EEVBlog #1119 - Designing a 1kV Isolated Oscilloscope

Bart Schroder from Cleverscope talks about the challenges in designing the world's highest performance isolated oscilloscope.

Measurement demo on a 500V MOSFET H-Bridge and how to accurately probe it. Then a teardown and walk through of the design of the new CS448 1kV 4CH 200MHz 14bit isolated oscilloscope and the custom probes, power supplies and optical fibre interfaces they had to design to get this performance.

Bart has written are article on the development, he let me upload it here:

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[rotate]

A guy who has in-depth product knowledge at a tradeshow!? Unheard of.

[danmenes]

This small firm reminds me of the old days, when manufacturers were proud to print the full schematics of their gear right in the back of the manual. Today they scrub numbers off chips and guard the most minor design details like they were nuclear launch codes. Can you imagine a trade show booth from Tek or Agilent, or even Rigol or Siglent, where an engineer would pop the hood up for you, show you the insides, and tell you what choices he made and why? Legal would throw fits!

[RandyLott]

That's when you know they're selling a good item for a decent price. When the guy who represents the company opens it up and shows it off so you know what you're getting.

Nice guy!

[oriole]

As a person who is no stranger to variable frequency drives, all I can say is wow. This combination of people skills and enthusiasm, technological understanding, problem solving skills, resourcefulness... I'd be very surprised if Cleverscope hasn't been getting any offers on their company. This is the sort of premium IP that larger companies would want very much to stay ahead. Sure, they could replicate this tech themselves, but time is money. I very much hope that Cleverscope secures some great deals with various power electronics developers for their products to let them keep working in this direction. Also, I hope you guys could appreciate this level of openness and honesty from one of the devs. Let me tell you, you don't see that much in this world anymore. That's some strong NZ charm right there.

What a treat. Thank you very much Dave!

[davidf]

This looks like some beautiful design and a great, enthusiastic designer. Thanks for posting!

[movaxh]

Two words: Ultimate design. Congratulations. I was thinking that things like that are only possible in military or space research, where the cost doesn't matter, and the performance is matter of dead or life, success or failure. Great.

Greate work. 3 enginerers, for 4 years. Good work. It show how small company can really make a difference.

[sparkdoctor]

That was one of the most informative interviews I have ever seen. Many thanks.

[Mtaalas]

I love the gigantic common mode chokes on the oscilloscope cables :D

You should definitely do a short video regarding common mode filtering etc. why and when to do it on your probes. It's a topic that's shrouded in mystery.

[PL-VA]

Great interview! Thanks for posting it.

[martinda]

That was just flippin' brilliant. Tell that chap I was absorbed (arrgghhh) fully! He was fantastic.

[derekverveer]

Couple of nerds geeking out. Love it. ;)

[truppelito]

That's not an oscilloscope... THIS is an oscilloscope!

[voltlog]

$10k is nothing for the people who need this kind of equipment. This was more exciting than any other scope teardown I've seen.

[pq]

That is a Great video! I especially like how enthusiastic and proud the guys is! (And as far as I can tell, he deserves it!)

[p_mouse]

That's some sweet engineering. Thumbs up guys!

[Sharklops]

Great video! It's rare to find someone who can keep up with Dave in a conversation like this

[justgame]

It’s so entertaining and educational as an engineer student, listening to people who have been in the industry for years talk about the nuisances around developing and implementing a product

[Joel-stuw]

Can’t upvote enough! This video is absolutely fantastic! I was fully expecting most of Bart’s responses to be vague and riddled with “I can’t tell you that”... but no... just a full 30 minutes of brilliant questions and even more brilliant answers. To say I’m extremely impressed with this guy, his company and their product is a huge understatement. The world needs more of this. 👍🏻👍🏻

[jonnafry]

Impressive achievement for a team of 3 in that time frame!

[Darieee]

This literally is a 30 minute shot of the bleeding edge