COMMENTARY
I love my scope, and you can't use it

Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 2/14/2006 8:00:00 AM

How many times have you arrived at work only to find your bench test setup decimated and "your" scope halfway across the lab? Imagine if you could lock your scope to your bench--this could change the lab's political structure. If you have the locking cable's key, you have the power to hold on to your scope. You could use the lock to prevent colleagues from walking off with your instrument before you're done with it. You could have a lab full of angry engineers, some of whom may try to take the scope by cutting the locking cable.

So, you think you're being smart by locking your scope and keeping your test setup intact. But what happens if you become sick and can't come to work? You'll prevent colleagues from using the scope in your absence. You've just reduced their productivity. A locked scope will surely destroy the cooperative spirit that usually exists among engineers.

When Tek demonstrated to DPO4000 for me, I asked marketing manager Gary Waldo about the lock feature. Waldo explained that Tek chose to include the Kensington lock feature because the DPO4000 scopes are marketed to the educational market where equipment is more likely to "walk away." Perhaps, but you have to wonder if the lock will prompt some customers to buy a DPO4000 for every engineer. Of course, it every engineer in your lab had his or her own oscilloscope, there would be no need for locks anyway.