$500,000 scope

On a sunny day (Sat, 15 Feb 2014 05:33:21 -0800 (PST)) it happened Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote in :

Will wait till they go as boat anchor on ebay for 100$ or less :-)

When Win 7 goes out of maintenance, that'll take about 5 minutes. A malware-infested scope, O joy.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Here's a screen shot from our $50K LeCroy:

Pretty good scope, between crashes. I wish we could afford some probes.

Why not make them yourself, and have a bit of aftermarket business?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Maybe they arrive just as Windows will notify you there is a solution!

That's on my list of things to do; got the schematic, need to do the packaging. We've just been too crazy busy lately.

WIN7 Embedded is much different than retail WIN7. You can lock down the OS in embedded versions.

Cheers

Well, unless they've changed their approach very much since the last time I looked, you can install Windows programs on those scopes. Doesn't sound too locked-down to me.

Plus I'd be very leery of connecting something that valuable to the public Internet with an OS that can't be patched (such as Win7 once it goes out of support too).

Cheers

Phil Hobbs (Who just bought three Win7 laptops refurb)

Couldn't see anything. It would not run without lots of unannounced scripts. I don't tolerate that.

?-(

What kind of functional life span would an engineering firm expect from a $50K scope that uses embedded Windows 7? Would such a capital investment need to be depreciated on taxes over even less than a decade because of Microsoft's BS? Do companies like LeCroy enjoy the planned obsolescence tied to using Microsoft product that goes end of life? What was scope functional life expectancy for scopes before Microsoft embedded? Was capital depreciation write down taken for more than 10 years on old scopes? Do engineers and engineering firms tend to buy and depreciate or just lease high end oscilloscopes?

You don't back up the scope's hard drive before using it? I've got a ton of images for Agilent and Tek scopes that run Windows... Can't count how many scopes I fixed and re-sold that had dead drives, were corrupted, or had been infected.

I don't buy Windows scopes, which is even simpler. ;)

Restoring from backup will get you a probably less patched OS than the one that got hacked, and so is a good solution until the next time somebody connects it to the Internet.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Every place I've worked bought test equipment. The one small company I worked for didn't buy much (because of the depreciation rules). Pickings were slim and when our one "decent" (a Tek TDS3034, IIRC) scope died we had to do without, for some time.

In another case (IBM) they scrapped a two year old RFI spectrum analyzer and a bunch of calibrated antennas because they needed write downs. If any other group wanted them (they did) they had to buy them out of their capital budget (they didn't).

G > What kind of functional life span would G > an engineering firm expect from a $50K G > scope that uses embedded Windows 7? G > G > Would such a capital investment need to G > be depreciated on taxes over even less G > than a decade because of Microsoft's BS? G > G > Do companies like LeCroy enjoy the G > planned obsolescence tied to using G > Microsoft product that goes end of life? G > G > What was scope functional life expectancy G > for scopes before Microsoft embedded? G > G > Was capital depreciation write down G > taken for more than 10 years on old scopes? G > G > Do engineers and engineering firms tend G > to buy and depreciate or just lease G > high end oscilloscopes? krw wrote

Wow, depreciated to nothing in only two years.. I suppose they destroyed it rather than creating an opportunity for some employee or hobbyist..

Written off in the last year as scrap. That was the point; if you can't make money, use the tax code.

Absolutely. As in, "to the crusher". There was an inquisition regarding some hardware the royal counters of beans didn't believe was actually scrapped.

Of course if you sell it, you get it off the books and maybe get a bit of dough for it as well.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

The video of an actual $500K oscilloscope caused me to ponder depreciation vs leasing situations. And such a beast using Windows 7 when some versions of W7 have already had support ceased seems like one hell of a liability to me.

Agilent DSA-X 96204Q 160GS/s 62GHz Oscilloscope

...and then pay tax on the (recovered) difference, as a profit. No, the counters of beans look at write downs the same as making money. That's the problem with the tax code.