Magnova oscilloscope

[KungFuJosh]

Hi, 

Thanks Martin72!

Hi Xyphro
Your remarks go a little to far for my, i wil wait on Batronix for this function.
The Samba share works OK for know.
Thanks!

Kind regards,
Bram

My TestController driver supports most general control of the scope, including remote screenshots.

It's likely the next version of the Magnova firmware should include an SCPI QuickSave function as well, which I will add to a new version of the the TestController driver.

Thanks,
Josh

[Xyphro]

Already made scripts for that, it's not that I can't work without webinterface. For me it's a nice to have, for others it might be a must have. Usecase and user dependent thing.

Looking at the 3 USBTMC device bugs I found today during a normal instrument remote control coding session, I'd also more prioritize getting those fixed rather than new features.

[KungFuJosh]

I'm very much looking forward to the web interface, and the hardware counter. But no, I don't absolutely need the web interface either. With TestController, I can do most of what I need remotely. I just miss the visual the web console would provide.

All in due time. They'll get all the bugs out too; they've been excellent about updates.

[Xyphro]

Exactly. Making a scope from scratch is a big task. Batronix has done an absolutely splendid job!

[MikeP]

 First of all, I thank God, the Batronix team, and André Bauer personally for the opportunity to own such an interesting product.

 My RTB-COM4 recently bricked. (The question of repair remains open, and I would be grateful for any help.) Therefore, a need arose to buy a new instrument. Due to my limited budget, the options were quite few.
1.   Buy/repair the RTB2 again. Batronix, by the way, offers a good option here. Unfortunately, the attitude of Rohde & Schwarz towards me, the age of the platform, and the artificial limitations imposed on a good instrument… made this option less than optimal.
2.   New Micsig models. I didn't consider them due to the lack of a generator and related functions. A Bode plot is one of the most important tools for me.
3.   Siglent SDS2000-3000X HD variants. Everything seems fine, but I really dislike the user interface and some ethical issues related to the options.
4.   Magnova. The overall impression, the parameters important to me, and the developers' communication with users played a decisive role. Finally, I wanted to support these talented and courageous people with my purchase.
 Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to examine the device in detail right now, so I'm not rushing to conclusions. But... I already really miss the filters in the math menu!

[tautech]

......
3.   Siglent SDS2000-3000X HD variants. Everything seems fine, but I really dislike the user interface and some ethical issues related to the options.

Please state them in detail in the appropriate thread.

[Ulrich.G]

So far, I couldn't find any screenshot or video which shows the Magnova light themed UI. Can somebody pls provide some screenshots of it?

Thank you

[woody]

Like this?

[Ulrich.G]

Thank you - what a relief to see that there are alternatives for this "black hole" UI design. :-)

[woody]

Yep, this was the first time this scope was set to 'light' and I now know why. TBH, I did nothing to improve the display so maybe it is possible to get a better picture.

[Ulrich.G]

Yep, this was the first time this scope was set to 'light' and I now know why. TBH, I did nothing to improve the display so maybe it is possible to get a better picture.

This means the themes are configurable, or just the options to set dark or light theme?

[woody]

This means the themes are configurable, or just the options to set dark or light theme?

I am not aware you can actually configure themes, I meant toying with colors, brightness, intensity, persistence, grid intensity and what not to improve readability.

To my eyes the only acceptable theme is the dark theme as I find the light theme drowns out the details. But maybe there are occasions where the light theme is better suited? I don't know.

[2N3055]

I am not user of this scope.
But this is interesting topic so allow me to contribute my opinion.

I find a white background on the scope to be very tiring and less readable.
I have Picoscope though. It is running dark theme. Not white.
Why?

Because contrast is going the wrong way.

Eyes adjust to what most of the screen is. On white screen your eye closes iris to deal with bright background. Thin line in some intermediate colour is not so visible. It gets drowned in whiteness. When background is dark, iris opens, and even a single pixel is actually very bright comparatively. It stands out.
And then, we need to use colours. On black background any color (it has to be bright enough to reasonable extent) will stand out.
Yellow on white is invisible...

White background works well with reflective displays. With emissive ones, black background is much more readable to me.

[KungFuJosh]

I personally can't use the light background because my eyes can be light sensitive, and that can cause trouble for me.

That said, if you must use a light background, some colors are configable for the traces and some display options.

OTOH, if you're going to print a screen capture, then the light background is definitely a good thing.

[fredo_]

Hi Magnova users!

Thank's to the help of Andre, I have prepared a Magnova driver for ngscopeclient, and I'm in search for beta-testers 
If anyone wants to try, here are links to ngscopeclient builds with Magnova driver (Github login required) :
- Windows : https://github.com/fredzo/scopehal-apps/actions/runs/20429605897/artifacts/4942554667
- Mac (ARM) : https://github.com/fredzo/scopehal-apps/actions/runs/20429605887/artifacts/4942404333
- Linux (Ubuntu) : https://github.com/fredzo/scopehal-apps/actions/runs/20429605911
When running ngscopeclient for the first time, you will have to go to “Add>Oscilloscope>Connect…” then give an nickname to the Scope (e.g. “Magnova”), select “magnova” driver, select “lan” transport and set the “Path” to Magnova’s <IP>:<SCPI_PORT>.
For next launches, just click to “Add>Oscilloscope>Magnova”.
Limitations :
- For now, Magnova's SCPI implementation does not support digital signal acquisition,
- Selecting specific Arbitrary waveform from function generator is not possible either yet.

Any feedback / bug report is welcome!

Cheers,

Fredo.

[Xyphro]

Wow, have to try it immediately tomorrow!
Thanks for that effort!

[Xyphro]

Had to quickly give it a try.
It worked smooth initially , but once I change the Memory Depth to 1 MS while having it in Normal trigger mode, it crashes in a way that the application has to be terminated (it get's unresponsive). When restarting without restarting the scope, the communication does not recover.

Too late for now to make Wireshark traces :-)

Edit: Will make more tests during next days! I always wanted to try ngscopeclient but never had a supported scope.

[fredo_]

Had to quickly give it a try.
It worked smooth initially , but once I change the Memory Depth to 1 MS while having it in Normal trigger mode, it crashes in a way that the application has to be terminated (it get's unresponsive). When restarting without restarting the scope, the communication does not recover.

Too late for now to make Wireshark traces :-)

Thanks for testing @Xyphro!
Can you enable traces and send me the log content next time you try ?
Here is the command to do so :
.\ngscopeclient.exe --debug --trace SCPISocketTransport --trace MagnovaOscilloscope

[Xyphro]

Absolutely, will do once I have it next time running.

[Zucca]

I can only suggest to open an issue in the github. Reporting in here is nice, but any decent SW development should have a nice issue tracking system.

[Xyphro]

That would be best to not get a congested thread here, but there seems to be no issue section in the repo: https://github.com/fredzo/scopehal-apps/

[fredo_]

That would be best to not get a congested thread here, but there seems to be no issue section in the repo: https://github.com/fredzo/scopehal-apps/

Please file your reports in the PR's comments: https://github.com/ngscopeclient/scopehal/pull/1031

[Andre77]

Hi everyone,

today we are releasing Magnova firmware version 1.7.1:

New functionality:

• Added a Compact mode to the decode table that groups decoded data into frames. Frame detection is based on user-configurable idle time (UART, Parallel), chip select (SPI), start/stop conditions (I²C), frame boundaries/bit timing (CAN), or break/sync/header fields (LIN).
• Added measurements in roll mode, including live annotations and trend charts.
• Added various auxiliary output options to function generator module (BMO-AWG).
• Added trigger source type "Generator", using an internal connection. Triggering can be based on the function generator signal, modulation frequency, sweep, or burst timing.

Optimizations:

• Added the :SLOad:QUICksave command to trigger the save/load quicksave function.
• ACQuire:MDEPth now accepts units and scientific notation.
• Added V/s and A/s as possible units for math channels.
• Various improvements and optimizations.

Bugfixes:

• Fixed measurement types not being correctly provided if channel offset was beyond specific boundaries.
• Fixed an issue where SMB guest shares were not correctly saved/loaded.
• Fixed an issue where SMB shares did not support umlauts.
• Fixed some minor bugs.

We’ve also put together a short video demonstrating the new features in action:
(Note: The audio track can be played in either English or German.)


I’d like to point out an important limitation of the generator auxiliary signal, which can be used either as an internally routed trigger source or output via the AUX connector.

The digital signal is provided at a lower (clocked) rate compared to the generator sample rate (400 MSa/s or 375 MSa/s). Due to the resulting reduced temporal resolution, it is primarily intended for use with slower sweep, burst, or modulation signals.

We do, however, allow optional use with higher frequency signals: Signal constellations matching with the available time resolution can nonetheless lead to exact output behavior with minimal jitter.

Please do not hesitate to contact Batronix support if you have any questions or comments.

[woody]

Great new feature, being able to trigger on the generator sweep! 

[rf-messkopf]

I think these are great new features, thank you very much for providing the update. However, I would like to reiterate my proposal to add a normalization feature for Bode plots which I already made here. It would be fantastic if you could add that.