AA6000 — an antenna analyzer.
This is the second RigExpert project we have worked on. As with the first one (the development of Stick is described in detail here), the order covered industrial design and product design engineering.
Our aim was to make the instrument as convenient as possible for every planned use scenario and to give it an enclosure reliable enough for the radio equipment inside to work correctly for many years. The enclosure budget allowed a more expensive and interesting solution, able to compete with Western instruments — which matters, because devices of this type sell mainly in foreign markets. The design concept grew out of our study of existing solutions that could be used in the new enclosures, and out of an ergonomic form that is easy to handle with gloves in the field as well as indoors.
To that end we gave the enclosure an extra element on the back — a sliding stand that makes the instrument usable on a desk, while all antenna and interface connectors, the keypad and the display stay easy to reach.
Beyond the main task — convenient, reliable enclosures — we also wanted to create a new look for the RigExpert product line.
As for the difficulties: during development our R&D team and RigExpert's electronics developers kept optimising the number of boards and electronic components, so we had to revise the internal dimensions of the instrument several times. In the end this added enclosure iterations.
The second major challenge was choosing the display. Together we did a lot of work analysing and selecting the best display types, and the instrument got a full-colour, high-resolution display. And because it is used not only indoors, its enclosure has a higher level of protection against dust and water. Designing such enclosures is always harder than designing instruments meant for indoor use.
What we did for the project:
We use analytics cookies (Google Analytics) only with your consent. You can change it at the bottom of the page.
