Products > Test Equipment
Keysight officially lost the plot - don't buy if you're a hobbyist
nctnico:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on March 30, 2022, 09:34:52 pm ---The distinction between "Educational" and "Hobby" is academic, at best.
--- End quote ---
No, not at all. The educational market are schools and universities that buy low cost test equipment in bulk to outfit student labs. There is nothing 'hobby' about that.
coppice:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on March 30, 2022, 09:34:52 pm ---The distinction between "Educational" and "Hobby" is academic, at best.
Pushing tools not sold to private individuals as "Educational" stinks of bait-and-switch trickery to me.
--- End quote ---
How so? Its just facing reality. The main markets for low end instruments are education and production test. The main markets for high end instruments are labs. Labs buy some low end instruments, often greater quantities than they buy of the exotic instruments. Some production test requires exotic instruments. However, you name things by the dominant market. Keysight doesn't claim anything they make is for hobby use, and they don't want to engage in the kind of support that selling to consumers brings.
Someone:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on March 30, 2022, 09:34:52 pm ---The distinction between "Educational" and "Hobby" is academic, at best.
Pushing tools not sold to private individuals as "Educational" stinks of bait-and-switch trickery to me.
--- End quote ---
Keysight never? directly mentioned the "maker" or hobby market when they promoted the low cost scopes (cant find any of their first party communications with something like that), but they were sure happy to sit by while others pushed that space:
--- Quote from: https://www.element14.com/news/premier-farnell-shipping-keysight-technologies-ultra-low-cost-oscilloscope-series/ ---The Keysight’s InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series oscilloscopes has been developed for price conscious electronic design engineers, students and hobbyists,
--- End quote ---
In Australia manufacturers are not allowed to hide themselves behind distributors or retailers when dealing with warranty or service claims. But thats from consumer protection laws which have broad applicability, even in B2B transactions.
SMB784:
--- Quote from: nctnico on March 30, 2022, 09:40:58 pm ---
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on March 30, 2022, 09:34:52 pm ---The distinction between "Educational" and "Hobby" is academic, at best.
--- End quote ---
No, not at all. The educational market are schools and universities that buy low cost test equipment in bulk to outfit student labs. There is nothing 'hobby' about that.
--- End quote ---
Having worked in an academic environment at the second largest university in the US for nearly a decade years, this is mostly wrong.
I can think of only once that a bulk purchase of entry level test equipment was done, and that was when they opened the new engineering building near the end of my time there and kitted out a couple teaching labs with scopes, meters, & power supplies.
All other purchases that I ever was party to or had knowledge of were for less than 10 units at a time, usually less than 4. This is indistinguishable from the hobbyist market. Other then one initial bulk purchase, the remainder of orders are for replacements or individual use cases, all of which would require some level of warranty service that is no longer being offered to the hobbyist, and frankly I'm pretty sure soon won't be available for the education market either for similar reasons.
coppice:
--- Quote from: SMB784 on March 30, 2022, 11:04:52 pm ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on March 30, 2022, 09:40:58 pm ---
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on March 30, 2022, 09:34:52 pm ---The distinction between "Educational" and "Hobby" is academic, at best.
--- End quote ---
No, not at all. The educational market are schools and universities that buy low cost test equipment in bulk to outfit student labs. There is nothing 'hobby' about that.
--- End quote ---
Having worked in an academic environment at the second largest university in the US for nearly a decade years, this is mostly wrong.
I can think of only once that a bulk purchase of entry level test equipment was done, and that was when they opened the new engineering building near the end of my time there and kitted out a couple teaching labs with scopes, meters, & power supplies.
All other purchases that I ever was party to or had knowledge of were for less than 10 units at a time, usually less than 4. This is indistinguishable from the hobbyist market. Other then one initial bulk purchase, the remainder of orders are for replacements or individual use cases, all of which would require some level of warranty service that is no longer being offered to the hobbyist, and frankly I'm pretty sure soon won't be available for the education market either for similar reasons.
--- End quote ---
Having visited a number of universities its very common for undergraduate labs to have many of the exact same model of an oscilloscope or multimeter, which all look the same age.
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