new killer scope in town - a true game changer from R&S - RTB2002 & RTB2004

[maginnovision]

I just wanted to update. I had sent a message to R&S through GLORIS and this morning a TSE got back to me advising rebooting and retrying the update via another method. Apparently another customer with an RTA had a similar issue of mid-update failure which recovered just fine. So seems like the power of 10 scopes are fairly good about failing at a point that doesn't brick the scope at least.

[bayjelly]

That's indeed a bit weird, but as long as the error is recoverable, I'm not too concerned. I'll try the update today.

[korlatos]

I did the update yesterday without any issues.

[uski]

Hi,

I am pretty interested in the RTB2004. However, with several competitors offering hackable scopes, I don't think I am going to purchase one. That's probably the only blocker for me.

Is there any promotion that I am not aware of that allow removing the bandwidth limitation ?

This will truly be for non-profit / educational use. Can provide teaching/research credentials.

Thanks

[sithrebel15]

They have some new bundles launching soon but they still only have the base bandwidth.

[uski]

They have some new bundles launching soon but they still only have the base bandwidth.

Yeah I saw that and this is what I considered buying... if there was a way to also get the highest bandwidth.
Otherwise I'll go with Siglent 

R&S is welcome to send me a PM should they want to help me find a solution.

[Weston]

They have some new bundles launching soon but they still only have the base bandwidth.

Yeah I saw that and this is what I considered buying... if there was a way to also get the highest bandwidth.
Otherwise I'll go with Siglent 

R&S is welcome to send me a PM should they want to help me find a solution.

Its still not at price parity, but TEquipment (and I think other places) have educational pricing for the RTB2004. The full package is discounted to ~ $3.2k. https://www.tequipment.net/Rohde-&-Schwarz/RTB2K-COM4/Mixed-Signal-Oscilloscopes-(MSO)/

Still not the best deal for a scope if you only look at the bandwidth per dollar, but I found the edu discount compelling enough to buy the scope and I have been very happy with it.

[RBBVNL9]

I'm happy with the 2.300 firmware update! It's mostly small things, but some are valuable to me.

Not in the least the ability to store screenshots in internal memory. This way, I no longer have to connect a USB hub to the front port to connect both a flash drive and a mouse (which I like to use on longer sessions).

Also the solved crash when loading data into the pattern generator is something I appreciate... Wanted to do several things that were restricted by this crash.

[sithrebel15]

They have some new bundles launching soon but they still only have the base bandwidth.

Yeah I saw that and this is what I considered buying... if there was a way to also get the highest bandwidth.
Otherwise I'll go with Siglent 

R&S is welcome to send me a PM should they want to help me find a solution.

It looks like the thread on figuring out how it ticks has taken off in the last month. We'll have to see if anything happens there.

[sithrebel15]

They have some new bundles launching soon but they still only have the base bandwidth.

Yeah I saw that and this is what I considered buying... if there was a way to also get the highest bandwidth.
Otherwise I'll go with Siglent 

R&S is welcome to send me a PM should they want to help me find a solution.

Its still not at price parity, but TEquipment (and I think other places) have educational pricing for the RTB2004. The full package is discounted to ~ $3.2k. https://www.tequipment.net/Rohde-&-Schwarz/RTB2K-COM4/Mixed-Signal-Oscilloscopes-(MSO)/

Still not the best deal for a scope if you only look at the bandwidth per dollar, but I found the edu discount compelling enough to buy the scope and I have been very happy with it.

I definitely wouldn't buy that until the new bundles are listed. They have a discount built in plus the education discount will stack on top of it.

[Frank_MV]

Does anyone know an app for Win 10, which allows me to create arbitrary curves (csv file) for the RTB2000 ?
It would also be good if I could modify csv curves stored in RTB2000.

[BU508A]

Does anyone know an app for Win 10, which allows me to create arbitrary curves (csv file) for the RTB2000 ?
It would also be good if I could modify csv curves stored in RTB2000.

.csv files can be usually created or edited in Excel or the LibreOffice equivalent.

Description of the .csv file format:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values

HTH

[Frank_MV]

Great, thanks

[agdr]

I just did the V 2.3 update.  All went well!

[Frank_MV]

Thanks.

I have a question about the operation of the RTB2000 touch screen.
I use a stylus that I once bought for my cell phone.
It works fine for selecting menu items, but not for drawing and labeling.
When I draw a line it is interrupted in many places.
Does anyone know a good pen for the RTB touch screen ?

br,
Frank

U

[maxspb69]

Rich, I have these thoughts:

It would be nice to add the ability to arbitrarily change the color of the waveform in one of the next firmware updates. It is difficult for people with color perception to distinguish between yellow and green with low contrast relative to each other. This is especially true for 2-channel models. It is not for nothing that many oscilloscopes have yellow and cyan colors, which are easily distinguishable by everyone.

Max.

[RBBVNL9]

Working on my RTB2004 yesterday, I suddenly realised there were a low pass filter and a high pass filter in the math functions! Pretty sure they were not there before (I updated the firmware to 2.300 a week ago or so)... But now they are there, and work as expected!

So, checked the manual. Indeed, the manual for firmware 2.2xx does not describe such filters, but the manual for firmware 2.300 does (in Sections 6.2.4 and 6.2.5). Strangely, the firmware release notes do not mention a thing about this.

(Hope this is not old news to you all, but at least I feel happy ;-)

[Hydron]

It certainly is news to me, and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed by now if it had been in previous firmware! Not gonna complain about that addition (even though it is not particularly quick).

Rich, I have these thoughts:

It would be nice to add the ability to arbitrarily change the color of the waveform in one of the next firmware updates. It is difficult for people with color perception to distinguish between yellow and green with low contrast relative to each other. This is especially true for 2-channel models. It is not for nothing that many oscilloscopes have yellow and cyan colors, which are easily distinguishable by everyone.

Max.

I think this has been raised before; it's not important for me personally but given the control layout and RGB channel indicator LEDs it might be possible to do it in a very elegant way (albeit maybe with a control panel FW upgrade in addition to the mainboard FW).

[KaneTW]

Oh, nice. The LPF and HPF used to be RTM exclusive.

[2N3055]

So they added filters in math CH. Those are very useful. It would be better if filters were in channel setup directly, so they don't take up math channels...
Lowly Micsig has filters in channels, and they are implemented in acquisition engine, so they don't slow down scope when working..
I wish more manufacturers would do it this way.

[Frank_MV]

Thanks.

I have a question about the operation of the RTB2000 touch screen.
I use a stylus that I once bought for my cell phone.
It works fine for selecting menu items, but not for drawing and labeling.
When I draw a line it is interrupted in many places.
Does anyone know a good pen for the RTB touch screen ?

br,
Frank

Update:
What do you think of this pen
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01ADAHAYA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=richi579-21&camp=1638&creative=6742&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01ADAHBYY&linkId=28dcffc8a931466620e0b30100000e19&th=1

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Rich, I have these thoughts:

It would be nice to add the ability to arbitrarily change the color of the waveform in one of the next firmware updates. It is difficult for people with color perception to distinguish between yellow and green with low contrast relative to each other. This is especially true for 2-channel models. It is not for nothing that many oscilloscopes have yellow and cyan colors, which are easily distinguishable by everyone.

Max.

Hi Max - I'll pass this on.  You probably already know you can change the waveforms to different intensity graded views which may help, but I like your idea in general (and it is something we offer on our RTE/RTO/RTP models).  We are often trying to find that right mix of being easy for everyone to use, while still offering flexibility for power users, but it seems like this would be an easy add to the waveform color menu that already exists (without adding too much complexity).

-Rich

[mikeselectricstuff]

but it seems like this would be an easy add to the waveform color menu that already exists (without adding too much complexity).

And as you have PWM LED drivers on the front panel board, it would also be easy to make the button colours match.

[RBBVNL9]

I must say that I am very happy with the 2.300 firmware upgrade for the RTB. Apart from some needed fixes, I find several new functions very useful. My favourites: the new Trigger Action function (handy when triggering on infrequent signals like serial bus messages) and now also the new LPF and HPF in the math section.

I want to applaud R&S for that.

Also want to draw some parallels. In the field of photography, Fujifilm was the first to issue a serious series of firmware upgrades for its X100 camera, not only providing fixes and performance improvements but also new functionality. They kept doing so even long after the camera was succeeded by new versions. Friend and foe now agree that this provided the company goodwill, satisfied customers, and importantly, a very loyal customer base. They raised the bar for others.

In the field of (music) synthesizers, there is a (sad) range of examples of companies that brough products to the market too early. Instead of doing proper firmware updates, they then rushed to launch newer versions, leaving their first customers users with unstable instruments and promises never fulfilled. (I will not name them, musicians will know some companies I talk about). No need to say, many musicians will never buy anything from such brands again.

[Frank_MV]

Olympus is doing the same with the cameras, there will be updates with new features over a longer period of time to the delight of customers.

That was one of the reasons I decided to join Olympus.
Off-Topic End