Anybody try the new Agilent 3000X yet?

[Mr.CRC]

Hi:

I'm going to spend the next three years of my allowance on a DSOX3024A
200MHz 4-ch variety and 33522A dual channel 30MHz arb. for home use
(sorry John Larkin, I just prefer an easy front panel user interface).

The 33522A I found a whole bunch of bugs in at work, but I think the new
firmware update will fix them. I have a EE intern starting Monday and
his first job will be to observe all the bugs that I described in a long
bitch email to Agilent, and then install the new firmware and see how
much better it gets.

At work I recently acquired a 70MHz 4-ch DSOX2004A variety which will be
used as a "strip chart recorder" to look at the control signals of a
Nd:YAG laser injection seeder.

And a 350MHz 4-ch+16 MSOX3034A for my electronics lab main scope, to
replace the older 6000 series MSO that I used to use.

I've only played with the new scopes a little bit, since my office where
I do most work has a 500MHz MSO7054B, which I'm very happy with.

I also keep a LeCroy 1GHz thingy with kick-butt data analysis capabilities.

My least favorite scope is the Tek MSO4000. Horribly slow with deep
memory turned on. You get conditioned by the Agilent scopes to expect
multi-gazillion waveform updates per sec., so whenever I move to the Tek
it really takes me by surprise.


For my hobby work 9 years ago I bought a 100MHz 4-ch Tek TDS3014 at
about $4400 with a slight discount for being a hobbyist. That had only
10kpts sample memory and can do about 3600 waveforms/s.

Now with the Agilent I will get 200MHz and 2Mpts memory, plus simply
ridiculous 1 million updates/s, for $800 less than the Tek cost 9 years
ago. Plus the option to later upgrade to 4Mpts, add logic channels and
a bunch of trigger/decoder applications, and upgrade even bandwidth!


Thank goodness for capitalism!


I have developed a close relationship with Agilent over the years.
Recently the marketing/development manager for the 3000X line and one of
the firmware engineers of this scope have been taking my input on how to
enhance the statistics and data analysis capabilities.

I have been very happy with their level of willingness to listen to me
(though buying a lot of gear probably helps). I expect that the same
would be possible with Tek, but since I'm fading out on my use of Tek, I
might never find out.

 

[Mr.CRC]

Sure. Our market is multi-channel arbs, for simulating mechanical
systems mostly. There are lots of 1-channel arbs around, and a few
duals. We can do hundreds of synchronized channels, definitely a
niche.

Oh, I see. That would be something that works better with a PC UI.

Interns, aka scutt bunnies, are great for this sort of thing.

Once he's done with that and the Eagle tutorials, I'm hoping to have him
actually work on meaningful boards. With a lot of pointers and look
over his shoulder, of course.

Agilent is our biggest customer, since they acquired Varian. NMR
stuff.

That's interesting. With Agilent having plenty of design teams, will
they continue contracting out the design of NMR electronics?

My everyday scope is a $400 Rigol. Works fine.

John

My grandparents worked and saved very hard and though they had the
means, they afforded themselves few luxuries. I tend to do likewise.
But a very nice scope is one of the things that makes electronics very
much fun, particularly during the few hours I can get the time to work
on my personal projects.

At work, a high quality scope is definitely a productivity booster.

You put out a lot of stuff with extremely tight (ps) jitter and timing
specs. Surely you have some higher end instruments that are critical to
your success besides a $400 Rigol? I mean, a value scope is certainly
useful, that's why I just added the 70MHz 2000X. But even in a value
scope, I'm hesitant to go with the Chinese brands. Perhaps in time that
will change. I have at least given them a look.

That said, the bugs in the new Agilent signal gen. are something I would
expect from a Rigol or other Chinese knock-off. So go figure!


Good day!