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On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 23:30:40 -0800, "Ed Price"
wrote: Designing and building a product to provide many years of use, and then capable of being repaired without access to unique components and/or exotic service equipment, is a concept so rare as to be thought a scam. Can anyone recommend a decent commercial vector network analyser and spectrum analyser that one can repair oneself if necessary and hopefully keep them up and running for ever? -- "I expect history will be kind to me, since I intend to write it." - Winston Churchill |
On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 23:30:40 -0800, "Ed Price"
wrote: Designing and building a product to provide many years of use, and then capable of being repaired without access to unique components and/or exotic service equipment, is a concept so rare as to be thought a scam. Can anyone recommend a decent commercial vector network analyser and spectrum analyser that one can repair oneself if necessary and hopefully keep them up and running for ever? -- "I expect history will be kind to me, since I intend to write it." - Winston Churchill |
Chuck Harris wrote in message ...
Michael A. Terrell wrote: Most of the chips in cell phones are off the shelf parts, and there are places that do repair cell phones. RMS Communications in Ocala, Florida rebuilds thousands of pagers and cell phones every week. I know several techs who worked there, and they were telling me about the equipment they had available at each work station. Most of the parts in a tek scope are off the shelf too, but like the cell phone, there are one or two show stoppers. For the cell phone, it is the microprocessor with its combination mask and flash programming. I know a guy that repairs pagers, but you cannot convince me that it is a profitable business.... The way he moaned about the cost of my fixing his RF signal generator gives me a clue. One problem with new RF and test equipment is the firmware programmed into chips isn't readily available to program replacement parts. Another problem is the short production life for some parts. If you build a product for over two years, you either do "Lifetime purchases", or redesign boards to use the next round of parts. What is real fun is a base product with up to 100 different sets of software, depending on the customers specifications. Its hard enough to keep it straight on the factory floor, let alone trying to do it in the field. It is even worse in the space field, where by the time a part is qualified, and a satellite is made, the part is stone cold obsolete. -Chuck hmm, kind of like buying a computer ...in a few mounths it is obsolete...on the tektroix and hp stuff.......you would think that they would be feeling the heat from asia like everyone else.....just how much profit is there in a unit that sells new for $75,000.00? and why may i ask after 10 to 15 years it still sells for heavy cash.... |
Chuck Harris wrote in message ...
Michael A. Terrell wrote: Most of the chips in cell phones are off the shelf parts, and there are places that do repair cell phones. RMS Communications in Ocala, Florida rebuilds thousands of pagers and cell phones every week. I know several techs who worked there, and they were telling me about the equipment they had available at each work station. Most of the parts in a tek scope are off the shelf too, but like the cell phone, there are one or two show stoppers. For the cell phone, it is the microprocessor with its combination mask and flash programming. I know a guy that repairs pagers, but you cannot convince me that it is a profitable business.... The way he moaned about the cost of my fixing his RF signal generator gives me a clue. One problem with new RF and test equipment is the firmware programmed into chips isn't readily available to program replacement parts. Another problem is the short production life for some parts. If you build a product for over two years, you either do "Lifetime purchases", or redesign boards to use the next round of parts. What is real fun is a base product with up to 100 different sets of software, depending on the customers specifications. Its hard enough to keep it straight on the factory floor, let alone trying to do it in the field. It is even worse in the space field, where by the time a part is qualified, and a satellite is made, the part is stone cold obsolete. -Chuck hmm, kind of like buying a computer ...in a few mounths it is obsolete...on the tektroix and hp stuff.......you would think that they would be feeling the heat from asia like everyone else.....just how much profit is there in a unit that sells new for $75,000.00? and why may i ask after 10 to 15 years it still sells for heavy cash.... |
"Ed Price" wrote in message news:nO_tb.9428$cX1.8536@fed1read02...
"gw" wrote in message om... Roy Lewallen wrote in message ... Thanks to Ed for the good advice. I've got an HP 140T. As far as I know, the only difference between it and the 141T is that the CRT in mine is a conventional one with long-persistence phosphor rather than a storage tube. It uses the same plug-in units as the 141T. I find it to be very usable, and don't really miss storage capability at all. I think the tube is a lot more trouble-free than a storage type unit. So I recommend that you don't turn down a 140T if you come across one -- and you might even have a better chance of getting a unit with a working display than with a 141T. Roy Lewallen, W7EL Ed Price wrote: [Lots of good advice] well it is amazing i think how some of these units retain their resale value even though the companies that made them do not service them or back them......man who was the brainiac that thought about how to implement this scam? Designing and building a product to provide many years of use, and then capable of being repaired without access to unique components and/or exotic service equipment, is a concept so rare as to be thought a scam. Ed wb6wsn well ed what are your thoughts on a hp 8590? bueno o no bueno? |
"Ed Price" wrote in message news:nO_tb.9428$cX1.8536@fed1read02...
"gw" wrote in message om... Roy Lewallen wrote in message ... Thanks to Ed for the good advice. I've got an HP 140T. As far as I know, the only difference between it and the 141T is that the CRT in mine is a conventional one with long-persistence phosphor rather than a storage tube. It uses the same plug-in units as the 141T. I find it to be very usable, and don't really miss storage capability at all. I think the tube is a lot more trouble-free than a storage type unit. So I recommend that you don't turn down a 140T if you come across one -- and you might even have a better chance of getting a unit with a working display than with a 141T. Roy Lewallen, W7EL Ed Price wrote: [Lots of good advice] well it is amazing i think how some of these units retain their resale value even though the companies that made them do not service them or back them......man who was the brainiac that thought about how to implement this scam? Designing and building a product to provide many years of use, and then capable of being repaired without access to unique components and/or exotic service equipment, is a concept so rare as to be thought a scam. Ed wb6wsn well ed what are your thoughts on a hp 8590? bueno o no bueno? |
gw wrote:
hmm, kind of like buying a computer ...in a few mounths it is obsolete...on the tektroix and hp stuff.......you would think that they would be feeling the heat from asia like everyone else.....just how much profit is there in a unit that sells new for $75,000.00? and why may i ask after 10 to 15 years it still sells for heavy cash.... When you look at the price of a $75,000 unit, consider this: First, the test equipment market is really rather small, nothing like the consumer electronics market, and second, bleeding edge technology test equipment requires some serious money to develop. Tektronix and HP have historically been positioned right in the front of the technology wave. So, a unit that sells for $75,000 may have cost $20 million to develop to where it could be manufactured. It probably only has a market life of 1000 units. Then the actual manufacture of the product costs something. A good round figure is the ratio of parts cost to sale price is 3x to 4x. Labor figures in at about equal to parts cost. -20,000,000 to develop -25,000 x 1000 units = -25,000,000 parts cost -25,000 x 1000 units = -25,000,000 labor cost 75,000 x 1000 units = +75,000,000 sales price of instrument ------------------------------------------------------------- Bottom line +$5,000,000 Take that $5 million, and subtract some for advertising, and service, and you haven't got much left. Granted these numbers are just guesses, but I have been doing small quantity manufacture for a lot of years, and these kinds of ratios come up again and again. As to why the Tektronix and HP stuff commands a high price in the used market, the reason is simple, the gear is high quality, has very high capabilities, and the price of a new replacement is also high. -Chuck |
gw wrote:
hmm, kind of like buying a computer ...in a few mounths it is obsolete...on the tektroix and hp stuff.......you would think that they would be feeling the heat from asia like everyone else.....just how much profit is there in a unit that sells new for $75,000.00? and why may i ask after 10 to 15 years it still sells for heavy cash.... When you look at the price of a $75,000 unit, consider this: First, the test equipment market is really rather small, nothing like the consumer electronics market, and second, bleeding edge technology test equipment requires some serious money to develop. Tektronix and HP have historically been positioned right in the front of the technology wave. So, a unit that sells for $75,000 may have cost $20 million to develop to where it could be manufactured. It probably only has a market life of 1000 units. Then the actual manufacture of the product costs something. A good round figure is the ratio of parts cost to sale price is 3x to 4x. Labor figures in at about equal to parts cost. -20,000,000 to develop -25,000 x 1000 units = -25,000,000 parts cost -25,000 x 1000 units = -25,000,000 labor cost 75,000 x 1000 units = +75,000,000 sales price of instrument ------------------------------------------------------------- Bottom line +$5,000,000 Take that $5 million, and subtract some for advertising, and service, and you haven't got much left. Granted these numbers are just guesses, but I have been doing small quantity manufacture for a lot of years, and these kinds of ratios come up again and again. As to why the Tektronix and HP stuff commands a high price in the used market, the reason is simple, the gear is high quality, has very high capabilities, and the price of a new replacement is also high. -Chuck |
Chuck Harris wrote:
I know a guy that repairs pagers, but you cannot convince me that it is a profitable business.... The way he moaned about the cost of my fixing his RF signal generator gives me a clue. -Chuck Believe what you want, but the place has around 100 employees, and was looking at buying the old L3-Com/Microdyne complex to expand into its 120,000+ square feet of buildings and acres of land for parking. They are bigger than Microdyne was when it closed the complex and moved to Pennsylvania. If there is no money in repairing pager and cell phones, why do they want to buy property which is priced at 1.6 million dollars? Here is the listing for the complex: http://www.foxfirerealty.com/showlis...tid=17779&id=2 -- Michael A. Terrell Central Florida |
Chuck Harris wrote:
I know a guy that repairs pagers, but you cannot convince me that it is a profitable business.... The way he moaned about the cost of my fixing his RF signal generator gives me a clue. -Chuck Believe what you want, but the place has around 100 employees, and was looking at buying the old L3-Com/Microdyne complex to expand into its 120,000+ square feet of buildings and acres of land for parking. They are bigger than Microdyne was when it closed the complex and moved to Pennsylvania. If there is no money in repairing pager and cell phones, why do they want to buy property which is priced at 1.6 million dollars? Here is the listing for the complex: http://www.foxfirerealty.com/showlis...tid=17779&id=2 -- Michael A. Terrell Central Florida |
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