Keysight SBE In-Depth – Ch2: Unboxing^4 & Design Features

16 Apr 2022

Keysight SBE In-Depth – Ch2: Unboxing^4 & Design Features

The kit has all arrived, so it’s time for a mega-unboxing where I take a look at each of the units from all sides and see just what is included with each device. By doing so, we can also understand some of the features of these instruments, although a more detailed analysis of capabilities and benchtop usability will be presented in Chapter 4.

Keysight EDU34450A 5½ Digit Multimeter

This box arrived earlier than the rest of the kit by a few days, having been sent at a higher service level. From the outside, you’d be mistaken for thinking it’s an oscilloscope, given the oscilloscope-sized box.

Opening the top, we can see some sustainability advice to recycle the box – this contrasts with many vendors which have a stern “keep this box” reminder in case you need to ship the device back for any reason. Accessories seem to loosely float in the void of the box with a separating cardboard insert which does not seem to be all that highly effective.

The unit is wrapped in a clear plastic bag and is held securely away from all sides of the box by foam end-pieces.

Inside the box is the multimeter complete with LCD protective film, a set of test probes, a grey US power cable, a one-page quick-start guide and an envelope containing the Certificate of Calibration.

From the front, I’m sure students will ask “is that an oscilloscope?” or “why do you have so many oscilloscopes on your bench?” as it does resemble an oscilloscope from a distance. It seems they have used the same casing design but with a different keypad and jack panel. In this case, the 7” non-touch LCD dominates the front, surrounded by a black bezel and soft-keys. The right side has translucent function buttons and solid keys to access the other functionality, with a shift-key toggle. The banana plugs occupy the bottom right section, and it is nice to see that four-wire resistance measurements are available.

The current input is fused with a 4A 600V rated fuse that screws into the receptacle on the front.

The instrument has a flip-up hard plastic carry handle integrated into the case. The three-tone grey design is now evident – the light grey rear, darker grey front and near-black bezel around the LCD. I think this colour scheme is quite modern and lends the equipment a dark and modern look compared to the more traditional beige or light grey of the past.

Underneath, it features rubber wrap-around rear feet to stop it from sliding around the bench. It does have some heft to it as there seems to be a steel inner casing visible through the slots. Fold-out feet serve to prop the unit up for easier viewing.

From the side, there are ventilation holes which seem to be used for other models, but this multimeter keeps things closed to ensure a stable operating temperature for accuracy.

The rear of the unit also has ventilation grilles for a fan which are closed. Power input is via an IEC socket in the bottom right of the image, with the fuse holder providing manual voltage selection. Remote connectivity via USB and Ethernet is provided in the recess on the right side, with a Kensington lock slot and a cable loop provided to secure the instruments to a bench. It is nice to see the Australian Regulatory Compliance Mark which makes it legal to sell in Australia.

As these units were shipped from the US, they came complete with a grey 18AWG IEC lead.

The lead has plugs by Volex rated at 125V/10A. The cable comes from Ta Hsing. As I am in Australia, I have resorted to using my own IEC leads.

The supplied test leads are marked as EDU34450-62100 and feature a right-angled safety shrouded banana plug to the unit.

The probes themselves are rated at 10A with CAT III 1000V and CAT IV 600V ratings with the removable shroud in place. Once removed, it is rated CAT II 1000V which is still ample compared to the rating of the DMM itself which is CAT II 300V.

The leads themselves are slightly stuff 18AWG PVC leads from JunJian. This is relatively basic, but sufficient for student usage. It is also noted that there are no additional inclusions, for example, of data connectivity cables or spare fuses, which is somewhat expected given the price-point of this product – it is amongst the cheapest 5.5-digit DMMs on the market, matched in price only by GW-Instek models that have traditional segment-based displays.

Keysight EDU36311A Triple Output Programmable DC Power Supply

The remaining items arrived almost a week later being sent at a lower service class. It included this hefty box – there’s no mistaking it is a power supply simply because of its physical size and weight.

The same sustainability messaging and packaging of accessories is seen. This box is securely taped with reinforced tape around the corners to ensure its integrity.

The foam end-supports are noticeably beefier for this product and it is packed also with silica gel for added freshness.

Rather surprisingly, there isn’t much to this package. I have the power supply, the Certificate of Calibration and a one-page quick start guide. Surprisingly, there was no power cable in this box, but as we’ll see later, this may be because this is a review unit. The power supply did have protective film over its LCD screen which I promptly removed. Only from the top do we see the integrated carry handle, gunmetal grey metal casing which contrasts with the other Smart Bench Essentials products, and an indent in the top which allows for secure stacking of other Smart Bench Essentials devices.

In most product photos, we see the power supply from the front. Like the DMM above, the LCD dominates the front with a different keypad and jack layout to differentiate this from an ordinary oscilloscope. In this case, there are bright colour-coded buttons and backgrounds to label each channel which has outputs to combination banana jack and binding post. This arrangement seems convenient for users of non-shrouded leads, but does raise slight concern as if all outputs are put into series, in theory 66V is available which may not be considered SELV. The front panel has knobs for voltage and current entry, but also a number pad for direct entry and directional pad for navigation.

Compared to the rest of the Smart Bench Essentials series, the power supply seems to be the one with a “weight problem” – it’s heavy and chunky. But this is perhaps a feature more than anything else, as it seems to have a linear heart – the toroidal transformer mounting bolt is visible through one of the grilles. The final output may still be switching-based as is common nowadays, but it should still mean good transient and noise performance. However, had this been a purely-switching design, perhaps it could actually fit into the form factor of the other members of this series.

The rear is dominated by a large cooling fan, two-slide-switch based voltage selection with a fuse guide, USB and Ethernet connections in the top left and a Kensington lock slot. It is nice to see the Australian Regulatory Compliance Mark on this device too.

This unit has four big rubber feet which keep it planted, in addition to the two hard plastic feet of the front cover.

Keysight EDU33212A Waveform Generator

Another oscilloscope-sized box appears … could it be an oscilloscope … actually no! This is the two-channel function generator.

This time, the separating cardboard seems to have fallen into the package, but there seems to be no harm.

It seems like this box was where the power cord for the power supply had snuck off to, resulting in having the EDU33212A unit with protective film on the LCD, two power cords, a Certificate of Calibration and a one-page quick start guide. I suspect the units shipped to customers won’t have this sort of inconsistency.

The design of the waveform generator seems to take a hybrid approach of the above two devices, again dominated by the LCD screen and soft buttons, but flanked by two-rows of mode selection buttons, some translucent. It also features a numeric keypad, with a big knob and two-direction keys. Dedicated channel setup and on/off buttons are below, following the Keysight convention of Yellow for the first channel and Green for the second. It is nice to see there are additional Cal, Ext Trig/Gate/FSK/Burst and Sync/Trigger Out connections to really enhance the flexibility of the instrument.

The casing design is common with the DMM for the most part with the same features.

The side vent is open in the case of this unit, to help keep the internals cool.

The rear of the unit is practically identical to the DMM as well, just that this unit has a fan and no need for manual voltage selection. The IEC plug has no user-accessible fuse.

Keysight EDUX1052G Digital Storage Oscilloscope

The lucky-last box is, as expected, the digital storage oscilloscope.

Packed in much the same way, it seems the accessories did not stay above the cardboard insert divider and has migrated or been repacked for transit.

The unit is otherwise packaged identically to the other units.

The package includes the DSO with LCD protective film intact, a set of two probes (N2142A), a power cord and Certificate of Calibration. This one seemed to be missing the one-page quick start guide, but that is no major problem.

This unit shares its heritage with the 1000-series oscilloscopes and so looks very much like you would expect an oscilloscope to look like. The operation panel seems crammed full of buttons and knobs – I’ll have more to say about this later. This being the “G” suffix unit, features a wave generator onboard, but is still a two-channel oscilloscope. Unfortunately, that does mean no SPI decoding … but otherwise, is quite suitable for simple laboratory tasks. It’s nice to know UART, I2C, FFT and FRA features are available.

This unit has no accessible fuse and is universal voltage as well. It does, however, have a fan on the rear but it seems to blow inwards into the case as opposed to outwards as for the function generator. Connectivity is otherwise exactly where it is expected and the regulatory compliance mark is also available.

By now, there are no surprises when it comes to the design of the casing.

However, it was nice to see proper Keysight-branded probes being provided.

The tips are not the finest, but appeared to be sturdy enough to withstand some abuse.

Switchable attenuation can also be of benefit to users depending on the measurement they intend to make. Of course, if one wants to make use of the waveform generator, they will need to supply their own BNC breakout cable or similar. Then again, perhaps most labs looking to upgrade already have a stock of these.

Conclusion

All four items made their way safely from the US to Australia, packed in sturdy cardboard boxes with fitted foam end-pieces and wrapped inside clear plastic bags. Accessories did not always stay put in their designated area, separated by a single piece of cardboard, but ultimately the instruments were unharmed.

At a glance, the visual consistency of the units from the front makes all units look like an oscilloscope even if it isn’t, which is a very unusual feeling. In fact, three of the four instruments are housed in what appears to be the same sort of casing with the exception of the jacks and operation panel section. All instruments share the “signature” 7” LCD, soft-keys, front-panel USB, with variations in the operation panel to suit the instrument type. The rear casing of most instruments also has the jacks in a consistent place with provisions for Kensington lock security. The colour of the units is mostly a tri-tone grey which is very attractive and modern. The consistency also extends to channel colour coding.

In the range, the power supply unit is a bit of an exception, as when seen from the side the rear gunmetal grey coloured metal casing, greater depth and weight are noticeably different from the other instruments. The indentation at the top can be seen to be purposely designed to integrate with the other EDU instruments, however. The DMM and PSU require manual voltage adjustments and the PSU even requires a fuse replacement for 230V operation. With the exception of the DMM, all instruments have a cooling fan.

Being a price-sensitive market, included accessories are very scant and usually only include a power cord or probes in the case of the DSO and DMM. No other cables or spare items are included, and the quick start guide (if included) is only a single page. All instruments are also Made in China, which is a departure from Keysight’s usual Malaysian manufacturing for such instruments.

One downside is that this review kit did not include the (optional) stacking kit, which I would highly recommend, as the units based on the oscilloscope case moulding really do not stack with each other securely, which may limit the flexibility of instrument placement.

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This post is part of the Keysight Smart Bench Essentials RoadTest Review.

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