Latest 9999 counts dmm released! AN8009 for $24 now!

[MWisBest]

Display is nice overall, but the optimal viewing angle is strange. Looking at it from an underneath angle (\---) is gorgeous, but from an angle above it (/---) the contrast degrades.

That's by design, because the designer knew that the little tilting stand is quite useless.
When the meter lies flat on your bench, you will always look at the display from below...

Ha! Good point, but mine is going to get a lot of use inside cars, which has all sorts of weird angles...

You might not want to know.

Lol, yeah. Anywho, mine did finally get here, just in time for Christmas. I'm really surprised by how small it is, the pictures and stuff really don't do it justice.

Wait 'til you see the fuses. 

Yes, I am well aware of the fuses inside. For now I have some 3.6x10mm "samples" from Littelfuse on the way...

[soubitos]

I got ANENG AN-8008 and just finished replacing its fuses...
I used 1808 SMD fuse holders and SMD fuses.. total cost a bit over 1$.... less than 5 min to replace them with just a soldering iron...

[MWisBest]

I got ANENG AN-8008 and just finished replacing its fuses...
I used 1808 SMD fuse holders and SMD fuses.. total cost a bit over 1$.... less than 5 min to replace them with just a soldering iron...

Why did you choose those fuses? They're a downgrade from the 3.6x10mm fuses they come with. Just easier to find for you or something?

[soubitos]

Quote from: MWisBest on Today at 06:52:43 AM

>Quote from: soubitos on Yesterday at 07:34:48 PM

I got ANENG AN-8008 and just finished replacing its fuses...
I used 1808 SMD fuse holders and SMD fuses.. total cost a bit over 1$.... less than 5 min to replace them with just a soldering iron...

Why did you choose those fuses? They're a downgrade from the 3.6x10mm fuses they come with. Just easier to find for you or something?

Exactly that! I had the fuse holders in hand... those NANO2 i think fuses are 125V but i never ever use this meter for anything over 24V anyway.... There are similar fuses for 250V+ but they are longer and i dont know how easy it would be to solder them in place..... but, i dont see how they are a downgrade since, quality-wise i consider LF fuses MUCH better than no name fuses originally in the meter... other than the rated voltage which is not a problem (for me) i think i got a very good replacement for the original fuses, not to mention i asked about spare fuses when i bought the meter (from ANENG official store/Ali) and didnt even get a response so wth.....

[MWisBest]

Quote from: MWisBest on Today at 06:52:43 AM

>Quote from: soubitos on Yesterday at 07:34:48 PM

I got ANENG AN-8008 and just finished replacing its fuses...
I used 1808 SMD fuse holders and SMD fuses.. total cost a bit over 1$.... less than 5 min to replace them with just a soldering iron...

Why did you choose those fuses? They're a downgrade from the 3.6x10mm fuses they come with. Just easier to find for you or something?

Exactly that! I had the fuse holders in hand... those NANO2 i think fuses are 125V but i never ever use this meter for anything over 24V anyway.... There are similar fuses for 250V+ but they are longer and i dont know how easy it would be to solder them in place..... but, i dont see how they are a downgrade since, quality-wise i consider LF fuses MUCH better than no name fuses originally in the meter... other than the rated voltage which is not a problem (for me) i think i got a very good replacement for the original fuses, not to mention i asked about spare fuses when i bought the meter (from ANENG official store/Ali) and didnt even get a response so wth.....

Littelfuse makes 3.6x10mm fuses too. Just have to chop the axial leads off the ends. 874 series looks appropriate.

But yeah, in the grand scheme of things they're pretty similar. The manual does state in nice big bold letters not to exceed 36V on the current range (or "25V AC", / 0.707 = 35.36V peak-to-peak of course), so really as long as you're not using it on mains (which is a clamp meter's business) both kinds of fuses are basically the same at that range.

In fact, I like how the 476 series NANO2 fuses look. 10kA specified interrupt rating at 86V DC, would be perfect when working with stuff like car batteries.  I may just give this a try! I like the looks and profile.

[soubitos]

I am not sure which type of nano2 the ones i installed are, i think they are 448 or something.. but i have an order in transit with 451's
I couldn't find any 476 or other 250VAC rated fuses to be honest....  i just ordered what the fuse holders i had available already would fit so .... anyone donating 476's? LOL (they should fit nicely to the fuse holders of mine)....

[MWisBest]

I am not sure which type of nano2 the ones i installed are, i think they are 448 or something.. but i have an order in transit with 451's
I couldn't find any 476 or other 250VAC rated fuses to be honest....  i just ordered what the fuse holders i had available already would fit so .... anyone donating 476's? LOL (they should fit nicely to the fuse holders of mine)....

The 476 series is only 250VAC up to 5A though, and doesn't come in anything smaller than 1A. BTW, these are 2410 packages, not 1808. That confused me at first.

You have 451 series in there right now. 448 series has the LF logo after the 10A marking, 451(/453) has the LF logo before the 10A marking like your pictures show.

[soubitos]

So i think i am set!
Got a very good overcurrent protection solution, easily replaceable and relatively cheap considering the meter is being used for low power, low voltage measurements. I wonder if, under these limits one could solder reset-able fuses?

[MWisBest]

I wonder if, under these limits one could solder reset-able fuses?

Resistance varies too much, voltage isn't typically rated high enough for reasonably-possible accidents, etc. Especially  with a current range being shared with voltage ranges.

[stj]

i am waiting for some fuse clips, then i will show foto's of how to do a nice upgrade.
but put simply, i will replace the upper clips with 5mm ones,
and remove the lower clips and put 5mm ones back near the probe terminals - the distance is perfect for 20mm fuses. (that i already obtained in ceramic FF rating)

[MWisBest]

Heh, anybody else notice the dead spot between the mV range and Ohm range that puts it back into the regular V range?

[stj]

if your talking about the switch detents, no i greased mine. 

[soubitos]

No but, when i press range/* to turn the backlight on and while in the mV range, it will "reboot" and a couple times got me an ErrE on screen.... strange..... it otherwise works great and i consider ordering AN8001 or 8002 to have as second meter... oh another thing worth mentioning, the pcb is marked ZT102 i think.... makes me wonder did the chicken made the egg or the egg made the chicken?

[stj]

they are made by Zotek.
http://www.szzotek.com/en/

[MWisBest]

if your talking about the switch detents, no i greased mine. 

No, I'm saying if you hold the switch sort of in-between it does that. If you're just turning it normally it's not a problem, just an odd thing.

[stj]

not odd, it's a multi-pole switch.
there will always be a point where some contacts switch before others.
as long as it does not stop on it without help - no problem.

[MWisBest]

Hmm, does anybody know what changing the value of C9 (VLCD charge pump capacitor) would do? Board has it labeled as 2.2uF, but the datasheet (for the DTM0660L, close enough..) says to use 4.7uF. I'm curious if upping it would increase VLCD to maybe get some better contrast.

[stj]

if you look at threads for the Uni-T UT139c then they found a contrast bias byte in the eeprom you can tweek.

[floobydust]

You'd have to scope the ripple on VLCD to see if the capacitor really is 4.7uF or worse. A larger cap there makes more noise on the main power, so I'd also upsize that to keep noise low on main MCU power. I had to add ceramic MLCC's as the stock 100uF electrolytic is terrible at MHz.

There are four possible VLCD firmware settings in EEPROM.
At location 0xF9, my AN8008 has stock value 0xC7. That is VLCD=01 for 3.05V drive.
You could try 0xC3 for 3.3V drive.

[MWisBest]

You'd have to scope the ripple on VLCD to see if the capacitor really is 4.7uF or worse. A larger cap there makes more noise on the main power, so I'd also upsize that to keep noise low on main MCU power. I had to add ceramic MLCC's as the stock 100uF electrolytic is terrible at MHz.

There are four possible VLCD firmware settings in EEPROM.
At location 0xF9, my AN8008 has stock value 0xC7. That is VLCD=01 for 3.05V drive.
You could try 0xC3 for 3.3V drive.

I did add a couple MLCCs under the electrolytic, 4.7uF and 0.47uF for now. Figured it couldn't hurt. I'll have to pick up an SOIC-8 clip to do EEPROM read/writes, my soldering is garbage. I use lithium AAAs so going up on the VLCD charge pump shouldn't be a big deal.

Or... perhaps I could disable the VLCD charge pump circuit and set it up for direct drive? Set LCDPR to 0, remove R17 and C9, jump VDD to VLCD... with alkalines or NiMH that would suck, but with lithiums it's not a problem. Not sure if DTM's chips implement LCDPR in EEPROM though.

[Russ]

Cool. I was just about to pull the trigger on the 8008. I will order the 8009 for the simple reason that it has a two minute backlight time, as opposed to the 15 second time on the 8008 model.

Thanks

[Russ]

My AN8009 arrived yesterday. I pre-ordered it prior to the 1st release date on Banggood for under $20 US including shipping. It appears to be a decent cheap meter that won't take much in the way of abuse and as with any cheap meter the leads are suspect as far as voltage ratings. Good as a backup meter, IMHO.

   I just placed my order through Banggood. Are they fairly quick at shipping items?

Thanks
Russ

[soubitos]

I had item delivered in 15 days... and another in 2 months.... they do ship out in a timely manner as far as my few orders with them tell me...

[stj]

they ship out very fast sometimes too fast as a friend learned when he tried to cancel a mistaken order once.

unfortunatly your at the mercy of 3 company's:
the chinese postal service - who seem fast.
the international carriers - who vary a lot,
your own postal service.

[Statik]

I've switched from DX.com to Banggood because things seem to come in 15 days or so rather than the 7-8 weeks from DX.