New Tektronix 3 Series MDO

[0xdeadbeef]

Didn't see anybody mentioning that they are giving away some scopes:
https://info.tek.com/www-new-gen-scope-june4-wc.html

[effectivebits]

Other than the cheapest scopes is a touchscreen even interesting enough to make it a significant bit of your marketing? It's half the blurb... I guess we'll know more about what they're thinking when they're officially launched.

It's look and work exactly like the 5 Series.

I wouldn't assume that. The Tektronix DPO/MSO5000 looked on the outside like a DPO7000, but operationally it functioned more like DPO/MSO4000 hardware - it didn't really work like a DPO7000.  I had several times I had to work customers through how to make their measurements because it just wasn't totally the same. There were/are certain limitations on sample rate, memory, triggering, etc that reflect its hardware pedigree, even though it has a more advanced user interface on it. Time will tell if the 3 series really functions like a 5 series (this product was launched after I left, so I'm eager to see the real specs). I suspect there will be limitations based on hardware - remember that a lot of cool features on oscilloscopes require hardware to support them.

[tv84]

https://www.newark.com/  has removed the info/pricing I copied a few msgs ago... 

[JPortici]

Other than the cheapest scopes is a touchscreen even interesting enough to make it a significant bit of your marketing? It's half the blurb... I guess we'll know more about what they're thinking when they're officially launched.

If it's properly done it's worth mentioning. A touch screen scope speeds up doing things considerably (especially for us of of a younger breed )
moving the trace and cursors and stuff around coarsly with your finger instead of battling with poorly implemented encoder acceleration

[Hydron]

moving the trace and cursors and stuff around coarsly with your finger instead of battling with poorly implemented encoder acceleration

I find the on screen keyboard is another _major_ benefit of a touchscreen scope - no more endless encoder spinning to enter a text string or number (e.g. a screenshot filename, trigger hold off value).

[EEVblog]

https://www.newark.com/  has removed the info/pricing I copied a few msgs ago... 

Tektronix marketing playing whack-a-mole 

[JPortici]

moving the trace and cursors and stuff around coarsly with your finger instead of battling with poorly implemented encoder acceleration

I find the on screen keyboard is another _major_ benefit of a touchscreen scope - no more endless encoder spinning to enter a text string or number (e.g. a screenshot filename, trigger hold off value).

YES. also that. The memory of using the onscreen keyboard on hte 1054Z keeps me awake at night

[mike1305]

Tektronix marketing playing whack-a-mole 

Definitely don't miss all those issues from my InfiniiVision BizDev days. Though it's so close to the launch date I doubt Tek cares too much. Not much competitors can do except launch promos like R&S, though theirs isn't really geared towards the EEVBlog audience.

[EEVblog]

Confirmed, the 3 series is just an MDO3000 with the new interface.
Maybe it has a faster processor and might be less sluggish, but everything else is the same.

[darkstar49]

Confirmed, the 3 series is just an MDO3000 with the new interface.

...which means it's (still) NOT an MDO !!! No way to trigger on freq dom events, and have both time & frequency domains traces synced...
For 16K, there's definitely a lot more to get !

[EEVblog]

[EEVblog]

https://www.tek.com/innovative-scopes

[gslick]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement now that they are officially announced?

Here's another video that has been released on at least a couple of channels today:

Tektronix- 3 Series MDO Technical Overview

[maginnovision]

They've got beautiful displays but if the 3 is mostly a holdover I don't care. The 4 is outside my budget but it looks good but sort of an odd middle scope between 3 and 5. Although Keysight 3000 vs 4000 is similar, as well as R&S 3000 vs 4000. Seems it's difficult to really do enough to justify other than having something in that segment. Keysight, R&S and Tek should all ditch one of them.

[EEVblog]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement now that they are officially announced?

The problem is two fold:
1) The 3 Series is just rehashed MDO3000 hardware. And the 4 Series is the same as the 5 Series but a bit cheaper and bit less capable. So nothing really that new there.

2) People on forums like this don't really get excited by higher priced tools, it's the value for money ones that generate a lot of hype and continued discussion. Look at the R&S RTB2000, it's actually not a cheap scope, but R&S did some initial marketing that was incredible value for money, so people flocked to it and now that a lot of people have one as result there is more continued talk about it.

[snoopy]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement now that they are officially announced?

The problem is two fold:
1) The 3 Series is just rehashed MDO3000 hardware. And the 4 Series is the same as the 5 Series but a bit cheaper and bit less capable. So nothing really that new there.

2) People on forums like this don't really get excited by higher priced tools, it's the value for money ones that generate a lot of hype and continued discussion. Look at the R&S RTB2000, it's actually not a cheap scope, but R&S did some initial marketing that was incredible value for money, so people flocked to it and now that a lot of people have one as result there is more continued talk about it.

Maybe worth getting the new MDO3 and comparing with the MDO3000 you have to see if there are any improvements ? It seems the new user interface would require much more CPU grunt than the previous model.

I believe R&S have a new deal going for the rest of the year

[Eric_S]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement now that they are officially announced?

The problem is two fold:
1) The 3 Series is just rehashed MDO3000 hardware. And the 4 Series is the same as the 5 Series but a bit cheaper and bit less capable. So nothing really that new there.

2) People on forums like this don't really get excited by higher priced tools, it's the value for money ones that generate a lot of hype and continued discussion. Look at the R&S RTB2000, it's actually not a cheap scope, but R&S did some initial marketing that was incredible value for money, so people flocked to it and now that a lot of people have one as result there is more continued talk about it.

People do like to talk about things that they own and can experience and play with themselves *looks at TEA thread*.

But to be fair, people also get a bit excited, albeit for a shorter time, for alien level test equipment (I'm looking at you, Monster(TM) Keysight scope).

It's kinda an inverted bell curve, big value and crazy uber tech goes down well. Kinda neat but middle of the road test equipment that you'll never ever be able to get? Not so much.

[fcb]

Weird low key launch - was expecting half-dozen video reviews from the usual suspects, editorials, tear-downs etc...

I had the 5 series in the lab recently, very nice unit - for the BW I wanted it was eye-wateringly expensive.

MDO32 (100MHz/2ch) £3130
MDO32 (1GHz/2ch) £9830
MSO44 (1GHz/4ch) £15700

What would be great would be a 1GHz 2ch without the mixed-domain for about £6K to replace my ageing 500MHz HP's.

[maginnovision]

Weird low key launch - was expecting half-dozen video reviews from the usual suspects, editorials, tear-downs etc...

I had the 5 series in the lab recently, very nice unit - for the BW I wanted it was eye-wateringly expensive.

MDO32 (100MHz/2ch) £3130
MDO32 (1GHz/2ch) £9830
MSO44 (1GHz/4ch) £15700

What would be great would be a 1GHz 2ch without the mixed-domain for about £6K to replace my ageing 500MHz HP's.

That's pretty much the SDS5000X price, maybe look at that. For some more, I think, the RTM3000(10K usd, may need forwarder).

[snoopy]

Weird low key launch - was expecting half-dozen video reviews from the usual suspects, editorials, tear-downs etc...

I had the 5 series in the lab recently, very nice unit - for the BW I wanted it was eye-wateringly expensive.

MDO32 (100MHz/2ch) £3130
MDO32 (1GHz/2ch) £9830
MSO44 (1GHz/4ch) £15700

What would be great would be a 1GHz 2ch without the mixed-domain for about £6K to replace my ageing 500MHz HP's.

I found these videos

[0culus]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement now that they are officially announced?

The problem is two fold:
1) The 3 Series is just rehashed MDO3000 hardware. And the 4 Series is the same as the 5 Series but a bit cheaper and bit less capable. So nothing really that new there.

2) People on forums like this don't really get excited by higher priced tools, it's the value for money ones that generate a lot of hype and continued discussion. Look at the R&S RTB2000, it's actually not a cheap scope, but R&S did some initial marketing that was incredible value for money, so people flocked to it and now that a lot of people have one as result there is more continued talk about it.

People do like to talk about things that they own and can experience and play with themselves *looks at TEA thread*.

But to be fair, people also get a bit excited, albeit for a shorter time, for alien level test equipment (I'm looking at you, Monster(TM) Keysight scope).

It's kinda an inverted bell curve, big value and crazy uber tech goes down well. Kinda neat but middle of the road test equipment that you'll never ever be able to get? Not so much.

Besides, for those of us who are considering dropping some cash, it's far more cost effective to go with one of those promo bundles R&S is running this year, where you get a fully unlocked instrument for 40-50% off as far as I can tell.

[EEVblog]

I found these videos

There is just something wrong about a company unboxing their own product...

[snoopy]

I found these videos

There is just something wrong about a company unboxing their own product...

Did you think that scope had already been unboxed ? I just found it strange that the scope did not come in any protective bag or foam wrapping ?

[fcb]

The SDS5000X series looks like I fits the bill, just rather spring a bit more for a Tek or Keysight.  Looked at the R&S stuff, just don't need the discounted options.  Base price is similar.

Back to the 3/4 series launch.  Have Tek gone early to market and have few built? Stockists seem to be on back-order.

[tszaboo]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement now that they are officially announced?

Well, I went on some websites. Checked the price. Looked at the full feature MSOX3104T on the other test bench, did a little comparison:
- Has bigger screen
- Slow GUI
- Tektronix, so eventually you will find something disappointing
- Confusing "sacrifice an analog channel for digital inputs"deal.
- Very expensive options

To get excited, it needs to offer something that enables you to do something that wasnt possible before. This one comes with expected pricing, expected options,  expected specifications. Someone will buy it, when they need a new scope and the RNG will throw Tek. Unless you already bought a scope with the same specs for half the price.
And yes, meanwhile Rohde is selling their 16 bit scope at a very good price. BTW at these prices, you are usually spending someone else's money on the scope anyway.