Agilent/Keysight U1253B display becoming unreadable...

[mos6502]

What's funny is that while they were still called "Escort", nobody was fawning over these meters. But slap an Agilent/Keyhole sticker on those same Taiwanese meters, quadruple the price and suddenly people are going nuts over them.

[bd139]

Escort were quite respectable.

The only problem is the OLED displays. My Keysight doesn’t have one.  I bought a GW meter for the bench instead which has a VFD.

Buy OLED, get pain. This has been known for years since the shitty $10 MP3 players had them.

[Fungus]

Buy OLED, get pain. This has been known for years since the shitty $10 MP3 players had them.

But... shiny!!

[nanofrog]

The only problem is the OLED displays. My Keysight doesn’t have one.  I bought a GW meter for the bench instead which has a VFD.

Buy OLED, get pain. This has been known for years since the shitty $10 MP3 players had them.

Regardless of the label on the enclosure, OLED in T&M is simply marketing run amok. 

[LoFi]

Test gear and eye candy bling     don't mix   

It's unfortunate you had to find out the hard way   

Care to elaborate?

I don't own any OLED devices, and understand that OLEDs have a bad lifespan track record so far.  But the concept of using color (or 'eye candy') in a DMM display isn't inherently bad.  If fact, I'd love to have a good meter with this kind of bling if the problems of lifespan, decent battery-life, etc are resolved.  A good color display should be easier and quicker to read, and could be quite a boon in logging multimeters to display trend information more helpfully. 

We rely on known brands for a reason, as a shortcut for helping to determine reliability and quality. One would certainly hope that a reputable company like Agilent/Keysight wouldn't be providing such features as mere 'bling'... but as something that was carefully engineered/tested to provide utility along with reliability.  That trust seems to have been misplaced in the case of their OLED meters...

[Fungus]

Test gear and eye candy bling     don't mix   

It's unfortunate you had to find out the hard way   

Care to elaborate?

I'd love to have a good meter with this kind of bling if the problems of lifespan, decent battery-life, etc are resolved.

You mean use (eg.) TFT instead of OLED? Much less power draw, no lifespan issues, readable outdoors... I think Fluke makes a few of those. 

PS: It's perfectly OK to like OLED meters but you need to accept that they're not going to last. Don't expect much sympathy on forums when meter replacement time comes around.

[nanofrog]

Test gear and eye candy bling     don't mix   

It's unfortunate you had to find out the hard way   

Care to elaborate?

I don't own any OLED devices, and understand that OLEDs have a bad lifespan track record so far.  But the concept of using color (or 'eye candy') in a DMM display isn't inherently bad.  If fact, I'd love to have a good meter with this kind of bling if the problems of lifespan, decent battery-life, etc are resolved.  A good color display should be easier and quicker to read, and could be quite a boon in logging multimeters to display trend information more helpfully.

Color can certainly be useful to distinguish multiple measurements. TFT or IPS can do this just nicely however, and doesn't have the lifespan or power consumption issues that OLED has.

In the case of bench meters, you could even do multi-color VFD's (I know Noritake and Futaba currently manufacture some).   

For disclosure, the only OLED device I own is my cellphone.

[Electro Detective]

Test gear and eye candy bling     don't mix   

It's unfortunate you had to find out the hard way   

Care to elaborate?

I'd love to have a good meter with this kind of bling if the problems of lifespan, decent battery-life, etc are resolved.

You mean use (eg.) TFT instead of OLED? Much less power draw, no lifespan issues, readable outdoors... I think Fluke makes a few of those. 


PS: It's perfectly OK to like OLED meters but you need to accept that they're not going to last.

Don't expect much sympathy on forums when meter replacement time comes around.

LOL, straight up!   

[DiddlyJackSquat]

I will try to figure out if my U1273AX's oled display is indeed proprietary or off the shelf...

given the orange characters it might be proprietary but eh, why would they go to that extent 

but the worst thing about taking apart the u1273ax is how difficult it is to put it back together once you get to the extent of removing the display, at least if you want the knob to be perfectly aligned 

[nickds1]

Just to put closure to this, I am now very happy - the issue is resolved and much kudos to Keysight's customer support

[Mr. Scram]

Just to put closure to this, I am now very happy - the issue is resolved and much kudos to Keysight's customer support

Care to share your experience?

[nickds1]

Just to put closure to this, I am now very happy - the issue is resolved and much kudos to Keysight's customer support

Care to share your experience?

It wouldn't be fair to the individuals involved to be specific - everyone's case is different and you need to manage expectations.

What I can say is that if you feel that you genuinely have a good case, then make it! Speak to Keysight's customer service and explain the issues that you are having.

In my specific case I can say that Keysight's customer support have been very proactive - the process has certainly taken a good while, but they were very through and helpful.

Cheers

[threephase]

In my specific case I can say that Keysight's customer support have been very proactive - the process has certainly taken a good while, but they were very through and helpful.

Cheers

Good to hear that you have had success with Keysight's customer support, may be they are improving. My own experience with them in my country didn't have such a good result.

This isn't an OLED issue and they did send me a modified instrument, but that didn't resolve the issue and in the end Keysight have walked away leaving me with a very expensive U1461A that doesn't function correctly due to a design flaw.

Kind regards

[nickds1]

Just noticed this - (don't visit much) - it was Keysight UK Customer Support who were excellent and resolved the issue for me (I note you are in the UK too - though I'm based in the UAE at the moment, it's Keysight in the UK who dealt with this).

Whilst the process was lengthy (not their fault), they stuck with it, responded promptly to emails, came up with an excellent solution and have always been polite & helpful.

I'm a very happy customer. Can't ask for more really.

[alexwhittemore]

Anyone from Keysight care to comment on this?

First off, I'm so sorry to hear that you are having this problem!

So, I'm not familiar with the design side of things and can't offer much more than what's already been said on the OLED display failures.

I can say, though, that our design teams are required to use industrial-grade parts. For example, the 3000T oscilloscopes use an 8.5" capacitive touch display. The screen alone costs more than many 8.5" tablets on the market. So, I'm confident that the part being used isn't a consumer-grade part.

The display board is orderable, but it's roughly $100
https://community.keysight.com/thread/25646

Just a little update a few years on - my second OLED on this meter is now dying. I'm confident the part being used is worse than a consumer-grade part.

[VK5RC]

Sad to hear that, I have a quite 'old' ~6+yr U1253B, original screen, works fine. While I accept that the life of OLED may be limited I find it is so much easier to read than LCD (always do my electronics indoors). It is my go-to HH DMM for a quick reading.
Are you in a humid environment?

[alexwhittemore]

Are you in a humid environment?

Generally, yes. Los Angeles.