What do scope and DMM do top lab's, universities, tech gaints use?

[lordvader88]

If you walked into Fermilab, or AMD or Nvidia, or Caltech, or Toyota, .......what are the most common brand name DMM's, PSU's and scope's you're likely to find ? I'm sure it varies by country, and what part of the building you're in,  and prices, etc. So not counting basic student lab stuff. But what do they tend towards ?

[Kean]

Red Pitaya*   

*If you believe their testimonials https://www.redpitaya.com/Testimonials

[lordvader88]

come on, what do top places use ? Is it all Fluke, Tektronix, Keysight/algient ?

[nctnico]

If you walked into Fermilab, or AMD or Nvidia, or Caltech, or Toyota, .......what are the most common brand name DMM's, PSU's and scope's you're likely to find ? I'm sure it varies by country, and what part of the building you're in,  and prices, etc. So not counting basic student lab stuff. But what do they tend towards ?

I've seen quite a few labs on the inside. It is mostly Lecroy, Keysight, R&S, Tektronix and Yokogawa (in alphabetical order).

[JPortici]

Businesses, A mix of everything.. Lecroy, tek, keysight,r&s. Some even siglent! (one of the most recent app notes from microchip have screenshots from siglent scopes.. i think it was for some of their power supply chips)

At the last batterfly event i attended there were some guys from the magneti marelli labs that were really impressed by the power/feature of the R&S RTM-3000, compared to the price. I guess they are using tek or older lecroys in their labs

University labs, Tektronix TDS pieces of shit for the students, keysight and lecroy for the PHD guys

[rsjsouza]

I see only A-brand equipments everywhere, with some concentration depending on the tradition of the brand in the specific instrument. A few examples: HPAK bench meters, function generators and power supplies with the occasional midrange oscilloscope; many older high end Tek oscilloscopes; very modern midrange and high end LeCroy oscilloscopes; many modern R&S and older HP VNAs and Spectrum Analyzers; some Krohn-Hite oscillators and audio filters; some Keithley SMUs and bench meters, etc.

All in all, each bench seems to use whatever is best for the application being designed there.

[NoisyBoy]

My school is one of the top 3 EE universities in the U.S. in the last 40+, equipment is just like you said, Keysight first, then some Tek and Fluke, it has been like that for the last 30+ years.

During my research projects for my professors, I used everything Keysight (HP back in those days), they simply integrate better when I had to set up automated testing. 

[snoopy]

If you walked into Fermilab, or AMD or Nvidia, or Caltech, or Toyota, .......what are the most common brand name DMM's, PSU's and scope's you're likely to find ? I'm sure it varies by country, and what part of the building you're in,  and prices, etc. So not counting basic student lab stuff. But what do they tend towards ?

They are going to buy the traditional name expensive brands not because they are better, it's because they are just as much interested in after sales service that they would probably not get from a lesser and cheaper brand And a lot of screenshots in datasheets are usually taken from a Tek scope of some vintage. They are still going strong in some labs so why upgrade to the latest wizz-bang instrument

[HalFoster]

For most businesses, it comes down to what is needed for the work at hand vs cost.  *Smart* businesses plan for anticipated future work.  Of critical importance is reliability; not just MTBF but, if the equipment *does* fail, what level of support does the vendor provide.  Often, leasing is a better option, especially if it is a one time requirement for a particular piece of equipment. And when used in a business environment, the results of whatever piece of equipment you are using is what you are using to guarantee the performance of the product or service you are offering.  In other words, in an business environment the intangibles often count - and rightly so - for a large part of the choice of equipment.  The big name manufacturers with a robust, and preferably local, local support network are the ones that give the business owners the warm 'n fuzzies.  At work, we have a couple of perfectly good Anritsu 68337C at work but we just bought 3 Keysight 50 GHz E5257D's because the Anritsu's have a *long* repair turn around, whereas the local Keysight rep will have us a loaner within a couple of hours if needed. For scopes, we use middle-low end Tek MSO's for most things, with a 55 GHz one when it gets serious.  A R&S FSVR40 spec-an.  A lot of money, but required for the current and foreseeable work.  The Tek has almost the same level of customer care if something goes wrong and the R&S, well, it's top end R&S and just *doesn't have* issues.  Also, a loaded Fluke 5520A for sanity checks on everything. After all, in business as often in life, you are remembered for the one thing you did wrong, not the 1000 you got right.

For a university environment, I would think Fluke, HP and Tek for scopes.  A university department budget *never* has enough funds, at least to the one in charge of it so I would think that a huge emphasis would be put on long-term accuracy and durability

Hal

[GerryR]

I think you have to realize that most of the big names give extreme discounts to educational institutions, and sometimes free equipment to them.  They know that many people get very comfortable using a particular product and will purchase the same brand, or recommend purchase of the same brand ,when out in the workforce.  Smart marketing!!

As far as businesses are concerned, my track record shows that most companies that thrive on government contracts, get top-of-the-line name brand equipment, mostly dictated by the government (even personnel are dictated: so many PHD's, BS degree's, techs, etc.), at least in the aero-space industries.  The smaller private companies get by with as little as possible and rent / lease equipment as necessary.  Heck, I have better equipment than some of the so-called smaller technical companies I have worked for.

I know that some places I have been to for support engineering services, buy the name brands because they don't know much technically about what they are buying and figure it is safer to get the name-brand equipment; if they have problems, they can rely on the bigger companies to bail them out.

I think that is changing, maybe has changed already, since the less expensive, good equipment has hit the market.  When (if) you open up a unit and find that what you thought was made in one country is actually made in the same country as the less expensive unit, it's hard to justify 3 or 4 times the price.

JMO

[HalFoster]

GerryR, you are absolutely correct - everything we do is government related - usually they even will supply the test gear they want used, at least for what I am doing.  And, looking back, my answer was for the most part appropriate to a higher tier than the OP was referring to.  In general, though, I still feel what I said is accurate for the majority of cases.  But doing defense related work tends to leave me with a very conservative view... but, now the you pointed it out, I believe you are absolutely correct in the increasing use - rightfully so - of other vendors equipment.  Heck, you could buy a lab full of Rigol stuff, and calibrate it often, for what one piece of a major vendor's equipment can run you.  I would keep in mind that even though it *is* cheaper, good gear, it will probably not *stay* good gear as long, so factor in more frequent and thorough trips to the cal lab and repairs.  Nothing wrong with that, just something to factor in.

Now, for personal use or in non-critical applications, it is a completely different situation.  For fun and profit I restore older HP test gear, and that is what I use personally at home - I'm fifty mumble mumble and most of what I use was made before I was in high school.  And, for most things under a GHz I would stack it up against anything made today.  Example: I bought a HP 3456A four years ago - according to the sticker on it, it had last been calibrated in April of 2003.  All i have done to it is clean and recap; each year I bring it in and verify it against our in-cal 5520A.  So far, all of the DCV ranges and all but the lowest and highest ohms range, have been within the uncertainty band of the 5520A - and it gets Cal'd yearly.  That's what... a couple of orders of magnitude better than it's base specs?  From a piece of equipment that I paid about $100 for, shipped.  I guess my point is that unless there is an absolute requirement for the high-dollar gear, there are very good, affordable and dependable options available for not just businesses, but individuals.

Hal

PS:  Sorry if I'm rambling a bit, all, but little sleep last night.  And, I do so love going on about TE 

[Etech]

In regards to the Anritsu units and their servicing, please contact me at www.rfsignalsolution.com  TAT 5 days. Anritsu equipment is all I do. Thank you.