Oct 31, 2016
 in 
Testing

Omicron vs. KoCoS ? Part I

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WELCOME Dear friends of protection and control technology! CMC 356 vs. ARTES 560 - 1st round: Hardware

It is a question which most of us have certainly asked ourselves and which should be answered at the latest when talking to the centralized purchasing department:

Which digital test device should be purchased?

Or: Which device is the better one?

We answer this question in our three-part series of the "The Sniff-Test" and compete the top dog, Omicrons CMC 356 against the underdog, the ARTES 560 of the company KoCoS.

There will be a tough boxing match, round 1 is hereby opened:

1st round: Hardware!

At first glance, there are no major differences between the two devices. Both have a more or less handy 19 inch case with foldable and lockable carrying handle, one in blue and one in gray. At the front there are numerous colorful bushes. But on the second glance you can see the first differences of ARTES.

The most striking is the high-resolution 3.5 "touch screen on the front of the device. With this, the 2 function buttons and the rotary machine can be controlled without additional hardware and software basic functions. Set the AUX-DC output? Just a three-phase system issue? Everything done with a few clicks and twists. A nice feature! Omicron also has such a touch control, but the additional module CMControl-6 has to be ordered and carried as separate hardware.

It is also noticeable that the ARTES (in contrast to Omicron) has all the connections, interfaces and even the on / off switch located on the front of the device, leaving the back free. The ARTES can be comfortably height-adjusted without any cables being affected. This is extremely convenient, especially in narrow rehabilitation houses in substations or in overfilled block protection rooms. In addition, it is about 2 kg lighter than the CMC, which is positively in the case of one or other is fighting a "protective engineering back". Accordingly, the Omicron has slightly more power under the hood (see table below).

So much for the casing. But it also depends on the inner values!

Here the similarities are amazing. It's worth of mentioning here, the CMC has 10 analog current or voltage meter inputs, which are completely missing at ARTES.

The table below shows the most important technical data.

As we see, the specifications are very similar. However, both devices offer functions that the other device does not have. The differences that result from the hardware, each one has to be individually tested for itself and balanced against each other.

There are for instance:

- Weight

- Touchscreen

- Analogue measuring inputs

- Output power

- Interfaces on the front

- and so on

A simple victory by points can not be assigned on the basis of the hardware characteristics, the result after the first round is a clear one:

In our next article, we will look at the very detailed second round:

2nd round: Software and Handling

HEARTfelt Greetings Hannes Heiden / Alexander Muth

PS: We would like to point out that our research was carried out in the best way and on a neutral basis. We are very grateful for any useful hints on our contributions:

info@electrical-engineering.academy