Greetings and thanks for all the feedback.
Firstly yes we have withdrawn this from sale until we get to the bottom of the failure. To answer the previous question about what process do we use to decide what to sell, well we have a process and this passed it.
We got two samples a 30V 5A and a 60V 2A. As an ISO-9001:2008 accredited company, a structured product introduction process is mandatory. We look much further than just the build quality. We look at support scenarios and how we and the supplier can deal with them so :
- what is the warranty?
- Can we repair locally?
- Is there a calibration procedure?
The samples do get pulled apart. For example the white residue on the boards was known to us, we've seen it on more than one suppliers' boards and it has never been a reliability issue.
For the price as Dave says the build quality was aceptable and we liked the user interface too.
We also have already fed back the incompletness of the manual plus we'd like to see the programming commands in there too.
Our performance testing entails putting a product through our NATA accredited calibration lab to make sure it meets its specifications which these supplies did. (NATA is similar to UKAS , NVLAP etc) Thanks to Dave's dynamic (in more than one sense of the word) testing of the supply a potential weakness has been exposed that the placid conditions of a Cal lab would not reveal. The product was immediately pulled from sale as we will not sell a product we don't have 100% confidence in, and after Dave's review we have our doubts on this one until we get a manufacturer recommendation and/or rectification proces. We are certainly not scared of putting a product through an EEV Blog tear down and product review as the result can only be beneficial for customers, us and of course the manufacturer that will need to act on the findings so that the market gets better products and we get happier customers.
We try to offer two classes of product and if you visit our web site
www.triosmartcal.com.au you will see this in action. We offer world class brands like Agilent, but sometimes that's not what people need or can afford. Wants and needs are different. So for folks with budget constraints, or simply needing something that does not have a world class brand label on it we try to offer lower cost, value-for-money reliable products that do what they are supposed to do. Plus we need to be able to support our customers locally after they have bought something from us. Our customers are everything to us, it does not matter how good our products are without happy customers and good staff to look after them we won't be here.
There is a formula used in marketing-speak that is very simple but very true:
Value = (Performance/Price) + Service .........OK I know the brackets are redundant but most marketers are not engineers. Many people do not consider service when buying a product but it is an integral part of acquiring and owning a product.
The other true marketing statement is that "you get what you pay" for. Well it's mostly true unless you are being ripped off. So our challenge is to choose products that meet these criteria. We thought this power supply met our criteria and until we are sure it does, it is withdrawn from sale. By the way we know it is cheaper in the USA. That is to do with volumes when purchasing, freight costs, customs clearance etc. We set our prices to be competitive, offer value for money and provide an adequate return for the company so we are still here for you if something does go wrong. It is all a big balancing act. Proof of this can be seen in another post I saw on here comparing our price on a 25MHz digital scope to a much larger company's price here in Australia. We are almost 50% less expensive and at that price we meet all our criteria necessary to take that scope to market. (thanks to whoever did that for pointing that out).
Ultimately you pay your money and make your choice. At $199.00 +gst here in Australia it is competitively priced for a locally sold and locally supported product. If we find out afterwards that something does not perform as initially expected, we won't sell it. We have sold a few of these and have not had any returns. Nevertheless we did not know it could not handle the Dave treatment and now that we do know, it is off-sale. For folks that want a main brand, the big-guns are coming down in price. You can pay $360+gst and get an Agilent U8001A with 30V 3A. It is an excellent product for the price. Maybe Dave should do a tear down on one of those for comparison.
Anyway I hope that answers your question and also why we have withdrawn this product from sale. Until we know the reason for the FAIL and the preventative fix it stays off-sale. Dave has full permission to rip it to bits to find out what went wrong as it seems there is quite a bit of interest in this. Just don't drive over it please Dave ;-)