Seriously, Tektronix?

Den tirsdag den 6. maj 2014 00.12.32 UTC+2 skrev Tom Miller:

I guy I went to uni with worked nights printing delivery papers for a newspaper they had this huge IBM chain printer for it, with some crazy expensive service for it because if it broke down and wasn't fixed within a few hours, they couldn't bring out the papers

eventually they just bought a couple of standard desktop laser printers when they all worked it was faster and as long as one worked they could finish in time, I'm sure what they saved in service could easily pay for new printers when they wore out

-Lasse

I understand the issue of there being more expenses than just the fab costs. The NRE is sizable when you factor in all the costs. But it seems like it should be possible to produce a decent 500 MHz attached scope for under $1000 or even $500 once the NRE is covered.

I would be the issue is not what it costs, but what it is "worth". If Pico can get people to pay $1500+ for a good attached scope, then why would they charge less? Once the units are copied and sold from China thee prices will fall. I have seen any number of Chinese scopes, but none seem to be much good and of course the software is always questionable.

I recall someone saying there was open source software for a scope front panel. But I have never found it. Anyone know what that would be?

Well, I get a lot of request from clients for scope recommendations and Pico almost always lost out because of high prices. Most of the time clients end up buying a box instead of USB because it costs less.

I've got a Taiwan-designed scope as my main workhorse and I am happy.

What good would that do it the control registers are all different because they depend on HW? Front panels are easy.

I'll have to take you to The Monk's Kettle. They usually have at least one beer in the $75 range.

If you seem hesitant to choose among the 60 or so beers available, a bartender steps out from behind the bar, joins you, and consults.

It's actually a great place. Good food, too.

The thing about doing a TDR is competing with Tek 11801s on ebay. But there IS a market that I think would work.

xoscope ?

No, you can buy the software "upgrade".

You don't *have* to replace the scope...

I've had XP install updates three times since XP support ended. It ignored the setting to tell me there were updates, they were just installed.

Were they for IE-8?

I saw the same thing.

tm

Oh yeah, that sure looks good.

I am not so sure about the market. I've helped a lot of start-up clients equip their labs initially. Rarely did they ever truly need even as much as a 200MHz BW scope. Most of the time a 50-100MHz budget deal was all it took.

One reason is that there aren't that many engineers around anymore who can operate a serious scope. Aside from setting it up there is a whole science in connecting up the cabling in a manner that a giggeehoitz BW really makes sense. You and I know how to do that but we are almost dinosaurs by now.

There is a market. I just haven't had time to work on it.

Insults like that just bounce off my scales.

For TDR (which is fairly easy) there are markets but I really don't see one for regular sampling scopes like what the Tek 11801 was. Else they wouldn't pawn them off for around $1k like here:

Well, many of us in this NG are past prime in the normal lifespan of humans. I could imagine slowing down my consulting work in five years or so and only taking on the tougher jobs. Then I'll do more bike rides and stuff because when waiting another 15-20 years, who knows, I might not be able to do that anymore. Someone has to take over after us. Sometimes promising newbies show up and I try my best with them but there aren't enough of them.

how about something like this?

-Lasse

You can already buy cheap USB scopes, a client just bought this one:

Works. They also make higher end versions with higher sample rates, integrated arb gen, and so on.

The TEK TPS series is great. All inputs and the trigger are fully isolated.

Because not all companies buy on eBay? Because it's just as much work to buy a $30K scope as it is a $300 scope (well, the only TDR I've seen recently is more like $100K)? Because the keepers of the capital equipment inventory lists, instrumentation, and calibration will never sign off on such things?

I want to buy one of those but no one knows how. In fact, it's harder to buy the $1K TDR than it would be to buy the $100K scope. I can't justify $100K (to myself) but I can easily justify $1K or even $10K.

One would have imagined that a company of Tektronix repute would have used a simple RTOS on their scopes. Looks like Tektronix is following in HP's foot steps.

Some of my customers have told me to bill it as hours. What I prefer to do is just buy the darn thing myself. For $30k or so, I've bought a million bucks worth of first class test equipment, figuring at list price. There are not a lot of independents out there with real labs, and that's worth a lot to my customers.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Even for engineering use? That would be an indicator of a company with serious problems. With my clients and former employers that was never an issue. The only minor (and very occasional) glitch was when a seller would not accept a P.O. in which case we used a high-limit or no-limit credit card of one of the bigshots. At my employers I had such a card myself so it was a non-issue. Not sure if it's still the case but with an Amex card you could buy a whole aircraft if needed.

Sometimes clients would ask me to buy something and just bill it through as a line item. That gets arund the P.O. problem and delays although many don't require strict adherence to a P.O. system any longer. I always found that to be somewhat archaic.

Lucky you. I simply don't have the space. Else I'd have a Tek sampling scope already. But if there was a decently price USB box I'd buy. Decently priced meaning $1k or less, not $8k. I did that with a spectrum analyzer plus RF generator and never looked back. There are some shortcomings with dynamic range and such but it does stuff that boat anchors never could.

Knock a wall out. Park your car around the block. Get a divorce. A sampler/TDR is worth it.