Rohde & Schwarz Oscilloscopes - Questions/Comments? Let me know!

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Hi Folks,

My name is Rich and I work for Rohde & Schwarz focused on Oscilloscopes in North America.  I’m a longtime fan of EEVblog and frequent visitor.  I figured there are more and more questions/comments coming up on our scopes so I thought I’d join and try to help out where I can. 

A little background on myself – I’ve been involved in T&M for almost 16 years now.  Started at Agilent in the Oscilloscope and Logic Analyzer division in Colorado Springs right out of my BSEE.  My last nine years or so there I spent focused on scopes, a few years focused on Infiniium scopes (including doing some of the planning for the Infiniium 9000-series) and then seven years or so as the product planner for the InfiniiVision X-Series.  I left Agilent in 2014 to join R&S focused on scopes in North America. 

A couple (bunch of) comments:

1.   I’m doing this in my spare time, so please patient if I’m slow to answer.  I typically scan the forum once or twice a day, but can’t promise I’ll be able to respond instantly.
2.   I’m very experienced with a wide variety of scopes and while I can give you insights on almost any scope from R&S, Keysight or even Tek/LeCroy (I’ve been a part of many teardowns on those and competitive deep dives and actually own many of those scopes), I may not always be able to answer the questions out of respect for my previous employer (e.g. don’t ask me why a decision was made when the InfiniiVision X-Series scopes were being designed, because while I could answer it, I’m not going to  ).
3.   For R&S, I’m 100% focused on the US and Canada, so I may not be able to help with questions/issues in other regions, but I frequently talk with all the major regions and will do my best to make sure you are well taken care of if you are in one of those regions.
4.   I’m extremely close with Product Managers within the division, and our R&S Scope Planners, one of which came from Tektronix and another that is a former coworker from Keysight (InfiniiVision planner and S-Series planner).  So please feel free to give feedback and I’ll make sure it makes it to the right person.
5.     Since I've been with R&S for roughly 2.5 years, I don't have all the background on the HMO scopes, but feel free to ask questions if you have them and I'll do my best to find the answers.
6.   Yes, I clearly know Daniel from Keysight.  Great guy.  I can beat him at basketball, but he’s a better mountain biker than I am.    

Looking forward to taking a more active role on the forum.

-Rich

[nctnico]

Welcome! I hope we can write some sense into R&S because so far R&S scopes don't seem to be very popular (they very rarely turn up on Ebay and I have not spotted a single one in the wild yet).

[neil t]

welcome to the blog.

[tautech]

Welcome aboard Rich, the more the merrier. 

Do put the R&S website link up or in your profile signature.

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Welcome! I hope we can write some sense into R&S because so far R&S scopes don't seem to be very popular (they very rarely turn up on Ebay and I have not spotted a single one in the wild yet).

Thanks!  And I certainly understand what you are saying.  I think we are still pretty young and not very well known outside of Europe, but there are two things about R&S that I've learned in my 2.5 years here:

1.  We're very customer focused.  We certainly aren't perfect, but a benefit of being privately held is we can err on the side of our customers. 
2.  We are in things for the long run.

So stay tuned - hopefully you'll see more and more of us because we are giving our customers something they want/need.

-Rich

[EEVblog]

Thanks for joining Rick
R&S stock just went up a few points.

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Welcome aboard Rich, the more the merrier. 

Do put the R&S website link up or in your profile signature.

Thanks and I appreciate the suggestion - I added the link to my sig.

-Rich

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Thanks for joining Rick
R&S stock just went up a few points.

  Thanks - Looking forward to helping where I can.

-Rich

[radar_macgyver]

Hi Rich,

Was wondering if there was any info beyond the "two minutes to decide" clip about the RTH1004 hand-held scope. It seems like a nice product, but I couldn't find a review video (unlike say Keysight's DSO series). What I was interested in is how responsive the scope user interface is. Hand-held scopes in general need to make some compromises on this front (eg: buttons instead of knobs), I wanted to know what I was getting in to. Another question was about the capacitive touch screen and how it responds to small amounts of water (for example a light mist or condensation).

Thanks.

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Hi Rich,

Was wondering if there was any info beyond the "two minutes to decide" clip about the RTH1004 hand-held scope. It seems like a nice product, but I couldn't find a review video (unlike say Keysight's DSO series). What I was interested in is how responsive the scope user interface is. Hand-held scopes in general need to make some compromises on this front (eg: buttons instead of knobs), I wanted to know what I was getting in to. Another question was about the capacitive touch screen and how it responds to small amounts of water (for example a light mist or condensation).

Thanks.

Absolutely - I'll put together a quick video for you today to show the responsiveness.  And wrt the capacitive touchscreen - it actually works quite well, even with a little water on the display - I'll post up a video of that too.  But should you have any issues, you can always turn it off and use the rotary wheel and buttons to drive it all (which I'll show in the first video).  I'll start a separate thread on this topic if that's ok.

-Rich

[salamander123]

Hello,
thanks for your nice offer. Can you please comment on the new RTO hardware option B6. Especially I would be interested if te module will be available for the "old" RTO1000 or only the RTO2000.

[BloodyCactus]

I just got a brand new HM01202 with the LA pod.. its awesome.. except maybe you can explain why it takes a month to get a code to enable the logic decode??? (that was another persons experience, me I'm still waiting over a week)

apparently only 1 person can generate a code, and they only work one day every other month it would seem.

never would have thought it so hard to get a damn code.

maybe I was silly to order the code when I ordered my scope.

either way you slice it, its ridiculous support by R&S for this for something that should be instant.

[Ice-Tea]

Want to get the brand out there? Here's a two-step plan:

- give one to Dave
- give a bunch of them to forum members. 

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Hi Rich,

Was wondering if there was any info beyond the "two minutes to decide" clip about the RTH1004 hand-held scope. It seems like a nice product, but I couldn't find a review video (unlike say Keysight's DSO series). What I was interested in is how responsive the scope user interface is. Hand-held scopes in general need to make some compromises on this front (eg: buttons instead of knobs), I wanted to know what I was getting in to. Another question was about the capacitive touch screen and how it responds to small amounts of water (for example a light mist or condensation).

Thanks.

I just posted a quick video in another thread:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rs-rth1000-oscilloscope-front-panel-responsiveness-and-touchscreen/

Hope this helps!

-Rich

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Hello,
thanks for your nice offer. Can you please comment on the new RTO hardware option B6. Especially I would be interested if te module will be available for the "old" RTO1000 or only the RTO2000.

So that product isn't actually introduced yet, but since it will introduce on March 14th (which it's March 14th in other parts of the world!) I feel OK answering.  And unfortunately the answer is no, it won't work on the RTO1000.  I'm not sure of the exact reasons, but it is only compatible with the RTO2000 and RTE1000. 

-Rich

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

I just got a brand new HM01202 with the LA pod.. its awesome.. except maybe you can explain why it takes a month to get a code to enable the logic decode??? (that was another persons experience, me I'm still waiting over a week)

apparently only 1 person can generate a code, and they only work one day every other month it would seem.

never would have thought it so hard to get a damn code.

maybe I was silly to order the code when I ordered my scope.

either way you slice it, its ridiculous support by R&S for this for something that should be instant.

Sorry to hear about the troubles.  Although we bought Hameg quite some time ago, not all their products use the same systems as other (newer) R&S scopes.  So I'm guessing that is the problem.  But regardless, I agree, it is ridiculous to take that long.  Do you mind PM'ing me your info (who you bought it from, your order number, etc) and I'll see if I can escalate it for you.

-Rich

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Want to get the brand out there? Here's a two-step plan:

- give one to Dave
- give a bunch of them to forum members. 

I like your thinking!   

-Rich

[salamander123]

Hey Rich,
thanks for clarification. Maybe the information on the homepage can be corrected, since it states (at least in the german version) that every RTO can be upgraded (https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/de/produkt/rtob6-produkt-startseite_63493-401856.html).
I would have liked to buy the generation option, especially because of the 8 digital channels you pypically do not get with an standalone function generator... but unfortunately own an RTO1000.

best regards

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Hey Rich,
thanks for clarification. Maybe the information on the homepage can be corrected, since it states (at least in the german version) that every RTO can be upgraded (https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/de/produkt/rtob6-produkt-startseite_63493-401856.html).
I would have liked to buy the generation option, especially because of the 8 digital channels you pypically do not get with an standalone function generator... but unfortunately own an RTO1000.

best regards

I'll have them update it - thanks for sending this on.

-Rich

[Keysight DanielBogdanoff]

FWIW (employers aside), I've worked with Rich and he's a great guy.

Rich, hope to see you on the bike trail soon!

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Hey Rich - I work for a global Telecom HW supplier - wireless, wireline (800Mbps xDSL/G.Fast) and fiber-optics.
We have many scopes from R&S in our lab - I also have a nice R&S scope in my private lab - we have very good experience with these scopes
and excellent support from local sales team and engineers from Munich.

I am looking forward to the announcement of a new R&S game changer at Embedded World - this week ... in Nurnberg (Germany): RTB 2002 & 2004

https://cdn.rohde-schwarz.com/pws/dl_downloads/dl_common_library/dl_manuals/gb_1/r/rtb_1/RTB_GettingStarted_en_02.pdf

Welcome in this group !

:-)
Flinstone

Thanks Flintstone - I appreciate the kind words.  I won't be at Embedded World, but definitely stop in and say hi to the team if you'll be there.

-Rich

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

FWIW (employers aside), I've worked with Rich and he's a great guy.

Rich, hope to see you on the bike trail soon!

Thanks Daniel 

-Rich

[kaz911]

I do like the new ScopeRiders - but I do not like the price especially with options. I was ready to kick my Fluke 190-202 to the kerb and upgrade - but that was simply a non-starter price wise. So I guess I have to go on the boats without CAN bus debugging in the scope and still use a pocket decoder and laptop.

But I did enjoy the R&S EMC conference/session in UK last month - great people there educating especially Mo from Wurth! He knows his RF stuff and is an educator extreme! Food could have been better though *G*

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

I do like the new ScopeRiders - but I do not like the price especially with options. I was ready to kick my Fluke 190-202 to the kerb and upgrade - but that was simply a non-starter price wise. So I guess I have to go on the boats without CAN bus debugging in the scope and still use a pocket decoder and laptop.

But I did enjoy the R&S EMC conference/session in UK last month - great people there educating especially Mo from Wurth! He knows his RF stuff and is an educator extreme! Food could have been better though *G*

Hi Kaz911 - I certainly understand.  Stay tuned as we sometimes run promotions to help bring down the cost of the options (e.g. the History Mode is free right now). 

And I'm happy to hear the EMC conference was good!  I, personally, think that is one of the big benefits of a company like R&S (or Keysight, Tek, LeCroy, etc) - we are often able to help provide some expert insights on interesting topics.

-Rich

[radar_macgyver]

(e.g. the History Mode is free right now). 

On the RTH1000 series too?