MicSig tBooks

[myval]

Hi everyone,
I am in market for portable scope and have been wondering how many of you have actively used tBook oscilloscope and what the impressions are.
Normally with new things you get storm of reviews on you tube but so far I have seen only one worth while watching, others are like wow it can display sine wave and it can trigger yeah!

What about the actual field deployment any real live action? is it easy to handle and operate while troubleshooting some thing in the field?
Does it crash, being Android tablet basically it could happen.
What is the battery life?
Does it get hot while in use?
Is the touch screen advantage or nuisance?
....

As we all know running something in lab environment is totally different to real life deployment.
I did fell in love with this gadget but I am still bit sceptical, I know we are not talking expensive test gear but value for money.

Thanks
Josef

[BravoV]

Use the force search Luke ....

[myval]

been trying but nothing really interesting yet to learn. The best one so far is mikeselectricstuff video. I even used force of the dark side still nothing too real life about this product.
If I goog rigol, hoooolyy there is this and that and mods and tweaks and ......

google says "micsig oscilloscope" == 843 results
google says "rigol oscilloscope" == 34000 hits

so on this with simple math micsig junk, rigol awesome

People dont like it?? dont use it? dont know it? where is the truth?
The truth is out there (I am sure)
I thought this forum be like one single point of knowledge .

So far I have learned that it fits in few different types of carry cases, it has touch screen, has nice shielding on the input ccts and has weird battery. Oh and it can display sine wave and trigger to it yess sweet.

[MosherIV]

I thought this forum be like one single point of knowledge .

Sadly no.

People dont like it?? dont use it? dont know it? where is the truth?

Most people serious about electronics stay away from gimmicky stuff like this - hence very little user info on it imho.

Is the touch screen advantage or nuisance?

I would image that it is a problem when trying to look at stuff changing on the trace and your view is obscured by a) your finger and b) the stupid pop-up to change some setting.
Definitely, follow the crowd and stick to the conventional stuff that just works.

[Ivan7enych]

Hello, I've got micsig 1104 several days ago.
I've bought it in the official micsig store and asked to get a beta firmware with protocols decoding.

First impressions - you need at least to read short manual to how to use it. For example I enter XY mode and at didn't realize how to exit it until I press home and find a short manual.

I plan to make a review, at least run through Agilent 3014A test output signals and show every type on my oscilloscopes -
- Agilent 3014A,
- Rigol MSO2072A (will be sold, but for now it is in my hands)
- Micsig T1104
- Tek TDS744A (will be sold, may be to compare FFT option)

Most interesting for me is to compare rs232 and i2c triggering and decoding. From first look Micsig decoder is faster than Rigol.
But it's a hard work to make a good review, I need to find time to do this.

[nctnico]

Hi everyone,
I am in market for portable scope and have been wondering how many of you have actively used tBook oscilloscope and what the impressions are.
Normally with new things you get storm of reviews on you tube but so far I have seen only one worth while watching, others are like wow it can display sine wave and it can trigger yeah!

I wrote an in-depth review a while ago: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/micsig-to1104-(similar-to-rigol-1104z)/msg1196293/#msg1196293
The problem is that you can't do a good oscilloscope review in a video. The video would be too long and boring.

[TK]

google says "micsig oscilloscope" == 843 results
google says "rigol oscilloscope" == 34000 hits

It could mean: 843 happy micsig comments, 34000 unhappy rigol comments...  The Rigol was available for many more years than the micsig.

Micsig is very reliable, touch screen UI is very responsive and easy to use.

[myval]

People dont like it?? dont use it? dont know it? where is the truth?

Most people serious about electronics stay away from gimmicky stuff like this - hence very little user info on it imho.

Totally agree, we are Tektronixed in the workshop but I need something portable and reasonable priced. I had few Fluke 123, 124, 125 and lately 199 but I can tell you you rather decline a job than sh.. your self that you drop the 199. Got rid of them flukes not really usable from financial point of view. One drop can cost $3000

Is the touch screen advantage or nuisance?

I would image that it is a problem when trying to look at stuff changing on the trace and your view is obscured by a) your finger and b) the stupid pop-up to change some setting.
Definitely, follow the crowd and stick to the conventional stuff that just works.

Yeah that is what I am worried about and hoped that someone has done some out of the office (true sense of portable) work. Everyone seems to be just playing with it might as well just draw it on paper  I like the screen size sometime I can not be glued to the little tektronix screen and have to see it from a distance so big 7" or what ever size it actually is you beauty.
The portable flukes were good but at their price tag you dont want to take them out of the office.

Most interesting for me is to compare rs232 and i2c triggering and decoding. From first look Micsig decoder is faster than Rigol.
But it's a hard work to make a good review, I need to find time to do this.

Exactly what probably 50% of my usage is decoding analysing, I wish there was a scripting to write your own decoder. Arinc 429, arinc 717, arinc 825, CAN bus, at the moment Harvard Bi-Phase.
Now see what everyone have to say, "well you can get dedicated readers/ analysers or build one yourself and you don't need scope to do that." well NO in the office yeah sweet why not. but troubleshooting somewhere in the middle of nowhere you can not carry it all even if you do you forget half of it or dont expect this or that to happen. Been there done that in matter of fact doing it now it is about 100m from the office still you do lot of walking / time wasting.

I wrote an in-depth review a while ago: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/micsig-to1104-(similar-to-rigol-1104z)/msg1196293/#msg1196293
The problem is that you can't do a good oscilloscope review in a video. The video would be too long and boring.

It looks good I will read it through this arvo, thanks for that. This is nice review it should really be first in search but i did not even see it when I searched.
Should start another thread how much time everyone waste searching for info on the net in your life 

It could mean: 843 happy micsig comments, 34000 unhappy rigol comments...  The Rigol was available for many more years than the micsig.
Micsig is very reliable, touch screen UI is very responsive and easy to use.

Well I hope that people are just so impressed with it and have nothing to say about it so one liner in google results is good enough.

[jacklee]

Hello, Josef, I think I can help with your question, I had used my Micsig tBook mini TO1104 oscilloscope for a period, I have to say, this is what 21st-century portable test equipment should be! 

Believe me, the touch screen is really quite useful. Amazing useful! The experience just like from Nokia to Apple iPhone. You wouldn't feel down to have it. Highly recommend! 

The battery life could continue about 6 hours, and with the fan it wouldn't be hot. BTW, my working environment temperature is about 27?.

And I think their operating system should not be Android, I can't sure for that, anyone may answer this question. 

[newnet]

The experience just like from Nokia to Apple iPhone. You wouldn't feel down to have it. Highly recommend! 

It's a very felicitous description   I do agree with you.
Migsic launched some new features for the tBook series scope recently, such as Bus decoding functions, android App of Remote control, etc.
There is a screenshot of my mobilephone while practicing using the new features,

[euzer]

The firmware doesn't look to be available for download from the micsig website any more for the tBook scopes.

[Synthtech]

I purchased a tBook Mini for my service center mid last year as an adjunct to our bench scopes. I was concerned that I would not like using a touch screen scope but decided to try it anyway. At that point the only user manual was the in-built guide, there is now a small written manual available on the web. Since I purchased it there have been a couple of software updates and they have been successfully installed simply by telling the scope to update itself which it perfectly did via the workshop WiFi network. From memory one of these updates was a free decoding package but as I don’t use the scope for serial decoding I haven’t checked.

I thought that it might be a bit of a gimmic but I have been very plesently surprised - it’s easy to use, for my purposes it works very well, screen shots and image handling is great, it’s really handy to be able to just pick it up and walk into any room, set it beside any piece of equipment and be probing in seconds. Even on the service benches that are equipped with bench scopes I often find myself grabbing it and dropping it right in front of me inside or on top of the device on which I am working for instant probing. Battery operation is very handy!

My work is on audio equipment and legacy micro’s so I am working in the realm of Z80’s and 68000’s and audio range signals and for my purposes it’s actually a really useful scope with very few negatives. I am not going to get into technicalities here, just my impressions of the Micsig as a day-to-day workshop tool and the outcome was that I bought the Micsig as an adjunct to my bench scopes half thinking that I probably wouldn’t like the user experience but prepared to take a chance, it isn’t very expensive after all. I was half expecting it to be a toy or something that I try out and leave on a shelf after a few uses. The outcome instead was that I found myself really liking the scope and I was surprised to find the user experience being that it is a solid, functional and seriously useful piece of test equipment that I use heavily, that has a genuine portabilty advantage, that is capable and gives high measurement confidence and am very glad to have purchased it.

[kirill_ka]

The firmware doesn't look to be available for download from the micsig website any more for the tBook scopes.

You can get download links from http://www.micsig.com.cn/upgrade/config.xml which is used for automatic upgrades.
Note: ignore model numbers in file names

[Scratch.HTF]

If we can hack the Micsig to run on Android, this could be the first app-powered oscillscope.

[lem_ix]

Played around with one a bit. I was pleasantly surprised at how responsive it was. Struggled a bit with the menus but I'm sure you get used to them.

[clarks]

I received one yesterday and I love it.

The touch screen is very easy to use.

The screen is easy to read.

I'm working with a microprocessor based signal generator circuit. Having the on-screen measurements saved me a bunch of time and made it easy to fix my coding problems that were causing signal generator errors.

The scope is easy to use and very intuitive.

[euzer]

The firmware doesn't look to be available for download from the micsig website any more for the tBook scopes.

You can get download links from http://www.micsig.com.cn/upgrade/config.xml which is used for automatic upgrades.
Note: ignore model numbers in file names

Nothing for the TO204A

[nidlaX]

If we can hack the Micsig to run on Android, this could be the first app-powered oscillscope.

Yeah well, let's just say that Micsig have thought about that too.

[tsman]

Nothing for the TO204A

The download links are on their Chinese forum.

[euzer]

Nothing for the TO204A

The download links are on their Chinese forum.

I don't understand which version to download (A, B, C, D) from the translation I get:


Step 2: Download the only corresponding firmware program according to the version information;

There are three versions of the version information, as shown above: 4.XX.13

"A", first place is 4, third place is less than or equal to 13

TBO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1jHLRkn8 TO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1bp4KFvh TO(A) Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/ 1qY5GhXU

"B", first place is 4, third place is greater than 13

TBO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1c1425S8 TO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1i504K1R TO(A) Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/ 1o7Ivofw

"C", first place is 6,7..., third place is less than or equal to 11

TBO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1boFtQCf TO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1cfKuya TO(A) Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/ 1dEKF5BV

"D", first place is 6, 7..., third place is greater than 11

TBO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1bEFV58 TO Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1c2hckCC TO(A) Series: https://pan.baidu.com/s/ 1kUBFIzP

[tsman]

Micsig put the hardware model/revision into the version numbers. You need to look at the current version on your scope to work out what file you need.

If 4.xx.0 to 4.xx.13 then pick A.
If 4.xx.14 or above then pick B.
If 6/7.xx.0 to 6/7.xx.11 then pick C.
If 6/7.xx.12 or above then pick D.

[euzer]

Currently on scope version 4.1.69 on a TO204A. The download page references "Firmware Version_131" and is a raw .bin file rather than being archived in a .rar file with release information, so not sure what the actual scope version is this download.