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Tektronix 1-3 GHz touch screen color DSO back in 1989 !

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Leo Bodnar:
I regularly use CSA803A with SD-30 sampling head (end of 1980's - beginning of 1990's tech) and I have to say that 11800/CSA803 has the worst ever user interface I have experienced - hands down.  It's so experimental, random, confusing and eclectic.

Many operations include pressing a dedicated function button (often twice or more), then using the touch screen - or rather un-touch as it activates on finger withdrawal rather than touch (it does not detect push) and then rotating one of the large knobs.  It's just awful.  And yes, there are popup menus that blend with main screen and don't look like pop-up menus.

When i have tried to use it for the first time without warning, I spent about 30 minutes trying to modify timebase scale (what else do you do with the scope?) and in the end have given up and had to read the manual.  It turned out you had to press one of the function buttons twice to get to the right touchscreen and knob roll.

User interfaces with state are evil - you need to concentrate on what the screen is telling you and you can't just engage muscle memory to get you to the right place.

Oh, and the required channel is turned on/off by a tiny button on the head that has no tactile feedback, beep or any other way of knowing the state.  And yes, active channel has a dim blinking LED when it's on.  And yes, channel traces randomly change colour - the first one you happen to turn on is green, the second is red - irrespective of their physical location.

And it looks even worse than it feels.

Other than that it's awesome - its sampling technology is genius, frontend hybrids are beautifully laid out and you can get a 20GHz dual channel capability for $500.  You often get an instrument that has been hardly used - I guess due to reasons above.

Leo

snoopy:

--- Quote from: David Hess on August 21, 2017, 02:03:45 pm ---
--- Quote from: snoopy on August 21, 2017, 01:40:30 pm ---I think the correct term is sub-sampling scope or equivalent time sampling which requires repetitive waveforms for equivalent sampling rates greater than the ADC sampling rate!
--- End quote ---

The correct term in place of what?

There is nothing to preclude DSOs (digital *storage* oscilloscopes) with real time sampling from using equivalent time sampling and many do to achieve even higher sampling rates so the term equivalent time sampling is ambiguous in distinguishing them.

--- End quote ---

Hi David

I have a Tek TDS784 scope with a max ADC sampling rate of 4Gs/s. Anything above that it jumps into equivalent time sampling upto an effective sampling rate of 250 Gs/s. I'm fine with that ;) As long as the signal is repetitive then equivalent time works perfectly ;)

cheers

Leo Bodnar:
I have posted few 11800/CSA803A frontend photos elsewhere but they are so beautiful they need to be here too. They don't care how they are called.
Leo

2 channel 20GHz sampling head


1 channel 40GHz sampling hybrid


Amplifier/offset/gain hybrid


snoopy:

--- Quote from: Wuerstchenhund on August 22, 2017, 02:35:32 pm ---
As I said, I understand where you're coming from but there's no point to fixate of a some 30 years old definition by a single manufacturer while constantly refering to ancient kit that has long been obsolete when the rest of the world has moved on.

--- End quote ---

I'm not sure if the world has moved on that much but according to Teks current lineup this 80GHz scope only has a 300kS/S sampling rate ! Perhaps that is a misprint but it does say "sampling scope" !


--- Quote ---DSA8300 Digital Sampling Oscilloscope

The DSA8300 is a state-of-the-art Equivalent Time Sampling Oscilloscope that provides the highest fidelity measurement and analysis capabilities for Communications Signal Analysis, Serial Data Network Analysis, and Serial Data Link Analysis applications

With intrinsic jitter of less than 100 femtoseconds for extremely accurate device characterization, the DSA8300 Series provides comprehensive support for Optical Communications Standards, Time Domain Reflectometry and S-parameters. The DSA8300 Digital Sampling Oscilloscope is a complete high-speed PHY Layer testing platform for data communications from 155 Mb/sec to 400G PAM4.
--- End quote ---

http://www.tek.com/oscilloscope/dsa8300-sampling-oscilloscope

Wuerstchenhund:

--- Quote from: snoopy on August 23, 2017, 08:17:22 am ---I'm not sure if the world has moved on that much but according to Teks current lineup this 80GHz scope only has a 300kS/S sampling rate ! Perhaps that is a misprint but it does say "sampling scope" !
--- End quote ---

Well, it is a sampling scope (i.e. a scope that uses multiple acquisitions to capture a waveform at analog BW), so why should it be a misprint?

The DSA8300 is basically a rehash of the DSA8000, which is based on the old TDS7000, so it's not exactly a new scope.

The real advantage of these scopes is in their low price compared to a real-time scope with the same BW.

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