Author Topic: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?  (Read 165768 times)

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Online mikeselectricstuff

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #450 on: January 13, 2018, 08:02:34 pm »
Do you want it to play mp3 from the sd card  lolll

Yes I think this a good feature for a meter.
..Well the Micsig tablet scopes can play videos, but I suspect the 121GW's processor doesn't have the power to decode MP3s. WAVs, maybe..
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Offline joeqsmith

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #451 on: January 13, 2018, 08:10:18 pm »
Do you want it to play mp3 from the sd card  lolll
Yes I think this a good feature for a meter.
I agree.  Dave could start the EEVTunes store to buy your favorite music.

Offline brainwash

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #452 on: January 14, 2018, 12:25:21 am »
Do you want it to play mp3 from the sd card  lolll

Yes I think this a good feature for a meter.
..Well the Micsig tablet scopes can play videos, but I suspect the 121GW's processor doesn't have the power to decode MP3s. WAVs, maybe..

If I remember correctly there's a 32-bit ARM inside it. Most of those can decode MP3s, even without an FPU. Talking about low-bitrate here.
My opinion is that, if this thing lands in enough hands, even without source code and firmware, some people will manage to built a custom firmware for it. It has happened to every thing that was affordable and/or appealing. Either that, or something better, cheaper and more hackable comes along.
 

Offline Scottjd

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #453 on: January 14, 2018, 12:32:05 am »
Can’t have the EEVBlog music store for this meter unit we can use the Bluetooth to either transfer the music to the meter, or play music on it and pair it with a speaker or headset. Then the Bluetooth would have a purpose. From what I’ve read it’s slow update refresh using it with the app so far, and you can’t transfer the logs from the meter to a computer (I don’t believe this one was never in scope). But if they can’t fkx the slow refresh rate on the app I’ll gladly give that up for playing music a BT headset, and put a bugger SD card in it.
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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #454 on: January 14, 2018, 02:28:17 pm »
If folks want a MP3 player plus a multimeter, why not buy a mooshimeter instead? :-DD
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Offline brainwash

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #455 on: January 14, 2018, 02:39:31 pm »
If I remember correctly there's a 32-bit ARM inside it. Most of those can decode MP3s, even without an FPU. Talking about low-bitrate here.
My opinion is that, if this thing lands in enough hands, even without source code and firmware, some people will manage to built a custom firmware for it. It has happened to every thing that was affordable and/or appealing. Either that, or something better, cheaper and more hackable comes along.

Just did a few minutes of research on this, it's probably not possible to do significant MP3 decoding unless you have an M4F and above. Only those have the single-cycle MAC instruction. It's mostly fixed-point arithmetic, but it needs to happen pretty fast. Was just a theoretical question anyway, I doubt anyone will try to implement this.
 

Offline joeqsmith

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #456 on: January 14, 2018, 03:24:20 pm »
If folks want a MP3 player plus a multimeter, why not buy a mooshimeter instead? :-DD
I think Scott said he played with one.   

I have not seen anyone make a video of the BT yet.   I thought they were only planning to use it for logging and not to do updates or even pull the contents from the card?  If it is only used for logging, the speed may not be a problem.   

The Gossen meter sounds as fast in autorange.  It's BT could also be used to log but the meter was such power hog, it won't run for very long between battery changes.  They do have that external power port so you can plug it into your portable Nuke for extended logging.   :-DD   Then there's my cheap $120 CEM with it's 900MHz radio running off a single 9V for days with logging.  :-DD   It will be interesting to see how the UEI meter stacks up with speed, battery life and distance.       

Offline joeqsmith

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #457 on: January 14, 2018, 04:14:33 pm »
Another new review!  :-+   They are starting to trickle in.

Just finished watching it.  He compares it with a BM867s and shows some speed comparisons.  He also shows the power measurement.  9.846W vs 9.42W seems like a lot of error doesn't it?     

It's been a while but it seems like they were not accounting for the losses in the meter.   I made a few videos showing the basic circuit and such to try and isolate it further after I was told I had it connected wrong.   I would be interested in seeing someone with the production meter dive into the power measurement in more detail.  A video specifically for that one feature, showing all your connections and such.   

It's a shame they capped it at 50V.  I was all along thinking AC line power measurements.     

https://youtu.be/Ao2Is4LeQIY
« Last Edit: January 14, 2018, 04:31:39 pm by joeqsmith »
 
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Offline mattselectronics

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #458 on: January 14, 2018, 05:27:17 pm »
Just a quick comment about the power measurement.
I did this mainly to show it working and how the update speed is.
I didn't use the sense pins on the electronic load. This means, the cable and connector loss from the multimeter to the load are included in the Multimeter measurement, but not in the DC-load display.
Because of that, it is absoluteliy expected, that the load shows a lower value.
I'll add a comment to the video to make that clear.
« Last Edit: January 14, 2018, 05:36:36 pm by mattselectronics »
 

Offline joeqsmith

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #459 on: January 14, 2018, 05:51:15 pm »
If you wouldn't mind,  I would like to see you try it with the best case conditions you can come up with and see what results you get.   Explain your setup in the video if you decide to make another. 

Thanks for the video BTW.  I gave it the old TU. 

Offline Scottjd

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #460 on: January 14, 2018, 08:25:00 pm »
If folks want a MP3 player plus a multimeter, why not buy a mooshimeter instead? :-DD
I think Scott said he played with one.   
Yes, I did buy one, ran it in some testing and well. I only review and do videos on products I keep, like and woild recomend to others. It went back.
Biggest issue, it depends on BT fully, no local buttons or display. And when the app is so unstable you can’t keep a connection then it makes it worthless. The update rate seemed impressive over BT to the device paired, they have that down. Graphing, VA, resolution, and very sensative considering it has no shielding.
When BT works, or I should say when the app works, it worked good. It was monitoring in the besament, and I was able to walk up 2 stories to the main lab and keep connection, so range wasn’t the issue. 
Same issue as the 121GW, if you want that SD card put you have to take it apart. But you could transfer the logs to the opine over BT also.
And then the app, crash, crash, crash, oh come on. The answer was we are working on an update. Just constant app updates, fix these bugs, introduce new bugs. If you have to depend on the app and only the app that can’t stay connected then it’s not usfull to me. You could connect, start logging and disconnect. But you might not be able to connect again to see how things are going, or it could take a few tries.

I hate to say it, but software is everything these days. People will buy something because it has an app and can share on Facebook. If you advertise an app or software with s product and it’s really basic and useless, or full of features but crashes all the time then that’s all that will get reviewed and what people will remember is that app. So if you make an app for your device, support, make sure it works before releasing the update, and stay on top of it. It could be the downfall of a good product that may be perfectl without an app. But they won’t review or remember that, they will on,y complain how the app is not stable and won’t work. But you need the app for mosshiemeter, you can’t run it without the app, so bad combination and it was returned three days after buying it.
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Offline mattselectronics

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #461 on: January 14, 2018, 08:29:12 pm »
@joeqsmith Thank you!

I did some further testing.
First, I connected the sense terminals of the dc-load.
I wired everything up according to the attached schematic.
This improved the reading of the 121GW a bit, but not to the degree I expected.
To make sure, the sense readings are really used I also connected my keithley in parallel to the sense wires. They seem to work fine.
I noticed, that the voltage readings of the 121GW are sometimes, but not always, a bit high.
The offset seems to be depending on the input voltage, not the current. So I can rule out contact resistance as source of the offset.
I attached a table with the measurements.
Also, I uploaded the video of the test process, in case someone is interested in it. (There is no talking in this video, only me testing it with 5 to 30V and 0.5 to 5 A)
https://youtu.be/bT9K52rtEOk

In the voltage range, it tracks nicely with the keitley.
So I don't know what could cause this, maybe the voltage is measured with less precision during the power measurement?
« Last Edit: January 14, 2018, 09:22:16 pm by mattselectronics »
 

Offline Scottjd

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #462 on: January 14, 2018, 08:41:40 pm »
I known I was joking about the meter playing music, but then I did just realize that the RC transmitter I own by FrSky, the X9D PLUS uses the a ST chip a,so, the SMT32 I think.
It’s completely open source, fully programmable, has a few forks of other versions of firmware, plays music, has module support so for $20 you can add a RF module with 4 chips to fly just about anything with support in the OS of the controller for all 40+ different protocols to use this module. A radio for all, with music, features, logging, SD card for logging and backup of confirms and customizations, and this uses the ST chip.

My point is if the firmware is done correct this chip can be very powerful. But then again the firmware is almost fully open source and this has been with a lot of the open source community adding things and making this radio better. So if the firmware was released, or at least the open source parts of it I could see this meter taking off.

FYI about certifications, the radio like the meter also needs to meet certain certifications with the FCC and others. Technically it requires a HAM radio license if you change the firmware, but most people don’t know this or understand this. They just know it can be tweaked and usfull, works good, and one reading for 12 planes, and 6 quads. This makes sense instead of carrying all those other radios.

So even with an open source operating system, as long as certain parts are locked down like radio  transmission strength to meet FCC requirement it can flourish with future support and updates.
Remember the one Linksys router people started flashing, it did so well they made one and allowed it to be flashed and sold it as that. Other router like Asus fully support third part open source firmware now.

I guess as long as the risks are clear and known, I don’t see why some parts of the firmware can’t be released and let the community make it a great meter.
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Offline Dubbie

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #463 on: January 14, 2018, 10:50:49 pm »
There is no "THE" STM32 chip.

There are literally hundreds of variations.

The chip in the x9D+ is a STM32F205

I'm not sure what the chip in the 121GW is, but I doubt it is that fast.
 

Offline Scottjd

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #464 on: January 15, 2018, 12:27:54 am »
There is no "THE" STM32 chip.

There are literally hundreds of variations.

The chip in the x9D+ is a STM32F205

I'm not sure what the chip in the 121GW is, but I doubt it is that fast.
Yes, I’m aware their are multiple variations of the chip, and I wasn’t about to list them all.
Flight controllers use a different one, 3d printerS use a different one.
I was just making a point, and as you said we don’t know what one it has yet.
 It one thing I know for sure, the can always be swapped out for another faster one, or one with more storage for more code. I’ve done it on 3D printers and flight controllers. But we would still need a firmware to flash to it, and probably make sure the boot loader is the same or copy the boot loader for the 121GW chip if it’s compatible with the new chip being installed for the instructions built in.
Just another point, before software hacking sometimes it’s easier to hack the hardware first if you can clone the chip and bypass the lock instructions.
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Offline hwti

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #465 on: January 15, 2018, 09:48:04 pm »
I'm not sure what the chip in the 121GW is, but I doubt it is that fast.
From the manual, it's a STM32L152D (Cortex-M3, 33Mhz max).
Obviously it's slower than STM32F205 (Cortex-M3, 120Mhz), which would be more power hungry and perhaps cost more.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2018, 03:11:05 am by hwti »
 

Offline exe

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #466 on: January 16, 2018, 04:07:00 pm »
Guys, what does AC+DC do? I was hoping it would show separately DC and AC. DC on the main screen, and AC in the top right corner. That would be super useful for me to detect when, say, my DIY circuit wildly oscillates (would save a lot of time in certain situations when I didn't realize the problem and didn't use an oscilloscope).

How does this feature work on Brymen DMMs?
 

Offline CustomEngineerer

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #467 on: January 16, 2018, 06:16:49 pm »
AC+DC is a single measurement, that takes into account both the AC portion of the signal as well as the DC portion. This is also true on the Brymen meters (got to imagine true on pretty much any meter). However the Brymens that support dual display have a setting that includes AC+DC. When in this range, you can cycle through having (for the BM869 at least, can't speak for other Brymen's, though pretty sure similar for ones that support dual display)
1) DC on the main display, and nothing on secondary
2) DC on main display, AC on secondary display
3) AC+DC on the main display, AC on the secondary display
 
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Offline CustomEngineerer

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #468 on: January 17, 2018, 05:34:00 am »
Just a little more info on AC+DC measurement from Greenlee DM-860A (which is a rebadged Brymen BM869S) user manual.

AC + DC True RMS
AC + DC true RMS calculates both of the AC and DC components given by the expression



when making measurements and responds accurately to the total effective RMS value regardless of the waveform. Distorted waveforms with the presence of DC components and harmonics may cause:
• Transformers, generators, and motors to overheat
• Circuit breakers to trip prematurely
• Fuses to blow
• Neutrals to overheat due to the triplen harmonics present on the neutral • Bus bars and electrical panels to vibrate
 
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Offline Scottjd

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #469 on: January 17, 2018, 04:15:33 pm »
• Circuit breakers to trip prematurely
• Bus bars and electrical panels to vibrate

Circuit breakers to trip prematurely
I had an older GFIC that started tripping after converting all the lights the house to CFL bulbs (before LEDs were affordable) and it would have been good to own the Fluke 289 that I have now to have seen this AC and DC measurements separately. As far I could tell before I got serious I tot he hobby, it had something to do with the harmonics of the CFL bulbs I installed causing the old GFIC breaker to trip. I just replaced the GFIC with a new one and all was ok again. Probably cheap CFL bulbs at the time, power factor was probably horrible, and old overly sensitive GFIC combination.

Bus bars and electrical panels to vibrate
Never seen this, some would think this is haunted stuff going on. :scared:

So the 121GW doesn’t have the ability to display these voltages separately despite the dual channels and dual display?
Still waiting on some sort of shipping notification or update on the US shipped meters, mine is still MIA.
Scott
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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #470 on: January 17, 2018, 05:31:35 pm »
Just a little more info on AC+DC measurement from Greenlee DM-860A (which is a rebadged Brymen BM869S) user manual.

AC + DC True RMS
AC + DC true RMS calculates both of the AC and DC components given by the expression
(...)
You could have used Mathjax... :)

\( \sqrt{ V_{ACrms}^2 + V_{DC}^2} \)

Code: [Select]
\( \sqrt{ V_{ACrms}^2 + V_{DC}^2} \)
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Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 
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Offline 3db

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #471 on: January 18, 2018, 12:34:40 pm »

Would a 7 sec autorange meet anyone's minimum standards ?

And does REPEATING the same point 8-10 times on different threads with ZERO hands on use make you useful in the discussion or just LOUD?


Not his fault we have multiple threads talking about the same thing, and his comment is SPOT on, don't need to own one to make that observation.


But to keep harping on that same point?? It seems more about trying to whip up some sort of online frenzy about a point that will take a little time to fix in firmware, bleating incessantly about it won't make it magically fixed or even happen sooner.

In my opinion Mike just asked a valid question.
It seems to me that YOU are the one that's bleating.

3db
 
 

Online beanflying

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #472 on: January 18, 2018, 09:14:58 pm »

In my opinion Mike just asked a valid question.
It seems to me that YOU are the one that's bleating.

3db
 

Mike and others with NO first hand use have prattled on and attacked the product and Dave's thoughts and actions and repeated those sentiments and statements in multiple posts.  Some of these comments made seem to be more about whipping up a storm than looking for a solution.

While certainly not perfect Dave deserves the decency of some time with his family for a start then some time to go back to the manufacturer to sort out some of the issues then let us know what they have found and a path forward to improve the meter.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2018, 09:17:28 pm by beanflying »
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Offline BU508A

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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #473 on: January 18, 2018, 10:40:07 pm »
Guys, please, have a little patience. I'm convinced, Dave will get it sorted out and in the end, everything will be fine.
And if not everything is fine, then it is not the end.  :)
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Re: New EEVBlog-Branded Multimeter Coming?
« Reply #474 on: January 18, 2018, 10:40:41 pm »
This fanboy outrage against any perceived slight from other forum members is bullshit!  Grow the F**k up!
 
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