Magnova oscilloscope

[kmoonwalker]

It is due to customs... I often have this with orders of components from UK and does not matter the forwarder - if you are lucky they arrive as planned but often they get stuck in some office dealing with import to EU territory and you may wait 2-5 days... (Once I urgently needed some big capacitors, they sent them same day but they were coming from Switzerland and they got stuck for almost two weeks... we were joking that they were drinking electrolyte or wtf...)

[carl0s]

It is due to customs... I often have this with orders of components from UK and does not matter the forwarder - if you are lucky they arrive as planned but often they get stuck in some office dealing with import to EU territory and you may wait 2-5 days... (Once I urgently needed some big capacitors, they sent them same day but they were coming from Switzerland and they got stuck for almost two weeks... we were joking that they were drinking electrolyte or wtf...)

Could be, but it's only UPS who give a delivery date and then 'reschedule' it a few days prior, frequently. Others like DHL and FedEx often come earlier than the original date.

[tooki]

We've been using the ICZI IZEC-A94 active DP/HDMI adapter here and at various events, and it has worked flawlessly with all monitors and beamers so far.

FYI, “Beamer” is a German word (I think Dutch, too?) that is unknown in English. We say “video projector”. (Or just “projector” for short, since other projectors are rarely used anymore!)

[tooki]

Any conclusions on what kind of 15.6" FHD LCD screen is used in the Magnova.. is it TFT or IPS screentech?

TFT/Thin-Film Transistor
* Pros, cheap with fast response times.
* Cons: Narrow viewing angles, poorer color accuracy, more prone to haze/rainbow effects with cheap screen protectors.

IPS/In-Plane Switching
* Pros: Wide viewing angles, better color consistency/accuracy, quite a bit more resistant to polarization-issues from cheap plastic screen protectors.
* Cons: Often more expensive, a tad slower response times compared to the average TN/TFT panels.

My guess would be that it's an IPS screen, even though TFTs are very common on oscilloscopes.

Just to be crystal clear: IPS displays are also TFT displays.

Some people mistakenly use “TFT” as a synonym for TN and STN types of TFTs, but that is very bad practice, since there are many kinds of TFT LCDs, including TN, STN, PVA, IPS, and more. They are all based on thin-film transistors, because that’s how we make active-matrix LCDs.

[kmoonwalker]

Just to be crystal clear: IPS displays are also TFT displays.

Some people mistakenly use “TFT” as a synonym for TN and STN types of TFTs, but that is very bad practice, since there are many kinds of TFT LCDs, including TN, STN, PVA, IPS, and more. They are all based on thin-film transistors, because that’s how we make active-matrix LCDs.

TFT marketing on some markets is so strong even nowadays - in the past like 20+ years ago it was a differentiation of cheap screens with passive LCD matrix control from new ones able to control separately single pixel in a row but nowadays it is like advertising some computers on ebay as 10GHz or more CPU speed (yep sellers used to add each core speeds together  )

[Martin72]

I am currently familiarizing myself with the topic of spectrum analyzers, so perfect results are not to be expected yet.
Nevertheless, here are two images, with the AWG as the signal source at 1 MHz and approx. 0 dBm (I have already suggested adding the missing dBm unit to the amplitude settings), plus a 30 dB attenuator at the input of the SA.

[2N3055]

I am currently familiarizing myself with the topic of spectrum analyzers, so perfect results are not to be expected yet.
Nevertheless, here are two images, with the AWG as the signal source at 1 MHz and approx. 0 dBm (I have already suggested adding the missing dBm unit to the amplitude settings), plus a 30 dB attenuator at the input of the SA.

I believe you need to use parameter Ref Offset (2.1.3.7, page 24, manual) to enter 30 dB loss from external atten.

[Martin72]

Yes, that's right, it makes it easier to classify the first image; the distortion values are not affected by this.

[Martin72]

Yes, that's right, it makes it easier to classify the first image; the distortion values are not affected by this.

I have to correct myself, that was wrong.
Thanks for pointing out the 30dB offset.
THD has improved even further as a result (0.01%).

[tautech]

Yes, that's right, it makes it easier to classify the first image; the distortion values are not affected by this.

I have to correct myself, that was wrong.
Thanks for pointing out the 30dB offset.

Don't disengage Auto Attenuation as it risks the analyzer not protecting itself.

As you change settings with Auto Attenuation engaged you will see the attenuation values change at the top of the screenshot yet the levels remain correct.
This common usage mistake is often responsible for damage to the RF input and is flagged with the blue dot.

Instead when using external attenuation alway use the Ref Offset to correct the level from external attenuators as Sinisa has pointed out.

[Martin72]

Instead when using external attenuation alway use the Ref Offset to correct the level from external attenuators as Sinisa has pointed out.

What do you think I did earlier...
For the rest:
I am aware of this, given that with an attenuator of 30dB at the input and a signal of 0dBm, there was nothing to worry about in that regard.
We can continue this discussion in a thread about spectrum analyzers.

[ralphrmartin]

I suggest Batronix change their shipper. UPS originally said they were going to deliver my waveform generator on Tuesday, then Thursday (today) , then tomorrow, now they are syaing next Monday. Its beginning to sound like they have lost it, or at least have no idea where it is.

Full marks to Batronix who have promptly discovered that UPS have indeed lost my unit, and have arranged for another one to be shipped by a differnt shipper.

[KungFuJosh]

UPS strikes again. 

[carl0s]

I suggest Batronix change their shipper. UPS originally said they were going to deliver my waveform generator on Tuesday, then Thursday (today) , then tomorrow, now they are syaing next Monday. Its beginning to sound like they have lost it, or at least have no idea where it is.

Full marks to Batronix who have promptly discovered that UPS have indeed lost my unit, and have arranged for another one to be shipped by a differnt shipper.

Sorry to hear that. Mine came a further day later than the already rescheduled day.

Lovely piece of kit though :-)

[carl0s]

Added a little Wi-Fi <-> ethernet pseudo-bridge to mine. Works good, for saving screenshots to SMB and stuff, since I have it set up in a normal part of the house while I explore the excellent demo and training board

[KungFuJosh]

Added a little Wi-Fi <-> ethernet pseudo-bridge to mine. Works good, for saving screenshots to SMB and stuff, since I have it set up in a normal part of the house while I explore the excellent demo and training board

SMB works for you? What OS are you connecting to?

[carl0s]

Yes it does. Host/server is windows 11 pro main computer in other room.
With username & password auth.
I'm sure I have possibly altered some windows policy settings in the past though, and maybe made sure I'm not using a Microsoft account on the pc (this also would break RDP you see.. unless they finally fixed that now. I RDP-in all the time over Wireguard from wherever I am working)

[jusaca]

SMB works for you? What OS are you connecting to?

Is there some general problem with using SMB to save screenshots from the magnova?

[carl0s]

SMB works for you? What OS are you connecting to?

Is there some general problem with using SMB to save screenshots from the magnova?

Doesn't seem to be. There is often trouble getting a standalone Windows 10/11 PC to work as an SMB server though, and when the client is Linux or some other embedded non-Windows OS, it can take some tinkering in my experience. Having a local account on the smb server to authenticate against is a good starting point (no good if your only user account is a Microsoft account), then there are dialects to look at, and the Windows firewall of course. SMB-signing isn't an obstacle these days AFAIK.

In my case here, I saved the screenshot locally on the Magnova, then hooked up the Wi-Fi adapter/bridge (after searching for a micro-usb cable for an hour !), then I copy/pasted the file across to the SMB share from the Magnova's GUI. So I suppose you could say I didn't "use SMB to save a screenshot" directly, if there is a difference.

[woody]

I can confirm that saving a screenshot (or any other file for that matter) directly to a share on a Win11 machine works flawlessly.

The only funny thing I encounter is when I save a file to a share, remove the network cable from the scope and then try to save a file again. Instead of giving me the option to save the file locally the scope hangs for a bit after which it shuts down. The same thing happens if I remove the network cable to the PC with the share.

To be complete, no shutdown happens if I unshare the share on the host (and leave the network connections intact). In that case the scope does show the previous share but if I try to save a file to it it gives me a 'The path is invalid' message and goes about its business.

[KungFuJosh]

There's still a small bug with username and password issues sometimes causing the scope to crash. I'm going to create a user on my PC just for the scope and see if that helps. 🤔

ETA: That worked. I added a simple local account with a single word username, and now I'm connected.

Thanks,
Josh

[Tomki]

I use a NAS from QNAP to save data and it works flawlessly. You just need to specify an existing directory on the NAS and … no problem 😅

[2N3055]

I use a NAS from QNAP to save data and it works flawlessly. You just need to specify an existing directory on the NAS and … no problem 😅

Actually, that is SAMBA to SAMBA and is going to work more seamlessly than SAMBA to Windows.

[KungFuJosh]

This made me a lot happier than it should have. 

ETA: In hindsight, the yellow intensity display version would have made more sense with the Cheese/div setting. 🧀

[Tomki]

I use a NAS from QNAP to save data and it works flawlessly. You just need to specify an existing directory on the NAS and … no problem 😅

Actually, that is SAMBA to SAMBA and is going to work more seamlessly than SAMBA to Windows.

This is one of the reasons why I try to stay away from Windows anyway 😂