Multimeters with (Color) Graphic Display - Summary & Comparison

[Markus2801A]

Wow, they CALLED you..  I sent e-mails to export@chauvin-arnoux.fr and posted question on their online site. Nobody got back to me.
Their support makes Rigol and Siglent support look fantastic..
And that is for MOST EXEPENSIVE handheld multimeter they make..

Congrats on your new meter. It is very nice, I find it very easy to use, works well, and has nice features (PT100/1000 and J/K thermocouple temp measurement, zener mode in diode testing, VA mode, math, external current probe support etc..)

Yes, C.A. Austria called me, its really bad that French Headquarter is not responding to you. Seems the austrian Department is more customer friendly.

Thanks, hope it will arrive soon and I can do my first basic measurements with it.
And yes I will be very carefully with it and I won't place any magnets beside this meter ;-)

[mr.fabe]

The meters I have all utilise AAA batteries, so battery life is questionable. I believe that the DM285 had a different battery option so may be better. Neither of them came with a carry case either, so that is an extra cost if you require one, or you could go for one of their kit versions.

The test leads are reasonable quality, but are moulded test probes with threaded tip adapters, so are not overly compatible with optional accessories. So again another cost if you wish to use different test connections other than a standard probe or crocodile clip.

The Flir DM285 runs on 3 AA batteries.  I use Eneloops on mine.  No need to buy the optional battery pack.

The test leads have soft flexible silicone, sharp 2mm tips.  They include the tip shields, alligator clips, thermo probe, and nylon type carrying case.

The DM285 has a thermo camera, proximity volt alert, data logging, flashlight, laser pointer, Low Z, bluetooth, and 10 year warranty. 

I wanted a low cost thermo camera and initially purchased the Flir One Pro but it was flimsy and had a crappy battery.  The DM285 had similar features plus full DMM capability.  This meter has replaced my Fluke 117 and Fluke 87V as a secondary DMM.  The Fluke 289 is my current goto.

[threephase]

The Flir DM285 runs on 3 AA batteries.  I use Eneloops on mine.  No need to buy the optional battery pack.

The test leads have soft flexible silicone, sharp 2mm tips.  They include the tip shields, alligator clips, thermo probe, and nylon type carrying case.

The DM285 has a thermo camera, proximity volt alert, data logging, flashlight, laser pointer, Low Z, bluetooth, and 10 year warranty. 

I wanted a low cost thermo camera and initially purchased the Flir One Pro but it was flimsy and had a crappy battery.  The DM285 had similar features plus full DMM capability.  This meter has replaced my Fluke 117 and Fluke 87V as a secondary DMM.  The Fluke 289 is my current goto.

Good to know that you are happy with your DM285. I also have the Flir One and yeah, pretty much have to charge it every time it is used. I also don't think that the software for the iPhone is that great, very basic. There is the iSeek out there as an alternative, that uses the phone's battery, but I haven't come across anyone who uses them.

Kind regards

[Markus2801A]

The Flir DM285 seems to be a pretty good device! Approx. 699€ including the Thermal camera, no other company offers such a device.

Display seems to be very crisp and clear and readable! :-)

I would say Fluke has to really update their 287/289 product line!

[Magnum]

But it has a basic accuracy of only 1%. So it might be a good thermal camera, but unfortunately not a high end handheld multimeter.

[Markus2801A]

But it has a basic accuracy of only 1%. So it might be a good thermal camera, but unfortunately not a high end handheld multimeter.

You're right! Very sad, they didn't adress this in such a high priced DMM!

[mr.fabe]

But it has a basic accuracy of only 1%. So it might be a good thermal camera, but unfortunately not a high end handheld multimeter.

The accuracy does indeed suck for a overly priced meter and is bulky.  The voltage spec is actually 1000VAC +/- 1% / 1000VDC +/- 0.09%. The market targeted for this meter is for electrical work, not electronics.  It's comparable to my electrician's 117 but offers mV, mA, and uA which the 117 does not offer.  The Flir DM285 is an all in one that does many things but not one thing extremely well.

[Magnum]

The accuracy does indeed suck for a overly priced meter and is bulky.  The voltage spec is actually 1000VAC +/- 1% / 1000VDC +/- 0.09%. The market targeted for this meter is for electrical work, not electronics.  It's comparable to my electrician's 117 but offers mV, mA, and uA which the 117 does not offer.  The Flir DM285 is an all in one that does many things but not one thing extremely well.

Oh yes, you are right, I missed the 0.09%.

[luma]

Here we are in 2022 and I'm still looking around for something much like the meter described in the OP.  High DPI color screens are now cheap as chips, microcontrollers to run them are even cheaper, and the UI toolsets to develop nice looking solutions have had a few years to bake.

An initial search around the forum and the internet suggests... not much has changed   Anyone have any thoughts on the state of the market today?

Here's what I think I'd enjoy in a meter in 2022:

• Bigass display with clear font rendering.  It's not 1986 anymore, we should be able to do something a bit more readable than fixed-digit LCDs.
• Let's have it be color while we're at it.  Why not have a different color scheme when I'm in VDC mode than when I'm in VAC, etc.  Screens are big and high res and color and cheap, let's put them to use!
• I don't have time in my life to wait around for my meter to boot up.  You should be able to fire up a UI and start taking readings in a second.
• Let's throw in USB charge and data in the same port while we're at it.

[Fungus]

Here's what I think I'd enjoy in a meter in 2022:

I get the feeling most people would prefer not to have to charge their meter every single day before they can use it.

You're only showing a number on the screen, not pictures of kittens.

Let's throw in USB charge while we're at it.

And ... a battery that won't even hold a charge after three years, amiright?


FWIW: Aneng now sells multimeters that cater to the imagination of the smartphone generation:

[luma]

lol, that's the reaction that I expected coming into this.  The model you link above is essentially the same thing as an 80s vintage LCD - fixed digit display made to a price point.  I'll just say this: not everyone has the same use case.  If you're happy with that, great sounds good glad you have a solution you like.  I'm looking for something different.

So, how about something closer in line with what the OP was talking about 3 years back?

edit: in regards to replacing the rechargeable battery after 3 years: yeah sounds great!  Make it replacable, then I can keep it charged and then only replace when the battery is actually worn out instead of every time it drains.

[Fungus]

lol, that's the reaction that I expected coming into this.

So why ask?

The model you link above is essentially the same thing as an 80s vintage LCD - fixed digit display made to a price point.

I know. That's why I said "caters to the imagination of..." instead of "has a hires screen".

Maybe you can get a Uni-T UT181a, it sounds perfect for you.

edit: in regards to replacing the rechargeable battery after 3 years: yeah sounds great!  Make it replacable, then I can keep it charged and then only replace when the battery is actually worn out instead of every time it drains.

It's not just the battery, it's the screens, too: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/replacing-oled-screen-on-an-agilent-u1253a-multimeter/

[Markus2801A]

Here we are in 2022 and I'm still looking around for something much like the meter described in the OP.  High DPI color screens are now cheap as chips, microcontrollers to run them are even cheaper, and the UI toolsets to develop nice looking solutions have had a few years to bake.

An initial search around the forum and the internet suggests... not much has changed   Anyone have any thoughts on the state of the market today?

Here's what I think I'd enjoy in a meter in 2022:

• Bigass display with clear font rendering.  It's not 1986 anymore, we should be able to do something a bit more readable than fixed-digit LCDs.
• Let's have it be color while we're at it.  Why not have a different color scheme when I'm in VDC mode than when I'm in VAC, etc.  Screens are big and high res and color and cheap, let's put them to use!
• I don't have time in my life to wait around for my meter to boot up.  You should be able to fire up a UI and start taking readings in a second.
• Let's throw in USB charge and data in the same port while we're at it.

I totally agree! We have 2022 and almost nothing changed since years regarding Multimeters of almost every kind (regardless if they are Benchtop or even worse when looking at handheld units!) Okay keithley has one with touch screen, that's great! :-) a right step forward!

It should be possible to produce good quality handheld units with maybe also with touch display!
I really like the "different color scheme..." thing you mentioned. Why not give e.g. amperage measurements red color, Voltage maybe Blue, AC Voltage orange or whatever the user wants to.
You can get cheap Mobile phones and customize almost everything and the cameras and screens are relative great, especially if compared to the LOW res used it todays DMM`s!!!

Why do those companies not even try to progress in those above mentioned categories?

[Kleinstein]

I totally agree! We have 2022 and almost nothing changed since years regarding Multimeters of almost every kind (regardless if they are Benchtop or even worse when looking at handheld units!) Okay keithley has one with touch screen, that's great! :-) a right step forward!

It should be possible to produce good quality handheld units with maybe also with touch display!
I really like the "different color scheme..." thing you mentioned. Why not give e.g. amperage measurements red color, Voltage maybe Blue, AC Voltage orange or whatever the user wants to.
You can get cheap Mobile phones and customize almost everything and the cameras and screens are relative great, especially if compared to the LOW res used it todays DMM`s!!!

Why do those companies not even try to progress in those above mentioned categories?

Things have changes in the last 10-20 years:
lower cost (e.g. $20 range) hand held meter start to have more than 2000 counts, like 6000 counts.
The ADC in the handheld DMMs is changing from classic dual slope ADC of the 1990s to sigma delta ADCs.
Auto scaling becomes standard.
Some Handhelp DMMs use digital RMS (though not often noted and often advertised and with limited BW, but fast reaction).
Increasingly more of the cheap meters get at least some protection worth the name, though still not good.
Bench DMMs with graphical display.

For most uses a 3.5 digit resolution is perfectly fine - the important points are often more if the protection is OK and the continuity test / auto scale Ohms speed.
A touch display is error prone and may need internal relays or more seprate switching.  The mechanical range switching can provide quite some internal .
switching.  I don't think you would like tough screeen operation and than constant plugging the test leasd to different terminals for the current ranges, Ohms and voltage functions.
The usual DMM runs on normal batteries and one would not like a daily recharge cycle like with modern mobile phones. So low power use is still an important factor.

[luma]

Maybe you can get a Uni-T UT181a, it sounds perfect for you.

After a few days of searching around, I think this is the right answer for me, thanks for the suggestion!

It's not just the battery, it's the screens, too: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/replacing-oled-screen-on-an-agilent-u1253a-multimeter/

That's actually kind of where I'm going with this.  Thanks to cell phones, high resolution displays with MTBF in the 10s of thousands of hours are available for a dollar or two.  Early experiments with things like mono OLED from 10 years ago didn't go well, but.... 10 years have passed and the economics of mobile devices has pushed display technology a LONG way in that time.  Open a supplier catalog for evidence.

Others here are pointing out problems with touchscreens, and I get that and agree for a lot of use cases but... "high-res color screen" doesn't necessarily mean it also has to be a touchscreen.  No reason not to use existing control surfaces (big dial wheel primarily) with a nicer display.

7 segment displays are low power but that's about the end of the advantages they offer.  Visibility on a reflective LCD 7 seg display is hot garbage compared to even crappy modern LCDs.  With a backlight they can be a little more readable, but then you stop being low power and might as well have used a color LCD. 

Just because we are all holding multimeters that were created with technology from a few decades ago doesn't mean that it always has to be this way, and that no improvements could possibly be made.  Uni-T seems content to wait around for Fluke et al to make a thing and to then make a clone of that thing.  Fluke's product cycle is glacial for their own (good) reasons, but not everyone out there needs the value that Fluke brings to the table (which are often unrelated to the actual performance of the device).  One can hope that product managers from other companies can identify the pretty huge gap here and maybe develop something to fill it.

Until then, the UT181a suggestion seems to be a reasonable tradeoff of visibility, performance, and price for me.  Teardowns of that unit show a date of 2013 on the PCB, and devices seem to have hit the market in 2015.  It seems like the DMM market just stone stopped trying new ideas in the 7 years since...

[2N3055]

It's not just the battery, it's the screens, too: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/replacing-oled-screen-on-an-agilent-u1253a-multimeter/

That's actually kind of where I'm going with this.  Thanks to cell phones, high resolution displays with MTBF in the 10s of thousands of hours are available for a dollar or two.  Early experiments with things like mono OLED from 10 years ago didn't go well, but.... 10 years have passed and the economics of mobile devices has pushed display technology a LONG way in that time.  Open a supplier catalog for evidence.

Others here are pointing out problems with touchscreens, and I get that and agree for a lot of use cases but... "high-res color screen" doesn't necessarily mean it also has to be a touchscreen.  No reason not to use existing control surfaces (big dial wheel primarily) with a nicer display.

7 segment displays are low power but that's about the end of the advantages they offer.  Visibility on a reflective LCD 7 seg display is hot garbage compared to even crappy modern LCDs.  With a backlight they can be a little more readable, but then you stop being low power and might as well have used a color LCD. 

Just because we are all holding multimeters that were created with technology from a few decades ago doesn't mean that it always has to be this way, and that no improvements could possibly be made.  Uni-T seems content to wait around for Fluke et al to make a thing and to then make a clone of that thing.  Fluke's product cycle is glacial for their own (good) reasons, but not everyone out there needs the value that Fluke brings to the table (which are often unrelated to the actual performance of the device).  One can hope that product managers from other companies can identify the pretty huge gap here and maybe develop something to fill it.

Until then, the UT181a suggestion seems to be a reasonable tradeoff of visibility, performance, and price for me.  Teardowns of that unit show a date of 2013 on the PCB, and devices seem to have hit the market in 2015.  It seems like the DMM market just stone stopped trying new ideas in the 7 years since...

High res screens are power hungry. They are cesspool of EMI interference. They need powerful CPU to drive them.
They need lot of current. Last thing people that use meters for work want is to charge it like a cell phone. With crappy little USB-C connector.  In a desert, forest, on a ship, platform, factory, mill, refinery... They need batteries to last for some time, and to be field replaceable, so they can carry spares...

Classic reflective LCD have BEST visibility and contrast. In a daylight. They have backlight for dark places.

Bottom line is, nothing you mentioned have any function. It's all form over function. It is a bane of this modern time where everything has to be in HD even if there is only YES or NO on a screen.

There are many other things that would be useful on a meter. To add arbitrary math, so you have a combination of graphing calculator and meter.. But then there are thousands of Fluke 87V users that would jump at that kind of meter because it is "not ergonomic because it is too complicated to use...".  Many are utterly confused with dual screen on meters... Many find Fluke 289 and Brymen 869 too complicated to use... They demand less features, not more.

Bottom line, these things you're mentioning is not progress. It is you expecting meters to be compliant with current graphic overloaded mainstream culture that values form over function.

At the same time, people that are actually using meters for work couldn't care less for that.
And meters stay the way they are. They are doing their job.

Like forks and spoons, they don't change because there is no need for it. They work perfectly as they are.

[luma]

EMI must be a solved problem because I see color LCDs parked on the front of every other category of test measurement equipment sold in the past decade or so.  Every other measurement tool on my bench is using one, meaning scopes, spectrum analyzers, VNAs, power supplies, bench DMMs, etc etc etc.

For daylight use, my cell phone is perfectly readable in full daylight, and yours probably is too.  That industry has driven display technology to this point and we’re all the beneficiaries of the panels they’ve developed.

In terms of UI, color brings an extra dimension to your eyesight and, used effectively, can convey a world a meaning that you won't get from a 7 digit display.  Again, every other instrument I have on my bench (and most handheld ones) makes use of color to indicate all manner of situations.  Wouldn't it be great if I could set a pass/fail boundary on my DMM, hook it into the DUT, and get a clear green/red indication if the reading is in range?

I know existing meters can last years on a single cell if used sparingly, but my workflow already includes the notion of a charger, my bench and my drawers have all the DC I need, and I already expect to have to occasionally recharge a device.  If the device can make it through a work day for me, then that's enough battery.  The same applies to my wall of cordless tools.  I need an angle grinder to last me as long as my job takes, then I have no problem dropping the battery back onto the charger.  This is an extremely common workflow in industry today and it won't be unfamiliar to most.

I appreciate that you have been using a certain instrument a certain way for many decades, but I don't think it necessarily follows that it simply MUST be that way forever.  Fluke seems to think it's a desirable feature, but only on their highest end models. UI/UX engineers are a thing, and they haven't been sitting still.  Some of us are more ready to embrace new technologies than others, and that's fine, as I suspect you'll have several decades yet of 7 digit displays available in the future.  Me, I'm looking for something a little more thoughtfully designed and which makes effective use of modern technology.  Better still if it was inexpensive and also performed well but... that might be a while coming yet.

[skander36]

@Luma - If you are not happy with the boot time , you will be disapointed , because all graphical display multimeters need a boot time, something comparable with Fluke 289.
UNI-T will be a good choice, but only if you are not looking for logging and analyze data on-site, because his software cannot center graph when you zoom (like Fluke 289). simply when you zoom the graph go out of screen
Also calibrating can be a problem, unless someone know the code ...
CEM's DT-9987 is just a poor clone of Fluke 289 with even worse graph function (no zoom at all) than UNI-T 181A, but it can be easily calibrated and it has bluetooth. Maybe DT-9989 will have more luck.
I didn'tried Metrix and Chauvin.
Also Gossen 273 & 274 at an enormous price - over 2500 E.
There is a clear trend that every maker to have a few models with color LCD display, but that come's with a price, not only money, but power hungry.
But hey I've tried toys like Owon HDS 27X and it boot fast, but it is not a serious multimeter (it's an portable oscilocope) and LCR's meters like UNI-T 622 which also boot fast. For sure there is a way to make fast and acurate multimeters with color LCD display.


 

[Fungus]

EMI must be a solved problem because I see color LCDs parked on the front of every other category of test measurement equipment sold in the past decade or so.  Every other measurement tool on my bench is using one, meaning scopes, spectrum analyzers, VNAs, power supplies, bench DMMs, etc etc etc.

Yeah? Move your 'scope probe closer to the screen, see what happens....

[Fungus]

UNI-T will be a good choice, but only if you are not looking for logging and analyze data on-site, because his software cannot center graph when you zoom (like Fluke 289). simply when you zoom the graph go out of screen
Also calibrating can be a problem, unless someone know the code ...

Doesn't matter. He's not looking for function, he only wants form.

[Fungus]

One can hope that product managers from other companies can identify the pretty huge gap here and maybe develop something to fill it.

Maybe the gap isn't as huge as you think.

Question: In what way would a hi-res color screen convey more information to the user of a DMM?

Cellphones these days have apps and need to adapt the user interface to anything a programmer can imagine. Not so DMMs. They display a single number (sometimes two), have no installable apps and do all their interaction with a dial and two pointy cables.

Given the long list of downsides to those screen (listed above), why would you expect a color screen to sell big enough numbers for a manufacturer to bother making one?

[HKJ]

Question: In what way would a hi-res color screen convey more information to the user of a DMM?

A graphic screen is much more flexible than a 7 segment LCD, some meters do use that flexibility (Like Fluke 289, Uni-T UT181A, Chauvin Arnoux CA 5293).
I like these meters, but in many cases the 7 segment LCD is much more practical and shows enough.

[Kleinstein]

Graphics LCD can be nice if more than just numbes are displayed, like more complicated units ( e.g. kOhms, µS, °C, µs). Individual symbols get quite small and the 15 segment alphanumericals are not so readable for special characters. I don't think there are combined character / graphics LCDs. At least I have not seen them. A more variable display may help showing less digits large or more (e.g. 2 readings or frequency with higher resolution) a little smaller.

Not sure why one would need color - colored backlight may be enough, though not very visible in bright light. Anyway in bright light the simple 7 seg. LCDs are hard to beat - maybe a meter with e-ink display ?

If really more information (e.g. trand chart) is needed a BT link to a smart phone would be an option.

[luma]

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills and forced to describe why the literal entire world has moved to color LCDs, along with every other category of test measurement equipment out there

[Fungus]

a BT link to a smart phone would be an option.

There's plenty of those:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001525757614.html