I recently bought this meter new off ebay for all of $15. I've seen these various 5 in 1 meters over the years and it seems several companies have MS8229 meters. This one didn't look like the others but the price was cheap enough that I figured I would give it a look. The seller was in the US and delivered quickly. I think there are some still listed for this price if any one wants one (it was a buy it now price). It seemed that other listings had these closer to $50 so the generally good impression the meter makes given that price might be due to a pricing error.
This is an auto ranging meter with quite a few functions. We have the typical volts (AC/DC), resistance, current, diode, and continuity. It also has capacitance and frequency. The less usual features are the two temp measurement ranges (1C and 0.1C, either via the internal sensor or the thermocouple), relative humidity, sound level, and light intensity. The meter is 4000 count and the stated DCV accuracy was something like 0.8%+2 counts (off the top of my head). Basically it has the sort of specs you expect from a cheap meter.
OK, on the outside the meter is generally what you expect for things in the $20 (internet) price range. The plastic is cheap feeling/sounding but the meter feels reasonably solid. The buttons are the rubber membrane kind. The probes felt surprisingly nice for the price. Again, if feels like they intended it to be 2-3x the price I bought it for. In addition to the probes it came with short alligator leads for capacitance testing and a thermocouple with red and black banana plugs. The printing is smudged in some places. The battery door is held with metal inserts and screws. The tilting stand is hard to get out but works well enough when out. The lack of rubber feet makes it hard to operate one handed as the meter just slides around. The screen is easy to read. The main switch feels cheap next to a Fluke but not much worst than the Brymen based meters I've used.
I did just some basic accuracy testing with the thing before tearing it down. I'm actually rather impressed. In DC, AC and resistance ranges it was very close to my Fluke 187 readings. The screen update rate seems to be about 3 per second. The auto ranging isn't Fluke fast but pretty good. Perhaps 2 seconds to go from open circuit to shorted in the resistance range. Speaking of resistance, I think they added a fudge factor to zero out the probes. The meter reads 0.0 ohms when you short the leads. The same leads read 0.3 or so in my 187 when I short them. Still, it gave me readings that were very close to my 187 when checking some resistors I had around. The backlight only stays on for 10 seconds or so then fades out. Pity as it works really well. Overall the meter gives the impression of a cheap meter that was carefully adjusted before being sold. These readings agreed with my 187 as well as my Greenlee DM200A (based on the non-RMS Brymen 257 family).
So what's inside?
Well most of the guts are what you would expect in a cheap meter. The construction is tolerable. Not Centech cheap but cheap. The input protection is very limited and certainly doesn't hit the CAT III 600V claim. There is a place for a 10A fuse but it was bypassed on this unit (and labeled as such on the outside). However, I was suprised that the 1/2 amp fuse is an 600V rated ceramic fuse. There is also a PTC and some diodes to protect the input...
The housing does have a grove around the sides but not where the front panel slopes to become the top and bottom of the meter. I noticed that one of the screw bosses that holds the PCB was cracked.
The meter has a lot of trim resistors. The largest label I found was VR13. I have no idea what each trimmer does so adjusting things in the future might be questionable.
The sensors at the top of the meter don't look like much but I don't really know what to expect out of a humidity sensor.
Anyway, for $15 I can't feel cheated. I'll probably use the thing for some light and sound level measurements more than anything else.
(no proof readers were harmed or even notified during the creation of this post)
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
