VIDEO: Introducing W4900 Touchscreen Electronic Indicators (with output)

Hi, I'm Mike Ingman, head of the R&D division for the L.S. Starrett Company. We're here at Starrett's corporate headquarters in Athol, Massachusetts to talk about a new precision tool that Starrett is excited to release to the market. It's an electronic indicator that will introduce new features not found on any other single indicator in the market today. This indicator is a big technological advance, like going from a flip phone to a smartphone.

Right here we have a bunch of dial indicators, electronic indicators, indicators that have backlighting. They all have different readouts depending on the user's preferences and what we've done is we've taken all of these and we've turned it into one tool which is our new W4900 which is right here. This is a concept that's been in Starrett for a long time and the technology to make it work just was not available until recently. We've designed and built it right here in Athol, Massachusetts using state-of-the-art technology. So the startup process for this is just like your smartphone. You would just touch this screen, it'll turn on. Once you have it on you just tap it touch it again. You'll see the seven languages that you have to choose from. You pick your language and you hit the home button and it'll bring you to your home screen where you begin.

This tool can be set up like any digital or analog indicator that we make. You have the digital selection down here. You can choose that or you can go to the English analog version or the metric analog version as well. This tool also gives you the ability to change your graduations or your resolution. You would go into your settings, you would go up to your dial configuration, and then you would go to your dial reading where you would have a choice of 0-50 background, a 0-25-0 background, a 0-250 background. Once you have the one you want, you would just accept it. You would go into your graduations. If you didn't like the graduation, the resolution, that you have, you can change that. Once you have that, you accept it and you can go check out what you have for a new background.

What we had in mind when we designed this was to make it intuitive and easy as possible to use. Old indicators you had to hit a combination of buttons to set limits or a preset. What we've done here is we've tried to simplify that as much as possible where you would just hit the gear icon, it would bring you to the settings, you could set a preset. It gives you a combination of numbers. You can just select the one you want to change, plus it, minus, change it to what you want, accept it and then when you go back home and you go into your preset, now you will have a preset loaded.

So the 4900 is all about versatility and usability. In terms of versatility, this indicator has an advanced feature set. You can choose from background colors including black, yellow, red, and white. It also has a backlight indicator so you're able to brighten or dim the screen at your leisure. You have the ability to rotate the screen in 12 1/2 degree increments. You can fix it there to make it easier for the user to read. Finding your setting does not require a big time investment. That's only a few touches of the screen and you're there. In terms of usability, the resolution is high enough that the grad marks are crisp and easy to read. This tool is also an IP67 rated tool which means it's dust and water resistant. It has a rechargeable battery so there's no need to change batteries out after a few hours of use and this also turns up on with a touch of the screen or stem and it has an auto off feature where it'll just go to sleep on its own.

Starrett has been working on this project with a goal of delivering every feature anyone might want while keeping their user interface simple and logical. We've added a radio that allows encrypted wireless transmission of your data to send measurements directly to our data collection software that can be sent up to 30 feet away. If wireless is not allowed in your organization, it can be disabled and locked out with a security code. So this indicator was developed with inspection and quality control in mind. It's ideal for the QC lab and environment and inspection. It's also used in the OEM applications on custom build design tools and machinery. The W4900 offers all these premium features that you can't get with any other single indicator. Its suggested list price is in line with other high-end indicators available on the market. For more information, visit starrett.com or call our customer service team at 978-249-3551.