EEVblog 1447 - EXPENSIVE Fluke vs CHEAPER Brymen - Teardown

[Monkeh]

It's displayed on the screen for you:

Yes but that's a manual range setting.

With these it's not so clear:

Er, how so? In both cases the meter indicates auto ranging and the current range..

[Fungus]

It's displayed on the screen for you:

Yes but that's a manual range setting.

With these it's not so clear:

It's shown on the screen, in both manual and autorange modes.

Regarding the zero's before the decimal dot:  I never realized that anyone could have difficulties reading such a display, because virtually every higher end bench dmm has that too (siglent, rigol, keysight, keithley etc), nor have I ever read about it.

I guess it looks normal if you grew up on it. If you didn't, then... it's sort of a "local delicacy" 

[3drob]

Nice pair of vids.  I've wondered what the real differences were between Fluke and others, so it was good to see a good, quality comparison to a higher end DVM.  I especially liked the reference to the "confidence of measurements" comments.  This is the bottom-line reason a Fluke (or equivalent, reputable instrument) is a necessity for a professional (but perhaps overkill for a hobbyist). 
Tools are important to a professional, and working at my day job I would never argue to save a few hundred dollars on my most used test tool, when confidence in my work product (or more importantly, confidence in my company's product) was on the line.  Being an EE, of course I have a handful at home from $3 units scattered around, to a handful of others in a range of quality/cost, but my favorite is still my Fluke 233 (but honestly, the $3 ones are great for non-critical measurements).

One clarification though:  the Fluke PWB has four layers.  You can tell because on one edge of the board (at the north side) there is a standard PWB layer marking (each layer has a copper number character, slightly offset).  I spotted the '4' in the vid with a hint of '3' just below it.  The benefit you get from the added cost (2 to 4 layers is a big jump) is better shielding of sensitive signals (also hinted at with the conductive cover over the ceramic component).

Thx

[wraper]

One clarification though:  the Fluke PWB has four layers.  You can tell because on one edge of the board (at the north side) there is a standard PWB layer marking (each layer has a copper number character, slightly offset).  I spotted the '4' in the vid with a hint of '3' just below it.  The benefit you get from the added cost (2 to 4 layers is a big jump) is better shielding of sensitive signals (also hinted at with the conductive cover over the ceramic component).

Brymen has 4 layer PCB as well.

[wraper]

Does not look high quality.

[Fungus]

Does not look high quality.

That might just be Dave being a klutz.