Magnova oscilloscope

[woody]

Yeah, things are getting a bit crammed on that little screen.

OK so 15.6” (39.6 cm) is small screen on a scope now..... 

I thought in that particular case I could get by without a smiley, for better effect. Apparently not... So here's one which you can attach at your convenience: 

32"inch is soooo much better 

[egonotto]

Hello,

will the resolution really be higher?

Best regards
egonotto

[core]

Can the right columns be hidden to use more space for the signal?

Yeah, things are getting a bit crammed on that little screen.

It's not about size. It's about pixels.

At first glance the columns on the right take up say 180 pixels. That leaves 900 for signal.
So it approaches the DHO1000, which has 800 pixels horizontally.

If the full width can be used for signal, it will make a significant difference.

Now I hope the point of the question is understood.

Later edit : nope, it takes from 1920, not from 1080. DHO has 1280 horizontally. So It's OK 

[woody]

Hello,

will the resolution really be higher?

Best regards
egonotto

No. According to my display: 1920x1080 / 60Hz / 24bit color.
But I established the DP output works 

[woody]

One last observation: after being switched on for 3 hours the device does run a bit hot; (IR measured) temp of the heatsink on the back is around 50 deg C, the little plate above that (where the SG will be put behind) around 47. Ambient is 22 deg C. The scope's fan is still off though, for which I am very grateful 

[RAPo]

Why is the time base in the utmost right column? On top of the channel div column would imho be more logical.

32"inch is soooo much better 

[Sorama]

Can the right columns be hidden to use more space for the signal?

Yeah, things are getting a bit crammed on that little screen.

It's not about size. It's about pixels.

Are you sure the magnova uses pixels and not real data?

[ebastler]

Why is the time base in the utmost right column? On top of the channel div column would imho be more logical.

There is an encoder knob right next to that time base indicator which controls this very setting. (As is the case for the other settings shown further up in the rightmost column.) That's if you view the display on the scope itself, of course, rather than an external monitor.

[RAPo]

Ah so. Thanks for the explanation.

Why is the time base in the utmost right column? On top of the channel div column would imho be more logical.

There is an encoder knob right next to that time base indicator which controls this very setting. (As is the case for the other settings shown further up in the rightmost column.) That's if you view the display on the scope itself, of course, rather than an external monitor.

[Tomki]

Hi everyone

I think I should first introduce myself…
I'm brand new to this blog and "just" an electronics enthusiast and not a professional. It's been 40 years since I started studying, and in the meantime I've only been remotely involved with electronics. But now I’ve got time 😜.
In the meantime I've been following Dave Jones' YouTube tutorials for years now.
Measurement technology and microcontrollers have always been a hobby and in the meantime I owned (and still own) a few oscilloscopes. Analogue ones were Hameg and Tektronix, DSOs from Hameg / Rhode & Schwarz, Rigol and ... for about 2 weeks now a Magnova BM350 😄, which I'm happy to share my experience with here.
More posts will follow...
Regards from Frankfurt
Thomas

[Tomki]

My personal first impression of the BM350:
I also had to wait a few months for this great device - but in the end it was worth it! The promise in the advertising video that you'll be familiar with the Magnova after 5 minutes - well, maybe it's 10 or 15 minutes... but the user interface is very intuitive and you can actually get to grips with it after a short time. The rotary controls change their function depending on the current system status or the last function selected. Sometimes I still "mistake" when I want to adjust something without looking. I can only confirm that the touchscreen is very responsive. The UI only freezes briefly when a screenshot (quick save) is being saved. If you also save the waveform, that's quite a few bytes and that takes a moment. The waveform display, however, continues to run normally during this time.
I haven't got around to working my way through all the functions yet, but I'm impressed with what I've tested so far (especially FFT). With the FFT, however, I think it's excessive to have an FFT displayed for each of the 4 channels at the same time. I don't have any use for this myself. It gets confusing when all the selected FFT displays are placed on top of each other. It's possible that you need this, but I think it would be better to do it in separate windows.
At the moment I mainly use function generators (including Siglent SDG6022X) and Batronix's own demo board.
The first thing I noticed about the Magnova is that the user interface doesn't have a single pictogram. Although - that's not quite right: when setting the system language and the keyboard interface, there are small flags for German and American/English 😃. OK, that may be Batronix's philosophy and the Magnova isn't a games console either, but IMHO pictograms make operation easier because you can understand pictograms more quickly than plain text. All competitors in this segment - including professional devices from Keysight and R&S - offer pictograms for almost all functions. Perhaps Batronix will improve this in one of the next updates.
I am preparing small videos with my tests and will then make them available here (and/or set up my own YouTube channel 😀).
As far as Batronix's service is concerned, I can only praise it. I have exchanged several emails with Batronix in the last few days to clarify small questions or other products, which were always answered on the same day. Sometimes by the CEO himself, who is obviously an expert 😀. I have never experienced this anywhere else.
On the subject of logic analyzer and function generator, I was told that these will probably not be available until the end of Q1/2025. In any case, I have already ordered them!
The question of the programming interface also came up here. The Magnova understands SCPI. A manual on this is apparently currently being prepared. In the meantime, I installed a simple iOS app (SCPI Commander) and it was able to connect successfully to the Magnova. The "*RST" command was successful 😀, but I still have to try out other things...

[egonotto]

Hello,

@Tomki: have fun with the BM350.

Too bad it will be another six months or so before you have the BMO logic probe set and the function generator hardware module.
Have you ordered two BMO logic probe sets?

I'm interested to know why you chose the BM350?

Best regards
egonotto

[Martin72]

I would be interested to know in general which target group Batronix has in mind. This would be helpful in order to be able to evaluate the scope.

[LoneWolf6912]

Hello everyone,

First impressions. I finally got to unpack my personal copy of the Magnova. It's the 100 megahertz model. The package is compact. The device is protected by high-quality black polyurethane foam. The packaging is well thought out and designed, without too much unnecessary plastic. A good initiative.

With the oscilloscope, there's a box that includes a power cable (made in China, not made in Germany, got you, Batronix ) and 4 Testec test probes with their set of accessories. As expected from Testec, the probes are of very high quality and are coated with a thin layer of gold, improving their resistance to corrosion and conductivity.

A nice bonus: a letter from the chairman. Thank you, André!

I haven't had much time to play with the device. So, I’m far from having tested all its features. However, here’s my initial feedback, with some bad photos to go along.

Once everything is plugged in, it takes 29 seconds for a complete startup. A few mechanical relays click into place at startup.

Although I ordered the BMO100 model, the software indicated that I had a 350MHz license active. Oh joy, I thought—but alas, when inputting a 25 MHz square wave, we could already see a significant signal distortion with a rise time equivalent to 120 MHz. So, the information on the oscilloscope was incorrect. What a shame, I had a brief moment of excitement.

The machine has an impressive processing capability. You can perform an FFT with a spectrogram and zoom in (up to 20,000x) on the signal at the same time without any apparent slowdown. It’s really impressive. The FFT waterfall view is absolutely stunning. As for the FFT, it’s limited to 1GHz. Still, not bad. But maybe not enough to fully leverage the waterfall view’s potential.

The touchscreen is extremely responsive, as much as my smartphone. It’s pleasant and modern. The Magnova's screen is matte and very comfortable to the touch. It also doesn’t seem to show fingerprints much. Definitely well thought out in advance.

It’s possible to select different measurement units. For the analog channels, you can choose between volts and amps. Honestly, too few. Being used to measuring physical signals, I would have liked to see more exotic units like Tesla or even candela. Regarding the math channels, they already have more units available, though still too few for my liking. I wonder why they don’t include a “custom” button to let users create their own units.

The acquisition modes are simply “sample,” “average,” and “peak detect.” No high-resolution mode—at least not yet.

It’s possible to perform 8 measurements simultaneously, complete with statistics and graphs. A big plus.

I’ll try to connect it to my PC in the future to take better screenshots than these miserable photos.

Despite a few negative points, I’m extremely happy with my choice. And I would encourage anyone still hesitating to take the plunge.

Stay safe,

[LoneWolf6912]

Some other picture

[nctnico]

It’s possible to select different measurement units. For the analog channels, you can choose between volts and amps. Honestly, too few. Being used to measuring physical signals, I would have liked to see more exotic units like Tesla or even candela. Regarding the math channels, they already have more units available, though still too few for my liking. I wonder why they don’t include a “custom” button to let users create their own units.

A custom unit option would be nice indeed!

[woody]

First impressions. I finally got to unpack my personal copy of the Magnova. It's the 100 megahertz model. The package is compact. The device is protected by high-quality black polyurethane foam. The packaging is well thought out and designed, without too much unnecessary plastic. A good initiative.

High quality polyurethane foam?!? I wish. Mine came in between two layers of self-inflating packaging foam which made me think, well, that could be better!

Good to see that indeed it did get better. And anyways, I'm not going to judge a scope by its cover 

[Andre77]

Dear LoneWolf6912,

Thank you for your review, photos and suggestions!

The package is compact. The device is protected by high-quality black polyurethane foam. The packaging is well thought out and designed, without too much unnecessary plastic. A good initiative.

We have a company here in northern Germany that manufactures these black cushions from non-crosslinked polyethylene. These odourless materials consist of 80% recycled material and can be 100% recycled.

High quality polyurethane foam?!? I wish. Mine came in between two layers of self-inflating packaging foam which made me think, well, that could be better!
Good to see that indeed it did get better. And anyways, I'm not going to judge a scope by its cover 

Yes, the first Magnova's were sent out with self-inflating packaging. We have been using the custom packaging above for a few days now.

It’s possible to select different measurement units. For the analog channels, you can choose between volts and amps. Honestly, too few. Being used to measuring physical signals, I would have liked to see more exotic units like Tesla or even candela. Regarding the math channels, they already have more units available, though still too few for my liking. I wonder why they don’t include a “custom” button to let users create their own units.

The unit selected for the channel also affects the calculation of the power (dBm, etc.) in the FFT. How should the power be calculated in the FFT for a user-defined unit of a channel?

The acquisition modes are simply “sample,” “average,” and “peak detect.” No high-resolution mode—at least not yet.

With the Magnova, the ‘High Resolution Setting’ (sample averaging) and the Acquire mode can be set separately.

This allows any combination of 12 to 16 bits resolution with the acquire modes "sample", "peak detect" and "average".

Please take a look at the second item ‘sample averaging’ in the Acquire menu.

[Andre77]

I would be interested to know in general which target group Batronix has in mind. This would be helpful in order to be able to evaluate the scope.

Warning: The following text is somewhat marketing-driven. But the idea behind fits. 

We are addressing a gap in the market with the Magnova. The Magnova offers some features of high-end oscilloscopes combined with the A/D converter speed - and therefore the cost - of the mid-range. With the large 15.6-inch touch display with full HD resolution, the innovative operating concept and outstanding processing and analysis performance, such as the ability to display up to four FFT spectra with up to eight million sampling points each, the Magnova offers functions that are otherwise not found in this price range. We therefore combine high-quality components and features with an A/D converter speed that is more than sufficient for most day-to-day development tasks. Our goal is to offer customers an oscilloscope that is not only powerful, but also affordable and easy to use.

[woody]

Although I ordered the BMO100 model, the software indicated that I had a 350MHz license active. Oh joy, I thought—but alas, when inputting a 25 MHz square wave, we could already see a significant signal distortion with a rise time equivalent to 120 MHz. So, the information on the oscilloscope was incorrect. What a shame, I had a brief moment of excitement.

This is a screenshot from my BMO350 for a 25MHz square made with a Siglent SDG 2042x. So either yours is 350 as well, or mine is a 100, or this is the best the SDG can output at its highest frequency and you get the same presentation on both bandwidths.

The license in my scope is shown active.

[Aldo22]

or this is the best the SDG can output at its highest frequency and you get the same presentation on both bandwidths.

That's what I'm saying, these relatively expensive AWGs often have worse rise times than the AWG built into my super cheap scope.

 <9ns for the SDG2000X

The measured value of 8.7ns therefore corresponds to the specifications of the AWG.
This is no problem at all for the scope.

[Andre77]

Although I ordered the BMO100 model, the software indicated that I had a 350MHz license active. Oh joy, I thought—but alas, when inputting a 25 MHz square wave, we could already see a significant signal distortion with a rise time equivalent to 120 MHz. So, the information on the oscilloscope was incorrect. What a shame, I had a brief moment of excitement.

From which signal source did you measure the 25 MHz square wave? I suspect it is as woody and Aldo22 have already written.

If the Magnova displays the 350 MHz bandwidth licence, this bandwidth is also activated. We have checked our production records and this licence should not actually be activated on your device. It looks like a mistake on our part, perhaps you can accept it as an early Christmas present. 

[woody]

If the Magnova displays the 350 MHz bandwidth licence, this bandwidth is also activated. We have checked our production records and this licence should not actually be activated on your device. It looks like a mistake on our part, perhaps you can accept it as an early Christmas present. 

So he gets the nice shipping box AND a free 350M upgrade? Good thing I am not the jealous type 

[tautech]

or this is the best the SDG can output at its highest frequency and you get the same presentation on both bandwidths.

That's what I'm saying, these relatively expensive AWGs often have worse rise times than the AWG built into my super cheap scope.

 <9ns for the SDG2000X

The measured value of 8.7ns therefore corresponds to the specifications of the AWG.
This is no problem at all for the scope.

You get rewarded with investment to real relatively expensive models, not hobbyist SDG2000X, expensive models are 1ns
SDG6022X risetimes are 2ns
SDG7000 are 1ns or better.

[LoneWolf6912]

Although I ordered the BMO100 model, the software indicated that I had a 350MHz license active. Oh joy, I thought—but alas, when inputting a 25 MHz square wave, we could already see a significant signal distortion with a rise time equivalent to 120 MHz. So, the information on the oscilloscope was incorrect. What a shame, I had a brief moment of excitement.

From which signal source did you measure the 25 MHz square wave? I suspect it is as woody and Aldo22 have already written.

If the Magnova displays the 350 MHz bandwidth licence, this bandwidth is also activated. We have checked our production records and this licence should not actually be activated on your device. It looks like a mistake on our part, perhaps you can accept it as an early Christmas present. 

Thanks, i guess honesty some time pay off