Hiller Product Reviews: Get to Know What We Use and Why We Use It

Selecting the instruments we use in our systems is not an arbitrary or easy decision. Our engineers spend a lot of time evaluating options to determine the products that will ultimately be the best fit for our customers applications. We try to stick to using the catalog of instruments we’ve thoroughly evaluated as much as possible, because every time we need to learn a new instrument, there are time and monetary costs involved. 

Thus, we’ve become prudent in developing a system to decide which instruments we choose to make those new investments in and when we should make those investments, which has resulted in a catalog of instruments we feel will consistently meet our customer’s needs. When we design systems using the instruments in this catalog, schedules will be dramatically better and costs will be lower. 

We also believe in being transparent with our customers as to why we use what we use and what we use it for. And perhaps even more interesting, we want to share what we’ve learned about an instrument after using it a number of times. So, we created Hiller Product Reviews (HPR), a forum where one of our experts covers the details on an instrument in the Hiller Measurements Flow Control (HMFC) catalog, sharing our experience working with the product, including the things you won’t hear in a product demo.

To kick-off our HPR series, we reviewed the following three instruments we commonly use:

• Keysight M980xA Network Analyzer – Offers a small PXI form factor and can be used to create up to a 50-channel network analyzer in a single chassis.
• Keysight 8700 and 8900 series power supplies – Can generate high power in a small space with a design that does not require additional cooling, making it possible to put up to 150 KW of power in a 30U rack. Watch the review. Watch the review. 
• Keysight N6700C Power Supply – Only requires 1U of rack space yet has four slots in the back for a variety of modules and allows for functionality such as output disconnect, reverse polarity, fine control over output timing, and individual relay control of each module. Watch the review. 

Next up, we’ll review the Hiller Measurements PXI surveyor card and an NI source measurement unit card. To see all product reviews and sign up for email updates when new videos are released,  visit the HPR page.