April 12^th, 2012

Dear Valued Customer,

You should have recently seen our product safety notice dated April 6^th, 2012 notifying you of an error in firmware v01.00 on the THS3014/THS3024 hand held oscilloscopes. This firmware version has the potential to display the decimal point of voltage measurement readouts in the wrong position as well as giving erroneous frequency measurement readouts. While we are not aware of any incident involving personal injury, this software bug poses a potential safety risk for the user, as an unsafe voltage may be indicated as a much lower (safe) voltage, which could lead to unsafe handling of the device under test by the end-user. This potential safety risk could result in serious injury or death and therefore led to Tektronix’ decision for a product recall.

Affected Items:

At the time of our safety announcement, we put customer safety first by distributing the product safety notice while we worked to determine root cause of the failure. We mentioned in the notification that we would follow up with our distributors and end-customers on how to update affected instruments.

We have identified the source of the failure and after exhaustive testing can now release an instrument firmware to make the oscilloscope safe for its intended use. We would now like to inform you about the two options to have your instrument updated to a new firmware version (v01.01), which eliminates the erroneous measurement readouts.

Option 1 - Self-update: You can download firmware v01.01 from the Tektronix website and perform the update yourself (/software/downloads?product_series=+THS3000+Handheld+Oscilloscope&product=&softare_type=All). This requires connecting the instrument via the supplied USB cable to a PC and running the firmware update script available on our website. It requires prior installation of the USB drivers for the THS3000 oscilloscopes, which are also available for download from the Tektronix website. A Tektronix technical support representative can provide telephone assistance during the update procedure. You can find out the contact details of your regional Service Center by visiting /node/7086.

Option 2 - Service request: Please contact your nearest Tektronix Service Center for immediate assistance on having your THS3014/THS3024 oscilloscope updated to the new firmware v01.01. You can find out which Service Center is responsible for your region by visiting /node/7086. Alternatively, you can register your product for the recall procedure online by filling out the service request form on /mytek_rma_request and your regional Tektronix Service Center will then contact you with service job information and assistance with shipping.

Further information on this recall is published at /node/109151 as it becomes available. Inquiries related to this recall effort should be addressed to following email address: [email protected]

At Tektronix, our customers' safety is our highest priority. We appreciate your understanding as we work to address this issue.

Sincerely,

Michael Flaherty 
General Manager
Tektronix Time Domain Business Unit

Tom Mego
VP Quality & Continuous Improvement
Tektronix