EEVblog #81 – Smart Tweezers

[Kiriakos-GR]

I do not know, but I did not feel "the magic" about this product,
at the point that Dave almost blame the classic DMM's with cables ,
I just think that we have to invent just for him Tweezers  with bluetooth , so to be happy and free of cables.  

As about the " made in Canada " excitement ,  well the robot that did the board could be located on Canada.

But if I seriously consider, if this tool are actually useful , I will say no ..

Those tweezers could be practical , if the design was allowing to rotate the body with the display independently from the placement of the  tweezers .

So with the display always facing at you , you could check horizontal and vertical components.

Just few thoughts.    

  

[Pradipta]

Man! David L. Jones is everywhere. Fluke Plus, Gossen Metrawatt, Advance Devices and only He knows where else has 'Australian host, David L. Jones' got embedded. And so is the TI MSP430F microcontroller, like the industry standard for handheld T&MI. It would suit to find out what multimeter, if any, employ mainstream microcontroller in the Multimeter Shootout.
Not a piece of advice, but a humble suggestion Dave, you may find the 'Extended Specifications' sheet of the Fluke 87 V a standard for comparison for Multimeter Shootout a la the Fluke 87 V itself. As you 'Publish And Be Damned', it might serve you a slab for standard features and specifications.

[saturation]

I like it.  Its very helpful as when you build SM you use tweezers anyway, the parts are so small.  Now, you have an option to ID the parts instead of burning your eyes trying to read those unreadable markings.  Complete accuracy is not used in that mode, but the parts all look alike so as you pick them, you can confirm what they are.

I prefer not built with SM because I'm not a pro EE.  But speed is everything, from design to prototype and getting the device out there and working, so I prefer something I can see easily and use my hands with, which is typically DIP and SIP sized.  But the final device is best as small and power frugal as possible, and a good case, that is MILSPEC shock and water proof, is always a plus.

[jimmc]

If you want your own LCR meter then take a look at what this guy has done with a PC soundcard, a few common components and some clever software.
http://www.sillanumsoft.org/ZRLC.htm
The software even draws the vector diagrams as in Dave's tutorial.

Jim

[Simon]

It looks like it is great for prototyping and production with SMD

[slburris]

I think their pricing is considerably out of kilter.  The tweezers
cost > $300 and for a little more money $361, I can go buy
an Agilent LCR meter, the U1732A-SMD which comes with
a tweezer accessory:

http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=51P1540&CMP=AFC-GB100000001

Am I missing something here?

Scott

[EEVblog]

I think their pricing is considerably out of kilter.  The tweezers
cost > $300 and for a little more money $361, I can go buy
an Agilent LCR meter, the U1732A-SMD which comes with
a tweezer accessory:

http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=51P1540&CMP=AFC-GB100000001

Am I missing something here?

Yes, the form factor.
The SmartTweezers is completely hand held without probe leads to get in the way. Also, and correct me if I'm wrong, the Agilent unit does not have an automatic LCR mode.
Those things may mean the SmartTweezers is considerably more efficient to use in a production setting.
But of course YMMV.

Dave.

[slburris]

It looks like you are correct, the Agilent meter does not auto select
between L, C, and R.  I'm not sure if that would bug me or not.

I think if the price was closer to $199, I'd be more inclined to buy it,
but at it's current price, it's not clear to me at least if it's the right
tradeoff vs. the Agilent meter.

Scott

[EEVblog]

It looks like you are correct, the Agilent meter does not auto select
between L, C, and R.  I'm not sure if that would bug me or not.

I think if the price was closer to $199, I'd be more inclined to buy it,
but at it's current price, it's not clear to me at least if it's the right
tradeoff vs. the Agilent meter.

I've used basically identical LCR meters to the Agilent extensively in day to day work, and I must say it's pretty annoying sometimes as you always seem to have it set to the wrong mode when you go to probe something. I've sworn at it more than once!
The auto mode on SmartTweezers would save much frustration when measuring a bunch of random components on the assembly bench for example.

I guess it's similar to manual and autoranging multimeters.

Dave.

[Simon]

I think basically the treezers are designed for production use and will grreatly speed up small to medium runs of production

[charliex]

I've posted this before, and i have no clue if it works properly, but a few people have built them, i got as far as cutting the PCB.

the superprobe! built in the old radio shack logic probes (which mine had like 5V on the tip!)

http://members.cox.net/berniekm/super.html

[EEVblog]

BTW, I'm supposed to be getting the Agilent LCR meter for review. I already have the similar Extech one, so it will be a mini shootout.

Dave.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Here's something rather cheaper - no L measurement though

[saturation]

Great!  I hope they send you more stuff across all types of gear, chips, evaluation boards etc.,

BTW, I'm supposed to be getting the Agilent LCR meter for review. I already have the similar Extech one, so it will be a mini shootout.

Dave.

[EEVblog]

Here's something rather cheaper - no L measurement though

Ah, Tenma must be rebadging Extech then, because I already have the exact same Extech RC200 for review.

Dave.

[Simon]

Here's something rather cheaper - no L measurement though

Ah, Tenma must be rebadging Extech then, because I already have the exact same Extech RC200 for review.

Dave.

the range on them is a bit limiting you can't measure mohm resistors and there is no inductance measurement so it's a toy

[saturation]

Nice, a more affordable version of the Canadian tweezer.  Sure inductance is missing, but while I don't SMD as much, I do find identifying the parts a major PITA that keeps me from moving there, and accuracy isn't needed, just I.D. is enough.

What would matter to me is how good a tweezer [it looks big and bulky on some pics] like device it is, the response time and battery life.  I notice it seems to have a nice sharp tip, removeable tweezers to convert it into a basic DMM, and the tweezer has some sort of adjuster on it:






http://www.extech.com/instruments/product.asp?catid=44&prodid=617

Here's something rather cheaper - no L measurement though

Ah, Tenma must be rebadging Extech then, because I already have the exact same Extech RC200 for review.

Dave.

[saturation]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=448.msg6436#msg6436

Another poster already showed me this:




You can turn any DMM with shielded banana jacks into a 'tweezer' DMM with the proper leads.  You can make your own but this Chinese lead is only $3 shipped, to the USA.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280485825223&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_3577wt_911


It may work better for me right now as I'm working in low volume.

Any chance DIY? better than this one? as Dave mentioned, sometime it sucks at automatically detecting whether its L or C (and it got Toy OSC too!). I've found some DIY info in the net (i think i got it from here as well), even with greater accuracy IIRC (not to forgot the Dave's LCR Theoritical Formula Video ). And i already ordered a cheap USD4 tweezer http://cgi.ebay.com.my/Smart-SMD-SMT-CHIP-resistance-Test-Clip-Tweezer-/220494212794?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33567aaeba and will see what can i do with it. I'm thinking of larger LCD which display all the LCR (vertically) at the same time and put an arrow on the left indicating which is more likely that the device is auto detecting, so we got an opinion from the device, but if we refuse that, all the LCR values are there for us to choose. isnt that great? i think it is! haha . just my 2 cents

ps: remember the Dave's Product Design Crap video?

[saturation]

S&H on that ebay link is $2.10 so total = $3.10  You're ok!   

Another poster already showed me this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280485825223&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_3577wt_911

USD1?! u got to be kidding me! i just got ripped off USD3!