Invitation to CEM China about Oscilloscope/DMM review Turn out successful !!

[Kiriakos-GR]

I am happy to report that I got an reply about my invitation to the Chinese CEM about requesting a sample of their latest Oscilloscope/DMM DT-99S  for review.
In about an hour I got the reply of Mr Jianmin Yuan, with a positive response to my request.

Even so the news is a bit salty due the fact that this unit is not in full production yet.
And there will be some delay about sending the sample.
   
I am working on finding the exact timing about the product release period, but the good news are that they accepted my invitation. 

http://www.cem-instruments.com/en/pro/pro-463.html

[Achilles]

Oh well, I am very interested in the quality of the Meter as you may guess .
I am still a bit attracted by the DT9979 which I just found at a German reseller for under 200Euro (incl. Shipping and VAT) what seams to be very fair I guess.......
I saw the Scopemeter here also on their website, but the Hantek DSO8060 is more or less what I would buy as Portable scope. Nevertheless, lets see how good they are. At least they seem to still have low prices

[Kiriakos-GR]

I just found the Users Manual of the DT-9989 Oscilloscope/DMM.

http://www.gme.sk/_dokumentace/dokumenty/729/729-034/orn.729-034.1.pdf

About the pricing, I am very confused.
I have found a link that suggests pricing of 830-1000$ US .. for the DT-9989.
I am suspecting a wild goose chase of non educated buyers, organized by middle mans who has access to CEM.

As soon I will receive the device, test it and all, I will request info from CEM , about their official distribution network in Europe.
They will point out the sellers that the buyers can trust, about pricing and support.

My lips are sealed until to see some real movement about the sample unit. 
Even so nothing can take my smile away of this fourth in the row success. 

[Achilles]

Yeah I also found some obscure sellers on Aliexpress and so on that wanted about 850 USD for DT9989......ridiculous
They my keep trying to sell....

I think the price may be more about 300euros. The picture shows the CEM Handheld scope DT990S but the specs fit to the DT99s
Link is in your Mail. The price is about 8000 Czech Crowns.

[Kiriakos-GR]

Achilles you have become my favorite information seeker !! 

But I am one step ahead on the score board for now. 

Availability ...... The central warehouse    No ...... expected arrivals ... 51st week of 2011 = December

About the pricing you are correct, 300 EUR with out VAT 

[Achilles]

Achilles you have become my favorite information seeker !! 

But I am one step ahead on the score board for now. 

Availability ...... The central warehouse    No ...... expected arrivals ... 51st week of 2011 = December

About the pricing you are correct, 300 EUR with out VAT

Yeah, you are welcome!
So there will be some time until you can test your CEM Scopemeter and tell sth. about it's quality. ...
Let's see if I buy a DT-9989 before and have a look about the quality.....
I will keep an eye on that thread here. Maybe they send you some preproduction meter or so earlier.

[alm]

The fact that they show a ~6kHz sine plus the banana jack inputs doesn't make me optimistic about bandwidth.

[Kiriakos-GR]

So far I have see DMM units to measure up to 20MHz as frequency counter due the banana plugs.
I would expect that they had research this matter, but from the other hand its just a 5Mhz DSO !!
Here is a picture of the probe, more pictures in the PDF above.

[Achilles]

The fact that they show a ~6kHz sine plus the banana jack inputs doesn't make me optimistic about bandwidth.

Both, DT-99s and DT-99G (seems to be a 99s with Low Impedance mode, Low Ohm measurement and Low Pass Filter as they state there) are rated up to 5MHz in the specs...... if you could really use them up that that Range may be sth. to try out, but 6Mhz and 40MS/s sounds quite fair for some general stuff in the Field. I don't expect that meter to replace a proper Oscilloscope and it just has 1Channel. So it's more a basic tool for quick troubleshooting.
I could imagine it's use in automotive diagnostics, but I am somehow missing the BNC connector.

[Kiriakos-GR]

Just a comment about the BNC to banana adapter, looks really well designed, lets hope that the center pin (female) it is at the right dimensions,
so to easily hook up my AC/DC clamp probe on it. 

I was had an major issue in the past with this Chauvin Arnoux PAC12 clamp.
The center pin is too thin in diameter and the cheap adapters did not work out ( contact issues).
I got two used Pomona ones, and I found my cure for good.
 
All those details and more will be part of my review. 
But looks that probably it would came here by the Santa Claus.

Personally I do not mind about the waiting time, I would be busy with the DER EE review. 

[alm]

Frequency counting is easy. Lots of attenuation is no problem as long as your original signal is strong enough. Probes are often rated at a much higher bandwidth for frequency counter than oscilloscopes. The response doesn't have to be very flat over the frequency range, since distortion doesn't really matter. A scope requires much better fidelity. At 5MHz, it's probably fine, although circuit loading is going to be huge. The meter input is 20pF. Assume 100pF for the leads (seems to be in the ballpark for capacitance measurements before nulling it out). This represents an impedance of about 300 ohm at 5 MHz. Compare this to a 10x scope probe with maybe 15pF of capacitance. Induced currents may also be an issue with the unshielded leads, especially in an electrically noisy environment.

Is 5MHz bandwidth (usable up to say 1MHz signals) enough for modern industrial electronics? This is obviously not going to replace the bench scope, but I would imagine even power electronics to involve some higher frequencies these days. The Fluke ScopeMeters (not a bench scope replacement either, but closer) seem to aim for much better specs, of course at matching prices, so I guess their market research shows that their customers require this.

Kiriakos: I wonder if it's the clamp meter or the cheap adapters that are non-standard.

[Kiriakos-GR]

Kiriakos: I wonder if it's the clamp meter or the cheap adapters that are non-standard.

My complain was about the expensive AC/DC clamp probe from France ( oscilloscope probe) , and the cheap adapters that I got from ebay.
By getting the POMONA-1269 the problem was solved , but a new smaller problem came up, the 1269 its not shrouded and it offers a basic support.
 
The shrouded ones gives you more confidence,  major stability about the contact of the banana plugs, plus there is no chance this cable to move even from accidental shaking or vibrations. 

I was ready to go for a shrouded Fluke adapter, but they sell them in pairs of two, and the price was getting very high.
And so I got those two used Pomona from Canada, 15$ shipped.

But I still have in my hidden wish list the Fluke shrouded adapter. 

   

[Kiriakos-GR]

Just spotted at the Russian web sites, an picture illustrating some modes of this colorful display.
The picture quality are poor.

But the display looks good looking at my blue eyes. 

[BravoV]

Dear CEM representative,

Should you read this thread, please read this too here -> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=5489.msg71497#msg71497

Suggesting you to do a verification and background check before you send any free sample, at least hang out here for a while to see if this guy is really fits in you criteria.

If it is going to be reviewed, it should goes to an experienced oscilloscope user right ? With his score as the king of ignore list among many members here, your product will not getting enough exposure, and if you really want to know details about this, just pm me, I will show lots of fine examples here.

Btw, if the reviewer don't know how to use an oscilloscope, how can you expect the review will be decent enough ?

Understand that advertising through product review is about an image shaping and conveying good message about your product, if your product is being reviewed by a nasty guy, the image that the readers perceived will be severely distorted and believe you don't want this to happen.

You should contact Dave or other better behaved members that have better knowledge and right skill to do the job.

Thank you.

[Achilles]

Honestyl BravoV..... take your time and do something with with it than picking out Kiriakos-GR testing threads. They may be much up to date with all the shipping progress and what-ever, but OK. That is up to him.
If you don't like him or his posts then ignore him and let the others around here struggle for themselves whether to ignore him or not. There is no point in just picking out his threads and tear them down about his skill in english, his kind of reviewing, his what-so-ever.

Honestly, it doesn't let you shine a bright light. I had my issues and talks with Kiriakos, too. We talked about it via personal message and email and that is fine. Personal experience can't stand for the opinion of the others and there is no need to flood topics with personal disagreements or opinions about somebody.



To the topic: A review by Dave or or anyone else here would be highly appreciated by me. The more have look on it the better you can decide if it's worth spending your money or not. I am myself thinking about buying the DT-8879 Graphical meter and may have a look over it later (if anyone is interested). If not, then not. Right now I have more work to do for a field-campaign. So that will be in december or so when I am back.

[MBY]

One question only: Does the osc function in current mode?

The UNI-T 81x is in most ways a piece of s--t instrument, but it does one thing right: The osc function works with µa, mA and A as good as voltage. With no cursors, no storage beyond screen and a just standard DMM function, the instrument (UNI-T or branded VC1008 from Conrad) I was quite disappointed except for the novel function of a scope view for all current ranges at full bandwidth. 

The CEM DMM DT-99S appears to be a much more capable instrument with a decent DMM and even a "toy FFT" mode, but does it works with current in osc mode?

(The VC1008 was not explicitly stated to work with current in osc function, but it does and it does it well. Maybe the CEM DMM DT-99S also can do this? The manual doesn't say. I suppose testing is the only way to know.)

[Kiriakos-GR]

Hello MBY,

Check the attachment and see if you get any answers from it. 

The information found on the web about this unit is very confusing,
and there is a good reason about it, this product is not here yet, but under production and constant development.

If you do not find your answers in this part of the document, just send me one PM, so to email to you the complete document.   

 
 

[Armin_Balija]

I'd like to see a full video and teardown on it from Dave. His brand of reviewing is what I love seeing most as it's extremely informative and still lets you sit back and enjoy it. Personally I'd love to hear his opinion on this.

If anyone is willing to do a video on it that'd be awesome. Pictures just don't do it for me anymore ;(.

[PStevenson]

I would genuinely love to see the type of letter you write to these companies in order to get these free sample meters. I'm not being sarcastic here either!

[Kiriakos-GR]

I would genuinely love to see the type of letter you write to these companies in order to get these free sample meters. I'm not being sarcastic here either!

I can reply with something fancy in a such of question (in my excitement) ,
but I think that my parents worth most of the credit about my communication skills.   

[PStevenson]

well my hat's off to anyone who can get something for free! I have noticed a bit of anger directed at people who get things for free such as when I got some sample IC's from TI etc. people said I was wrong for doing it.
so good on you for achieving the dream, well my dream haha

[Balaur]

I can reply with something fancy in a such of question (in my excitement) ,
but I think that my parents worth most of the credit about my communication skills.

Yassou

Hey, don't talk bad about your parents  

Kali nihta!

[Kiriakos-GR]

Yes the parents ..  the most important link of the chain, of what we are today. 

My father an freelancer cars electrician, was my teacher about tools / craftsmanship / and competitiveness.
My mother, an very educated designer of public buildings, was my teacher about politeness and manners.
I am the total of those two worlds.

About the quality of my English  language, I blame solely my self,  I prefer 70% the craftsmanship & 30% the Books.
 

 

[Uncle Vernon]

I can reply with something fancy in a such of question (in my excitement) ,
but I think that my parents worth most of the credit about my communication skills.

Yassou

Hey, don't talk bad about your parents  

Kali nihta!

While his parent may or may not be responsible for the language skills, it would be entirely unfair to assume them responsible for any pomposity, arrogance, rudeness or lack of personal grace.

Those who enjoy drip feed postal updates, mad rants about fights to the death, and myopic views should be free to continue unhindered. For the rest there is the ignore function.  I couldn't give a fig how much free stuff anyone can procure, it would be childish jealousy to think any different. Equally it would be ignorant to see jealousy as the sole cause of the perpetual user friction.
The retaliations aren't helpful neither is K-gr's inflated and very much misguided sense of self importance.
K-gr has shown himself too ignorant to show respect for others so again I'd suggest that those with a grievance take the moral high ground by simply selecting ignore.

[Bored@Work]

For the rest there is the ignore function.

Which doesn't prevent Crackpot-GR and his sucker Private Fluffer from doing more damage and harassment. Just putting them on ignore is not enough, you ought to watch your back, too.