UNI-T UT61E Multimeter teardown photos.

[Monkeh]

Well, yes, agreed - but it also serves Maplin right for selling probes that don't 'just work' out of the box. I think it's good for companies to have products returned from time to time when there's a quality control issue, rather than expecting their customers to do their QC for them.

The Fluke leads I bought to replace them 'just work'.

Maplin will just throw them in the bin and forget about it.

[Ivanko1]

So, may use stock probes, or search for something better?

[mariush]

The ones that come with the multimeter are quite good. Not the cheapo probes that comes with 5-10$ multimeters.  IMHO no need to search for probes before trying the ones that come with this meter.

[Salas]

What was that!?

Result: one confused meter, until it's stuck in manual mode which disables the autoranging mechanism. Given a constant applied voltage (or current) for a while, the inductive ringing dies down and the meter is able to report the dc resistance correctly.

Maybe we could add a Zobel (RC shunt) inside the meter across it 4mm sockets if its inductance that really confuses it? Just a wild guess.

[T4P]

I'll go check my UT61E with my collection of inductors and transformers and i'll tell ya

[Ivanko1]

It's just the fact that I will order on the internet, will go a long, why did not immediately order the probes?

[mariush]

When you buy anything else, do you buy spare parts for it also because you think what it comes with might be broken?

He's just ONE guy in lots of people that have bought that multimeter and didn't replicate his issue.  My own model has no problems with the probes, they work fine, very fast and accurate continuity tests when touching the probes and all that.

You can probably source probes locally if they're really going to be bad, and even ordering online won't bankrupt you, they're not heavy so shipping would be almost free. It's not something impossible to get after purchase and it won't kill you if you just have to press Manual Range in the special case where you actually might have to test the resistance of a transformer/inductor coil and get this issue. How often do you actually do that?

[Ivanko1]

they're not heavy so shipping would be almost free. ... How often do you actually do that?

It's just because shipping is very long time and takes about 3-4 weeks.
Ok, convinced.

[T4P]

Nope no issue on mine, tested on common mode inductors and transformers

[BThunderW]

My multi meter software is officially in release. Supports UT61E series and should support other UT60/UT70 models.

v1.0.1 here: http://www.ultradmm.com/Download.aspx

Looking for some feedback, suggestions. I'm looking to expand the supported meter list so if you have a meter you'd like to see supported. Please msg me.

Tom

[korborh]

Thanks Tom for your efforts!
I am still waiting on my meter from China, and am eager to try out your software. 

[Monkeh]

Looking for some feedback, suggestions.

Multiplatform support.

[BThunderW]

It's .Net so technically could be ported to Mono which is multiplatform.

What platform are you interested in?

Looking for some feedback, suggestions.

Multiplatform support.

[T4P]

Pretty sure he wants linux

[BThunderW]

Challenge accepted

Pretty sure he wants linux

[Monkeh]

Linux is my primary platform, yes.

[BThunderW]

What distro if you don't mind me asking?

Linux is my primary platform, yes.

[Monkeh]

What distro if you don't mind me asking?

Linux is my primary platform, yes.

Gentoo primarily, but accessing a tty device is the same on every distro.

[BThunderW]

I'm more concerned with the UI. I'm using some 3rd party libraries to render the gauges and graphs that might be a challenge to get working under mono.

What distro if you don't mind me asking?

Linux is my primary platform, yes.

Gentoo primarily, but accessing a tty device is the same on every distro.

[Monkeh]

I'm more concerned with the UI. I'm using some 3rd party libraries to render the gauges and graphs that might be a challenge to get working under mono.

UI is distro-independent.

I have precisely no give-a-crap if it's GTK2, GTK3, Qt4, or any of the other libs so long as it doesn't look like it belongs on a mid-90s Mac.

[Monkeh]

I'm looking to expand the supported meter list so if you have a meter you'd like to see supported. Please msg me.

Fortune based meters. Protocol is described in their datasheets, page 31: http://www.ic-fortune.com/upload/Download/FS9922-DMM4-DS-11_EN.pdf

Common examples are the rest of the UT61 range, among many many others.

[BThunderW]

Very easy protocol. Should be a cinch to implement. Though no real means to test it. Do you know what specific meters use this chip?

Tom

I'm looking to expand the supported meter list so if you have a meter you'd like to see supported. Please msg me.

Fortune based meters. Protocol is described in their datasheets, page 31: http://www.ic-fortune.com/upload/Download/FS9922-DMM4-DS-11_EN.pdf

Common examples are the rest of the UT61 range, among many many others.

[Monkeh]

Very easy protocol. Should be a cinch to implement. Though no real means to test it. Do you know what specific meters use this chip?

Tom

I'm looking to expand the supported meter list so if you have a meter you'd like to see supported. Please msg me.

Fortune based meters. Protocol is described in their datasheets, page 31: http://www.ic-fortune.com/upload/Download/FS9922-DMM4-DS-11_EN.pdf

Common examples are the rest of the UT61 range, among many many others.

UT61A through D is an easy example.

The entire UT60 range, as far as I'm aware, uses the FS9721 chip, same protocol.

I have a suitable meter here.

[T4P]

I would love to see VC8145 included but apparently there's like no info on google that i can find 

http://sigrok.org/wiki/Victor_70C
http://sigrok.org/wiki/UNI-T_UT61D

And Victor 68E uses the same chipset as the UT61E

[Monkeh]

I would love to see VC8145 included but apparently there's like no info on google that i can find 

Open one up, tell us what the chip is.