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| please dont purchase PC controlled test equipment |
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| oz2cpu:
Headline : please don't purchase PC controlled test equipment I mean of course ONLY controllable by pc It is really driving me nuts, as a collector of funny old test equipment, every time some stuff is controlled only by a pc, and a bit old, it is impossible to get software, drivers, support and operating systems changed 4 versions since... this means such stuff (pc only control equipment) come with a very short expected lifetime, some of it is even just as expensive as real standalone equipment with remote capabilities, this means in many years when the remote features are no more supported you still have a working standalone unit, and not trash. my latest equipment score is a good example : https://youtu.be/93_Zg-mKWks |
| TomKatt:
I wish there was a good answer to that dilemma, because it goes beyond just test equipment. In our shop we've had to replace CNC equipment that hardware wise is still operational, but if the pc based controller fails the cost of repair is so close to an entire new machine it doesn't make sense to invest repairing it. Recently an automated panel saw with a controller based on Microsoft's embedded "mobile" platform failed and when we located one of what appears to be the last 3 controllers left on earth the price was stupid expensive. I've even had to set up virtual machines trying to emulate old pc systems because the software will not run on modern 64 bit hardware. And, as you point out, that's IF you can locate the software to begin with. Absolutely nuts, though I have no idea what the solution is. PC's provide flexibility and even with dedicated PLC type hardware you'll never escape the firmware / software. The days where equipment was built with nothing but discrete hardware containing no software are gone. |
| xrunner:
--- Quote from: oz2cpu on March 02, 2023, 12:39:53 pm ---Headline : please don't purchase PC controlled test equipment I mean of course ONLY controllable by pc It is really driving me nuts, as a collector of funny old test equipment, every time some stuff is controlled only by a pc, and a bit old, it is impossible to get software, drivers, support and operating systems changed 4 versions since... --- End quote --- :-// I buy old test equipment and yea some of the software gets outdated but ... whatever you buy today will be 10 years old in ten years, 20 yrs old in 20 years, ... and so on. Who can say what system will be controlling them decades from now. I don't know what you can buy today that is future proof. |
| jonpaul:
all my HP, Keysight HPIB, GPIB work fine, for decades, using the NI interface card to PCI bus PC and USB GPIB adapters. Program with NI la view or HP Basic. What's your problem with instruments controllers? j |
| Stray Electron:
Uggg. I don't recommend buying ANYTHING that is only controllable via a PC. Over the last couple of decades I've already been through all sorts of printers, scanners, home automation controllers, etc that ran from a PC, only to have it become USELESS when MicroSloth came out with a different version of Windows and the drivers no longer work. It's bad enough when you're talking about a few hundred dollars worth of printers or scanners but many hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars in TE? Nope it's NOT going to happen! |
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