Could someone explain why the cost of
this probe holder is more than one Rigol DS2102 and is the same price as 2 DS1104Z's. Beats me. Hell, even their own DSOX2002 is only $70 more.
Because they can.
It is just to round of their offerings. They probably don't care if they don't sell many and it is unlikely sales of them makes any noticeable difference to their bottom line. If they find someone gullible (government, educational institutes, big corporations) they happily take the money as a bit of extra income.
Because they only sell dozens or maybe hundreds of them. Those who need it don't care what it costs.
Who in the name of all that is good and pure needs a probe holder so badly they don't care if it's
$1200?
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I was expecting some magical RF jig made from congealed unicorn farts and fairy wings, but it's just an unusually stable stick with a probe clip. I can see $200, but $1200? Somebody slip on the keyboard there??
Those do things, though!!
In some projects it may be better to get a known-working ready made unit then something jerry-rigged contraption. Paying $1200 for an Agilent-branded unit may also be easier to get approved then a $100 repurposed positioning device. I don't really see the problem. The DUT and the probe are likely much more expensive ($1200 may buy you Agilent's cheapest active probe, but don't be surprised to pay an order of magnitude more). It may also be a convenient bargaining tool for sales people to give the customer $1200 extra stuff for their money.
because the probes you stick in those things cost 10K$ to 30K$ a pop ... so 1200$ holder for a 30K$ probes is peanuts.
that probe holder is balanced to set the correct amount of pressure on the probe tip .
be happy you don't need to buy micromanipulators to position GSG or SGSG probes on a substrate. The result would have been like listening to an hour long rendition of 'the brown note' ...
Im sure the US Government ordered a ton of them.... After all it is not their money so why do they care!
Those do things, though!!
So does the holder. It has the correct mount and applies the correct pressure to your very expensive probe. It's a known working solution that you have likely seen working in an Agilent demo.
When you spend $100K for the scope and $10K+ for a single probe, going cheap and jury rigging something yourself is just pointless, you buy what you know will work with the least fuss.
It can also be easier to simply "throw on" the probe holder onto a purchase or for Agilent than try and get approval for a $20 cheapie from ebay.
It can also be easier to simply "throw on" the probe holder onto a purchase or for Agilent than try and get approval for a $20 cheapie from ebay.
I completely understand where Dave is coming from, we buy computer monitors from Dell and wait 2 weeks when we could drive 15 minutes and save $100 per unit at a local store, but...
![](http://i.imgur.com/Xu9RDqQ.jpg)
Just sayin!
Yeah, that's what I thought!
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OK, OK, I get your point, if you're spending $100x on the equipment $1x for an accessory isn't really much, and reliability is good. It's still kind of funny though!
N2784A 1-arm Probe Positioner
The reason it sells for so much is because it is a really good probe holder.
I remember when I got my first $4.00 per gallon gasoline (I know it's not a lot for some places but here in the U.S. it seemed like a lot). After the shock of the price wore off as I was pumping the gas it dawned on me that "this must be the best gasoline I've ever purchased."
Or at least that is one way of looking at it.
Another way is as per the motto I once learned from a wise product manager who liked to say when he felt the price had gotten out of hand: "You can buy better but you can't pay more." This seems to be the motto for some products.
Have you actually used these third hands to hold a probe? They're not designed for applying the correct pressure, and in general are quite crude compared to proper tools and clamps. The jaws also pinch the probes unless you put something in between. I would gladly pay extra for a proper solution. Not $1195 extra, though.
I'm curious what $20 replacement that's functionally equivalent you would suggest? I can't of the top off my head think of one. It would need to be stable, exert some light pressure on the probe, and have sub-mm precision.
It's still kind of funny though!
Of course. I always got a chuckle every time I put in that purchase order for that $500 connector or $2000 cable.
Then you cry when they won't let you buy that essential thing for $50 because it comes under another budget.
That probe holder is very well made. If someone came to me and said "I need you to make this", I'd ask how many they want to buy at a time. I bet they would say "100 per order please". And I be Agilent order s100 of those every quarter, or maybe less.
So as a machine shop guy, it's going to take several fixtures to make that, and quite a bit of R&D time to get all the programming right. And I bet the tolerances are tight and I bet Agilent has spec'ed out some pretty rigid requirements for heat treatment, surface finish, materials, etc.
If I am the guy making them, you bet your ass I want $200-300 each if they buy 100 at a time.
Then Agilent has to sell it for a high enough retail price that they can discount it to their distributors. So it winds up being $1,200 on the Agilent home page.
Expensive, sure... but overpriced? Maybe - but if they weren't selling any, they wouldn't offer it. Must be worth $1,200 to someone. And definitely a lot of work went into making that.
Because they only sell dozens or maybe hundreds of them. Those who need it don't care what it costs.
I think that they sell dozens or maybe hundreds of them, because hundreds or better dozens of us can afford it.
I guess when you've submitted a budget for some $20k active probes, 4 of these is absolutely nothing. Ss, yeah, I guess that makes sense.
for probes that are not so fragile and don't require this precision you can get away with much less.
http://www.home.agilent.com/en/pd-1643894-pn-N2786A/two-leg-probe-positioner?cc=US&lc=eng
Ooh... that's actually pretty clever. I never thought to use the probe itself as part of the stand mechanism. I may just have to build up a couple of these!
As for those one-time-use probe tips: What exactly makes them cost $56 each? Is it just because of relatively low demand, or am I missing something? It just looks like some passives on a PCB...
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The price is still in line with what I would expect for 12 GHz though.
Think about the level of matching that needs to occur at 12GHz for common mode rejection. They probably have very tight specs on those devices.
I have certainly seen $10 resistors and $10+ caps. The apply a some test time and margin and you can get to $56 really quick.
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