Products > Test Equipment
Choosing a ~$10K MSO (Keysight 3000G, LeCroy 4000HD, Tek MSO34, R&S ??)
tooki:
--- Quote from: nctnico on November 16, 2023, 10:01:52 pm ---Thanks for the update. Just a question though: in your opinion, is the user interface on the R&S MXO4 better compared to the R&S RTM3004? I guess the answer is yes given your choice but I hope you can eloborate on the details a little bit as you have hands-on experience with both.
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I think the RTM3 is a tad easier to use: I think some of the menu options are grouped a bit better. But the RTM3’s CPU simply isn’t up to the task of keeping that UI nice and fluid (for example when scrolling), and the lower screen resolution means scrolling is needed on it. The MXO 4’s customizable toolbar is, IMHO, slightly indicative of room for improvement, which I hope they do over the years.
The MXO 4’s flexibility in screen layout also gives you more rope to hang yourself with. But that’s a fair trade off for being able to tile the screen at will, including tabbed views of the same signals configured differently.
tooki:
--- Quote from: EEVblog on November 17, 2023, 03:41:52 am ---That was one of the surprising things about the new(ish) Tek 5/4/3/2 series. Awesome standardisation across the UI and other things, but still rather slow scopes.
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Yeah, the consistency is nice. I’m a bit disappointed at how so many scopes are slow these days. The first DSO I ever used was the venerable DS1054Z, and then Keysight (after which that generation of Rigol scopes is clearly modeled), and I didn’t realize how spoiled I was in terms of responsiveness and display update rate (which is the other aspect of slowness that gets overlooked, after waveform update rate).
As for consistency, IMHO LeCroy is the most consistent, in that it’s essentially the identical UI across all their scopes (with the possible exception of the entry-level T3D series). If I’m reading between the lines correctly (because of how one of the remote control APIs is deeply entwined with Windows), it’s actually basically the same code on all of them, running either on Windows CE or “real” Windows.
--- Quote from: EEVblog on November 17, 2023, 03:41:52 am ---They have enough differentiation though to be competitive in the corporate world.
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The MDO3 grew on me a bit more than I expected. It’s definitely not the most powerful scope among the options, and there are many things that aren’t obvious until you remember “this UI is designed around double clicking”. But it also doesn’t get in your way too much, and the fit and finish of the hardware is impressive.
--- Quote from: EEVblog on November 17, 2023, 03:41:52 am ---Not a peep out of Keysight on the Megazoom V or whatever they will call it. I do wonder if they are re-evaluating things after the R&S MXO release?
The previous Megazoom releases were about 8 years apart, now it's coming up on 13 years...
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Yeah, that’s a really good question.
What I hope is that they (and everyone else) start hiring programmers with backgrounds in low-latency UIs, like gaming, audio production, and video editing. It really shouldn’t be that hard…
The other thing I wonder is how much of the code can (and should?) be moved into GPUs, since that’s where a lot of a modern computer or SOC’s actual processing power is. I have a hunch that this is something a lot of non-game programmers have very little experience with.
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