We were informed that our Echo 500 series are looking at end-of-life. Does anyone have experience integrating a 500 and a 600 series echo into the same Tempo-driven work-cell?
Personally I wouldn’t mix 5 and 6 Series systems if you can avoid it. The different Echo Server versions can make things more complicated than they need to be, and I could imagine pooling across instruments causing issues in that kind of setup.
There are still a few companies out there servicing the older 5 and 6 Series instruments, so I also wouldn’t rush to replace a machine that’s still working fine. When you’re talking about 500–800k for a new instrument that is, in practical terms, very similar to the previous generation, it’s hard to see the value.
I’d probably just keep the 5 Series running as long as possible and wait until there’s a genuinely new generation, maybe a 7 Series or whatever comes next.