HP Reliability
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I was involved with repairing HP medical equipment for 25 years and it was awesome stuff. This was the same info I got from other BMET's at many different hospitals.
The TCO was low as the equipment ran and ran, a lot of it 24/7. I'm talking about a 10 year period.
Usually our equipment was only replaced by newer technology systems.
Too bad it didn't apply to test equipment as well.
Regards,
Perrier
Hi,
Spent the flight back from PTTI next to a HP, then Agilent medical guy.
Aparently the medical stuff did not go into Keysight, they remain Agilent.
--
Björn
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the
unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I was involved with repairing HP medical equipment for 25 years and it was
awesome stuff. This was the same info I got from other BMET's at many
different hospitals.
The TCO was low as the equipment ran and ran, a lot of it 24/7. I'm
talking about a 10 year period.
Usually our equipment was only replaced by newer technology systems.
Too bad it didn't apply to test equipment as well.
Regards,
Perrier
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
On 14 Feb 2016 09:04, "Perry Sandeen via time-nuts" time-nuts@febo.com
wrote:
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the
unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I have a friend with a fairly large lab. He must have 50 signal generators,
15 spectrum analyzers, plus plenty of other stuff. Mainly RF. Most is
HP/Agilent, but he has Rohde & Scwarz and Anritsu too. He finds the HP the
most reliable.
Also Anritsu seem to charge a lot for calibration. A recent repair to a
modern 6 GHz Anritsu signal generator resulted in the repair bill plus
£1200 GBP (around $1800) for calibration. That particular sig gen, which
was sold for mobile phone use, has an electronic attenuator that will blow
up if a mobile phone is transmitted into it.
He used to think he preferred R&S signal generators to Agilent, but the
reliability of the R&S has been poorer so his mind has been changed on
that.
I am sure every company has some products that have been very reliable and
some less so, but I would dispute that HP is in general less reliable than
other decent makes.
Support on HP is generally good, with the forums which are answered by
Keysight staff. (An annoying exception seems to be LCR meters and Impedance
analyzers developed in Japan. The Japanese engineers hardly ever visit the
forums so questions on LCR meters and impedance analyzers generally get no
response.)
There are instrument ranges where other manufacturers seem better (e.g.
Keithley for electrometers), but overall HP/Agilent seem the best choice to
me.
I know someone who is looking for a 20.GHz VNA. He just lost out on a
Windows based R&S VNA that sold on eBay for a bit over $7000. There's no
way a 20 GHz Windows based Agilent VNA would fetch so little. This is
reflected in their higher resale values.
At least with the older stuff,, service manuals for HP are useful, though
modern service manuals are less so.
Just my opinion.
Dave.
Hi,
Rather, it was because Agilent was known for it's fine medical stuff
that the instrument part didn't fit in and put into a separate company.
Similarly since HP was known for its computers, printers and scanners,
the medical and instrument parts didn't fit into the HP brand.
In the process, it looks like it is loosing it's edge, which is sad to see.
Cheers,
Magnus
On 02/14/2016 11:08 AM, "Björn Gabrielsson" wrote:
Hi,
Spent the flight back from PTTI next to a HP, then Agilent medical guy.
Aparently the medical stuff did not go into Keysight, they remain Agilent.
--
Björn
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the
unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I was involved with repairing HP medical equipment for 25 years and it was
awesome stuff. This was the same info I got from other BMET's at many
different hospitals.
The TCO was low as the equipment ran and ran, a lot of it 24/7. I'm
talking about a 10 year period.
Usually our equipment was only replaced by newer technology systems.
Too bad it didn't apply to test equipment as well.
Regards,
Perrier
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
HP built their reputation for quality and reliability with test equipment.
Computers were always considered a bit weird (in a nice way, in the case of
handheld calculators) but printers have followed the consumer race to the
bottom.
It's sad to hear that the instrument division are no longer focused on
keeping that reputation - perhaps that's why the medical division moved to
separate the names.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) <
drkirkby@kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote:
On 14 Feb 2016 09:04, "Perry Sandeen via time-nuts" <time-nuts@febo.com
wrote:
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the
unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I have a friend with a fairly large lab. He must have 50 signal generators,
15 spectrum analyzers, plus plenty of other stuff. Mainly RF. Most is
HP/Agilent, but he has Rohde & Scwarz and Anritsu too. He finds the HP the
most reliable.
Also Anritsu seem to charge a lot for calibration. A recent repair to a
modern 6 GHz Anritsu signal generator resulted in the repair bill plus
£1200 GBP (around $1800) for calibration. That particular sig gen, which
was sold for mobile phone use, has an electronic attenuator that will blow
up if a mobile phone is transmitted into it.
He used to think he preferred R&S signal generators to Agilent, but the
reliability of the R&S has been poorer so his mind has been changed on
that.
I am sure every company has some products that have been very reliable and
some less so, but I would dispute that HP is in general less reliable than
other decent makes.
Support on HP is generally good, with the forums which are answered by
Keysight staff. (An annoying exception seems to be LCR meters and Impedance
analyzers developed in Japan. The Japanese engineers hardly ever visit the
forums so questions on LCR meters and impedance analyzers generally get no
response.)
There are instrument ranges where other manufacturers seem better (e.g.
Keithley for electrometers), but overall HP/Agilent seem the best choice to
me.
I know someone who is looking for a 20.GHz VNA. He just lost out on a
Windows based R&S VNA that sold on eBay for a bit over $7000. There's no
way a 20 GHz Windows based Agilent VNA would fetch so little. This is
reflected in their higher resale values.
At least with the older stuff,, service manuals for HP are useful, though
modern service manuals are less so.
Just my opinion.
Dave.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
My bet is that the split between Medical and Test Equipment is to
facilitate the eventual sale of one or the other division.
As for reliability I have mostly HP and Tektronix in my stable with an
odd Racal and Boonton piece here and there. The Boontons never fail (
arguably much simpler) but the HP are an order of magnitude better than
Tektronix. I suspect the medical stuff gets built with "mil-qualified"
parts because the customer base has a higher tolerance for the added cost
Also dont forget guys a lot of the toys we have all bought on Evil-Bay ,
etc ,,are well beyond it's design life cycle I think the youngest Item I
have in my "collection" is at least 25 years old.
Dave
ArtekManuals.com
On 2/14/2016 6:53 AM, Magnus Danielson wrote:
Hi,
Rather, it was because Agilent was known for it's fine medical stuff
that the instrument part didn't fit in and put into a separate company.
Similarly since HP was known for its computers, printers and scanners,
the medical and instrument parts didn't fit into the HP brand.
In the process, it looks like it is loosing it's edge, which is sad to see.
Cheers,
Magnus
--
Dave
Manuals@ArtekManuals.com
www.ArtekManuals.com
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
We have had mixed results with HP/Agilent/Keysight over the years. Our
experience with their repair and customer service has been less favorable.
One area where my experience has been unfavorable has been with the Genesys
software. We bought it back when it was still owned by Randy Rhea, and I
thought it was well worth what it cost. Since, we have upgraded to a newer
Agilent version and it rarely gets used. Their customer support hasn't been
helpful at all. We lost the new USB dongle and they want $1500 to replace
it. I think they, like a lot of other test equipment manufacturers, have
faced pressure from other, lower cost competitors and to maintain sales and
profit margins, they have cut corners. We have several 8712 network
analyzers that are nearing end of life. Management wants to find a cheaper
alternative. We bought a Chinese network analyzer for around $13K. It was
so weird and difficult to use, it just sat on the bench. Eventually, the
owner took it home.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 7:31 AM, Adrian Godwin artgodwin@gmail.com wrote:
HP built their reputation for quality and reliability with test equipment.
Computers were always considered a bit weird (in a nice way, in the case of
handheld calculators) but printers have followed the consumer race to the
bottom.
It's sad to hear that the instrument division are no longer focused on
keeping that reputation - perhaps that's why the medical division moved to
separate the names.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) <
drkirkby@kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote:
On 14 Feb 2016 09:04, "Perry Sandeen via time-nuts" <
wrote:
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the
unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I have a friend with a fairly large lab. He must have 50 signal
generators,
15 spectrum analyzers, plus plenty of other stuff. Mainly RF. Most is
HP/Agilent, but he has Rohde & Scwarz and Anritsu too. He finds the HP
the
most reliable.
Also Anritsu seem to charge a lot for calibration. A recent repair to a
modern 6 GHz Anritsu signal generator resulted in the repair bill plus
£1200 GBP (around $1800) for calibration. That particular sig gen, which
was sold for mobile phone use, has an electronic attenuator that will
blow
up if a mobile phone is transmitted into it.
He used to think he preferred R&S signal generators to Agilent, but the
reliability of the R&S has been poorer so his mind has been changed on
that.
I am sure every company has some products that have been very reliable
and
some less so, but I would dispute that HP is in general less reliable
than
other decent makes.
Support on HP is generally good, with the forums which are answered by
Keysight staff. (An annoying exception seems to be LCR meters and
Impedance
analyzers developed in Japan. The Japanese engineers hardly ever visit
the
forums so questions on LCR meters and impedance analyzers generally get
no
response.)
There are instrument ranges where other manufacturers seem better (e.g.
Keithley for electrometers), but overall HP/Agilent seem the best choice
to
me.
I know someone who is looking for a 20.GHz VNA. He just lost out on a
Windows based R&S VNA that sold on eBay for a bit over $7000. There's no
way a 20 GHz Windows based Agilent VNA would fetch so little. This is
reflected in their higher resale values.
At least with the older stuff,, service manuals for HP are useful,
though
modern service manuals are less so.
Just my opinion.
Dave.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
A few clarifications:
Before 1999, HP had a Medical Division that made
equipment you saw in hospitals and a Scientific
Instrument Division that made chemical analysis
equipment used in medical laboratories (and also
other laboratories). IIRC, both began as
acquisitions. The Agilent spin off in 1999
started a trend of additional divestiture. The
Medical Division was sold to Philips, so former
HP hospital monitors were rebranded Philips.
After the Keysight spinoff, the remaining Agilent
company has two main parts: chemical analysis,
descended from the old Scientific Instrument
Division, and life sciences, which grow organically
with the invention of gene arrays
What is now Keysight underwent massive reductions
in force after the dot com bust. Around the
same time they started off shoring the Rohnert
Park manufacturing complex to Malaysia. The
combination of the two eliminated something like
80% of the jobs in Sonoma county. Some sites
like Liberty Lake (Spokane) closed completely.
This was when we started to see the quality
plummet. They lost the recipe when they off
shored. Instruments would arrive DOA, or would
fail after a few months. Some had annoying
problems that would come and go, and they couldn't
seem to fix them. When Windows XP expired, there
was a big crisis to upgrade to Windows 7 that
Malaysia fumbled the ball on. (Many years ago,
the powers that be decided to use Windows internally
in place of Unix).
I wish Keysight well, but at the time I left in 2014,
and from what I've heard since, it didn't look encouraging.
Rick
HP's greatest advantage of old was being the largest and best vertically integrated technology company as innovations in one line of business were often applicable to others. This was right down to things as prosaic as packaging and or hybrid circuit design
Now Keysight is just another mid sized technology company who outsources much of their production and wonders why Asian vendors can copy their stuff so rapidly and undersell them.
Content by Scott
Typos by Siri
On Feb 14, 2016, at 8:31 AM, Adrian Godwin artgodwin@gmail.com wrote:
HP built their reputation for quality and reliability with test equipment.
Computers were always considered a bit weird (in a nice way, in the case of
handheld calculators) but printers have followed the consumer race to the
bottom.
It's sad to hear that the instrument division are no longer focused on
keeping that reputation - perhaps that's why the medical division moved to
separate the names.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) <
drkirkby@kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote:
On 14 Feb 2016 09:04, "Perry Sandeen via time-nuts" <time-nuts@febo.com
wrote:
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the
unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I have a friend with a fairly large lab. He must have 50 signal generators,
15 spectrum analyzers, plus plenty of other stuff. Mainly RF. Most is
HP/Agilent, but he has Rohde & Scwarz and Anritsu too. He finds the HP the
most reliable.
Also Anritsu seem to charge a lot for calibration. A recent repair to a
modern 6 GHz Anritsu signal generator resulted in the repair bill plus
£1200 GBP (around $1800) for calibration. That particular sig gen, which
was sold for mobile phone use, has an electronic attenuator that will blow
up if a mobile phone is transmitted into it.
He used to think he preferred R&S signal generators to Agilent, but the
reliability of the R&S has been poorer so his mind has been changed on
that.
I am sure every company has some products that have been very reliable and
some less so, but I would dispute that HP is in general less reliable than
other decent makes.
Support on HP is generally good, with the forums which are answered by
Keysight staff. (An annoying exception seems to be LCR meters and Impedance
analyzers developed in Japan. The Japanese engineers hardly ever visit the
forums so questions on LCR meters and impedance analyzers generally get no
response.)
There are instrument ranges where other manufacturers seem better (e.g.
Keithley for electrometers), but overall HP/Agilent seem the best choice to
me.
I know someone who is looking for a 20.GHz VNA. He just lost out on a
Windows based R&S VNA that sold on eBay for a bit over $7000. There's no
way a 20 GHz Windows based Agilent VNA would fetch so little. This is
reflected in their higher resale values.
At least with the older stuff,, service manuals for HP are useful, though
modern service manuals are less so.
Just my opinion.
Dave.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
They don't wonder; they know very well. But they're stuck. Consider
oscilloscopes. Why pay for a Keysight or Tectronix or LeCroy or, God
forbid, a Rohde & Schwarz when, for the vast majority of applications, a
Rigol will give you everything you need at 1/N the cost?
The hugely expensive, overbuilt gear that we grew up with is yesterday's
news; that's why we can scarf it up so cheap on the 'bay. Lots of labs and
manufacturing facilities now consider basic gear like DSOs, SAs, DMMs,
PSUs, and sig-gens as disposable as cell phones.
I'm not sure that is a bad thing.
Bill
On Sunday, February 14, 2016, Scott McGrath <scmcgrath@gmail.com
javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','scmcgrath@gmail.com');> wrote:
HP's greatest advantage of old was being the largest and best vertically
integrated technology company as innovations in one line of business were
often applicable to others. This was right down to things as prosaic as
packaging and or hybrid circuit design
Now Keysight is just another mid sized technology company who outsources
much of their production and wonders why Asian vendors can copy their stuff
so rapidly and undersell them.
Content by Scott
Typos by Siri
On Feb 14, 2016, at 8:31 AM, Adrian Godwin artgodwin@gmail.com wrote:
HP built their reputation for quality and reliability with test
equipment.
Computers were always considered a bit weird (in a nice way, in the case
of
handheld calculators) but printers have followed the consumer race to the
bottom.
It's sad to hear that the instrument division are no longer focused on
keeping that reputation - perhaps that's why the medical division moved
to
separate the names.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave
Ltd) <
wrote:
Hi,
It is rather depressing to me to hear RK and others remark about the
unreliability of HP test equipment.
There is one area where they had outstanding equipment.
I have a friend with a fairly large lab. He must have 50 signal
generators,
15 spectrum analyzers, plus plenty of other stuff. Mainly RF. Most is
HP/Agilent, but he has Rohde & Scwarz and Anritsu too. He finds the HP
the
most reliable.
Also Anritsu seem to charge a lot for calibration. A recent repair to a
modern 6 GHz Anritsu signal generator resulted in the repair bill plus
£1200 GBP (around $1800) for calibration. That particular sig gen, which
was sold for mobile phone use, has an electronic attenuator that will
blow
up if a mobile phone is transmitted into it.
He used to think he preferred R&S signal generators to Agilent, but the
reliability of the R&S has been poorer so his mind has been changed on
that.
I am sure every company has some products that have been very reliable
and
some less so, but I would dispute that HP is in general less reliable
than
other decent makes.
Support on HP is generally good, with the forums which are answered by
Keysight staff. (An annoying exception seems to be LCR meters and
Impedance
analyzers developed in Japan. The Japanese engineers hardly ever visit
the
forums so questions on LCR meters and impedance analyzers generally get
no
response.)
There are instrument ranges where other manufacturers seem better (e.g.
Keithley for electrometers), but overall HP/Agilent seem the best
choice to
me.
I know someone who is looking for a 20.GHz VNA. He just lost out on a
Windows based R&S VNA that sold on eBay for a bit over $7000. There's no
way a 20 GHz Windows based Agilent VNA would fetch so little. This is
reflected in their higher resale values.
At least with the older stuff,, service manuals for HP are useful,
though
modern service manuals are less so.
Just my opinion.
Dave.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
and follow the instructions there.
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
--
Sent from Gmail Mobile