July 27,2022

Rigol DS1054Z Oscilloscope - How to capture a screen shot

The scope has a USB "slot" right next to the power switch at the lower left. The first thing to do is to find a USB stick that the Rigol likes. I just used trial and error and it accepted the fourth stick I shoved into the hole. Rumor has it that a FAT32 filesystem is what it is looking for. It will do one of three things:

Once you cross that bridge, you look for the "print" button. This is cleverly disguised. I looked everywhere for the word "print" on some button, but it is the green button near the upper right (below help) that has something on it that is supposed to look like a printer.

Press this button and "voila", it will dream up a filename and place a PNG image onto the stick using that invented name.

Now I take the stick to my linux system. It mounts as "VFAT" and I see the file "DS1Z_QuickPrint1.png". This is an 800x480 image and looks like this:

Other things are possible using a network connection or a USB cable plugged into the back of the unit. This article talks about a Python script that can be used to transfer images. It is also possible to save and/or transfer CSV files with data.

No doubt lots of other things are possible, but I just want a quick image, not another project.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's electronics pages / [email protected]