RS Components and Tektronix, have announced an exclusive five year free-of-charge warranty promotion to support the Tektronix MSO/DPO 2000 range of oscilloscopes, targeting applications such as embedded design, mixed signal design, video design, education and training, and automotive electronics. This exclusive offer is available to customers across the UK and Europe on all purchases of products in the MSO/DPO 2000 series ordered online through RS until 31 December 2011.

Normally available to purchase at a cost of up to €362, the free warranty provides electronic design engineers with the assurance of minimum downtime during the repair process, and guarantees priority status at the depot, ahead of on-demand repairs. Online tools are provided to enable the customer to quickly order a repair and to track its progress. Tektronix operates global service coverage, which means that replacement parts and tools can be accessed and despatched immediately at no additional cost to the customer.

During the promotion, customers ordering any oscilloscope from the MSO/DPO 2000 range through the RS website at www.rs-components.com/tektronix will be supplied with a media code which the customer must use when purchasing from the MSO/DPO 2000 range, in order to be eligible for the free five year warranty.

Fred Knowles, Head of Product Management – Electronics at RS Components said, “This exclusive promotion in conjunction with Tektronix is yet another demonstration of RS’s commitment to nurture strong partnerships with leading industry suppliers to deliver first class service and value-for-money to our customers.”

Nigel Bentley, Channel Partner Manager, Tektronix said, “I am really pleased that RS has taken the initiative with this excellent campaign and offered its customers this extended five year warranty using the Tektronix multi-vendor service solution which we operate with global coverage. Our customers will be better served from this initiative from two truly high service providers.”

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element14 (formerly Farnell), the industry’s first fusion of commerce and community supporting engineers and purchasing professionals worldwide, today announced the expansion of their 130,000 strong inventory with the addition of Tektronix precise and intuitive oscilloscopes. These high performance and easy-to-use solutions provide the maintenance and repair, and electronic design engineering sectors as well as aspiring engineers in schools with effective tools to measure and evaluate their designs.

As manufacturing industries around the globe continue to shift their operations to the Asia Pacific, this trend has created a rich ecosystem of technological sophistication that supports the production of a wide spectrum of electronics. As a result, design support and maintenance engineers are constantly challenged to find versatile analysis solutions that are capable of evaluating complex systems. There is also an increased demand for simpler tools so that engineers are able to apply these solutions more easily and proficiently across several product categories, thus improving time to market while supporting the development process from concept to end of life.

“As the world’s leading manufacturer of oscilloscopes, Tektronix is in the business of helping design engineers solve their day-to-day challenges,” said David Carew-Jones, Vice-President of Marketing, Service Solutions Organisation, Tektronix. “We do this by designing products that are easy to use and provide the highest level of precision, and it is important that our customers have the easiest access to the tools they need to do their job. Therefore, we are delighted with this partnership we have with element14 in Asia as their extensive network and logistical expertise help to ensure that engineers throughout the region can get easy access to our latest technology.”

“As the electronics manufacturing sector continues to expand in the Asia Pacific, there is also a corresponding growth in the number of electronic engineers the region. element14 understands that evaluating the validity of designs is an essential phase of design cycles,” says Marc Grange, Head of Product Management, element14, Asia Pacific. “New engineers can learn and build up their proficiency through Tektronix analytical tools which are specifically designed for learning purposes. In addition, element14 also offers 24/5 online technical support, relevant technical information and a complete suite of design software to help professionals, hobbyists and students to overcome any challenges.”

Easy-to-master measurement solutions with unparalleled precision and performance

One of the Tektronix oscilloscopes that element14 offers is the TSD1000C-EDU series that is designed for first time users. It features an intuitive interface that has dedicated per-channel vertical controls, auto set-up and auto ranging, making the oscilloscopes simple to operate to reduce the learning time.

Top-in-class precision and reliable performance

Captures signals accurately with at least 10X over-sampling on all channels, all the time with Tektronix’s proprietary sampling technology

Advance triggers – rising/ falling edge, pulse width, and video – to help identify and isolate the signals of interest

Advanced math capabilities and sixteen different automated measurements

Integrates USB port to enable users to save their instrument settings, screenshots and waveform data easily

Comes with an Education Resource CD that contains a library of information and guidance tools

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Expanded product portfolio to include MSO/DPO3000 and MSO/DPO4000B series, available to RS customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

RS Components (RS) the world’s largest high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products and the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), today announced an expanded agreement with Tektronix, a leading manufacturer of oscilloscopes.

Under the new agreement, RS will sell a wider range of Tektronix oscilloscopes, including the MSO/DPO3000 and MSO/DPO4000B Series, adding to the portfolio of Tektronix products already on offer to its customers, which includes bench oscilloscopes, arbitrary / function generators, digital multimeters, DC power supplies, counter/timers, probes, accessories and software. The expanded range will be available for customers at rswww.com/tektronix.

This announcement forms part of RS’ strategy to be the design engineer’s choice from concept through to production. “At RS we serve a wide range of design engineers, who each face their own particular challenges,” commented Jonathan Boxall, Electronics Category Business Manager at RS Components. “We are therefore very pleased that, through this expanded agreement with Tektronix, we can now offer our customers an even greater range of test solutions, designed to address today’s evolving technological challenges.”

“This is great news for Tektronix customers,” added Nigel Bentley, Channel Partner Manager, Tektronix. “RS Components have demonstrated time and again their ability to deliver outstanding sales support as well as a rapid and efficient delivery service. Now our customers can take advantage of these services for an even larger selection of Tektronix leading products.”

» Contact details for RS Components

RS Components has added Tektronix’ latest-generation oscilloscopes, the TDS2000C family, to its extensive range of bench-top instruments fulfilling tasks from design and development to production, maintenance or repair. Customers can find full details on the TDS2000C range and supporting technical details at rswww.com/tektronix.

The Tektronix TDS2000C extends the feature set of the TDS2000 family, already the world’s most popular oscilloscope series. The enhancements increase capability and help boost productivity, with new user-interface features, advanced triggering modes, extra support for automated measurements, data-logging to a USB flash drive, and limit testing with out-of-range alerts. Engineers can also take advantage of the increase in bandwidth to 70MHz and the increase in sample rate from 1GS/s to 2GS/s, provided by certain models in the range.

“This new family of Tektronix oscilloscopes delivers significant extra value enabling today’s engineers to complete technically demanding projects quickly and efficiently, at an entry price lower than the previous TDS2000 family,” said Fred Knowles, Head of Electronics Product Management at RS Components. “Bringing this important new generation of oscilloscopes to the market underlines our commitment to delivering high-quality instruments from leading vendors, offering advanced functionality at highly competitive prices.”

The Tektronix TDS2000C adds to the extensive range of test and measurement instruments available from RS Components, including power supplies, arbitrary function generators, digital multimeters and counter/timers. The distributor provides added convenience for its customers such as online product-search capabilities, same-day despatch from stock, and additional support such as dedicated brand microsites containing application notes, online demos and webinars.

» Contact details for RS Components

Advanced features and rapid delivery maximise productivity for engineers
choosing next-generation PWS2000 and PWS4000 models

RS Components has expanded its range of engineers’ bench top instruments by adding the PWS2000 and PWS4000 DC power supply families recently announced by Tektronix. The units add to a broad selection of bench top instruments by leading manufacturers now available from RS, with choices ranging from competitively priced entry-level models to equipment supporting advanced electronic technologies and protocols.

The new DC power supplies offer consistent quality, ease-of-use and familiar operation and join the Tektronix instruments already supported by RS, including the world’s leading range of oscilloscopes, highly featured arbitrary function generators, digital multimeters and the new Tektronix FCA3000 and FCA3100 frequency counter/timers.

“This important new range of power supplies offers advanced features and integrates smoothly with other Tektronix bench top instruments in our portfolio,” said Fred Knowles, Head of Electronics Product Management at RS Components. “Also offering proven reliability at competitive price points, these units equip our customers to solve tough engineering challenges.”

“RS Components, with its broad range of electronic products and devices and the industry’s fastest growing online community of design engineers, is the ideal partner to maximise opportunities for our advanced bench top instruments such as the new PWS2000 and PWS4000 series,” added Trevor Smith, Technical Marketing Manager at Tektronix.

The PWS2000 Series and PWS4000 Series power supplies deliver accurate, clean power up to 72V with less than 5mVp-p noise and ripple, and provide a wide current adjustment range. The outputs can be set up to within 0.1mA and 1mV resolution, either directly using the front-panel keypad or by recalling from up to 40 user-defined setup memories. The PWS4000 Series also features a list mode that supports execution of test procedures by allowing users to define up to seven lists with as many as 80 steps per list.

» Contact details for RS Components

Session will address transition from paralle to serial data in embedded system designs and the challenges this presents to engineers

Farnell, the leading multi-channel distributor of electronic and industrial components, and Tektronix, the world’s leading manufacturer of oscilloscopes, will co-host a webcast entitled ‘Debugging Serial Buses in Embedded System Designs’ on Dec 16, 2010, from 4-5 pm CET.

To register, visit: https://premierfarnell.webex.com/premierfarnell/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=848654107

“Following a successful expansion of our distribution agreement with Tektronix in UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) we have decided to host this webcast as a part of our ongoing series of webinars initiated by Farnell to support our customers in producing world-class designs,” said Richard Curtin, Farnell’s Head of Semiconductors Passives and Optoelectronics (SEPO) Product and Supplier Management. “Collaborating with a leading supplier like Tektronix helps us bring customers the best the industry has to offer in terms of thought-leadership and expertise in electronics engineering.”

During the hour-long webcast, Tektronix Technical Marketing Manager Trevor J. Smith will explore the transition from parallel to serial data in embedded system designs and the challenges this presents to engineers. He will also briefly review some of the most widely used buses in industry today, including I2C and SPI, and the key measurements needed to debug and validate proper functionality.

The webcast will comprise a 45-minute online presentation followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. The session also will be archived after the event and can be accessed by visiting http://www.element-14.com/community/groups/technology-training-webinars (under documents section). This webcast will be ideal for electronic design engineers and students who want to stay current with the latest cutting-edge debugging serial buses technologies.

The full session will explain how to:

§ Transition from parallel to serial buses in embedded systems design

§ Design implications of serial communications and debug challenges

§ Review of common serial bus standards

§ Serial bus troubleshooting and performance analysis

§ Tools to address the challenges of serial bus design verification

“Serial data communications employed in the newest embedded systems technologies present designers with significant challenges,” said Trevor J. Smith, Technical Marketing Manager at Tektronix. This webinar will show how the popular MSO and DPO 2000, 3000 and 4000 series oscilloscopes efficiently solve serial debug challenges.”

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Advanced new frequency counters and timers available for next day delivery

RS Components today announced that it is adding newly released bench top instruments from Tektronix to its Test & Measurement portfolio. The addition of new frequency counters and timers from the world’s foremost supplier of oscilloscopes extends the extensive range of design support tools available from RS for next day delivery.

The FCA3000 and FCA3100 frequency counters and timers integrate the functionality of a frequency counter, frequency meter and timer into one feature-rich instrument. These new instruments allow design engineers to make over 13 different frequency, period, time, pulse, or phase measurements with high resolution. Comprehensive analysis modes include measurement statistics, histograms, and trend plots.

“A significant number of our design engineering customers are already using oscilloscopes from Tektronix,” commented Fred Knowles, Head of Product Management, Electronics, at RS. “By including these new frequency timers/counters in our test and measurement portfolio we are now able to offer them complementary bench top instruments with familiar interfaces from a trusted and reliable supplier.”

Trevor Smith, Tektronix technical marketing manager continued, “RS has always been a trusted source of information for engineers. The market leading online design support tools that they now provide make them the ideal partner for the launch of our new bench top instruments.”

The new cost effective instruments offer a wide frequency range up to 300 MHz. These instruments deliver 12-digit/sec frequency resolution and single-shot resolution of 50 ps (FCA3100) or 100 ps (FCA3000) for time. Dedicated buttons and on-display menus provide fast access to frequently used functions, reducing set up time. USB and GPIB device ports support remote control and fast measurement transfer speeds.

» Contact details for RS Components

Mixed-signal oscilloscope family offers logic debug capabilities

Now available from TTi Instrument Distribution are a number of new models in the Tektronix MSO2000 Series of mixed-signal oscilloscopes, offering advanced logic debug features at an entry-level price.

With up to 200 MHz bandwidth and 1 GS/s sample rate, the instruments incorporate up to 20 channels for analysing both analogue and digital signals, allowing users to quickly find and diagnose problems in complex designs. To capture long windows of signal activity while maintaining fine timing resolution, the MSO2000 Series offers a deep record length of one million points as standard on all channels.

With Wave Inspector(R) controls for rapid waveform navigation and automated serial and parallel bus analysis, the MSO2000 provides a feature-rich set of tools to speed and simplify the debugging of complex designs.

The 16 digital channels are tightly integrated into the oscilloscope’s user interface, simplifying operation and making it possible to solve mixed-signal issues easily.

One common challenge shared by both logic analysers and mixed-signal oscilloscopes is determining if data is a ‘one’ or a ‘zero’ when the display is zoomed in so far that the digital trace stays flat all the way across the display. The MSO2000 Series addresses this issue by using colour-coded digital traces, displaying ‘ones’ in green and ‘zeros’ in blue.

The multiple transition detection hardware shows a white edge on the display when the system detects multiple transitions. This acts as a visual reminder that increasing the sample rate on the next acquisition will reveal higher-frequency information than the previous settings could acquire.

The MSO2000 Series simplifies channel setup by allowing the user to group digital waveforms and enter waveform labels via a USB keyboard. Digital waveforms are simply placed next to each other to form a group, and all the channels contained in that group can then be positioned collectively. This greatly reduces the normal setup time associated with the positioning of channels individually.

An advanced probe design incorporates two eight-channel pods, which greatly simplifies the process of connecting to the device under test. When connecting to square pins, the P6316 probe can connect directly to 8 × 2 square pin headers spaced on 0.1-inch centres. When more attachment flexibility is required, flying lead sets and grabbers (also included as standard) can be used to clip onto surface mount devices or test points. The P6316 probe offers outstanding electrical characteristics, applying only 8 pF of capacitive loading with 101 kilohm input impedance.

Tektronix has launched a lower-cost version of the highly successful MSO series of mixed-signal oscilloscopes combining two or four analogue channels with 16 digital channels

Tektronix has launched a lower-cost version of the highly successful MSO series of mixed-signal oscilloscopes combining two or four analogue channels with 16 digital channels.

The MSO2000 Series are digital phosphor oscilloscopes with bandwidths of 100 MHz or 200 MHz and two or four channels, and are significantly cheaper than the other MSO instruments in the Tektronix range.

Despite their low cost, instruments in the MSO2000 Series incorporate 1M points of usable record length on all channels, serial trigger and decode analysis options, and a variable low-pass filter that also allows the user to see signal details to the oscilloscope’s full bandwidth.

The WaveInspector navigation and search facility enables details to be located and zoomed using intuitive smart controls. The display uses a widescreen colour TFT which allows more information to be seen than a standard 4:3 display.

Digitally oriented features include bus display, bus decoding and events table. Serial triggering is provided for popular serial interfaces including I2C, SPI, RS-232/422/485/UART, CAN and LIN. Triggering can be done on packet content such as start of packet, specific addresses, specific data content or other unique identifiers.

TTi, as a Platinum distributor for Tektronix, holds all of the MSO2000 models in stock along with all options and accessories.

» Contact Details for TTI Inc.

High Quality Oscilloscopes, Arbitrary/Function Generators, Accessories Now Available for Test and Measurement Needs

Mouser Electronics, Inc., known for its rapid introduction of the newest products, today announced it has inked a distribution agreement with Tektronix, a leading worldwide provider of test, measurement, and monitoring instrumentation.

Mouser’s Tektronix portfolio includes high quality oscilloscopes, arbitrary/function generators, and other essentials for engineers’ design benches.

“Adding Tektronix to our line card allows us to expand our offerings to include another world renowned and trusted brand,” said Barry McConnell, Mouser Vice President of Product Marketing. “Tektronix’s advanced test and measurement technologies are incorporated into their products for design, debug, compliance test, education, training, manufacturing test, and quality control applications. Design engineers turn to Tektronix for their proven, reliable products and we are pleased to stock them for same-day shipping.”

» Contact details for Mouser Electronics, Inc.