EEVblog 1638 - NEW Keysight Megazoom V ASIC 1GHz HD3 Oscilloscope - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 09:17:58 am
content: After 13 YEARS Keysight have finally released a new Megazoom V ASIC oscilloscope! Let's look at the HD3 / HD300 series released today.NOTE: I only had this scope for 24 hours from when it arrived to when I rleased this video, so please excuse the curidity of the video, I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it.00:00 - NEW Keysight MD304MSO 14bit ADC Oscilloscope with Megazoom V ASIC!08:19 - Boot up10:24 - New User Interface14:12 - A few bugs15:40 - 100MHz Signal Gen16:28 - USB & Quick Action18:13 - Intensity Graded Display DOWNGRADE?19:30 - Ethernet remote and VNC21:01 - Screen Scaling?22:59 - Measurements23:44 - Coming soon... X-Y & Roll24:52 - 100uV/DIV ?25:38 - Measurement on full data or screen?27:34 - Trigger level range limitation, another coming soom feature28:02 - Comparison to R&S MXO4, Half the noise, and 14bit vs 12bit29:57 - Update rate comparison30:44 - Noise measurement at 1V/DIV31:17 - Custom ADC speculation31:55 - BRUTAL Update rate comparison, Megazoom Magic35:13 - Lack of bandwidth filters, maybe another coming soon option...36:53 - 16 HD mode vs 18bit HD37:10 - 14bit ADC TESTED38:14 - Window docking & Tiling & Full Screen39:08 - Zone triggering40:31 - Serial decode41:43 - NEW FEATURE: Fault Hunter45:50 - 1GHz Passive Probe!46:43 - Conclusion

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 09:26:18 am
content: Please use the existing thread here for comments on the scope:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-keysight-infiniivision-hd3-oscilloscope/Only post here if it's about my video specifically, thanks.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 11:35:56 am
content: I don't have technically a lot to comment on this model of scope, except that I think the industrial design department is a bit lacking. We can rage about the spaceship look of some asian brands (looking at you Rigol), but this scope looks like it just transitioned from CRT vintage to new fancy LCDs, but to accommodate them they needed huge borders/frames around the screen.It almost looks like they were aiming to have a larger diagonal screen but it didn't work out, so they stuck in the inner black frame to fill the big gap in the enclosure.Just look at what the most modern models of Rohde&Schwarz (MXO 4), Tektronix (MSO 24), or heck even Siglent (e.g. SDS2104X) are doing with their front panel design. So much sexier!But these scopes were always meant to be workhorses, not lookers. So if it delivers in that department I guess we can forgive it.

author: SWB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 01:08:19 pm
content: Thank you very much for getting this video out so quickly! I think you were probably one of the last YouTubers to receive yours, and yet as far as I can tell, you're the second one to get a video out. Lots of detail for such a quick turnaround, as well.

author: Bloch
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 02:59:12 pm
content: Before you look at this video and think you need it, remember it costs the same as a new car!

author: NE666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 06:21:09 pm
content: Quote from: Bloch on September 05, 2024, 02:59:12 pmWhich is why I find it rather odd that Keysight has clearly decided to push for air time and "bench visibility" for this with content creators who primarily/significantly attract an amateur/hobbyist audience. Particularly incongruent, I feel, given how Agilent/Keysight made a strategic decision to leave that market demographic behind. It feels to me as if someone in marketing thought they'd seen enough Rigol, Siglent et al logos and wanted in, or rather, the others out of sight. Again, despite those brands being a much better fit for the largest proportion of viewers.Note, very clearly please, that I don't consider that this necessarily applies to the EEVBlog channel, although I'd be surprised if a very large percentage of regular viewers weren't from outside of the EE industry. With all due respect, I think some other channels currently reviewing the HD3 will be almost exclusively frequented by interested amateurs of all ranges of ability, e.g. IMSAI Guy and Electroboom.And no, I don't think that's a derogatory statement. Quite the opposite. It's one thing to be recognised as a subject matter expert amongst colleagues and peers, it's another again to also be a highly valued and widely respected public educator in that same area. And creators of such high value material earn and deserve their rewards and sponsorships.

author: SWB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 07:07:01 pm
content: Quote from: NE666 on September 05, 2024, 06:21:09 pmAgreed. Some of them that have popped up so far are real head-scratchers. No disrespect at all to the content creators – they have a different audience, and it's not their fault Keysight decided to send them an expensive scope. Anyone with even a passing interest in electronics would be thrilled to have something like this show up on their doorstep for free.But what does Keysight hope to get out of it? The pros largely aren't watching those channels; the hobbyists that are can't afford the scope; and (crucially) the content creator may not have the background to provide useful or interesting insight or commentary about it.I really hope they sent@Shahriarone. His and Dave's videos tend to be the best for this sort of thing.I also reject the premise that because something is out of reach (for a particular person), there's no point in paying attention to it. I'm not an RF guy, and I could never in a million years afford most of the stuff Shahriar discusses onhis channel, but I still enjoy watching it and find it incredibly interesting and educational.

author: NE666
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 08:54:28 pm
content: Quote from: SWB on September 05, 2024, 07:07:01 pmI wouldn't go so far as to say that channels like Dave's don't attract professional viewers but Keysight's marketing will already have other avenues of advancement when it comes to making contact and getting eyeballs on there , including industry trade shows and account reps with offers of free samples (for the largest customers) and test-drives. And you're dead right on the last two.Hence, what's happened this week indeed seems a bit "dog in a manger" on Keysight's part, attempting to take out focus from the only brands that would be accessible to the lion's share of the regularly viewing audiences.

author: SWB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2024, 09:08:47 pm
content: Quote from: NE666 on September 05, 2024, 08:54:28 pmDave's channel (and surely Shahriar's as well) definitelydoesattract professional viewers. I was referring to a couple of the other channels I've seen pop up thus far with HD3 videos.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2024, 12:57:43 am
content: Quote from: SWB on September 05, 2024, 01:08:19 pmI have no idea who else has one. But I'd be surprised if they didn't send one to The Signal Path as well.I know that several Youtubers have done paid promo hype videos or sponsor segments in the last week or two though.BTW, Keysight didn't ask me to do that because they know I don't do paid sonsorships or promo's.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2024, 01:00:02 am
content: Quote from: NE666 on September 05, 2024, 08:54:28 pmMajority of my audience are professional engineers, and the next biggest segment is engineering students. Hobbyists is the smallest of the three. I do surveys to get this data so it's not a guess.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2024, 01:06:08 am
content: This short just showed up in my feed:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lC0r0kJUWFoDidn't know about this channel, but he just did a review:

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2024, 01:10:15 am
content: Electronoobs is another one:And Mehdi has done a promo, but I don't think he usually reviews products does he?https://www.youtube.com/shorts/822II6b7UR8

author: SWB
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2024, 01:17:55 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 06, 2024, 01:06:08 amI haven't watched his video yet, but he's one of the ones I was referring to. Full respect for the guy, I mean no insult or ill-will whatsoever, but the fact that his video description starts off by saying, "I do apologize for my lack of expertise on the subject of oscilloscopes but I had a good time messing around with it," makes me wonder why Keysight thought his channel would be a good fit for this instrument.Also he's had it a while (he did acute series of shortsover the past week or so), but you got your video out before he did.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 06, 2024, 01:38:07 am
content: Quote from: SWB on September 06, 2024, 01:17:55 amBasic blanket brand marketing for a new product release. And very often it just comes down to someone at the company being a fan of a particular channel.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2024, 09:59:12 am
content: Do you know if your scope is a pre-production model?I have to admit: i am a bit surprised about the amount of firmware issues there apparently are.I know that getting a finished piece of equipment is not expected anymore if you buy something brand new. But this scope seems to have some extremely glaring issues, and a lot of them.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 07, 2024, 10:14:33 am
content: Quote from: Ranayna on September 07, 2024, 09:59:12 amHardware wise I don't know. But hardware wouldn't play a part in any firmware issues.I know what's coming in the next 5 firmware releases, so they have some sort of rolling system for firmware releases, and that seems to include any models like mine that get released into the wild.So they could have given my a firmware that was 5 releases ahead of the one I got, but I decided not to, I guess so there is no chance the files are made public before testing.

author: ballsystemlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2024, 01:27:22 pm
content: Thanks Dave, I look forward to the teardown.

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2024, 04:11:04 pm
content: Most of the issues look like either hard limitations of the hardware (limited number of points to download from normal screen data) or software things.The blue LED that is a bit dim would be the exception, that may get a minor hardware update.I would not complain so much about the trigger input at the back. With 4 channels one does no need the external trigger that often. It is more like a positive surprise to have an external trigger with 4 channels.It is kind of normal to have not yet all FW features and few bugs left for a kind of preview unit. As long as such issues get fixed, this could be the price to pay for an early release.

author: electr_peter
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 08, 2024, 12:46:33 pm
content: At14:12vertical offset actually works very fast (look at the range on the right and channel offset on top left). Some auto-scaling (shifting vertical range) is in action, so that channel position on vertical axis does not change much (scale changed from [-20V, 0V, 20V] to [-15V, 0V, 25V]). Maybe it has something to do with channel DC offset control in analog pathTry that with real DC offset AC signal, it will be more obvious than with open input.

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2024, 10:27:44 pm
content: Quote from: SWB on September 06, 2024, 01:17:55 amThere isn't much downside. It probably doesn't cost them a lot, improves overall brand awareness (including for their other products) and may reach a few actually interested people. It's not like these videos are likely to turn customers away.It also probably helps with the YouTube algorithm. For one, if you watch the EEVBlog video on this scope, YouTube is likely to recommend to you a bunch of other videos on the scope. Whether you watch them or not, they hope that creates a larger impression of "everyone is taking about the new key sight megazoom V". By the same token, if a bunch of popular hobbyist channels have good videos on this scope that get a lot of views, it may end up promoting Dave's video to more professional engineers.

author: ballsystemlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2024, 05:03:57 am
content: @Dave , I just thought about this, but doesn't the HD3's reading it's own trigger invalidate the WFM/s test?Like, if the scope is in it's "dead time" it's neither reading the trigger pulse nor outputting it. Therefore, according to the scope, it's trigger rate is always 1M+ WFM/s.Maybe I'm not understanding something?Thanks!

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 09, 2024, 06:18:01 am
content: Quote from: ballsystemlord on September 09, 2024, 05:03:57 amI used the frequency counter function, not triggerign from it's own trigger output.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2024, 08:07:08 pm
content: Quote from: ejeffrey on September 08, 2024, 10:27:44 pmIts true its just funny. Great Scott has one now too, sponsored in his video about sub $2 arduino boards.Straight out of the playbook of recent Chinese companies. They'll send products to any channel, even if its completely unrelated to their target market.https://youtu.be/AsQ8I53SKPc?t=73

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 09, 2024, 10:03:28 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on September 09, 2024, 08:07:08 pmIn the case of Great Scott, that's a paid promotional slot. So he's got to say the company talking points etc as an advertorial.I doubt he'll do a review on it off his own bat. Looking at his reviews he's only ever done really low cost stuff:https://www.youtube.com/@greatscottlab/search?query=review

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2024, 10:17:51 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 09, 2024, 10:03:28 pmYou are right, two paid ad spots so far.Gear wise its all low end dev kits, boards, and then oddball stuff like wind turbines. No test equipment reviews.He always uses the MSOX3000 in his videos, so this will replace it, don't even need to include that in the contract.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 09, 2024, 10:51:11 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on September 09, 2024, 10:17:51 pmIn the industry this is known as "long tail" promotion. Companies send products to Youtubers in the hope they use it in future videos, and hence free promotion over a long time period.One classic example of log tail promotion, and a company that doesn't understand it, is the Targano microscope in my videos. I've been using it for like a a decade now, not even calling it a "microscope" but instead I'll say (because I prefer saying it) "let's have a look under the Tagarno". Killer brand advertising in a ton of videos for the manufacturing cost of a single microscope. I recently asked them if they wanted to upgrade it to the 4K version to match my 4k teardowns and they said they weren't interested. Oh well, guess I'll have the find something else.BTW, nothing against Great Scott of course, if you have to take ad spots to stay in business, definitely do it. And if reviews don't interest you then don't bother of course.