“Gravity. It isn’t just a good idea. It’s the law.”
So reads the headline of a draft datasheet for the new Tektronix Gravity Compensated Oscilloscope, the AGO3000 Series that was mysteriously “leaked” to Dave Jones, best known as the host of the popular EEVblog on YouTube.
In what was labeled eevBLAB #8 when it appeared on April 1, Jones goes on to describe how the AGO3000 eliminates the effects of gravity on precision measurements while expressing his interest in doing hands-on testing.
“I have no idea when it’s coming out, but I’ll try to get one because I would love to have a look at the mechanical, gravitational field sensor thingo in here,” Jones says. “Awesome, Tektronix leading the field yet again. Gravity compensation. Look out for gravity compensation.”
Of course Jones, like the rest of us, will be waiting a long time for an AGO3000.
This was the Tektronix entry among the many April Fools jokes seen on websites throughout the tech world this week. Among the most notable were Cern’s discovery of The Force, Microsoft’s claims that its Bing search engine could read minds to improve search results, and HTC’s introduction of a smart sock that uses a GPS to keep missing socks together. There were many others as well including Google’s PacMan game overlay for Maps and Tesla Motor’s parking-ticket-avoiding Model S to name a few.
The AGO3000 prank came about when Jones approached Tektronix about a phenomenon he discusses in the eevBLAB #8 video where gravity can have an effect on reference crystal oscillators, or as he terms it, the 2G tip-over effect. While the effect is very slight and not enough to impact measurement results, Jones thought it would be funny to blow this up for his annual April Fools video. We agreed and hope you do to.
Since publishing the above blog, Tektronix is currently offering a free upgrade to 3/6 GHz spectrum analyzers and a free bundle of software applications on mixed-domain oscilloscopes.