EEVblog #164 - Agilent Fly To The Moon

Dave is a tad upset to find out how much standby power consumption the new Agilent Infiniviision oscilloscope draws.

[etimond]

I was expecting an announcment about agilent scopes beeing sent to space ;)

[yanava]

Uhh, by the end, Dave says MTBF real quick and it sounded like MEAN TIME BEETWEEN FIRE. I loved that, and I'm definately going to use it from now on.

[halleffect]

Dave is the Steve Irwin of electronics... lots of enthusiasm :)

[EEVblog]

@ELVTechnology I don't think they apply to specialised non-consumer electronic test gear?
Yeah, could have at least left the USB port on the front powered so it could be used to charge stuff!

[Lachlant]

@EEVblog That really does make the design worse when you think about it. Have you considered contacting the company and telling them of this issue? That really isn't acceptable, you wouldn't think an oscilloscope would require any standby power when turned off, lots of other devices use standby power, but that's often because the device has a remote control or some other function that requires standby power.

[EEVblog]

@38911bytefree Products have had real on/off switches for eternity. If you want to do it, you just buy the appropriate switch.
The follow up is on the blog page for it. It wasn't worth another video.

[RowsbyW]

Maybe Agilent gets better accuracy by keeping the scope warm rather than letting you start it cold. Like the way an Oven Controlled Xtal Oscillator gets better accuracy than a crystal oscillator that operates at ambient temperature.

[ELVTechnology]

6W! That's more than the power typically delivered to _TWO_ USB ports... I could charge my phone on that...

Aren't there a whole bunch of Energy Star ratings devices need to meet for standby power consumption these days?

[MarcoFranceschini]

Iper greetings Dave from Lucca, Tuscany...Italy.

[EEVblog]

@Lachlant1984 Ah, forgot to mention that. Same startup time (30 sec), regardless.

[EEVblog]

@linagee Yes, it's the exact same amount of time, 27 seconds.

[yanava]

That's odd and quite unexpected. Dave, nothing changes from powering up by removing / plugging the cable and powering up by using the button? Saved logs, functions, generator settings, nothing?

[MadScientistsLair]

I wonder if it has something to do with that CF card slot on the front....I bet when you push that button to off it syncs the file system and unmounts it. Still, it should be able to then disengage a relay after its done and cut down on that awful 6W. My VFD display clock draws less!

[Jack_The_Biker]

What would you recommend as the best overall oscilloscope?

[EEVblog]

@toddrharrison I love it when the ironic ads appear!

[subtler]

I guess if you have one, you could always shut it off via a power bar.

[bytefree]

@EEVblog
Products haven't got Switching PSU's for eternity. Try switching a Laptop Charger on and off with a switch ... it gets carbonized sooner than you excepct. Of course there's a rigth switch that can handle the abuse, but the easy way is like on this Agilent. IMHO, if you keep turning this SMPSU on and off from mains, a failure in the Switch or in the PSU is likely to occur ... Perhaps Agilent knows that due an endurance test or simply, by design. Indeed, 6W is a lot (10% of consuption)

[imscuba]

Just stumbled upon this vid. Have they foxed and or addressed this? ( Agilent ) ???

[waaos]

Dave,
Face it.... Agilent did this JUST TO PISS YOU OFF! ! !! ! Do you drink a lot of coffee?? Your about as wired up as anyone I have met ! ! !
I do enjoy your video's and love your passion..

Glenn
Living in the
3rd world USA

[EEVblog]

@AllenKll Because I can, and it's fun :-P