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Handheld oscilloscopes strike similar poses
May 22, 2007

Before posting my reviews of the Agilent U1604A and the Protek 860F, I must point out that they are more similar than I ever thought. I worked with the Protek unit first and thus will post my review of the Model 860F before posting the Agilent review.

When I turned on the Agilent unit, I seemed to instinctively know how to navigate the menus with the four soft keys. Why? Because the functions were nearly identical. When I installed the Agilent PC software, the similarities were just as striking. Clearly, the firmware and software, if not the hardware, come from the same course. The screen images from the two companies’ PC software below make it quite clear, right down to the word “Horizon” for the time base settings.

There are several hardware similarities, too. For example, both instruments use wheels to select menu options. Both have a USB port for a flash drive. Agilent added vertical and horizontal front-panel buttons that, in my opinion, make the Agilent U1604A easier to use than the Protek. Protek has a 20-MHz bandwidth advantage, though. The Agilent instrument has a logger function that the Protek unit lacks.

Look for these reviews starting on May 29.

        Agilent PC Link software screen                                                   Protek WaveLink software screen

Posted by Martin Rowe on May 22, 2007 | Comments (0)