Small foot, big screen
T&MW's readers have spoken: LeCroy's WaveSurfer is the 2005 Test Product of the Year.
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2005 2:00:00 AM
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Read other articles from this issue:Table of contents, March 2005
AWARDS Test Engineer of the Year, Cover Story Test Product of the Year Test of Time OTHER FEATURES Reduced pin-count test Improving sensor reliability Bits battle noise Picture Perfect |
Engineers never have enough bench space, so they like test equipment with a small footprint. But they also need a screen large enough for easy viewing. And when it comes to oscilloscopes, engineers look for an easy-to-use instrument that lets them move data onto a PC for storage and analysis.
Based on this customer feedback, LeCroy developed the WaveSurfer, which Test & Measurement World readers have voted as the 2005 Test Product of the Year.
Consisting of 200-MHz, 350-MHz, and 500-MHz models, the WaveSurfer is built tall instead of deep. It houses a 10.4-in. LCD display in a package that's just 6-in. deep. "Engineers told us they wanted a scope the consumed little bench space, yet provided an easy view of signals," said GM John Hannes. "So, we experimented with several form factors made with foam models."
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| LeCroy’s WaveSurfer oscilloscope appeals to engineers because of its small footprint, large screen, and easy connectivity. |
"Engineers also told us that small scopes lacked sufficient waveform memory," added Hannes. "They told us that 2500 or 10,000 samples weren't enough, so we built the Wave-Surfer with 250,000 samples on four channels as a standard feature. We found that some users didn't understand how short memory forces a scope to reduce its sample rate at slow sweep speeds. Users want a scope that runs at or near full speed all the time. The WaveSurfer's memory depth addresses that need." The WaveSurfer opened new markets for LeCroy. "Engineers and technicians who previously never looked at a LeCroy scope do so now," noted product marketing manager Ken Johnson. "These users don't need the sophisticated analysis capabilities that high-end scope users demand. They mostly just want to view a signal."
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| Members of the LeCroy team, left to right: Ken Johnson, product marketing manager; Andy Sexton, senior technology development engineer; and Larry Salant, director of software engineering. Courtesy of LeCroy. |
Some engineers use the WaveSurfer to view and capture waveforms, then move the data to a PC for analysis. Pedro Medelius, chief technologist at ASRC Aerospace (Merritt Island, FL), uses one to capture waveforms; then, he analyzes the data with Matlab. Medelius likes the WaveSurfer's front-panel USB port, to which he connects a USB flash drive. He then transfers the data to his notebook PC. "We found that some engineers will save hundreds of screen images on floppy disks," noted Johnson. "Now, they use USB flash drives." Engineers whose companies don't let them connect scopes to LANs have embraced USB.
At companies that let engineers connect instruments to the company LAN, engineers appreciate the WaveSurfer's Ethernet port and Windows operating system. Windows lets them easily connect the scope to a network to store data and print waveform images on a networked printer.
When selecting a processor to run Windows, LeCroy engineers had to overcome heat-dissipation problems. To beat the heat, LeCroy's mechanical engineers used thermal-modeling software to simulate conditions. "Our engineers know how to get the heat out and how to keep the fan noise down at the same time," said chief technology officer David Graef. "We've developed heat-sinking technologies for our other scopes that we employed in the WaveSurfer."
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