New Agilent Oscilloscopes

[EEVblog]

What to do with your old scope:

[youtube]ChQw07k8GbI[/youtube]

And win one of 20 new scopes:
http://64.78.15.198/Agilent/XSeries/Opt-In/XSeries_OptIn_ENG.asp?source=AM_video

http://www.facebook.com/agilent.scopes

Dave.

[Chasm]

So who something fitting to trash?
Say something out the Infiniium Series.

But this may be something for the guy who bought the defective HP scope.

[Bored@Work]

But this may be something for the guy who bought the defective HP scope.

Hmm, wasn't he a hobbyist? And you had to live in the right country, too. http://64.78.15.198/Agilent/XSeries/Opt-In/TandC.htm (emphasis by me):

This sweepstakes is open only to entrants who are employed by a commercial end-user and are users of an oscilloscope, and who are legal residents of the United States (excluding New York and Florida), Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and China.

[Chasm]

That's what I get for not reading everything just because Dave posted it.

[Mechatrommer]

good! i'm in Malaysia, but...

Government agencies and institutions, and their employees, are not eligible to participate or receive prizes, nor are individuals who appear on the U.S. Government Department of Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals List...

hmm. should i use my secret "kong-foo" on this? or anyone with better "kong-foo"?

[Bored@Work]

That's what I get for not reading everything just because Dave posted it.

I don't think it is a clever move by Agilent.

My employer forbids employees to use the name of the company for anything outside of work. Sweepstakes are even mentioned explicitly as an example in the rules. It has something to do with not being an official representative of the company, stock laws, corporate identity, avoiding corruption (not getting a personal advantage, favor, goods by using the company name), and whatnot.

[Chasm]

I don't think it is a clever move by Agilent.

I don't think so either. Companies should have better things to do.
Well, maybe it is a nice way to get around the problem of directly destroying your competitors products. Advertisement rules and all of that.

But then I still think it would be fun to junk one of their top line scopes to enter the contest, of course not without pushing the video really hard on various sites.

[Bored@Work]

But then I still think it would be fun to junk one of their top line scopes to enter the contest, of course not without pushing the video really hard on various sites.

If I am not mistaken, they have an old HP (now Agilent) and a low-end (Rigol branded as an) Agilent o'scope in the video. They didn't dare to trash one of their top-of-the-line scopes. Wimps 

[EEVblog]

This sweepstakes is open only to entrants who are employed by a commercial end-user and are users of an oscilloscope, and who are legal residents of the United States (excluding New York and Florida), Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and China.

I missed that. That really sucks.

Dave.

[EEVblog]

Oops, details of the new Agilent scopes have leaked before the date, onto Agilent's own facebook page no less!

Dave.

[Ernie Milko]

There is talk on the hp/Agilent yahoo group that Agilent have been badge-engineering Rigols.

Thing ain't what they used to be........................

[EEVblog]

There is talk on the hp/Agilent yahoo group that Agilent have been badge-engineering Rigols.
Thing ain't what they used to be........................

Yes, the current and older low end Agilents were re-badges Rigols. But I can tell you that the new Agilent low end scopes are fully designed and engineered in-house by Agilent.

Dave.

[tyblu]

Well, maybe it is a nice way to get around the problem of directly destroying your competitors products. Advertisement rules and all of that.

But then I still think it would be fun to junk one of their top line scopes to enter the contest, of course not without pushing the video really hard on various sites.

It doesn't actually say you have to wreck it -- just use it "differently". The bird-feeder, for example, wouldn't do anything to it in the short term...

[TopherTheME]

There is talk on the hp/Agilent yahoo group that Agilent have been badge-engineering Rigols.
Thing ain't what they used to be........................

Yes, the current and older low end Agilents were re-badges Rigols. But I can tell you that the new Agilent low end scopes are fully designed and engineered in-house by Agilent.

Dave.

I found this when I took the shielding off of my Agilent DSO3102A 

[alm]

Did you really have to post a 4.4MB picture that's too large for most browser windows to show that?

[Bored@Work]

I found this when I took the shielding off of my Agilent DSO3102A  

Yes, we know that. We know that for ages. Why do you show us an oscilloscope that Agilent has already discontinued, when Dave is talking about

new Agilent low end scopes

Discontinued ain't new.

[EEVblog]

I found this when I took the shielding off of my Agilent DSO3102A  

Yes, we know that. We know that for ages. Why do you show us an oscilloscope that Agilent has already discontinued, when Dave is talking about

new Agilent low end scopes

Agilent have been rebadging Rigol since the original Rigol 5000 series scope, gotta be a good 5 years now.
But this new series coming out in Feb is different, Agilent are taking it all back in-house which is exciting to see.
I presume they will simply discontinue all the older Rigol models.

Dave.

[saturation]

The new series.

Some current series compared, Rigol, non-Rigol designs vs Tek:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=1773.msg24631#msg24631

[mikeselectricstuff]

From the features in that leaked PDF, it looks like they're basically pushing some of the 5000/6000 hardware features down the range now they've recouped the development costs on the custom silicon.
My bet is like the existing models there will be lots of expensive 'options' which are basically paying to enable hardware you already own.
Let's hope someone hacks it - pity it's not going to be as simple as the hack on the Tek eeprom feature modules - the current models store license info in the battery backed SRAM.

[Bored@Work]

My bet is like the existing models there will be lots of expensive 'options' which are basically paying to enable hardware you already own.

Like the leaked PDF says:

DO MORE with the power of up to 4 instruments in 1:
oscilloscope, logic timing analyzer (optional), protocol
analyzer (optional) and WaveGen built-in
function generator (optional).

GET MORE investment pro-
tection with the industry’s
only fully-upgradeable
scope, including bandwidth.

All additional features are optional, i.e. pay extra. And the bandwidth is also "upgradeable". It will be interesting to see if the bandwidth upgrade is hardware or software.

[TopherTheME]

I found this when I took the shielding off of my Agilent DSO3102A  

Yes, we know that. We know that for ages. Why do you show us an oscilloscope that Agilent has already discontinued, when Dave is talking about

new Agilent low end scopes

Discontinued ain't new.

Yes, I knew this well before I bought the scope as well. I was just somewhat entertained by the fact that it looked like Rigol tried to sneak their name onto the scope. The one label on the scope that doesn't say Agilent is in an obscure place where one would never look unless servicing the unit (i.e. compared to a corner or the bottom of a PCB).

[mikeselectricstuff]

All additional features are optional, i.e. pay extra. And the bandwidth is also "upgradeable". It will be interesting to see if the bandwidth upgrade is hardware or software.

It will be software - upgradeable BW is new for Agilent AFAIK, but on the 5000 and 6000 series you had to pay to enable memory you already owned. I have less of a problem paying to enable more software functions but just enabling RAM is taking the piss.
Their software pricing is a bit OTT though - you can buy a LeCroy LogicStudio for less then the cost of the serial decode option on the MSO6000

[EEVblog]

All additional features are optional, i.e. pay extra. And the bandwidth is also "upgradeable". It will be interesting to see if the bandwidth upgrade is hardware or software.

Everything is a software based option.
And obviously if you buy the logic analyzer module they will ship you the probes.

Dave.

[Rossco]

The new Agilent DSOX/MSOX scopes are nice. I think the new function generator option is not worth paying for. The 3000 function generator option is listed at $215 dollars more on the 3000 series compared to the 2000 series. One can get a reasonable function generator for cheaper that does more waveforms for a lower price. In addition if the scope was to fail and the repair isn’t worth the cost to do then you wouldn’t be toasting a function generator as well. There is my two cents.

[EEVblog]

I agree the function generator is poor value, and they are clearly price gouging on the 3000 model.
But you can't deny the convenience of it though, and educational customers will get it for free anyway.

Dave.

[shadowless]

I am going to pull the trigger on the 2000x scope. Going to get a 70mhz 4 channel model.

Just wondering if it would be better to pay 300 more for a 100mhz version or 700 more for the 8 digital channels? 

Any advice?

[tnt]

Highly depend on what you want to do with it ...

If you're going to work a lot with digital stuff on which you only need to see the logic levels, or on some stuff (either analog or digital fast enough) where you want to see signal integrity or such.

[_Sin]

Highly depend on what you want to do with it ...

If you're going to work a lot with digital stuff on which you only need to see the logic levels, or on some stuff (either analog or digital fast enough) where you want to see signal integrity or such.

Given that the option prices don't look much different to the difference in prices between the respective versions of scope, it might make more sense to buy the lower-bandwidth scope and pay for the upgrade. That way you get the extra probes, which might come in handy (or the lower-spec ones could be resold to get back some of the money).

[mikeselectricstuff]

I am going to pull the trigger on the 2000x scope. Going to get a 70mhz 4 channel model.

Just wondering if it would be better to pay 300 more for a 100mhz version or 700 more for the 8 digital channels? 

Any advice?

Assuming the upgrades are the same price later as at the time of purchase. I suggest starting with the basic model and seeing what you find you need. Having said that there may be some scope for haggling with the dealer to throw in some discounted upgrades to get the sale, if you drop some hints that you're looking at the competition as well... 

[shadowless]

Thanks for the great advice. Might be getting a good discount on the 2004A and 2014A model so thinking about which one as a starter.  30mhz bandwidth doesn't seems a big difference. I don't do stuff that require high bandwidth at the moment but never know when i will need them. Started with a single channel portable scope and realised that i need more channels for my digital+analogue signal tuning/phasing.

I suppose if 4 channel is insufficient at least i still have the option of adding digital channel later to free the analogue channels up.

One thing i never heard mention much is the start up timing of the scope, some pre-production scope seems to take 12mins to boot up and was suppose to reduce to 4mins, isn't that long compare to other scopes?

[tnt]

4 min No way.

My 3000X takes 30-45 sec to boot.