Author Topic: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good  (Read 164675 times)

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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« on: July 15, 2017, 12:58:27 am »
Dave looks at the $25 ANENG AN8008 Multimeter
It has some unusually low ranges making it ideal for electronics use. Or is it?

 
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Offline sleemanj

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2017, 01:05:29 am »
For those who have not seen it, the ongoing discussion... 
an8008-us-$19-10000count-1uv-0-01ua-0-01ohm-resolution-meter
« Last Edit: July 15, 2017, 01:07:39 am by sleemanj »
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Offline retrolefty

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2017, 01:29:50 am »
Maybe not your intention but I just bought one based on your review. $21 delivered and shipped from a US seller. Man compared to what I paid for a Simpson 260 in the 60s in real dollars, boy has electronics come a long way.? While I own a couple of old Fluke 87s, this seems too handy to pass on.

So best bang for buck hobbyist meter ever?
 

Offline MK14

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2017, 01:30:20 am »
That is amazing for the price.
It is also an amazing amount of multimeter, in such a small package.
Not using 9V PP3 batteries, is probably also an advantage (ignoring diode test voltage) for some people. As AAA's can be cheaper and more available.
From the video, the backlight seems very effective, as well.
Quite an assortment of probes, tips, accessories including pouch as well.

Those tiny fuses are both really cute, and hugely dangerous, at the same time, if you understand what I mean.
 

Offline rsjsouza

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2017, 01:59:36 am »
Quite interesting meter for the price, and the accessories complete the package quite well.

One additional detail: a few months ago I bought an UT136 on the same premises (nice meter for the price) - I did one mistake and the ohms/diode/continuity ranges are gone. I know how to repair that but, if the same happens with this meter, it can be very frustrating for beginners. Due to the lack of protection this will most probably be the same on this meter.
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Offline alm

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2017, 02:11:16 am »
I wonder if any of the sellers will take a screenshot of the thumbs up in front of the meter and add it to their for sale listing :P.

As usual, why the 1000V CAT II / 600V CAT III nonsense? It could almost have been a half-decent meter for beginners or as second meter for low level signals if clearly marked CAT I 50 V and ranges limited to 50 V, and might even meet those safety requirements. The main downside would have been the missing current ranges.
 
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Offline Fsck

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2017, 02:42:41 am »
I wonder if any of the sellers will take a screenshot of the thumbs up in front of the meter and add it to their for sale listing :P.

As usual, why the 1000V CAT II / 600V CAT III nonsense? It could almost have been a half-decent meter for beginners or as second meter for low level signals if clearly marked CAT I 50 V and ranges limited to 50 V, and might even meet those safety requirements. The main downside would have been the missing current ranges.

marketing: everybody else has it, so we should too.
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Offline bjcuizon

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2017, 02:53:28 am »
Wow! It's such a decent little meter with 10000 counts...I wish it had the µA range though :-DMM. But overall, its really good for its price. :-+
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Offline sleemanj

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2017, 03:27:13 am »
As usual, why the 1000V CAT II / 600V CAT III nonsense?

Marketing.

I agree it would be better if meters were just honest about it.  99% of the buyers of these meters do not need 600V Cat III, ever.  The most they are, or should be, working on is Cat II.

Cat II 600V or even 300V can't be that hard to achieve legitimately, I'm sure it could.  Ideally with 5x20mm fuses though.  Why they used those stupid 10mm ones, I don't know, there's room for 5x20 in there surely.

Here in NZ, I (sometimes, not currently in stock) sell a cheap chinese meter, the ADM02 (Mastech MS8233E inside), it's just 2000 count 3.5 digit, but it's physically robust, looks good, has non-silly 5x20mm fuses, and it does what the majority of people need (except the diode test voltage is too low :-(), but one of the BIG reasons I chose that one to stock, is it's marked as Cat II 600v, and that's it.  I'm quietly hoping that BSide (or Mastech, or PeakMeter or...) takes the 8008 chipset and stuffs it into an ADM02 form with 5x20 fuses, slightly better input protection, and most importantly, that 600v CAT II marking, for $25US or less.
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Offline ejeffrey

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2017, 03:45:10 am »
Looks like a nice little meter, certainly nicer than  most of the cheap meters I have used.

One thing that I think would make a neat video is to take a handful of cheap meters with high counts but mediocre accuracy, throw them in the back of a car for a year and let them get knocked around and subject to big temperature swings, then check their accuracy again.  Its no surprise that a 10k count meter comes out of the box with <0.1% errors on most ranges.  It would be interesting to see how much they actually drift compared to the 0.5% spec.
 

Online Monkeh

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2017, 04:29:51 am »
Extend the current ranges and swap the hold button for a rel button and.. it's almost perfect. For $25. Just take a marker out and get rid of the cat ratings.

The sort of handy extra meter to keep around the bench or in the car.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2017, 05:05:22 am »
Extend the current ranges and swap the hold button for a rel button and.. it's almost perfect. For $25.

Yep, very close.
 

Offline Muttley Snickers

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2017, 05:37:10 am »
Guided by the numbers it must be a popular subject with already over nine thousand views in a day, two were mine by the way just to be sure, I was in the market for a 101 or similar anyway.   :-DMM :-/O     
 

Offline amspire

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2017, 05:39:41 am »
I have a Richmeter RM101 on order (a rebranded ANENG AN8001) for A$16.31 inc postage. That is half the price of the AN8008 and it has the normal mA current ranges, but not the sensitive volts and current. It does have a range button pads on the back of the PCB I think. I would love to find a way to use it. I could have paid a little more for the RM102/AN8002 with the temperature functions, but  I didn't need it.

Buying both the 8008 and 8001 is not a bad combination. You end up with two multimeters for two concurrent measurements, and you get the sensitive ranges of the AN8008 along with resistance to 60MOhms and the proper mA current ranges of the AN8001.

It would be great if they could release one meter that does it all.

If it is possible to replace the fuse holders with something bigger, I will give it a go.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2017, 05:52:06 am by amspire »
 

Offline cdev

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2017, 06:45:36 am »
Dave,

products like this and an iffy economy are why, if I were you, I would not risk your future finances on the success of your meter, nomatter how good it is, we can never compete on price with the Chinese..  we shouldn't even try.

We have to work smarter, and make smarter products, not cheaper.

They will always be cheaper.   This is also why the world needs more public education, lots more of it. Even if the generic jobs most people do are going away for good.

Privatizing public education and health care so that most people are left struggling to afford it is a recipe for disaster.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2017, 06:47:34 am by cdev »
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Offline G7PSK

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #15 on: July 15, 2017, 08:40:22 am »
These are the golden years, when the Chinese economy matures they will want higher wages etc and the price of products will rise. At sometime in the future it will all flatten out and as you say we will all have to work smarter including the Chinese and Indians etc.
At that price I have just purchased one to keep in the car, it will replace the cheapo one already there and never used as yet, the hope is I never will need a meter in earnest in the car.
 

Offline pixelk

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #16 on: July 15, 2017, 08:51:56 am »
Maybe not your intention but I just bought one based on your review. $21 delivered and shipped from a US seller.

Same here ( 17,46 € delivered to EU ), It will be a honorable "backup meter" for my Extech EX330. I have very limited use for mains testing and will NEVER use it near a live socket. I'm more concerned by the somewhat flimsy socket plugs.

Sometime you just don't need features (as long as you're aware of the risks & limitation of a chinesium enriched product ). DON'T USE THIS on something your life depends on, but for testing continuity, it will be good enough ;)
 

Offline snoopy

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #17 on: July 15, 2017, 09:08:19 am »
I just checked all of my DMM's including a Fluke 87 and Protek 506. None of them have uV measurement capability. This meter is worth having for this feature alone ;)

cheers
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Offline IanMacdonald

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #18 on: July 15, 2017, 09:24:08 am »
Looks not bad for the price. At least, having a fused 10A range is better than no protection.

Thing I advise about cheap meters is to avoid the autoranging ones because they invariably do a 'Mexican hat dance' - display a whole series of false readings - before settling.  How does this one fare in that respect? If it's a nice quick autoranger that doesn't give misleading readings before settling, than at the price it's a winner.
 

Offline Fungus

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #19 on: July 15, 2017, 12:53:55 pm »
Wow! It's such a decent little meter with 10000 counts...I wish it had the µA range though :-DMM. But overall, its really good for its price. :-+

Huh? It does have uA. Watch the video...

(and with 9999 digits it'll measure nA as well)
 

Offline Fungus

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #20 on: July 15, 2017, 12:59:08 pm »
As usual, why the 1000V CAT II / 600V CAT III nonsense? It could almost have been a half-decent meter for beginners or as second meter for low level signals if clearly marked CAT I 50 V and ranges limited to 50 V

If you're worried you can scratch off a I and get a more realistic rating.



Dave measured 1000V in the video, it seemed to hold up.
 

Offline Rbastler

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #21 on: July 15, 2017, 01:05:14 pm »
If I dindn't already have a Fluke 101, I would buy this thing :-+
Although I woudn't measure mains with it, but the Fluke 101 comes with no current ranges.

Edit: some corrections
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Offline alm

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #22 on: July 15, 2017, 01:09:35 pm »
If you're worried you can scratch off a I and get a more realistic rating.
[...]
Dave measured 1000V in the video, it seemed to hold up.
Handling 1000 V AC does not come close to satisfying the requirements for 1000 V CAT I. 1000 V CAT I requires safely handling a 4000 V transient from a 30 Ohm source (12 Ohm source for 600 V CAT II). Does anyone expect those tiny fuses to handle that without arcing? The non-existent input protection? Minimal clearance?

I think you would also need to scratch away two zeroes in addition to the two I's.

Offline Fungus

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #23 on: July 15, 2017, 01:33:05 pm »
If you're worried you can scratch off a I and get a more realistic rating.
[...]
Dave measured 1000V in the video, it seemed to hold up.
Handling 1000 V AC does not come close to satisfying the requirements for 1000 V CAT I. 1000 V CAT I requires safely handling a 4000 V transient from a 30 Ohm source (12 Ohm source for 600 V CAT II).

I think you would also need to scratch away two zeroes in addition to the two I's.

I only said "more realistic".

Does anyone expect those tiny fuses to handle that without arcing? The non-existent input protection? Minimal clearance?

No.

In other news: The sibling AN8002 survived longer than a Fluke 87V in joe's electrical robustness testing. There's no reason to think this will be different, the PCBs are almost identical.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/

 :popcorn:

« Last Edit: July 15, 2017, 01:38:13 pm by Fungus »
 

Offline alm

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Re: EEVblog #1007 - Is a $25 Multimeter Any Good
« Reply #24 on: July 15, 2017, 01:54:45 pm »
In other news: The sibling AN8002 survived longer than a Fluke 87V in joe's electrical robustness testing. There's no reason to think this will be different, the PCBs are almost identical.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/

 :popcorn:
While that is encouraging, that says little about safety. From Joe's FAQ:
Quote
Q) Are the meters that fail your tests unsafe?  They all fail in a safe manner and although non-functional it presented no safety risk in that failed condition.
 
A) I have no idea if any of the meters I have looked at would fail in a safe manner or not if tested to the IEC standards.  If you want to know if a meter is safe or not, have it tested by an accredited lab or buy one that has been certified by a third party.
 
I loosely based my testing on the IEC standards.   The tests I perform are at much lower energy levels than the meters what these standards call out. This is why we never see the explosions like you would when watching some of Fluke's internal testing.  I don't expect the general hobbyist is going to know about CAT ratings or the IEC standards. 


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