Micsig new oscilloscopes on website

[scoper007]

Micsig seems about to release multiple new scopes, public on its Chinese website only? : https://www.micsig.com.cn/ETO/

[PartialDischarge]

At least this one is a real portable scope with an internal battery included 

[Fungus]

Look at the specs...!

Micsig are taking on the big boys now.

At least this one is a real portable scope with an internal battery included 

All they need is a VESA mount and a pretty stand with a handle on top. Nobody will buy that new Tek if they do that.

[Fungus]

I'm not sure that taking away all the buttons is a good idea. There's a few buttons that I use a lot, eg. Zoom, measurement menu, trigger menu. All of those take two or three gestures otherwise.

There's plenty of room for those at the bottom of the 13" screen, they really ought to add them.

[scoper007]

Agreed! Buttons work for me just fine! Haven't try the new button panel on the Smart series though...

[Fungus]

Agreed! Buttons work for me just fine! Haven't try the new button panel on the Smart series though...

I haven't seen any videos of people using them but they look weird. They're probably good to use with a thumb when you're holding the 'scope in your hand but I can't imagine they're very ergonomic when it's upright on a bench*.

I already mentioned them here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-micsig/

(*) If Micsig wants to send me one I'll be happy to review it though. 

[pcprogrammer]

(*) If Micsig wants to send me one I'll be happy to review it though. 

Aren't we all

[free_electron]

1920x1080 ! Suck on that Tek ! (1280x800).

I can;t understand why we are still mucking about with all these low resolution displays. a cheapo tablet has 2500 by something these days... in a 2000$ scope you'd expect at least 1920

[labmixx]

Hi guys! First post as this person.

I've posted... a unique (haha)... video review of the new STO1004 scope! If there's interest, I may do a teardown as well, but to be honest I don't have too much time to create content like this, so I'd rather spend time making videos with more unusual content. That said, I still wanted to do a good job with this review. I think it covers most things you'd want to know. It's pretty lighthearted, so I hope that's ok haha. English subs are available, and everything is divided into chapters. Subs took a long time to create for 50 mins of video, but I speak kind of fast at times and I respect international audiences a lot.

YouTube link to review:

[Fungus]

I've posted... a unique (haha)... video review of the new STO1004 scope!

Good video! It really shows what Micsigs are like to use. I was wondering what the new joysticks were like and this answers that. I think I'll stick with my knobs for now though.

I'm not seeing many new features compared to the old ones, mostly changes to the UI - dark theme, slide-out menus for the channels. Turning off a channel looks more difficult. You have buttons on yours but there's two new models without buttons. 

The "aux out" connector at the top will give one pulse for every trigger event.

You didn't show the timebase popup or changing the timebase with the buttons at the bottom. I guess you were using it in auto timebase mode most of the time though. I see the auto mode has been reduced to a single button. On mine I can select horizontal/vertical/level independently (see image). Does it scale all three or just the horizontal on this new one?

[labmixx]

Good video! It really shows what Micsigs are like to use.

Thanks a lot! I'll do my best to improve for future videos.

The "aux out" connector at the top will give one pulse for every trigger event.

I just double checked, and even when I have it set to a short timebase setting, triggering in "Normal" mode, the fastest pulse rate I get out of the Auxout port is 33Hz. As I increase the timebase and grab more points, it only goes down from there. But surely it's triggering on the waveform more frequently than 33Hz? Given that the waveform update rate is supposed to be 130k waveforms/sec according to the spec sheet? I'm using a very fast scope to look at the Auxout signal.

You didn't show the timebase popup or changing the timebase with the buttons at the bottom.

Yes, I completely forgot. I got too used to the AutoRange mode haha...

[labmixx]

On mine I can select horizontal/vertical/level independently (see image). Does it scale all three or just the horizontal on this new one?

Forgot to respond - yes, it's the same. You can select all three individually. I just had vertical scaling disabled in my video since I didn't want it to jump around. When I had more than one channel enabled, the vertical scaling was often different for each channel in AutoRange mode, even with an identical signal, which was odd. It works very well for a single channel though.

[Fungus]

The "aux out" connector at the top will give one pulse for every trigger event.

I just double checked, and even when I have it set to a short timebase setting, triggering in "Normal" mode, the fastest pulse rate I get out of the Auxout port is 33Hz. As I increase the timebase and grab more points, it only goes down from there. But surely it's triggering on the waveform more frequently than 33Hz? Given that the waveform update rate is supposed to be 130k waveforms/sec according to the spec sheet? I'm using a very fast scope to look at the Auxout signal.

Further investigation needed... 

What's your opinion of the joysticks? I'm wondering if you put your index finger on the top edge of of one, can you push it to do an "up"?

ie. Can you do do up/down by push/pull on the edge of one?

In the video you seem to use your thumb more.

What's the response like when you want to move the trigger position long distances left/right? This one probably needs a video demonstration....

[labmixx]

What's your opinion of the joysticks? I'm wondering if you put your index finger on the top edge of of one, can you push it to do an "up"?

Definitely. It's still easier to put your thumb on them (they have grippy textured tops) and move them that way, only because if you try to move them from the edges, the other buttons may get in the way. The trigger joystick can be grabbed easily from the sides though, and it's easy to move left/right as you describe (which selects trigger channel #). They're also easy to push as buttons, without accidentally tilting them into one of the up/down/left/right positions. To be honest, they do feel good to operate.

The other thing is that unlike a knob that you'd have to keep rotating, you can simply hold a joystick in a particular position (tilted left or right). There is software acceleration, which means that the scrolling speed will speed up over a few seconds, to a point, and then keep scrolling at a "comfortable" speed (slow enough so that you could still watch the waveforms).

I'm honestly neutral on the joysticks. Both joysticks and mechanical rotary encoders will fail over time. Joysticks will probably fail a bit more predictably. I generally prefer knobs, but I don't mind these particular joysticks at all.

What's the response like when you want to move the trigger position long distances left/right?

I haven't noticed any delays in waveform scrolling at all, regardless of number of points or channels. One of the worst things would be to have some intermittent delays (like on some Tek scopes), but it's pretty smooth sailing with this one at least. Even with all channels enabled and with max points, you can scroll continuously with the joysticks. There are no "jumps" or stutters or anything.

[Fungus]

I loved the display of "NaN" in your video when the serial data wasn't updating. 

You dedicated a lot of time to that bug but really I don't think many people will be decoding 8MHz RS232 data. I mostly do I2C with mine. The I2C decoding and trigger modes work very well. It also shows all the ACKs and NACKs in the decode. 

I'm surprised they haven't added statistical mode yet. I suggested it to them over a year ago and it seems like it should be really, really easy to do. There's plenty of space for a 'stats' button next to the on-screen cursor on/off buttons.

[labmixx]

I loved the display of "NaN" in your video when the serial data wasn't updating.

Haha, yes, I only realized later that they're simply dividing the number of error frames by total frames received and multiplying by 100 to get an error percentage. Dividing by zero fails, and you get a NaN haha. In the video, I assumed that they were calculating errors based on what's in the buffer, but that's not the case. It's just a statistic.

You dedicated a lot of time to that bug but really I don't think many people will be decoding 8MHz RS232 data. I mostly do I2C with mine.

I agree haha, and I realize that this would be a very rare use case for anyone else. I just thought the way in which it failed to display the characters was interesting.  Since I wanted to release this review quickly, I didn't have time to plan out any other more elaborate bus decode tests, but I will in the future. Very glad to hear that I2C works well - I haven't tried it yet.

I'm surprised they haven't added statistical mode yet.

Agreed, it couldn't be simpler to implement. Doing some running or even total averages costs almost nothing computationally. Maybe eventually!

[tv84]

It could be me BUT one thing I really hate is the amount of space the screen borders take... (1-inch plus)

[2N3055]

I still think that they owe us that bought STO C series (one with proper buttons and knobs) an update that will give measurements statistics.
That is my biggest problem with otherwise really great simple little scope.
Some cheap 50 USD crap has statistics...

In meantime they developed STO E series, and two new generations of hardware (even segmented capture) but they don't know how to make simple statistics..
New scopes (despite more powerful hardware) are basically same as old ones in capabilities.

While I like the scope and company, I don't think that they can go forward without fixing some of the major flaws.
While old ones were small, simple and cheap but nicely made and useful tools, to move forward (and I presume new ones will be much more expensive) why would anybody buy it if it cannot compete in basic features.

Also, my STO1000C is few years old and seems like abandoned platform.. No new development. Even really simple (and basic) stuff like measurement statistics..  Makes you wonder if that is the policy?

[Fungus]

It could be me BUT one thing I really hate is the amount of space the screen borders take... (1-inch plus)

The screen's quite big for an oscilloscope, but ... I guess the case is even bigger. 

[DaneLaw]

Seems more or less the same, with specs as the E for the STO1000 (non-C variant)

Model   STO1004
Bandwidth   100MHz
Analog channels   4
Sampling rate   1GSa/S
Memory depth   70Mpts
Waveform capture rate (Max)   130,000 wfms/s
Bandwith limitation   20MHz, High Pass, Low Pass
I/O port   Wi-Fi, USB 3.0/2.0 Host, USB type-C, Grounding, HDMI, Trigger out
Display   Industrial 8 inch TFT-LCD (800*600)，14*10 grids
Dimension   265*192*50mm
Battery   7.4V，7500mAh

Dimension has changed a little from the STO-C model.
New STO1000 series 26.5x19.2x5cm
Checked the older STO1000C 28x18x5cm so the new (non-C) is a tad higher +1.2cm and -1.5cm shorter.

Looks to be the same 8" 800x600 TFT from the previous gen's that obviously chokes from a low-based perspective, as TFT usually does.. and it's not a bad TFT screen per say, and quite useable outdoors with peaks up around 415nits, but that is obviously taken under different aspects, while in browser to pursue a white background and not in the scope app.
TFT LCD screens seem to be common in electronic measurement gear, as we also see a TFT in the new MSO2x- series from Tek.
But definitely, not a fan that Micsig ditching the clickable-rotaryknobs for some small 4way joysticks..I keep coming back to using the knobs.

One thing I really like about these Micsig scopes - is their color intensity (CCT) and also their overall intensity-grading that seems pretty high in grading-number.. like up around 256 levels, certainly decent..

Checked the wfps on the older STO-C model - as far as I can tell, it peaked at 103.000 but mostly was around 95.000, but I was using limited gear - to take the freq-reading, and will obviously vary greatly on the settings..  https://i.imgur.com/nNcrhSz.mp4
but around 100k, as wfps peak number' ain't bad in this handheld price-segment and the official specs claimed above 80.000 - if I recall correctly for the 1000-C series, so it seems to fit.

I like that they added more USB ports on this 2022 variant, even USB3 and TypeC.. I do find it very useful to power gear, like fx signal generators like
 my old FY6900-60mhz or extra displays etc, with these USB ports..though, im not sure the purpose of them in the new model and to what extent you can use them.
I don't use it for video or pictures etc, as its so much easier to just log onto the scope's IP in a browser, and download content by WIFI.
On the old C-model and power, I tend to use either power delivery (PD) TypeC power banks with a TypeC to Barrel DC PD-trigger-cable (12v) or these adjustable 3v to 24.6v DC power banks that can go up around 100watt, as the included 12v 5A PSU is a noisy fellow.
The old model consumes around 21 watts when charging the inner battery, while turned off, - and in use' it peaks around 31watt when I looked at the power bank display, so it ain't a lot it's using.. and should be easy to supply 12v power on the road

   

[2N3055]

It could be me BUT one thing I really hate is the amount of space the screen borders take... (1-inch plus)

Yes it looks weird, but..
You can actually hold it for something while having unobstructed view of the screen.

[Fungus]

The "aux out" connector at the top will give one pulse for every trigger event.

I just double checked, and even when I have it set to a short timebase setting, triggering in "Normal" mode, the fastest pulse rate I get out of the Auxout port is 33Hz. As I increase the timebase and grab more points, it only goes down from there. But surely it's triggering on the waveform more frequently than 33Hz? Given that the waveform update rate is supposed to be 130k waveforms/sec according to the spec sheet? I'm using a very fast scope to look at the Auxout signal.

Further investigation needed... 

Checked the wfps on the older STO-C model - that peaked at 103.000 but mostly was around 95.000, but I was using limited gear, to say the least - to take the freq-reading, and will obviously vary greatly on the circumstances..  https://i.imgur.com/nNcrhSz.mp4
but around 100k, as peak number' ain't bad in this handheld price segment and the official specs were above 80.000 if I recall correctly for the 1000-C series...

So it can do it. 


(the older one, at least...)

[Anthocyanina]

Does Micsig use the same product numbers for each new generation? I've seen some sto1000 series with reviews from a few years ago but these new ones are also sto1000? is it the letter at the end? like the C? Thank you!

[Fungus]

Does Micsig use the same product numbers for each new generation? I've seen some sto1000 series with reviews from a few years ago but these new ones are also sto1000? is it the letter at the end? like the C? Thank you!

The numerical part is the bandwidth and number of channels.

eg. 1004 = 100Mhz, 4 channels.

(many manufacturers do this)

[Anthocyanina]

Does Micsig use the same product numbers for each new generation? I've seen some sto1000 series with reviews from a few years ago but these new ones are also sto1000? is it the letter at the end? like the C? Thank you!

The numerical part is the bandwidth and number of channels.

eg. 1004 = 100Mhz, 4 channels.

(many manufacturers do this)

Thanks, yeah, i figured that part, but then how would one know it's the new or the old version if they all are STO1004 for example? like Siglent names have an X or an XE or an X+ and that differentiates the new ones from the older ones. How does Micsig do this? I've seen some have a C or an E at the end of their name, do they do that in order or is the letter for something else? thank you!