RIGOL DS7024 Digital Oscilloscope Overview

The RIGOL DS7024 is a high-performance four-channel digital storage oscilloscope designed for engineers who need greater bandwidth, deep acquisition memory and advanced waveform-analysis capabilities without moving to a significantly higher-priced instrument class.

With 200 MHz analogue bandwidth, the DS7024 is suitable for faster embedded systems, switched-mode power supplies, motor drives, industrial electronics, automotive control units, communication interfaces and general research applications. It is part of the RIGOL MSO/DS7000 family and uses the proprietary Phoenix technology platform with UltraVision II architecture.

The oscilloscope includes:

• Four analogue input channels
• One external trigger input
• Up to 10 GSa/s real-time sampling
• 100 Mpts standard acquisition memory
• Optional memory expansion to 250 Mpts or 500 Mpts
• At least 600,000 waveform captures per second
• Hardware waveform recording and playback
• Advanced trigger and measurement functions
• Optional serial-bus analysis
• Optional power analysis
• A 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen
• LAN, USB, HDMI, GPIB and browser-based remote control

The DS7024 is the digital-storage version of the platform. Unlike the MSO7024, it does not support 16 digital logic channels or the optional two-channel arbitrary waveform generator. Serial-bus analysis is still possible through the four analogue input channels when the appropriate software option is installed.

200 MHz Analogue Bandwidth

The DS7024 provides 200 MHz bandwidth across four analogue channels. This bandwidth is well suited to signals with faster edges and higher-frequency content than those typically handled by entry-level 70 MHz or 100 MHz oscilloscopes.

It can be used to measure and troubleshoot:

• Microcontroller and FPGA clock signals
• High-speed PWM waveforms
• Switching power converters
• Gate-driver signals
• Automotive control circuits
• Communication transceivers
• Sensor and actuator interfaces
• Industrial motor-control boards
• Oscillators and timing circuits
• Audio and mixed-signal electronics
• Power-supply start-up and shutdown sequences
• Digital pulses with fast rise and fall times

The bandwidth can later be upgraded electronically to 350 MHz or 500 MHz. The official upgrade licences for the DS7024 are DS7000-BW2T3 and DS7000-BW2T5.

Available bandwidth configurations

This upgrade path allows laboratories to purchase the bandwidth required today while retaining the option to support faster projects in the future.

Four Analogue Channels and External Trigger

Four analogue input channels make it possible to view multiple circuit nodes simultaneously.

Typical four-channel measurements include:

• Input voltage, output voltage, gate drive and switching current
• Clock, data, enable and reset signals
• Three motor phases plus a control or feedback signal
• Multiple power rails during start-up
• Sensor excitation, response, reference and supply voltage
• PWM output, feedback, current-sense and fault signals
• Transmit, receive, clock and control lines
• Primary and secondary waveforms in power-conversion circuits

The separate external trigger input allows all four analogue channels to remain available for measurement while another signal controls acquisition timing.

Up to 10 GSa/s Real-Time Sampling

The DS7024 supports a maximum real-time sample rate of 10 GSa/s. Sampling resources are shared according to the number and grouping of active analogue channels.

Channels 1 and 2 form one acquisition group, while channels 3 and 4 form another. In half-channel mode, one channel from each group may be enabled at up to 5 GSa/s per channel. When all four channels are active, the maximum sampling rate is 2.5 GSa/s per channel.

A high sampling rate helps preserve waveform detail when examining:

• Fast rising and falling edges
• Overshoot and undershoot
• Ringing
• Narrow glitches
• Pulse-width variation
• Timing relationships
• Switching transients
• Communication signal quality
• Clock instability
• Short-duration disturbances

At the maximum single-channel rate, the oscilloscope can place many sample points across rapid transitions, reducing the risk of missing important waveform behaviour.

100 Mpts Standard Memory, Expandable to 500 Mpts

The RIGOL DS7024 includes 100 Mpts memory as standard. Optional licences increase the maximum memory depth to 250 Mpts or 500 Mpts.

Maximum analogue memory allocation with the 500 Mpts option is:

The maximum memory is divided across active acquisition groups. Therefore, 500 Mpts should not be interpreted as 500 Mpts available independently on every channel.

Deep memory is valuable because it allows the oscilloscope to record a long time interval while maintaining a high sampling rate.

Engineers can capture:

• Complete power-up sequences
• Long serial communication transactions
• Motor acceleration cycles
• Intermittent failures
• Long PWM control sequences
• Multiple switching events
• Rare protection trips
• System resets
• Power interruptions
• Thermal or load-related signal changes

After acquisition, users can zoom into a small part of the waveform without losing the overall record.

High Waveform Capture Rate

The DS7024 offers a maximum waveform capture rate of at least 600,000 waveforms per second under the specified acquisition conditions.

A conventional oscilloscope may spend significant time processing and displaying each acquisition. During this dead time, an intermittent event can occur without being displayed. The DS7024’s fast acquisition architecture reduces this interval and improves the probability of observing rare faults.

This is particularly useful for detecting:

• Random glitches
• Missing pulses
• Noise bursts
• Timing violations
• Signal dropouts
• Metastable transitions
• Unstable switching waveforms
• Occasional communication errors
• Unexpected resets
• Irregular oscillator behaviour

The 256-level intensity-grading display indicates how frequently different waveform paths occur. Repetitive signal activity appears more prominently, while occasional events remain visually distinguishable.

Hardware Waveform Recording and Playback

The DS7024 supports hardware real-time waveform recording and playback of at least 450,000 frames in single-channel operation.

Segmented acquisition stores only waveform events that satisfy the configured trigger condition. This avoids using large amounts of memory to record inactive periods between relevant events.

Each recorded frame may be reviewed to analyse how a signal changes over time.

Typical uses include:

• Intermittent fault investigation
• Serial-bus error capture
• Power-converter protection trips
• Automotive ECU troubleshooting
• Motor-drive failure analysis
• Long-duration signal monitoring
• Production-line fault diagnosis
• Communication packet inspection
• Random noise investigation

Time tags help identify the relative timing of recorded events.

10.1-Inch Capacitive Multi-Touch Display

The DS7024 is equipped with a 10.1-inch capacitive colour touchscreen with gesture-enabled operation and a resolution of 1024 × 600 pixels.

Users can interact with waveforms through familiar touch gestures to:

• Move traces vertically or horizontally
• Adjust the time base
• Change channel scale
• Position cursors
• Set trigger levels
• Expand waveform regions
• Navigate long acquisitions
• Configure measurements
• Select menus and analysis functions

Physical knobs and front-panel buttons remain available for traditional oscilloscope operation. A USB mouse can also be used when preferred.

The large display provides sufficient space for viewing four analogue channels, measurements, decoded serial data, FFT traces and menu settings together.

Full-Memory Hardware Measurements

The DS7024 can calculate measurements across the complete acquisition memory rather than limiting calculations to the portion currently visible on screen.

This capability is particularly useful when:

• Capturing long records
• Comparing signals with substantially different frequencies
• Measuring burst signals
• Analysing start-up sequences
• Monitoring changing duty cycles
• Evaluating intermittent pulses
• Examining communication packets
• Measuring long-duration modulation

The instrument supports 41 automatic waveform parameters and can display up to ten measurement results simultaneously.

Automatic Waveform Measurements

The DS7024 provides a broad selection of automatic voltage, timing, pulse and statistical measurements.

Voltage measurements

• Maximum
• Minimum
• Peak-to-peak
• Amplitude
• Top
• Base
• Average
• RMS
• Overshoot
• Preshoot

Time measurements

• Frequency
• Period
• Rise time
• Fall time
• Positive pulse width
• Negative pulse width
• Positive duty cycle
• Negative duty cycle
• Delay
• Phase

Pulse and statistical measurements

• Positive pulse count
• Negative pulse count
• Rising-edge count
• Falling-edge count
• Area
• Cycle area
• Standard deviation

Measurement statistics help engineers evaluate changes across repeated acquisitions rather than relying on a single result.

Advanced Trigger System

The DS7024 includes multiple trigger modes for isolating specific waveform conditions.

Standard trigger types include:

• Edge
• Pulse
• Slope
• Video
• Pattern
• Duration
• Timeout
• Runt
• Window
• Delay
• Setup and hold
• Nth edge

Optional protocol trigger packages add support for:

• RS232 and UART
• I²C
• SPI
• CAN
• LIN
• FlexRay
• I²S
• MIL-STD-1553

These trigger modes allow engineers to capture events based on pulse shape, duration, voltage level, data pattern or serial-bus content rather than only a basic rising or falling edge.

Zone Triggering

Zone triggering provides a visual method for isolating unusual waveform behaviour.

The user draws a region directly on the touchscreen and instructs the oscilloscope to trigger when a waveform either enters or avoids that region.

This approach is helpful when an abnormal event is visually identifiable but difficult to express using conventional trigger parameters.

Zone triggering can help locate:

• Excessive overshoot
• Ringing
• Missing transitions
• Amplitude instability
• Timing jitter
• Unexpected waveform paths
• Abnormal pulse shapes
• Signal excursions outside an acceptable region

It can work with protocol decoding, waveform recording and pass/fail testing to support more complex debugging tasks.

Serial-Bus Trigger and Decode Options

The DS7024 supports optional serial-bus trigger and decode applications using its analogue input channels.

Parallel-bus decoding is included as standard. The listed serial protocols require the corresponding software option or a compatible bundle.

Decoded data can be displayed alongside the electrical waveform, helping users relate protocol information to signal-integrity problems.

Typical applications include:

• Embedded-system debugging
• Automotive network analysis
• Industrial controller development
• Sensor-interface troubleshooting
• Audio communication testing
• Avionics system development
• Communication-board verification
•  

Enhanced FFT Analysis

The DS7024 includes an enhanced Fast Fourier Transform function for frequency-domain signal analysis.

FFT analysis can help identify:

• Harmonic distortion
• Clock feed-through
• Switching noise
• Power-supply ripple
• Oscillator spurs
• Modulation components
• Resonance
• Electromagnetic interference sources
• Unwanted frequency components

The enhanced FFT supports:

• Record lengths up to 1 Mpts
• Up to 15 automatically identified peaks
• User-defined threshold settings
• Colour-grading display
• Multiple selectable window functions

Available FFT windows include:

• Rectangular
• Blackman-Harris
• Hanning
• Hamming
• Flattop
• Triangle

Colour FFT helps separate frequently occurring spectral components from intermittent frequency activity.

Waveform Mathematics and Digital Filtering

The DS7024 provides mathematical, logical and filtering operations for deriving additional information from acquired signals.

Arithmetic functions

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Division

Calculus and advanced functions

• Integration
• Differentiation
• Base-10 logarithm
• Natural logarithm
• Exponential
• Square root
• Absolute value
• Linear transformation

Logic functions

• AND
• OR
• XOR
• NOT

Digital filters

• Low-pass
• High-pass
• Band-pass
• Band-stop

These functions can be used to compare input and output waveforms, calculate differential behaviour, remove unwanted frequency components and analyse signal relationships without exporting every record to a computer.

Waveform Histogram Analysis

Histogram analysis shows the distribution of waveform positions or measurement values over repeated acquisitions.

It is useful for evaluating:

• Timing jitter
• Amplitude variation
• Frequency stability
• Noise distribution
• Pulse-width consistency
• Duty-cycle variation
• Production tolerances
• Long-term drift

Histograms help identify outliers and gradual changes that may not be obvious from a single waveform acquisition.

Hardware Pass/Fail Testing

The DS7024 includes hardware pass/fail testing as a standard function.

A reference mask is created around an acceptable waveform. The oscilloscope then checks each acquisition against that mask and identifies signals that cross the permitted boundary.

The function is suitable for:

• Production testing
• Repetitive board inspection
• Component screening
• Power-supply validation
• Signal-quality monitoring
• Long-duration reliability testing
• Education and laboratory assessment

Depending on the configured procedure, the instrument can count failures, stop acquisition or activate an output when a failure occurs.

Integrated Digital Voltmeter

The built-in digital voltmeter provides convenient voltage measurements through the oscilloscope’s analogue input channels.

It may be used for:

• DC supply checks
• Bias-voltage verification
• RMS voltage measurements
• Average voltage monitoring
• Slowly varying signal analysis
• Circuit-stage comparison

This reduces the need to use a separate multimeter for routine voltage checks during waveform troubleshooting.

Frequency Counter and Totaliser

The DS7024 includes an integrated frequency counter and totaliser.

These functions support:

• Clock-frequency verification
• Oscillator testing
• Pulse counting
• Repetition-rate measurements
• Sensor-output evaluation
• Production-line inspection

The totaliser can count input events over a selected observation period.

Optional Power Analysis

The DS7000-PWR application adds built-in power-analysis functions.

It can support the evaluation of:

• Power quality
• Switching loss
• Conduction loss
• Current and voltage relationships
• Harmonic content
• Ripple
• Modulation
• Safe operating area
• Turn-on behaviour
• Turn-off behaviour

The RPA246 phase-difference correction jig is recommended for correcting voltage and current probe delay before performing switching-power measurements.

Remote Control and Automated Testing

The DS7024 supports Web Control, allowing authorised users to operate the oscilloscope through a browser over a network connection.

Remote operation is useful for:

• Automated test systems
• Production lines
• Environmental chambers
• Restricted-access laboratories
• Classroom demonstrations
• Shared engineering facilities
• Long-duration monitoring

The oscilloscope can also be controlled programmatically through supported interfaces for integration into automated test and measurement systems.

Connectivity

The DS7024 provides the following interfaces:

• USB 2.0 host
• USB 2.0 device
• LAN
• GPIB
• HDMI
• AUX output
• Probe compensation output
• Web Control

USB host connectivity supports external storage. USB device, LAN and GPIB connections support computer control and test-system integration. HDMI allows the oscilloscope display to be shown on a larger monitor.

Applications

Embedded-System Development

The DS7024 can be used to examine clocks, reset signals, PWM outputs, sensor interfaces, analogue signals and serial communication activity in microcontroller- and FPGA-based systems.

Power-Electronics Testing

Its four channels, 200 MHz bandwidth and optional power-analysis software make it suitable for evaluating switching power supplies, inverters, converters, gate drivers and power-control circuits.

Automotive Electronics

Optional CAN and LIN decoding supports analysis of automotive communication networks. Engineers can also measure sensors, actuators, ECU signals, ignition controls, motor drives and power systems.

Industrial Electronics

The oscilloscope is suitable for PLC-related electronics, motor controllers, variable-frequency drives, control boards, industrial sensors and automation systems.

Motor-Control Development

Four analogue channels allow engineers to view multiple phases, gate-drive signals, current feedback and control signals simultaneously.

Communication Interface Testing

Optional serial decoding and advanced triggering help troubleshoot UART, SPI, I²C, CAN, LIN, FlexRay and other supported interfaces.

Research and Education

The large touchscreen, deep memory and broad analysis functions make the DS7024 suitable for engineering colleges, universities, R&D centres and training laboratories.

Manufacturing and Quality Control

Hardware pass/fail testing, waveform recording and remote control support repetitive production testing and long-term signal monitoring.

General Electronics Troubleshooting

The DS7024 can help locate unstable supplies, distorted pulses, noise coupling, timing problems, intermittent resets and component-related failures.

Why Buy the RIGOL DS7024 from Revine Technologies?

Revine Technologies supplies professional test and measurement instruments for electronics design, research, manufacturing, automotive development, power electronics and educational laboratories in India.

Customers can receive support with:

• Selecting the appropriate oscilloscope bandwidth
• Choosing between DS7000 and MSO7000 models
• Planning future bandwidth upgrades
• Selecting acquisition-memory options
• Choosing passive, active, current and differential probes
• Identifying suitable serial-decoding packages
• Configuring power-analysis applications
• Integrating the oscilloscope into automated test systems
• Matching accessories to voltage, bandwidth and safety requirements
• Post-sales product and application coordination

Buying through an experienced measurement-equipment supplier helps ensure that the oscilloscope, software licences, probes and accessories are correctly matched to the intended application.