EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Alternatives to Fluke / Rigel safety testers?

Hi,
I'm looking for alternatives to the usual Fluke / Rigel electrical safety testers.
We currently use Metron QA90's running with laptop control via Prosoft software. We save the protocols using the DUT asset number, so when we retest at a later date, we only need to enter the asset number again and the protocol is loaded, we then print the results as a PDF to the job record.
We have had limited experience of Ansur and none of Rigels control software, so I'm unsure whether we could use a similar system to our present one, but are there any other options out there before we start down the sales rep road with the companies already mentioned?
Many thanks for your help,
jwt.

Dear JWT,

the metron control via is older system use in metron but the ansur is actully came from Metron unit it been use in qa-90 lastime.

Dear JWT, you will find that Ansur is a vastly more expansive sotfware than Prosoft,one of the main failings(IMHO)of Ansur and it's related device "plug in", in my case the ESA 620 is a TOTAL lack of a historic data base,instead MediGuard from Rigel maintains a record of all the EST's uploaded in to it's DB therefore it's easy peasy to find an EST from yester year.Pros and Cons i'm afraid, no one product stands heads and shoulders above the others.
Ps. if someone has a DB compatable with Ansur i'm in the market.
Malcolm.

If you need a "universal" database then the ansur is most likely that you'll need to craft it yourself.

Fluke (ansur) stuff that I have seen uses .mtt files that look like renamed .xml files to me (not that I've spent much time on them).

Meanwhile the Rigel Med-eBase uses .mdb (MS Access) database formats.

Anything on a computer can be imported, re-structured, exported ... or generally fiddled about with. "All" you need are a few software tools ... and a few hundred hours of your time!

Naturally, Mr.Fluke, and Mr.Rigel et al would rather that you didn't re-engineer anything, of course ... but would much prefer that you paid them Big Bucks for their own offerings (perhaps limited, perhaps not - depending upon your own limitations, requirements and expectations).

As with all such stuff ... it all depends what you actually want to do!

Hi jwt.

The Rigel 288 hand held safety tester may suit your needs.
The machine itself does not require a contol software as the unit has internal memory.
Once an item has been tested, the protocol is stored within the unit and can then be recalled using the asset number.
There is an optional asset management software which is compatible, however you can print the results direct from the tester or download as a csv or txt file.
Its also manufactured in the UK.
Hope this helps.

Looking back at the original post ... why not simply carry on with the QA-90?

Or is it just that you're hoping for something a little more portable (smaller, lighter ... whatever), or more convenient to use (without the need for a laptop)?

In that case (even though you say you're looking for "alternatives"), if I were you I would look again at the Rigel 288.

Did you see the new ESA 615 Fluke product?

Bum steer there, I'm afraid, guys.

Those are .mdf and .ldf files ... therefore indicating an SQL database as these use those two files:- an MDF file, known as the primary database file, which contains the "schema" (in plain English:- the structure details) and data, and a LDF file, which contains the transaction logs (which may be used for roll-back purposes and so forth).

Master Log File, and Log Data File.

For completeness ...

The comments in the above post refer to Version 1 of Med-eBase (that is, circa 2008).

Version 2 (the current one, as far as I am aware) uses a database with a .db extension (SQLite 3).

But not Paradox, unfortunately.