Author Topic: UNI-T UT890D cheap accurate multimeter for very tight budgets (Read 18313 times)

SteveLy · « **on:** November 16, 2015, 02:08:36 pm »

I recently got one of UNI-T's latest budget offerings, the UT890D from this online seller.

It's a ~$US23, ~$AU32 multimeter. It does not autorange (except on capacitance and frequency), which will put many people off, but otherwise it has outstanding specs, range and resolution for its price: 6000 counts, 0.01 uA DC current resolution, 1pF capacitance, up to 10MHz frequency (tested it to 20MHz with several V-pp).

It does not do temperature and I would not be crazy enough to trust it for high voltage/power stuff, but for a cheapie, a dirt cheap cheapie, it's very impressive. Has true RMS and latched fast continuity tester. Probes are kind of crap, as is the wobbly stand, but for a $23 DMM it performs amazingly well.

Accuracy seems excellent from the limited testing I've done. I'll put it up against Agilent bench meters and handheld Flukes at work and report back (unless I get flamed for even mentioning it). I haven't looked inside it yet either. Seriously, for the money I think this instrument is unbelievable. I grew up with a Dick Smith analog meter and later a Jaycar/Digitech DMM that were 10 to 100 times less capable and cost a lot more.

wblock · « **Reply #1 on:** November 16, 2015, 06:24:24 pm »

At that price, it could be considered a project box with LCD and test leads. I wonder if the microcontroller is reprogrammable. Hello, decent-looking ESR meter...

Agreed that it seems to be pretty nice considering the price. Looking forward to seeing the interior!

PedroDaGr8 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 16, 2015, 06:30:56 pm »

Quote from: SteveLy on November 16, 2015, 02:08:36 pm

I recently got one of UNI-T's latest budget offerings, the UT890D from this online seller.

It's a ~$US23, ~$AU32 multimeter. It does not autorange (except on capacitance and frequency), which will put many people off, but otherwise it has outstanding specs, range and resolution for its price: 6000 counts, 0.01 uA DC current resolution, 1pF capacitance, up to 10MHz frequency (tested it to 20MHz with several V-pp).

It does not do temperature and I would not be crazy enough to trust it for high voltage/power stuff, but for a cheapie, a dirt cheap cheapie, it's very impressive. Has true RMS and latched fast continuity tester. Probes are kind of crap, as is the wobbly stand, but for a $23 DMM it performs amazingly well.

Accuracy seems excellent from the limited testing I've done. I'll put it up against Agilent bench meters and handheld Flukes at work and report back (unless I get flamed for even mentioning it). I haven't looked inside it yet either. Seriously, for the money I think this instrument is unbelievable. I grew up with a Dick Smith analog meter and later a Jaycar/Digitech DMM that were 10 to 100 times less capable and cost a lot more.

A teardown to see the insides would be nice. I am not expecting much but you never know.

6581 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 16, 2015, 07:08:48 pm »

Thanks for sharing! Nice to see cheaper meters now and then. Looking forward for teardown.

Wytnucls · « **Reply #4 on:** November 16, 2015, 07:35:01 pm »

Cheap and nasty. Has the CE mark, but doesn't conform to the latest EN61010 regulations. Lowlife bean counters in control again at Uni-T! Stay away from high energy stuff with this one.

PedroDaGr8 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 16, 2015, 07:42:01 pm »

Quote from: Wytnucls on November 16, 2015, 07:35:01 pm

Cheap and nasty. Has the CE mark, but doesn't conform to the latest EN61010 regulations. Lowlife bean counters in control again at Uni-T! Stay away from high energy stuff with this one.

Wow that is spartan, at least they put a threaded insert in the screw post.

Also, is that a serial port I see on the right side? Might make for an interesting data logging meter via bluetooth. Hell there is enough spare room in there.

Lightages · « **Reply #6 on:** November 16, 2015, 09:35:33 pm »

I still wonder why Uni-Trend makes so many different models. It is confusing to buyers. There is so much overlap between model lines and models within those lines.

crispy_tofu · « **Reply #7 on:** November 16, 2015, 11:02:00 pm »

Wow, amazing what you can get with your money... by the way, is that a backlight?

ralphd · « **Reply #8 on:** November 17, 2015, 03:35:38 am »

I think the canadian tire meter that has been discussed in this forum is a better deal. Auto-ranging, 6000 count, and often goes on sale for C$30 (23USD).

Fungus · « **Reply #9 on:** November 17, 2015, 08:53:55 am »

Why does it say "Auto Range" on a meter which clearly isn't? That doesn't inspire much confidence.

And transistor tester?

crispy_tofu · « **Reply #10 on:** November 17, 2015, 09:15:05 am »

Autoranging only on capacitance and frequency.

Delta · « **Reply #11 on:** November 17, 2015, 09:16:27 am »

The OP said it does autorange on capacitance, and that's what it's set to in the pic. Probably still a stock photoshopped image though...

PS. What's facepalmable about a transistor test?

crispy_tofu · « **Reply #12 on:** November 17, 2015, 09:19:16 am »

Quote from: Delta on November 17, 2015, 09:16:27 am

PS. What's facepalmable about a transistor test?

I think Dave's said in a few of his videos that the transistor test is usually shorted straight to the input jacks, so it's very unsafe at high voltages.
(not that you would use a cheap meter for high voltages

)

Fungus · « **Reply #13 on:** November 17, 2015, 09:58:33 am »

Quote from: Delta on November 17, 2015, 09:16:27 am

PS. What's facepalmable about a transistor test?

Just... why bother? Nobody is ever going to test a transistor with one of these meters.

A transistor tester on a cheap meter is like a huge flag letting you know nobody cared about the design. Spend the $0.10 somewhere else FFS.

Delta · « **Reply #14 on:** November 17, 2015, 10:37:51 am »

Quote from: Fungus on November 17, 2015, 09:58:33 am

Just... why bother? Nobody is ever going to test a transistor with one of these meters.

Really? I'm always testing transistors with my Ten-Quid-Chinese-Special....

SteveLy · « **Reply #15 on:** November 18, 2015, 09:42:59 am »

Yes, it has backlight (but with annoying non-adjustable 5 second time-out).

Yes, the autorange on the display is legit, but only on capacitance and frequency, as crispy_tofu points out.

Transistor tester as Dave Jones explained a number of times in his videos is there to make a cheap meter appear more capable than it really is to the layperson. It's about as useful as cruise control on a 10mph-top-speed electric bike... But it must help sales of cheap meters otherwise it would not be so ubiquitous.

I'll rip it open and post some photos of its guts this weekend.

SteveLy · « **Reply #16 on:** November 29, 2015, 07:34:41 am »

I pulled it to bits, took lots of photos with my lovely little f30 camera. But that otherwise lovely little camera has a proprietary computer connection cable that I've misplaced and uses them cursed XD cards I have no reader for. Arrghh! When the cable turns up I'll post the photos. IMHO, the meter is a good bit of kit for the money: a big improvement on previous UNI-T's (or any other brand) in the <$US30 price bracket.

pascal_sweden · « **Reply #17 on:** November 29, 2015, 02:55:05 pm »

I think that there are much better alternatives in the 25 EUR range of DMMs.

You should go for the Vichy VC97 instead: (auto ranging on all measurements)
http://www.ebay.de/itm/New-VC97-3999-Auto-range-multimeter-compared-FLUKE-15B-/270721453197?

The pouch it comes with is very nice!

And you can add a serial port to it for data logging:
http://shaddack.twibright.com/projects/reveng_multimeters/

YU2 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 07, 2015, 12:33:42 pm »

PCB seems quite decent on the inside, I see no trimmers, its software calibriert:

crispy_tofu · « **Reply #19 on:** December 07, 2015, 08:24:32 pm »

Thanks for sharing! Looks like the input protection is quite scarce, especially for a CAT III 600V meter...

Barkuti · « **Reply #20 on:** July 26, 2017, 09:53:09 am »

Hi fellows!

Looking to replace my Mastech M92A with something more up to date, no need to deal with high voltages, just some poking into 230VAC mains maybe here and there.
I have this multimeter on my wishlist, but the Aneng AN8002 has also been suggested to me (related: Uni-T UT890D, thoughts? @ BLF).
Don't really care much (if at all) for the auto range feature.
Any worthwile insight?

Cheers

MosherIV · « **Reply #21 on:** July 26, 2017, 04:10:27 pm »

Quote

Looking to replace my Mastech M92A with something more up to date, no need to deal with high voltages, just some poking into 230VAC mains maybe here and there.

Hi, welcome to the eev forum.

If you are going to 'poke' mains then you need a dmm that is CATIII rated, that means it has been independantly tested for safety on mains voltages. It will protect you from a power surge on the mians.

The only cheap dmm that is independanly verified is the Amprobe AM500 or AM510.
The Unitrend UT139 is regarded as safe as well but I do not know if it has been independantly tested.

Others may tell you that CATIII is not necessary but what they do not understand is that safety is about mitigating risk. The CATIII is about protecting the user on the very very rare occaision there is a high power surge on the mains, sure it may never happen to you BUT it does happen and when it does you would want the protection.

Barkuti · « **Reply #22 on:** July 26, 2017, 07:13:49 pm »

MosherIV, of course I can understand the safety concerns. If I decide to poke at mains, I'll take the risk.
It's good to know the kind of lies these inexpensive multimeter brand marketing fellows are willing to promote, which is in part because there is a serious lack of advertising regulations. Sort of what happens with cheap gazillion lumens eBay flashlights and inexpensive, cheapassly built lightweight li-ion cells with many times the actual rating of the top manufacturers.
Among the cheapies, any idea of which ones are the better for precise current shunt voltage drop measurement?

Cheers

Wytnucls · « **Reply #23 on:** July 26, 2017, 07:32:41 pm »

If safety is not a concern, the 40,000 count HoldPeak HP-770D might be a good candidate: 1uV resolution (0.1%+5)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Holdpeak-HP-770D-Digital-Multimeter-Auto-Range-40000-Voltmeter-with-Lead-Test-/272704281008?hash=item3f7e7119b0:g:13oAAOSwq~tZNj9J

MosherIV · « **Reply #24 on:** July 26, 2017, 07:38:38 pm »

Quote

Among the cheapies, any idea of which ones are the better for precise current shunt voltage drop measurement?

The UT61E is a 20,000 count dmm, DCV resolution is 10uV in mV range with accuracy of 0.1%+5 counts.
There are many threads on thus forum about it.

If you want better than that on a budget, you need to start looking at 4, 5 or 6 digit bench dmms on ebay.
They do come up but you have to be patient.
Fluke 8050A - old modal 4.5 digit can be had for around £50
TTI1905A - 5.5 digit meter can be had for around £50
Schlumberger 7150 or the plus variant - 6.5 digit got mine for £70 (though technically it is 5.5digit uses averaging to get 6.5digit)

Edit: just read in the test equipment score thread that someone got a Fluke 8050A for €10


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Author Topic: UNI-T UT890D cheap accurate multimeter for very tight budgets (Read 18313 times)

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