The weird and funny DSO - Metrix MTX3000 series and others

[Bored@Work]

When talking about strange oscilloscopes, does somebody use scopes made by Tesla in Czechoslovakia? I mean people living in developed western countries like Australia, USA, Germany, France, or so...
This BM566A beast was in production in the late 1980s. It has quite small screen. The scope is full of steel, so it has weight of 30 kilograms or so. It has no cursors, readouts, or anything advanced.

No, the only oscilloscope from behind the iron curtain that I can remember to have occasionally seen in the West in the old days was the C1-94. It was marked Made in CCCP, so it was easy to identify. It was not exactly a triumph of superior communist workmanship. It was barely an oscilloscope and had a reputation of not having proper radiation shielding.

That doesn't mean there couldn't have been others. Maybe western companies were rebranding some from eastern Europe, as it was so common with consumer electronics and other goods. But I don't remember having seen such an oscilloscope.

[Hydrawerk]

Yes, the C1-94 scope is still popular in Czech Republic, but I am never gonna buy any.

[Hydrawerk]

I have found another weird oscilloscope. It's a digital scope Nicolet 460 100MHz 200MSa/s made in USA maybe in 1990. The whole unit is very large. 

[Hydrawerk]

More photos from http://imgur.com/a/MCB1c/embed#6

[Hydrawerk]

Have you ever seen these scopes Iwatsu Bringo made maybe in early 2000s?

[Hydrawerk]

A nice scope. When was it made? Late 1990s? Why is there no PC connection? No RS-232, USB, floppy disc, GPIB or anything? Just that video output.

[bingo600]

I have an Iwatsu ds-8608a
Both analog & digital w. gpib.

Don't use it much after i got my TDS-320 , but it's my last analog.

Don't use my TDS-320 much, after i got my Rigol DS1102E

/Bingo

[echen1024]

I have seen one of those large Nicolet scopes at my local surplus store (EPO Houston) Poor selection, expensive.

[nctnico]

I know very little about it, I just want it :-)

I'm not sure it is a good buy though. It is a scan converter scope which uses an analog storage tube which is then digitized. It doesn't have any memory beyond the screen.

[bingo600]

I have an Iwatsu ds-8608a
Both analog & digital w. gpib.

What is your opinion of it? Worth getting?

It's an ok scope , but i'd get a TEK analog or a Rigol digital.
If i should get one today.

/Bingo

[Hydrawerk]

Another strange scope made by Metrix in early 2000s. It has SMART AUTOSET  but no rotary encoders. And it works in a really strange way.

4.1. AUTOSET
• AUTOSET/ABORT light On: when the User presses on the AUTOSET key (4), the oscilloscope
searches for the vertical sensitivity, the horizontal sweep speed and trigger conditions that will
display the signals present at the CH1 and CH2 inputs.
NOTE: If there is no signal, the oscilloscope will keep the ranges indicated by the manual vertical
sensitivity switches (5) - (11) and the timebase switch (15).
• AUTOSET/ABORT indicator flashes: the AUTOSET light flashes if the ranges found by
AUTOSET are not the same as the ranges indicated by the sensitivity and timebase switches.
The ranges found by AUTOSET can be found by turning switches (5) (11) and (15) in the direction
shown by the corresponding blue arrows closest to the two illuminated coupling or source lights.
The corresponding two lights go OFF when the manual sensitivity or timebase switch changes
to the position found by AUTOSET. The AUTOSET/ABORT light goes OFF when all AUTOSET
positions have been found.

[Hydrawerk]

Metrix OX-530 user manual is here. See the page 18.

[coppice]

It reminds me the computer-like oscilloscopes made by HP in late 80s... This design was probably not much succesful and later they returned to traditional design with many encoder knobs.

I guess you're talking about the first gen HP 54500 series. Great scopes. I still have a 54510A (2Ch 250MHz 1GSa/s on each channel, 8k memory) as a secondary scope. The single dial button system takes a bit getting used to but after that I think it's good. Most parameters can also be keyed in via the keypad which at least for me is much quicker than turning a know.

I suspect he is referring to the first generation of HP non-sampling oscilloscopes, which were in a case very similar to the HP 1611A logic analyser in this picture. They really looked like a small computer of the day. It was a 2 channel 6 bit 200M sample/second/channel machine. I can't find anything about them on the web now, but they were very popular among the engineers I knew. Mostly because it was the first time you could end a storage oscilloscope's capture on a trigger event. I can't remember the model number, but I think it should be in the 54xxx range.

[elCap]

I think the Iwatsu DS-6121 have a very strange user interface. It was probably considered the coolest thing on a digital scope, the future of interfaces.. 
But CRT is controlled by old style knobs, same type as Iwatsu used on many of their earlier scopes.

Check it out here: http://www.grandpas-shack.com/parts/image/DS-6121A(IWATSU)UN_panel2.jpg

[coppice]

I think the Iwatsu DS-6121 have a very strange user interface. It was probably considered the coolest thing on a digital scope, the future of interfaces.. 
But CRT is controlled by old style knobs, same type as Iwatsu used on many of their earlier scopes.

Check it out here: http://www.grandpas-shack.com/parts/image/DS-6121A(IWATSU)UN_panel2.jpg

It was clearly designed for use in kitchens, with that wipe clean front. Maybe it was for the kitchen table hobbyist.

[Hydrawerk]

I suspect he is referring to the first generation of HP non-sampling oscilloscopes, which were in a case very similar to the HP 1611A logic analyser in this picture. They really looked like a small computer of the day. It was a 2 channel 6 bit 200M sample/second/channel machine. I can't find anything about them on the web now, but they were very popular among the engineers I knew. Mostly because it was the first time you could end a storage oscilloscope's capture on a trigger event. I can't remember the model number, but I think it should be in the 54xxx range.

Well, I have never heard of them. But they are interesting anyway.

[Hydrawerk]

Well, membrane keyboards used to be popular in 1980s. But everyone prefers 3D front panel as on most today's scopes.
Later Iwatsu returned to this traditional design. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/the-most-weird-and-funny-dso-metrix-mtx3000/?action=dlattach;attach=88853;image

[shakalnokturn]

I spotted this one today, remembered the topic and figured it belonged here if anywhere.