies on top of the chain knew about this already.of course we don't make blind decision just based on free upgrade hype, in the end its going to be how much bang per buck it will be (price per feature) for us, but maybe not so for thick pocketed costumers as long as the tool does the job and 5 stars aftersale service. i think DS1054Z is still bang per buck even without the free upgrade. but i think not so today since some contenders already want to do tug war game with rigol for quite sometime now (more features but no free upgrade) but yet there are people tried hard here to get the equally BW upgrade on other brand no matter how nasty it will look like (warranty void guaranteed). this tug war will be quite difficult to enter for "big liabilities" companies so they have to find another targets or strategies and i think both big and small company will have their market segment. higher end scope like GHz bandwidth is not yet in reach of hobbiests community even from rigol so... finger crossed. my 2cents.