Tablet Oscilloscope-tbook, a new kind DSO.

[Stonent]

BTW, Micsig are not spamming the forum, they have permission to post here.
The form factor aside, the specs seem very impressive for a new company.
I do wonder where they get their 1GHz front end from, and 300K/wfmssec, I'm mean, that sort of bandwidth and speed doesn't just pop out of nowhere from scratch from a new company.

I'll withold further judgement until you or Mike takes one apart and shows us what's inside.

But Micsig, show us a video of the device working. Hopefully not a professionally done marketing video.

[tinhead]

I'm mean, that sort of bandwidth and speed doesn't just pop out of nowhere from scratch from a new company.

the company is new, but ppl behind that company know for sure what they doing.

On the website there is a picture of their "low end" MS310 handheld PCB, not many details on it, but one can see 4x Intersil ADCs (ISLA118P50), the FPGA of course, TI A8 ARM i guess and lot of DDR3. It looks like they picked up good and universal combination, when this is really picture of MS310 then i would say MS7xx (so the "high end" handheld) does have exact the same PCB.



Now i have to convince my wife that we don't need new winter clothes but new DSO

[davidefa]

Nice specs for both the tablet and handheld scopes, can you provide a link to the manuals of both?

P.S. forgot to ask: are the scopes already available? Where to find those scopes ( in europe preferably )?

[rf-loop]

Is it possible you show 5GSa/s go to 360M memory.

can you do one test. Take 500MHz signal (example square) wave and capture it in real time 5GSa/s to 360M memory and show this stored file and show documents about this test.

Also please show this 200 000 captured waveforms in second  update rate.
Can you show it can display 200000 captured waveforms on the display.
It is captured and displayed waveforms. In this case, how many data points is in real is one waveform.
Make test. Run example 200kHz square where example every 200000's pulse is half size.
Run scope one second and stop it. You can now see this one bad pulse also. Ok, you propably can not see. Run ten seconds. Can you now see it. Run test 10 times. Every test period you find this bad pulse from memory (?) or just on the TFT(?) --  better if directly in diplayed area, becouse realtime display area is what we normally watch in practice work.
Can it give out 200000kHz from trigger out. (btw, wfms/s means displayed waveforms /s. It is not trigger out alone if it do not also "draw" it to display (proofments  somehow that it collect 200000 captured wafeforms in second to display memory. This is amazing high value if it is real truth without any specs trics)

[mikeselectricstuff]

There are some applications where touchscreens really suck because they require you to be looking at the screen - in-car systems come to mind.
However for a scope, you will pretty much always be looking at the screen when making any adjustment. The only exception I can think of is pressing a start/stop button while holding a probe - and this could be addressed by having this function as [optionally] a large button at the corner with audio feedback.

A touchscreen would be better than the button interface used on pretty much all portable scopes. Knobs on a scope are more about familiarity than useability - if done well, a touchscreen could be as good if not better than knobs, but it does require good UI design and fast implementation. A slow,laggy TS would be  complete game-over.
I have yet to see any Chinese- designed product with a UI that's been designed rather than just thrown together, and for something like this, the UI design and implementation is extremely important, so I'm not holding out much hope. We need to see a video of it being used.

70MHZ,100MHz,150MHz,200MHz,300MHz,350MHz,500MHz,600MHz,1GMHz. 
 

That's a stupid number of different options - half that number would make more sense

From the pics the case looks like cheap ABS.
Considering they haven't even bothered to get a native English speaker to proof-read their website, I really don't hold out much hope, unless they prove to be really responsive to user feedback and issue regular firmware updates, again  something we've never seen from any Chinese test equipment company so far.
Something like this from any manufacturer will have bugs and features which can be improved, so the response and committment to improvement is what distinguishes a good manufacturer from a cheapskate box-shifter.
 
I hope I'm proved wrong, but the odds seem against...

[dfmischler]

But ..but ... its capable of an impressive 1 Ginga Munga Hurtz ...

If your Ginga Munga hurts then turn off your computer and go see a doctor

[BravoV]

CAT rating? Independently verified?

According to the spec at the Micsig website, max input 300V CAT III and channel isolation at 1000V CAT II or 600V CAT III. But they don't use the fully isolated BNC connector, and with that exposed metal isn't that dangerous and misleading ?

About verification, you guess is as good as mine. 

[pinkysbrein]

BTW, Micsig are not spamming the forum, they have permission to post here.
The form factor aside, the specs seem very impressive for a new company.
I do wonder where they get their 1GHz front end from, and 300K/wfmssec, I'm mean, that sort of bandwidth and speed doesn't just pop out of nowhere from scratch from a new company.

The 300kwfmss is the easy bit... that most low end scopes used small/slow memory and/or atrocious programming is inexcusable. There is no shortage of engineers capable of working with ddr2/3 and decent programmers.

[mikeselectricstuff]

CAT rating? Independently verified?

According to the spec at the Micsig website, max input 300V CAT III and channel isolation at 1000V CAT II or 600V CAT III. But they don't use the fully isolated BNC connector, and with that exposed metal isn't that dangerous and misleading ?

Depends on the probe - if the channels are isolated, unused exposed BNCs are not a hazard. I hate those stupid plastic BNCs - too fragile.

[madshaman]

70MHZ,100MHz,150MHz,200MHz,300MHz,350MHz,500MHz,600MHz,1GMHz. 
 

That's a stupid number of different options - half that number would make more sense

Could this simply be the result of "binning" finished scopes based on testing results?  e.g. their 200MHz scope only tests to 200MHz 5/10 times, the rest can be sold cheaper.

edit: fix quoting; need better mobile app

[alm]

Depends on the probe - if the channels are isolated, unused exposed BNCs are not a hazard. I hate those stupid plastic BNCs - too fragile.

Agreed on the fragility, but I don't think they'd get this past UL. I wouldn't want to (un)plug the connector with 1000 V CAT II on the shield. Not that a sensible person would do that, but safety requires a certain degree of idiot proofing, like warning people that try to measure voltage with their DMM leads in the current jack.

[amyk]

I do wonder where they get their 1GHz front end from, and 300K/wfmssec, I'm mean, that sort of bandwidth and speed doesn't just pop out of nowhere from scratch from a new company.

The Chinese are excellent reverse-engineers...

[nctnico]

Knobs and buttons are really needed.

Not really. IMHO a touchscreen has much more possibilities of offering a good interface than knobs. The tbook has a capacitive touchscreen so they can implement multi-touch functions to zoom in/out.

[madshaman]

Knobs and buttons are really needed.

Not really. IMHO a touchscreen has much more possibilities of offering a good interface than knobs.

Tell that to my aching wrist.  I think it's an individual thing; I've seriously messed my wrist wrestling with Reason (music production software) when I haven't had my MIDI controllers with me (so I'm tweaking virtual knobs and sliders on my laptop's trackpad instead of real ones).

[amyk]

I wonder if they're running Android on it...

Angry Birds, now on your oscilloscope!

[elex_enthusiast]

why dont they send to someone like dave to have it reviewed? it would be a good DSO if it meet its specs. well it could hit the market if it could compete to other manufacturers.. how about the price range? if it cost much cheaper than leading manufacturers it would be attractive to entry level like me...how i wish to have one on my bench....

[Carrington]

In this forum some people not lost a detail, and I love that. Noticed how reaches the signal from the input stage (see attached).
Micsig please we want a full review and tear down, send a tBook and a MS720 to Dave, he will do it better than anyone. We are a very demanding audience...

- The specifications look good, but under what conditions are met?
- How long has this products in the market?
- And of course we also want to know the prices.


By the way I can't register on your website:

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[elex_enthusiast]

I wonder if they're running Android on it...

Angry Birds, now on your oscilloscope!

how about plants vs. zombies..haha

[mikeselectricstuff]

I suppose the other thing you can't do with a TS is rest your hand on one know while twiddling another, or be twiddling a knob while foussing on a waveform detail.
Still, TS beats buttons, but knobs beat both. Small size also has an influence....
 

[alm]

Funny how everyone is volunteering Dave's time . Dave would probably do a teardown and maybe a first impressions video, Mike might do a review and teardown. Both have enough experience and credibility to do a good job, in my opinion. If I were a manufacturer, I would offer to send a scope to both.

[nctnico]

Knobs and buttons are really needed.

Not really. IMHO a touchscreen has much more possibilities of offering a good interface than knobs.

Tell that to my aching wrist.  I think it's an individual thing; I've seriously messed my wrist wrestling with Reason (music production software) when I haven't had my MIDI controllers with me (so I'm tweaking virtual knobs and sliders on my laptop's trackpad instead of real ones).

You really can't compare a trackpad with a touchscreen. Apples and oranges... Trackpads suck so bad I always have a mouse with a laptop.

[Carrington]

Funny how everyone is volunteering Dave's time . Dave would probably do a teardown and maybe a first impressions video, Mike might do a review and teardown. Both have enough experience and credibility to do a good job, in my opinion. If I were a manufacturer, I would offer to send a scope to both.

alm you say it for me? Because for myself, well, double review.

[c4757p]

Even then it really depends on the person and how you use it. I'm exactly the opposite - I hate using a mouse with a laptop. Really, I hate using a mouse period. Crappy interface, whose dumb idea was it to communicate with the computer using a dead rodent tied to a port? I love that the pad is right underneath the keyboard. I can switch back and forth between them without even moving my arm.

[pinkysbrein]

They should really offer an active probe (and a dedicated 50 Ohm input) for the GHz bandwidth scopes.

[JDubU]

I haven't been able to find any prices for this new scope but here are some prices I found for some of their handheld, ScopeMeter-like products:
http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=Micsig&initiative_id=SB_20131024053813&SearchText=Micsig&initiative_id=SB_20131024053813