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

[LaurentR]

Has anyone gotten a ship date from Tequipment earlier than May? It seems odd Test Equity has been shipping them out while Tequipment is still saying another month.

Barely. I ordered on 03/20 (after the in-stock units were gone but still several days before it went out of stock) and I was given a 04/28 date last week. Not sure how accurate it still is.

Laurent

[piranha32]

I ordered on March 17, and the expected shipment date is May 3rd. I guess they want to play safe and assign much later shipment dates than they expected, occasionally revising them as it gets closer to actual shipments.

[NA5WH]

Has anyone gotten a ship date from Tequipment earlier than May? It seems odd Test Equity has been shipping them out while Tequipment is still saying another month.

I dont think TestEquity has received many. I ordered first day (although the date on the purchase request they sent back to me was the next day)...  and still haven't heard hide or hare, and the online web still has an expected ship-date of 00-00-0000.  When I ordered there wasn't the "30 day on new" or anything indicating it wasn't actually in stock or whatever. All the literature from R&S made it seem like they would have full stock at launch.

Still by now R&S should have projected dates for their back-log (I assume logistic issue, as I mean can assemble several a day no problem). I don't necessarily mind waiting (I haven't bothered calling yet), but I really expected a hard date by now, especially as my cash is already out of my pocket.  Really wonder what is going on with the distribution.

[maginnovision]

Received my calcert from test one I ordered from testequity, and it was dated the 20th. Maybe they really haven't got a full production line running yet. Option cards in the box from 3/16 so it may really just be distributors ready to move them out but the units need to come in first.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Received my calcert from test one I ordered from testequity, and it was dated the 20th. Maybe they really haven't got a full production line running yet. Option cards in the box from 3/16 so it may really just be distributors ready to move them out but the units need to come in first.

Or maybe they're having issues in cal/test causing delays.

[maginnovision]

Received my calcert from test one I ordered from testequity, and it was dated the 20th. Maybe they really haven't got a full production line running yet. Option cards in the box from 3/16 so it may really just be distributors ready to move them out but the units need to come in first.

Or maybe they're having issues in cal/test causing delays.

Definitely the other way that could go. I was originally told 6 weeks and it only took 2 so I'd say it's some issue at R&S holding them up.

[ebastler]

Or maybe they're having issues in cal/test causing delays.

Probably the newly introduced whack-the-scope test during final inspection, which they are still trying to automate... 

[TK]

R&S released firmware update on March 14th.  https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/us/firmware/rtb2004/

[PA0PBZ]

R&S released firmware update on March 14th.  https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/us/firmware/rtb2004/

Not really shocking:

New Features of V01.203:
Additional languages supported: Czech, Polish, Italian, Portuguese
Additional device demos
Trigger type “timeout”
Support of label lists for options RTB-K1 and RTB-K3

[EEVblog]

Or maybe they're having issues in cal/test causing delays.

Probably the newly introduced whack-the-scope test during final inspection, which they are still trying to automate... 

Please tell me it involves monkeys, that would be so cool.

[ebastler]

Or maybe they're having issues in cal/test causing delays.

Probably the newly introduced whack-the-scope test during final inspection, which they are still trying to automate... 

Please tell me it involves monkeys, that would be so cool.

Right -- the Batterizer cymbal-banging monkey looks like a great starting point!

[TK]

Received my calcert from test one I ordered from testequity, and it was dated the 20th. Maybe they really haven't got a full production line running yet. Option cards in the box from 3/16 so it may really just be distributors ready to move them out but the units need to come in first.

Or maybe they're having issues in cal/test causing delays.

It must be a logistics issue, because Newark has started shipping last week when Tequipment estimated shipping date is April 28th.

[agdr]

So here is ci11's test and... it works!    Pretty darn amazing.

The first photo below shows the signal level. 492Vp-p = 246uV(peak) = 174uV(rms).  This is coming from a Krohn-Hite KH4400B audio oscillator (95% similar to their current KH4402B), which specs at 0.0005% THD at 20Hz.  The scope BW limit is set to 20MHz, although it really didn't make that much difference.  Keep in mind that the oscillator's attenuation network is a series of resistors.  Even though the THD is very low the oscillator is adding a pile of Johnson/thermal noise to the signal.  So that is not all scope noise floor visible in the signal, there is some incoming noise at this tiny level.   Just one 49K series resistor at 25C with the 100KHz bandwidth of the generator would add 9uV of noise.

The second photo shows the capture and trigger with the scope on high definition mode.

I've posted a bunch of additional photos (high res photos, I can only get two attached per post) on Google Drive here including unboxing, test setup, and averaging acquire mode.  Averaging acquire mode was almost as good as high res, I'll post that next (2 photo limit).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B67cJELZW-i8X294RF9XWFVkSDQ?usp=sharing

[agdr]

And here is a photo in averaging acquire mode rather than high res.  I have averaging set to 5 averages here.  Impressive! 

Same signal level in, 174uV(rms), and same 1mV/div vertical on the scope.

The second photo is the test setup, with the KH4400B.  The scope here is as first turned on right out of the box, just on normal acquire mode.  The generator was set to 2mV(rms) here. 2V on the dial, then the 60dB attenuator button pressed in, although it is hard to see in the photo.

[TheSteve]

@agdr - doesn't the scope have the ability to save screen shots? If you used that facility we could see the entire trace and all of the scope parameters used during your testing.

[Howardlong]

@agdr - doesn't the scope have the ability to save screen shots? If you used that facility we could see the entire trace and all of the scope parameters used during your testing.

Maybe the resolution makes the .PNG file greater than the board's 1MB limit ;-)

[Joel_l]

Crazy, Usually I get annoyed because my CC company declines a charge because they don't recognize who I'm buying from and I have to jump through hoops to get it processed. Today I get an email from Newark saying my order is processed, then about 15 minutes later another one saying it's on CC hold. The CC company had already approved the funds and is good to go. I call Newark to find out what's up they want to verify I'm really me because it's been a while since I've ordered from them WTH.... The only way the CC company will approve is if the billing address matches what I gave them.

Anyway, hope this gets cleared up quickly, already lost another shipping day.

[TK]

It happened the same to me.  Credit card was approved but received an email from Newark credit card department asking for additional information, then they released the order and ready to ship

[agdr]

@agdr - doesn't the scope have the ability to save screen shots? If you used that facility we could see the entire trace and all of the scope parameters used during your testing.

It should!  I'll see if I can find it.  There may be some ways to improve that high res mode too.

EDIT! found it!  That was easy.  Didn't even need the manual.  There is a button on the front of the scope with a picture of a camera on it.  I pressed that and the scope popped up a complaint about "missing media".  Hmm... USB stick maybe?  Popped in a USB stick and hit the button again.  "Saved" it said.  Attached is the result, 34K .png on the stick.  The oscillator is set for 1V peak here.

Also - just a usage reminder - remember that pressing the vertical encoder knob goes from "coarse" to "fine" divisions which helps mitigate a bit that annoying thing Mike noted of the encoders having detents.  An easy "fix" for that just occured to me.  R&S should easily be able to do it in firmware - add a 2nd level of fine by pushing the encoder again.  So coarse - fine level 1 - fine level 2 - then back to coarse.  At some amount of magnification (fine level 3?) even the detents won't matter anymore.  But there is a usability thing there of course, a 3 level circular button pressing loop to keep track of vs. two.  The Rigol has two levels, don't think I've seen 3 on anything.  Maybe that could be an R&S exclusive. 

[corax]

Crazy, Usually I get annoyed because my CC company declines a charge because they don't recognize who I'm buying from and I have to jump through hoops to get it processed. Today I get an email from Newark saying my order is processed, then about 15 minutes later another one saying it's on CC hold. The CC company had already approved the funds and is good to go. I call Newark to find out what's up they want to verify I'm really me because it's been a while since I've ordered from them WTH.... The only way the CC company will approve is if the billing address matches what I gave them.

Anyway, hope this gets cleared up quickly, already lost another shipping day.

Exact same thing happened to me through Newark- had to call in and repeat the CC billiing address and CVV2 code.  They then released the order right away.

The unit arrived today and it is in fact the bundle- all license codes for all of the pre-installed options provided (Newark's website listing didn't spell out all of the included options).
Only had a few minutes to play with it so far, but it's definitely several steps up from my Rigol 2072a.  The web browser interface to the scope seems to work really well.
So far the scope-whack test shows the expected results when tapping the BNCs, but I haven't been able to see anything when tapping on the touchscreen.

[agdr]

I plugged the scope (still hooked to the audio oscillator) into the local network (gbps).  I went several rooms away and plugged the laptop into the LAN - worked great.  I ran an IP scanner to find the R&S IP address on the network (network runs DHCP auto-assign), but I could have just hit that green "network" icon on the scope screen to get the IP.   Then entered the scope address into Firefox.  Voila!

So now I've just switched the laptop over to Wifi, on a LAN access point, and I'm outside enjoying a coffee while changing my scope settings and viewing the signal. Life is good. 

[piranha32]

Also - just a usage reminder - remember that pressing the vertical encoder knob goes from "coarse" to "fine" divisions which helps mitigate a bit that annoying thing Mike noted of the encoders having detents.

Having detents or not does not matter at all. These are rotary encodes, which have discrete output by design. I would rather complain that R&S skimped on the encoders, but with coarse resolution dials having detents is actually helpful, because it gives some feedback on adjustments.

[Joel_l]

I think all is good now, Newark says it should ship out tomorrow, invoice shows the proper RTB2004 promo kit.

Joel

Crazy, Usually I get annoyed because my CC company declines a charge because they don't recognize who I'm buying from and I have to jump through hoops to get it processed. Today I get an email from Newark saying my order is processed, then about 15 minutes later another one saying it's on CC hold. The CC company had already approved the funds and is good to go. I call Newark to find out what's up they want to verify I'm really me because it's been a while since I've ordered from them WTH.... The only way the CC company will approve is if the billing address matches what I gave them.

Anyway, hope this gets cleared up quickly, already lost another shipping day.

[TheSteve]

@agdr - doesn't the scope have the ability to save screen shots? If you used that facility we could see the entire trace and all of the scope parameters used during your testing.

It should!  I'll see if I can find it.  There may be some ways to improve that high res mode too.

Awesome, the pic looks great, its hard not to love that resolution.

[mtdoc]

So now I've just switched the laptop over to Wifi, on a LAN access point, and I'm outside enjoying a coffee while changing my scope settings and viewing the signal. Life is good. 

Jealous!

I ordered mine over the weekend and am glad I did since Tequipment is now sold out of the promos again. They told me today it won't ship until mid to late May