Multimeter recommendations

[iloveelectronics]

I'm also going to be offering the Brymen BM-257 for sale very soon. http://www.brymen.com.tw/product-html/cata250/Bm250s.htm

It fits and exceeds your requirements except capacitance, only up to 3000uF, and that it will be priced higher than $100 shipped.

[Jigsawc5]

Let me offer a slight correction as to the size of the Amprobe AM-270.  The data sheets that show 317mm length or whatever has been discussed here.  That measurement is for the clear clamshell packaging that the meter comes in. 

The actual physical size of the Amprobe AM-270 per the manual:

Without Holster = 186mm/7.3in (L) x 87mm/3.4in (W) x 35.5mm/1.4in (H)
With Holster = 198mm/7.8in (L) x 97mm/3.8in (W) x 55mm/2.2in (H)

[T4P]

Still larger than a UT61E or roughly same size as a MS8240D, i scared the shit out of myself 

[eeshock]

I have just finished watching Martin's excellent video review of BRYMEN BM867. Very impressive. It can even challenge Fluke 287 in some areas. So I checked the its little brother, BRYMEN BM857A. The 857A is very similar to 867 in most areas, only missing the dual display.

Here are the headline features that's very attractive:

50,000 counts (500,000 counts in DCV high resolution mode)
42 Segments/60Hz
5x/s sampling rate
0.03% accuracy
Up to 9999uF

Cost 107 EUR

So for 30% higher price, it is at least 2 steps above the $100 crop.

The only con I can find is the backlight. Is it very terrible?

So now since Amprobe AM-270's size has been corrected, I'm torn between them. They are roughly the same size, good in almost every way, and share the same bad backlight! BRYMEN BM857A is at least 50% more expensive, but has much better resolution and accuracy.

Or should I bite the bullet and go for the 867. That should have absolutely zero cons?

[iloveelectronics]

Cost 107 EUR

So for 30% higher price, it is at least 2 steps above the $100 crop.

The only con I can find is the backlight. Is it very terrible?

So now since Amprobe AM-270's size has been corrected, I'm torn between them. They are roughly the same size, good in almost every way, and share the same bad backlight! BRYMEN BM857A is at least 50% more expensive, but has much better resolution and accuracy.

Or should I bite the bullet and go for the 867. That should have absolutely zero cons?

If you can really get a BM-857a near the 107 Euro price after tax and shipping, I'd say go for it. Brymen makes really nice multimeters.

[Wytnucls]

60Hz is getting close to most LCD screens max refresh rate. Make sure the one in the Brymen can actually handle that, without artifacts.

[Lightages]

EESHOCK:

So now you are upping your budget? If so then yes the Brymens are worth the money. The Amprobe AM140/60 are also but you are doubling your price and more. If you want to stay below your initial $100 budget then the Amprobe AM-270 is still the best meter for the money.

[eeshock]

EESHOCK:

So now you are upping your budget? If so then yes the Brymens are worth the money. The Amprobe AM140/60 are also but you are doubling your price and more. If you want to stay below your initial $100 budget then the Amprobe AM-270 is still the best meter for the money.

Yes I agree. Including shipping, the Amprobe is about A$100, the Brymens is approaching A$160. But its spec is really tempting. It is better than the $400 Fluke 87-V... I need to cool down a bit and decide later.

[eeshock]

60Hz is getting close to most LCD screens max refresh rate. Make sure the one in the Brymen can actually handle that, without artifacts.

I've see the video of the 867 and the refreshing is nearly instant. I believe the 7 segment LCD has a better response time and less lag than the Fluke 287's VGA type screen. 60hz is as good as you can get, so I'm not asking more...

The one thing I miss the most after converting to DVM is the needle movement. The analog bar will hopefully compensate the loss somewhat.

[T4P]

Yeah the matrix display on the fluke 287/89 is rubbish, anything more than 5Hz and you get ghosting

[Smokey]

I picked up a Brymen 857 (not A) a while back.  So far I'm really happy with it.  I'm not sure what they upgraded on the A version, but the only real issue I have is that the thing runs off a 9V battery and there is no battery door.  You have to take the whole back off the meter to change the battery.  Not a deal breaker by any means, but not really ideal either.  The backlight does kind of suck in that it's not that bright and it's uneven, but it also does work and that feature isn't really important to me anyway.  The fuses in my non-A version are not the bigger diameter HRC ones, but 3AG size ceramics.  I'm good with that though.  I have a fluke112 for high energy stuff.  I got this one for accuracy, not high energy.  I know their other models do use the larger HRC fuses.  That might have been one of the things they changed in the A version.
Like I said, I don't know what they changed in the 857A version, but the non-A version I have is great for what I want to use it for. 

These Brymens are not quite fluke quality, but as far as I'm concerned it's only one step down and a great value for money.  Brymen are like the Rigol of the multimeter world.  Speaking of, where are the Rigol hand held multimeters?  They seem to have everything else.

[T4P]

Rigol isn't a step down from the big names 

3AG fuses actually if you look it up can handle 30kA if it's a SIBA

[eeshock]

Does anyone know how long is the warranty on Amprobe and Brymen? I can imagine the warranty on the Brymen will be shorter, and possibly more difficult to claim if things broken. But Amprobe is probably same story if shipped outside US.

[eeshock]

Crazy idea. Has anyone tried to add diffuser to the Amprobe or Brymen to improve their backlight quality?

[eeshock]

I have finally bought the Amprobe AM-270 from Amazon for $76. Generally happy with the product and it fit almost all my requirements. Accuracy is good enough, and bar graph refresh is also fast enough.

I will not repeat the major pros and crons as you easily find them on the web. Here is some of my minor points:

The 50 ohm range can perform an auto delta to elimilate the test lead resistances. Certainly not as good as 4 wire but still a nice touch.

The LCD back light is still my biggest disappointment. It is actually worse than I thought. 4 dots of dim LEDs barely illuminate the whole area. A cheap ebay LCD can give you nice, uniform backlighting, why this one can't? They seem to still living in the 1970's.

The other issue is the test lead. They seem to be over zealous on the safety side. Almost the entire lead is covered by insulation, only leaves 1.5mm bare metal near the tip to work with. This is again not acceptable for me. As I like to use one hand to hold both leads, chopstick style, to measure resistors and capacitors. Such a small contact area makes it very difficult to maintain a steady contact (and I'm born to use chopsticks) . My workaround is to use a utility knife to cut all the insulations so now I have about 1cm metal area to make the measurement much easier.

[ftransform]

How accurate is the thermocouple on that thing?

[eeshock]

Temperature is not on my list, however if I got time may test it out.

But is boiling water exactly 100 degree? It also depends on altitude and maybe some other factors so how can you make accurate measurement?

[TMM]

Uni-T UT71D looks pretty impressive in terms of accuracy, shame about the slow update rate on >=4000 count modes and pathetic continuity tester. Can be had for about $140.