Alternative DMMs to Fluke?

What about the same GM and Toyotas built in the same plant with different name tags. ...and you didn't mention the Mazdas that are re-branded Ford Rangers.

Who cares? Did you get what was advertised? ...maybe something even better than you anticipated?! You bought a knock-off and got the real thing and you're mad about it. Sheesh!

You admit that you're willing to break the law for pragmatism? I don't know what the EU law is here, but I can't imagine it being less strict than US law.

If you aren't willing to put your money where your mouth is, where do you get off telling others to put their money where your mouth is?

No contradiction at all. In the US it is illegal to put a "Made in &country." sticker on a device that's only &country. content is the insertion of a battery. I can't imagine this being kosher in the EU. It has nothing to do with re-branding.

Do you think Sears makes batteries or appliances (or anything, for that matter)? They're putting their name on other's goods.

Then quit yer bitchin'. It's not even amoral.

Hi Jim,

It's a B! So perhaps Tek started out with manufacturing in Oregon and then moved it to Taiwan? I'm not certain when the thing was built -- I obtained it second-hand. I do know that the TX1 and TX3 were rather short-lived at Tek; my impression is that they were only sold for a couple of years before being discontinued.

Yeah, no surprise there. When you can get a 12V, 8A switching "brick" for something like $15 in quantity, I can't imagine trying to design such an item yourself. In fact, I was told that this was one of the main reasons the plug-in/mainframe approach to test equipment (e.g., the TM500 modules) died -- a big advantage was that you didn't keep purchasing the power supply again and again, which was a big ticket item back in the '60s and '70s. Once switchers became cheap, this advantage disappered and Tek sold off the TM500 line to some other manufacturer.

---Joel

Parts of Tek (not all of it -- there are still plenty of good people there) seem to now have the slightly paranoid "big company" attitude that their designs are many times better than anyone else's, and letting people have useful troublshooting information such as schematics is somehow going to let your competitors (who realistically often are just as skilled as Tek) mop the floor with your scopes. While I was there, the Big Management decision was that Tek didn't want other scope manufacturers to be able to use their probes, so there were even discussions about how -- while the current communications interface with the probes (which started out as an I2C connection to a serial EEPROM but had evolved into talking to a microcontroller) was proprietary and hence not publically documented -- perhaps the next interface should be completely encrypted, just to have a probe tell the scope that it's 10:1, 50 ohms, etc.!

From a business school approach, I'm sure this is all quite defensible... but like Agilent today, it seems very much at odds with the business approach of the founders.

---Joel

It's not, and that's the problem: When you have company A that simply slaps their name on company B's product, obtaining service & support for that product is typically much more difficult than if you simply bought the product from company B to begin with. Additionally, the purchase price from company A is often higher than going the direct route!

Wow, the test leads run right to your temples when you wear that thing! I'm not sure if it's for real or a Trek/Borg-inspired joke!

Tim.

If you bought company B's product, you go to company B for support. If that company is a fly-by-nighter, you shouldn't have bought it. Because it is the same widget as Company A's is meaningless. You didn't buy company A's, even if they're the same hunk-o-hardware. If company A's was cheaper, you're a fool for buying the same thing with company B's sticker on it. There is no fraud going on here at all. It's all aboveboard. The problem is not with re-badging but with your perception. TANSTAAFL.

This site is a bit hard to maneuver, but an interesting one, and I bought a Vellman portable oscilloscope last month for $125, the cheapest price I could find, and I also got a free Vellman DMM to boot..

Gee a Tripplet analog for $260. I have the old 630 right here.

greg

Hi Keith,

You're illustrating exactly the problem with Tektronix (and other companies such as IBM) here: They have a reputation for a certain level of quality & support, so you can't blame the customer when the company starts re-labeling someone else's product, sells them, and then can no longer provide their traditional level of service.

Sure, it's above board and not fradulent -- it's just disappointing. I don't think anyone here *is* claiming something truly evil is going on, just that it's sad to see traditionally excellent companies go down this path in a manner somewhat akin to "selling out."

---Joel

No, but I can just see someone using that in combination with the voice recognition software/hardware that Tektronix sells for their TDS series oscilloscopes

"Joel Kolstad" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Sold to TEGAM.

TM500's advantage was configurability;you could configure a test station with TM500 modules,connect them thru the backplane,and with the TM5000 series,also have GPIB programming and control.

"Joel Kolstad" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

You want a good read,hunt down a copy of "Winning with Tek;The First 40 years at Tektronix" by Marshall M. Lee. The story of Tek from the beginning.

Unfortunately,it was published BY Tek,10/86,and has no ISBN number. Tek gave evey employee a copy.

You might find a copy on Ebay.

My Tek TX3 DMM has a B016XXX serial.

Make that "Winning with People: The First 40 Years of Tektronix"

Let's go back! The OP's bitching because he bought a FLUKE, with Company B's label on top. He *DID NOT* buy a Fluke. The IBM deal is quite like the GE deal. They're selling their name as part of the unit sold. The name is worth money. ...and they're still servicing the products *THEY* sell. I suppose you don't think GoodYear should sell tires under the GoodYear name in Sears.

In the end, it's up to the consumer to know what he's buying.

Why? He bought a Company B product that is the same as a company A, but paid for Company B. Why is that disappointing?

You're wrong. He was claiming *FRAUD* (until I challenged this absurdity), which clearly it's not.

I agree. I've had Fluke 77s for fifteen years. The only reason I bought a bunch of $4 HarborFreights was that my Flukes had a habit of taking a walkabout. One hasn't been seen in 12 years. THe HF's can now go walk. BTW, I've only replaced the batteries in the 77s once in those fifteen years. They still work quite well.

Sure. At $3-4 each...

Thus spake Keith:

OP, here.

I have 73 and 77. Both work quite well, also. The only reason I'm looking for another meter is that neither of these are true RMS reading meters. Mfr of equipment I'm servicing is spec'ing pulsed DC voltage as an RMS value. I can't accurately measure this with these meters.

I've been quite happy with these meters, but I need true RMS measurement, and my eyes would appreciate larger display and a backlight. I've been eying the Fluke 87, but would like to at least see what *doesn't* measure up to the Fluke before I plunk down the $$.

Thanks,

Nope, the OP simply asked whether there were alternatives to Fluke, of comparable quality. Someone opined that Omega was good. I offered that Omega doesn't make things.

If you're talking about me, and again, I'm not the OP, you're right, I do think it's fraudulent. Legally fraudulent, maybe not. Morally fraudulent, yes. That's my opinion, and there's not one damn thing "absurd" about me having an opinion, even though it's one you clearly don't share, most of the time, except in certain circumstances.

Actually, it seems to me that your logic is flawed, your position is nebulous, and your analogies irrelevant.

But just clarify this one issue for me, and then I'll let it drop. Suppose I buy a chassis made in Japan, some electronic components made in China, a blank PWB fabricated in Maylasia, a battery made in Mexico, and a can of spray paint made on the moon. And I put it all together into a product. Now, can I say it was made in America?

And if so, where and when do I cross the line to illegality? You say that if all I do is add the battery, I can't claim I made it here. What if all I do is add the battery and spray paint it? What if all I do is add the battery, install the assembled board into the chassis, and paint it? What if all I do is add two components to the PWB, install the board, paint it, and add the battery?

And how is this different than re-branding? One company can take another company's product and stick their name on it, but one country can't do that with another country's product?

Your standards are indefensible, because they're undefinable.

Seems to me like an entirely reasonable observation. I was surprised when I figured out some 'Omega' equipment was from other manufacturers and cheaper under the manufacturers name. My impression is that Omega is a convenient source for a wide range of stuff but you pay more for it.

bud--