Hi everyone, I'm Jacob Cheng from China, working in an electronic instrument manufacturer, and this is not a promotion content, I'm here asking for help.
As a freshman of marketing promotion in the electronic instrument, I have no idea about what topic will engineers interested in. So, I'm here today to ask for a little favor from an expert like you guys, sincerely.
We manufacturing digital DC power supply, frequency converter, all kind of power testing equipment the most. For example, the frequency converter, use to simulate power network for product testing. Then you wanna know about this machine, what you want to ask? Here is some of my thinking:

• What's the feature of this machine? (compare with general model）
• Compare with XXX brand, what' the result?
• What's the power core? What's the capability between different core?
• What material made of? That decided how long I could use it.

Anything else comes up?
I know I maybe ask a stupid question, but I really need help, please leave your comment, thank you, guys.
Here is the sample product: https://www.octatronics.com/products/fc118kva

 

Hi everyone, I'm Jacob Cheng from China, working in an electronic instrument manufacturer, and this is not a promotion content, I'm here asking for help.
As a freshman of marketing promotion in the electronic instrument, I have no idea about what topic will engineers interested in. So, I'm here today to ask for a little favor from an expert like you guys, sincerely.
We manufacturing digital DC power supply, frequency converter, all kind of power testing equipment the most. For example, the frequency converter, use to simulate power network for product testing. Then you wanna know about this machine, what you want to ask? Here is some of my thinking:

• What's the feature of this machine? (compare with general model）
• Compare with XXX brand, what' the result?
• What's the power core? What's the capability between different core?
• What material made of? That decided how long I could use it.

Anything else comes up?
I know I maybe ask a stupid question, but I really need help, please leave your comment, thank you, guys.
Here is the sample product: https://www.octatronics.com/products/fc118kva

Not getting fired! Many organizations have political imperatives when it comes to selecting test instrumentation. The young engineer would do well to have some familiarity with the thinking of older engineers. In the early days of the computer industry there was a saying that: "Nobody, ever got fired for buying IBM". I don't know if things have changed much in the last five decades, but take a look around your lab and see what equipment is already there. That will at least give you a baseline to work with.

EDIT: What this means for equipment makers is that you might need to place your devices in service for an "evaluation period" to help develop your reputation.

 

Generally the primary concerns for instrumentation purchased are:

1. Quality and Reliability.
   Will the instrument work 24 hours a day without failure or changes in its operating parameters.
   It has to be rock solid, such as instruments purchased from Tektronix or Keysight (formerly Agilent) are.
   Does the item have a good, no restrictions warranty (covering both parts and labor at the customers location)?
   
   
2. Accuracy.
   Does the instrument remain in calibration between calibration periods.
   
   
3. Specifications.
   Does the instrument meet all its operating parameters well within specification limits over time and temperature.
   Are all the pertinent operating characteristics well documented with guaranteed tolerance limits (not typical values).
   
   
4. Cost.
   Cost is important, and it needs to be competitive, but not if it compromises the first three items.
   This is important because the perception (possibly unjustified) is that Chinese products often sacrifice quality and cut corners to get the lowest cost.
   So you need to emphasize quality over cost if you want to get a good reputation as an instrumentation maker and set yourself apart from your competitors.

Just my two cents worth.

 

Generally the primary concerns for instrumentation purchased are:

1. Quality and Reliability.
   Will the instrument work 24 hours a day without failure or changes in its operating parameters.
   It has to be rock solid, such as instruments purchased from Tektronix or Keysight (formerly Agilent) are.
   Does the item have a good, no restrictions warranty (covering both parts and labor at the customers location)?
   
   
2. Accuracy.
   Does the instrument remain in calibration between calibration periods.
   
   
3. Specifications.
   Does the instrument meet all its operating parameters well within specification limits over time and temperature.
   Are all the pertinent operating characteristics well documented with guaranteed tolerance limits (not typical values).
   
   
4. Cost.
   Cost is important, and it needs to be competitive, but not if it compromises the first three items.
   This is important because the perception (possibly unjustified) is that Chinese products often sacrifice quality and cut corners to get the lowest cost.
   So you need to emphasize quality over cost if you want to get a good reputation as an instrumentation maker and set yourself apart from your competitors.

Just my two cents worth.

Thank you for the kindly reply, I like your points, especially No.4, there is someone else got the same point with you. We will find balance between cost and quality, but my company value quality more than cost.

 

If your instruments run software, the ability to upgrade that firmware or software in the future is an issue. I used a lot of chem/bio lab instruments over the years and it was very frustrating to throw them away because the supplier could no longer support the software.

 

If your instruments run software, the ability to upgrade that firmware or software in the future is an issue. I used a lot of chem/bio lab instruments over the years and it was very frustrating to throw them away because the supplier could no longer support the software.

I'm with you, but when you said "no longer support" means no more upgrade or can not download a software any more?

 

Stupid specs:

Input voltage: Single phase 220V±10% 50Hz±5Hz
Waveform: Pure Sine Wave Output voltage: Low: 0-150V High: 0-300V
Output current limit: Low: 63A; High: 31.5A

What's wrong with these? What could be improved?

I'll attack this Input voltage: Single phrase 220V±10% 50Hz±5Hz one.

Looks like a non-US and where there is a Neutral-220 connection @ 50 Hz only.

 

Something is weird with this one: https://www.octatronics.com/products/pd603dcx

My guess, you can't do master/slave with RS232?
It's CC/CV right?

And the input voltage is?

 

Websites that don't work. https://www.octatronics.com/resource tried to download a pdf of your programmable power supples.

 

Stupid specs:

Input voltage: Single phase 220V±10% 50Hz±5Hz
Waveform: Pure Sine Wave Output voltage: Low: 0-150V High: 0-300V
Output current limit: Low: 63A; High: 31.5A

What's wrong with these? What could be improved?

I'll attack this Input voltage: Single phrase 220V±10% 50Hz±5Hz one.

Looks like a non-US and where there is a Neutral-220 connection @ 50 Hz only.

Hi sir, I'd like to say thanks for the good point. Yes, we are non-US, a Chinese manufacturer, not a brand, input power could according client's demand. But I still need to claim this on our website, right?
RS232 can do master/slave? I will ask our engineer about this.
Your advice is good for us, we will recheck and improved, thank you.

 

I'm with you, but when you said "no longer support" means no more upgrade or can not download a software any more?

The common problem was that the instrument supplier did not employ in-house programmers. They would contract for the job and when it was done, the programmers are gone. So any bugs are permanent, a change in OS (for instruments that attach to computers) is impossible, no customization and so on. We couldn't even get the source code if we were willing to do our own improvements. Very frustrating.

 

The common problem was that the instrument supplier did not employ in-house programmers. They would contract for the job and when it was done, the programmers are gone. So any bugs are permanent, a change in OS (for instruments that attach to computers) is impossible, no customization and so on. We couldn't even get the source code if we were willing to do our own improvements. Very frustrating.

I will got your point on my note, thank you.

 

Hello,

Why do you need a password to get the catalog?



Many people do not want to give their email address, just to get a catalog.
You will likely loose a lot of custommers by this barriere.

Bertus

 

back to this spec "Output current limit: Low: 63A; High: 31.5A"

Isn't 63 bigger than 31.5? Why is it the Low limit?

RMS or Peak?

I spot details like you wouldn't believe.

This http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5952-4020.pdf is an old book, but probably "the bible" for power supplies. I don;t see the "traditional" master/slave type of controls, so in essence I'm assuming it's done by communication with the supply and the only way to do that is with a buss type of system. Two supplies in series are easy; but usually both would output the same voltage, so if you wanted 30 V, both supplies would output 15V.

In parallel, it gets slightly tricky because one acts a voltage supply and one acts as a current supply. The current supply has a voltage limit, I think, just (above?") the other power supply. Each supply is supplying 1/2 the current. That's the tricky one and not sure how it would be done over a BUS.

You have both CC and CV modes in series and parallel.

 

Hello,

Why do you need a password to get the catalog?

View attachment 123606

Many people do not want to give their email address, just to get a catalog.
You will likely loose a lot of custommers by this barriere.

Bertus

Because we want visitor leave a e-mail to do marketing, but since you said that, should I change it? Free to down catalog, but online quotation need to submit their e-mail, it that more sense?

 

Hello,

Why do you need a password to get the catalog?

View attachment 123606

Many people do not want to give their email address, just to get a catalog.
You will likely loose a lot of custommers by this barriere.

Bertus

Because we want visitor leave a e-mail to do marketing, but since you said that, should I change it? Free to down catalog, but online quotation need to submit their e-mail, it that more sense?

 

... should I change it?

I prefer to think of it as the customer's choice whether to establish a relationship with your company. In most cases a customer should be able to view your wares before making this decision. There are situations where it is appropriate to keep the product information vague until a relationship is established, but I don't think that applies to your situation.

You might consider an abbreviated catalog, with greater detail once you know who is looking. The people very most interested in viewing your catalog will be your competitors, and there is no reason to provide them easy details if you can still satisfy customer expectations without doing so.

 

...
The people very most interested in viewing your catalog will be your competitors, and there is no reason to provide them easy details if you can still satisfy customer expectations without doing so.

The first few customers may be your competitors so they can do a teardown. That is just one of the risks of being in business and the counter to the competitor's teardown is to have your next product ready to go before they have time to respond. This is trivial if you have the ability to do firmware upgrades. Even better is giving the customer the option of doing the upgrade themselves.

When the product gets to end of life you should license the ongoing support to anyone in the user community that wishes to take on the burden. In other words you get paid for doing nothing.

 

Because we want visitor leave a e-mail to do marketing,

That is exactly why you can't have my email!
You have no right to flood my computer with advertisements (marketing) for everything you can think of just because I asked about one product.

 

That is exactly why you can't have my email!
You have no right to flood my computer with advertisements (marketing) for everything you can think of just because I asked about one product.

Got it. Thank you for sharing your feeling.