Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?

[madires]

My voip phone is plugged into ethernet, my multimeter is plugged into ethernet, I dont see a reason, why I cannot just call the multimeter to read the measurement value...

This is off-topic, but you could script that in asterisk, if you need that feature.

[tooki]

Can confirm the slow (but inevitable) shift to darker colors. It won't be straight black - there's some potential flexibility for the R&D teams.

The term "potential flexibility" just caused the branding team to have seizures.

Not only branding, but the UX guys, too... last thing you need is engineers deciding colors, ending up with a device neither anyone with poor vision or colorblindness can use!

That said, I think dark test gear looks way sexier. I'm kinda surprised that the test gear industry has stuck so doggedly with beige and pale gray, considering how most of the electronics and computer industry moved away from earth tones a decade ago or longer...

[R005T3r]

I like it white. It's just clearer and you can see the details better, and you can spot stains more easily, also rust. Not to mention that the instrument  is more evident if you are in a low light environment...

[vk6zgo]

Will it be pink to attract female EEs next month? Or what about getting rid of all the switches and knobs by replacing them with a touchscreen? 

Real Oscilloscopes are blue & silver!

[MrWolf]

Will it be pink to attract female EEs next month? Or what about getting rid of all the switches and knobs by replacing them with a touchscreen? 

Real Oscilloscopes are blue & silver!

We have a winner:


Actually Keysight will also have to do these as current generation of little maker-androids* will grow up.

*An android is a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human, especially one with a body having a flesh-like resemblance

[KE5FX]

Off-topic question: why doesn't anyone sell prototyping enclosures that look like that?  There are a lot of things I'd like to put in a small portable enclosure with a large transparent screen window, some BNC jacks, and plenty of room inside for components and batteries.  But the Hammonds and BUDs and Vellemans of the world still think everyone wants featureless aluminum boxes.

On-topic vote: make mine beige, thanks.  If all my test gear were black or charcoal-gray, it would literally suck all the light out of the room.

[Tomorokoshi]

I have HP equipment that spans about 6 or 7 different styles, and there are probably another dozen. They seem to appear about every 3 to 5 years.

This may also be displaced in the next few years. I wonder if their industrial designers ever use the old equipment? There are certain things that work and some that don't.

[CatalinaWOW]

Maybe it's an attempt to further differentiate Keysight from Agilent? Just part of the Keysight rebranding?

An attempt to be more distinguishable from Fluke?

These are plausible reasons for a change.  But no excuse for the horrible design.  Black designs that work are all over the place, it is not the fault of the color.   I kind of hope it was directed by a senior manager because that means there is only one incompetent to blame.  Maybe the bad design is some kind of passive rebellion against a top down direction.

[Faith]

So; since Keysight has been rather keen on pasting "Keysight" stickers on older test equipment and everywhere else...

...when can I start expecting my next piece of test equipment to pass through Keysight to come back in black vinyl wrap?

On a more serious note though: looking at my 34465A now I find that its colour scheme is extremely pleasant to look at. There is no one feature that's too contrasting or too distracting compared to the rest of the instrument. Also; those glaringly bright run/stop/zonetrg/wavegen buttons on the 3000T oscilloscopes are pretty much only tolerable (and even barely so) because the rest of the instrument is white. I can't imagine how much of an eyesore it would be if it were black.

Actually, come to think about it; maybe Keysight got their inspiration from EEVblog?



Damn it, Dave!~

Edit: Oh my lord my eyes are hurting just looking at the above picture with the zonetrg/wavegen buttons illuminated against the black. Argh!

[mikeselectricstuff]

Off-topic question: why doesn't anyone sell prototyping enclosures that look like that?  There are a lot of things I'd like to put in a small portable enclosure with a large transparent screen window, some BNC jacks, and plenty of room inside for components and batteries. 

https://www.okw.co.uk/en/Plastic-enclosures/Interface-Terminal.htm

[KE5FX]

I've seen those, but they're pretty cheesy.  No brass inserts for assembly with machine screws, and not much room inside for anything but the tablet itself, especially with the battery compartment option.  (And what exactly am I supposed to do with 5 'AA' cells?  C'mon, how about four or five 18650s?...)

[PointyOintment]

I'll wait for black 34465A then

BTW I wonder if changing to a black case would influence TC specs of precision equipment, as in theory it absorbs more radiation and gets warmer. I guess the effect is probably very minute, as there are other shields underneath the case.

It also emits more radiation and gets cooler.

[Bud]

Meh...

[wim.de.jong.59]

Here is the 3458A Black

[coromonadalix]

Here is the 3458A Black

Uh ?!   seriously ??  gonna scrap my eye to use something like this,   with pale blue writtings  pfffffffff

[TiN]

It's 0.01 ppm off! 

[tv84]

It's 0.01 ppm off! 

10x worse!!! 

[Tomorokoshi]

Things like this have been done before. I haven't found much else in this color scheme. The black one is older than the gray one.

[Tomorokoshi]

As for that 3458A, I can see it now:

"Dear, I couldn't get the cable TV box to work, so I had the cable company come out and replace it."

"Thanks honey. By the way, have you seen my Keysight 3458A?"

"Your what, dear?"

[james_s]

I've always preferred black for any kind of gear, especially audio and consumer electronics, it's timeless. Really though I don't care what color my test gear is as long as it doesn't interfere with functionality. Bright fluorescent colors would be distracting but anything subdued is fine.

[Wolfgang]

Here is the 3458A Black

Here you can clearly see why the choice of black color is a bad choice: The blue text is hardly legible.
Anyway: Now you can see the dust better so you know when the lab needs a cleanup 

[Cubdriver]

Things like this have been done before. I haven't found much else in this color scheme. The black one is older than the gray one.

I think that dark grey one is either a custom, made for a specific customer, or one that someone has refinished in the older, late 50s/1960-ish dark grey panel color, as they'd transitioned almost entirely to the light grey by 1961 (at least based on the instrument photos in the '61 catalog).  The 5216A makes its first appearance in the 1968 catalog, 7 years after the color switch.  It's certainly possible someone could have refinished it in the older color scheme - the panels are engraved, so it would be easy to get the lettering to look nice and factory.  If it is a refinish, it's very nicely done!

-Pat

[branadic]

Not sure where this pictures is coming from, but:

http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5992-1058EN.pdf

-branadic-