| A complex, sophisticated product that tries to be all
things to all people sounds good in theory, but in practice it is difficult to
use. People often buy these products because they appear to out-do the competition.
However, once the customer starts utilizing the equipment, he or she discovers that the
learning curve is too steep to use the product on a regular basis, and the system ends up
on the shelf where it collects dust. Our knowledge of this phenomenon stems from 17 years
of experience in the instrumentation market. In addition to building products that
provide accurate data, R.C. Electronics builds products that are Test Friendly
(specifically, the DATAMAX II Instrumentation
Recorder and the Dynamics 4000 Signal Conditioning Amplifiers). Although we
have been using the term for almost five years and the development concept for over six
years, a survey conducted by PEIN (Personal Engineering and Instrumentation News) in
September 1998 stated the most important factors used in choosing one instrument over
another; it was not surprising to us that their top three factors are the three major
components of Test Friendliness. These are, in order of priority: ease of use,
reliability, and compatibility with operating systems. Ease of Use R.C. Electronics adheres to what PEIN’s survey declared the most important factor: we keep our products simple and easy to use. Ease of use is the first facet of Test Friendliness. Although the internal technology is very advanced, as with D ATAMAX II and the Dynamics 4000, the operation is such that anyone from engineers to technicians can use the equipment without studying a manual for hours. This simplicity makes our instruments general purpose tools that can be used in multiple applications.Reliability The second facet of Test Friendliness is reliability. An easy to use product is pointless if it cannot be trusted to perform as it should. Thus, we use quality parts and good mechanical fixtures to make sure that our products can operate reliably under a wide variety of environmental conditions. This translates to years of maintenance-free operation, thereby keeping R.C. Electronics products from collecting the dust that we mentioned earlier. Compatibility It makes sense that an easy to use, reliable instrument would also be compatible with standard operating systems. This can be seen in D ATAMAX II which uses a standard Windows NT operating system. This gives users the ability to translate our data files to different file formats and simplify the data download and analysis process. A reliable instrument that is easy to use will end up on the shelf if it frustrates the user whenever he tries to analyze the data in a different setting. Unlike products that utilize proprietary systems, an investment with one of our products allows the user to expand his productivity.Accuracy The fact that we build our products to be easy to use, reliable, and compatible does not mean that we place less emphasis on accuracy. On the contrary, although accuracy only ranked seventh on PEIN’s survey list, it ranks number one on ours. What good are ease of use, reliability, and compatibility if the instrument is not accurate? At R.C. Electronics, we go to great lengths to ensure that the signal being conditioned or the data being recorded is extremely accurate. This can be seen in D ATAMAX II through the use of programmable gain amplifiers, brickwall anti-aliasing filters, and simultaneous sampling which ensure recording accuracy during high frequency recording. Our Dynamics amplifiers have a calibration reference built in to ensure that their output is accurate. Thus, at R.C. Electronics we combine accuracy with Test Friendliness so users can collect valid data while operating efficiently with low maintenance and support costs. |
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