Oscilloscope Feature Wars - Agilent Options

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

I guess people may be wary of buying upgrades in future if they think upgrades are going to be discounted heavily later on.

That said they were seriously expensive upgrades, they cost more than the scopes.

[KD0RC]

Is it possible to replace that knob with a bigger one?

It is.  I moved the larger knob from the horizontal spot to the multiselect spot and it fits pretty well.  I am trying to get Agilent to sell me the larger knob, but I am not doing this as a company, so they denied my request.  I will try to reach out to someone there to get past this red tape.

In the meantime, I ordered the App Bundle, but have not heard back from the retailer yet.  I assumed it would come in the form of an e-mail, but their tracking site just says TBD for delivery.  They shipped me the scope REALLY quickly, so I am surprised about this delay.  Has anyone else ordered this upgrade and gotten it yet?

[eurofox]

Is it possible to replace that knob with a bigger one?

It is.  I moved the larger knob from the horizontal spot to the multiselect spot and it fits pretty well.  I am trying to get Agilent to sell me the larger knob, but I am not doing this as a company, so they denied my request.  I will try to reach out to someone there to get past this red tape.

In the meantime, I ordered the App Bundle, but have not heard back from the retailer yet.  I assumed it would come in the form of an e-mail, but their tracking site just says TBD for delivery.  They shipped me the scope REALLY quickly, so I am surprised about this delay.  Has anyone else ordered this upgrade and gotten it yet?

I think we have a better customer service over here, last year I order a large knob for a generator, a few days later I got it in my mailbox free of charge. 

I order the bundle and on the 1st of April in the morning it was in my email. 

[KD0RC]

I think we have a better customer service over here, last year I order a large knob for a generator, a few days later I got it in my mailbox free of charge. 

I order the bundle and on the 1st of April in the morning it was in my email. 

Wow, that is good.  I did get the scope the same week that I ordered it, so I am happy about that.  I think they must have goofed when ordering the App Bundle.  I called them and they said all the upgrades would be in next week, and that they would get me a temp license extension, but just as I am typing this, the real thing showed up!  I will have to try it to be sure it loads OK.

EDIT:  Loaded just fine!

[iRad]

The Agilent app bundle is a huge bargain, too bad the promotion will be over September 30, 2014. I wonder how many will want to add options afterwards, and only then realize they missed the opportunity.

[Sbampato12]

Is it possible to replace that knob with a bigger one?

It is.  I moved the larger knob from the horizontal spot to the multiselect spot and it fits pretty well.  I am trying to get Agilent to sell me the larger knob, but I am not doing this as a company, so they denied my request.  I will try to reach out to someone there to get past this red tape.

Here (brazil) I bought a pair of bumpers a handle and a knob for my used power supply. It arrived yesterday, take about 2 weeks, but mainly because our customs are very slow.

The only question here is the minimal value of purchase, we need spend at least R$150 (or about US$ 70~80) on each order.

If I'm not wrong in Agilent website in United States have a online store for parts.

[JoeN]

I can't wait for a competent but second tier oscilloscope company like Rigol to figure out they can get an edge on Agilent and Tek if they make the scope an open platform for third party applications.  Run it on Windows CE and let developers write their own software which runs in a sandbox on the scope.  They could provide a lot of value without having to do very much development by doing that and I think Rigol doesn't exactly make a ton of money by selling their own software upgrades.

[Rigby]

I can't wait for a competent but second tier oscilloscope company like Rigol to figure out they can get an edge on Agilent and Tek if they make the scope an open platform for third party applications.  Run it on Windows CE and let developers write their own software which runs in a sandbox on the scope.  They could provide a lot of value without having to do very much development by doing that and I think Rigol doesn't exactly make a ton of money by selling their own software upgrades.

After working with Rigol PC software for a while, I'm not totally confident that Rigol can be called "competent" in any way, except for the in the bare minimum terms of the definition.

That said, I agree with your notion; it would be powerful.  I fear that it won't happen though, because option licensing revenue for scopes can bring in more revenue than the sale of the scopes themselves.

[FrankenPC]

I can't wait for a competent but second tier oscilloscope company like Rigol to figure out they can get an edge on Agilent and Tek if they make the scope an open platform for third party applications.  Run it on Windows CE and let developers write their own software which runs in a sandbox on the scope.  They could provide a lot of value without having to do very much development by doing that and I think Rigol doesn't exactly make a ton of money by selling their own software upgrades.

After working with Rigol PC software for a while, I'm not totally confident that Rigol can be called "competent" in any way, except for the in the bare minimum terms of the definition.

That said, I agree with your notion; it would be powerful.  I fear that it won't happen though, because option licensing revenue for scopes can bring in more revenue than the sale of the scopes themselves.

I'm not sure why they don't have pricing models for personal use.  There's no better way to embed your brand into the public consciousness than put one in the hands of every hobbyist.

[NYEngineer]

I'm not sure why they don't have pricing models for personal use.  There's no better way to embed your brand into the public consciousness than put one in the hands of every hobbyist.

Not a bad idea. I would buy new (or recent used) Tek or Agilent if I could afford it in a heartbeat.

However, Agilent does have a Used and "Premium Used" store on eBay where you can get things directly from them at a significant discount. The Premium Used stuff is essentially new - with all accessories, warranty, etc. I've "talked" (meaning, e-mailed) with their eBay rep and he's been very responsive.

[JoeN]

I can't wait for a competent but second tier oscilloscope company like Rigol to figure out they can get an edge on Agilent and Tek if they make the scope an open platform for third party applications.  Run it on Windows CE and let developers write their own software which runs in a sandbox on the scope.  They could provide a lot of value without having to do very much development by doing that and I think Rigol doesn't exactly make a ton of money by selling their own software upgrades.

After working with Rigol PC software for a while, I'm not totally confident that Rigol can be called "competent" in any way, except for the in the bare minimum terms of the definition.

That said, I agree with your notion; it would be powerful.  I fear that it won't happen though, because option licensing revenue for scopes can bring in more revenue than the sale of the scopes themselves.

Optioned bandwidth, optioned features that require hardware (digital channels, wavegen on Agilent), and optioned/segmented memory I can see.  I am not so sure about pure software and I am doubly unsure that Rigol makes a mint at it.  I can see Agilent and Tek not wanting to do it because I think they do make money, but I think Rigol does not because they don't seem to provide a lot of it.  That is why I suggest Rigol.

[Rigby]

I was going to say something about allowing scope owners to write their own protocol decoders, but then I remembered about things like the BusPirate and free/open logic analyzer firmware, so now I'll probably just pick up some hardware that's a lot cheaper than a scope and do that work there.

[rstoer]

It looks like Keysight/Agilent has extended the "Ultimate Scope" promotion. I just saw this on their website:
"Available April 1, 2014 – November 30, 2014"

[ErikTheNorwegian]

Is it possible to replace that knob with a bigger one?

It is.  I moved the larger knob from the horizontal spot to the multiselect spot and it fits pretty well. 

Hi,
 i know this is a old tread, but here goes;
What model did you move the horisontal knob to the multiselect spot?
I got a fully hacked MSOX 6004A, got it cheap (had two of it, but sold one) now mainly for hobby use, and i presume i can do the same there? It fits right on the rotaryencoder?
So i may order a new knob from Keysight..

My hands are not as unshaky as they was before i got disabeld and in a wheelchair.. So it would make my day to have a larger knob there, get more accurate controll. The voice controll is great, and every scope should have it, this is the only scope that has a utilety for us handicaped users.  The keyboard and mouse support are great tools to when fingers and hand coordination is not at is best. Great when both hands are ocupied with probes and as in my case just holding onto the tabel not falling of my chair 

Erik

[ErikTheNorwegian]

Case solved..
Found   large rotary knob for Keysight 1000X 2000X 3000X 3000T  xxx  on Ebay.
for just 15$ , pluss shipping. I wounder how much Keysight would charge...
So now i can change the smal multifunction knob to a larger one for better accuracy.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/352899670767?hash=item522a75a2ef:g:diEAAOSwuOJd~B7e


Erik

[ErikTheNorwegian]

A large multifunction rotary knob in place!  Much easier for my shaky hands to use it now!
Let's start a campaign against small knobs in places that they're mostly used! 

[mikeselectricstuff]

Case solved..
Found   large rotary knob for Keysight 1000X 2000X 3000X 3000T  xxx  on Ebay.
for just 15$ , pluss shipping. I wounder how much Keysight would charge...

The issue is less ceost but whether they will deal with you. Last time I ordered a part from Agilent (MOSOX6000 rubber membrane button strip) many years ago, the cost was very reasonable, about £5 I think with free shipping.

[ErikTheNorwegian]

Case solved..
Found   large rotary knob for Keysight 1000X 2000X 3000X 3000T  xxx  on Ebay.
for just 15$ , pluss shipping. I wounder how much Keysight would charge...

The issue is less ceost but whether they will deal with you. Last time I ordered a part from Agilent (MOSOX6000 rubber membrane button strip) many years ago, the cost was very reasonable, about £5 I think with free shipping.

Yes, but main concern is one big one . The time to get the part! 6-7 weeks. That was probe parts! That's way to slow shipping!

The incredible package for a probe to BNC adapte for a MSOX6004A was "hilarious". The generous amount of plastic, it was difficult to find the part!   A big, I mean BIG box .. look at the picture, the blue ray is the for seeing the dimensions. The part in the red circle! Environmentaly crazy these days. To be fear, I complained to the Norwegian distributor , 4test, and they sent it to Keysight. There came a message back from Keysight that shows that they listen. Relearning the staff that's packaging and  shipping and will change to environmentaly  better packaging materials.

[YetAnotherTechie]

Maybe they don't want packages to get lost 
It's not as bad as HP shipping a mouse in a pallet...

https://www.theregister.com/2008/07/23/enormouse/

[nctnico]

Case solved..
Found   large rotary knob for Keysight 1000X 2000X 3000X 3000T  xxx  on Ebay.
for just 15$ , pluss shipping. I wounder how much Keysight would charge...

The issue is less ceost but whether they will deal with you. Last time I ordered a part from Agilent (MOSOX6000 rubber membrane button strip) many years ago, the cost was very reasonable, about £5 I think with free shipping.

Yes, but main concern is one big one . The time to get the part! 6-7 weeks. That was probe parts! That's way to slow shipping!

The incredible package for a probe to BNC adapte for a MSOX6004A was "hilarious". The generous amount of plastic, it was difficult to find the part!   A big, I mean BIG box .. look at the picture, the blue ray is the for seeing the dimensions. The part in the red circle! Environmentaly crazy these days. To be fear, I complained to the Norwegian distributor , 4test, and they sent it to Keysight. There came a message back from Keysight that shows that they listen. Relearning the staff that's packaging and  shipping and will change to environmentaly  better packaging materials.

Well... better more packaging than less. Recently I got a piece of equipment back from a customer which they half-assembled themselves before shipping. Since it is a heavy item and the casing needs to be assembled for it to be structurally sound, it turned up a bit bend here and there because they wrapped it in a few layers of bubble wrap and used a thin box.