Author Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter  (Read 72591 times)

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Online wraper

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #75 on: December 05, 2017, 12:45:02 am »
FWIW, my prediction is Dave sells 1842 DMMs in the Kickstarter campaign.
He already sold 1268 in 22 hours. IMO it will be at least 5k.
 

Offline NickS

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #76 on: December 05, 2017, 01:03:42 am »
Since Dave is going to sell them through his store it is not imperative you buy on KS.
If you wait for the store you could be waiting quite awhile since all the Kickstarter orders need to be done first.

No problems for people willing to wait, but some of us have been waiting for 2 years with little hints dropped every now and then.  ;)
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #77 on: December 05, 2017, 01:52:10 am »
Since Dave is going to sell them through his store it is not imperative you buy on KS.
If you wait for the store you could be waiting quite awhile since all the Kickstarter orders need to be done first.

Yep, KS will be done first. There simply isn't any extra stock for me to do anything else.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #78 on: December 05, 2017, 01:53:22 am »
FWIW, my prediction is Dave sells 1842 DMMs in the Kickstarter campaign.
He already sold 1268 in 22 hours. IMO it will be at least 5k.

Nope, not a chance. I'll be surprised if it even gets to 2k.
I have blown my wad on marketing, unless I want to keep hammering it, but that will only pick up the stragglers.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #79 on: December 05, 2017, 01:54:19 am »
FWIW, my prediction is Dave sells 1842 DMMs in the Kickstarter campaign.

I might stop it at 1885, just because that would be a cool date ;D
 

Online wraper

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #80 on: December 05, 2017, 02:48:28 am »
FWIW, my prediction is Dave sells 1842 DMMs in the Kickstarter campaign.
He already sold 1268 in 22 hours. IMO it will be at least 5k.

Nope, not a chance. I'll be surprised if it even gets to 2k.
I have blown my wad on marketing, unless I want to keep hammering it, but that will only pick up the stragglers.
I place my bet it will get 2k. Although I have more multimetrs than I need, if it does not reach 2k in 5 days (I think it will happen much faster), I'll buy one myself.
 

Offline nidlaX

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #81 on: December 05, 2017, 03:54:03 am »
Dave, when you claim "Low Burden" voltage, which meters did you have in mind for comparison? I initially thought the low current ranges on this meter would be as good as having a built-in µCurrent, but the specs seem about the same as Fluke and Brymen's offerings.
 

Online HKJ

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #82 on: December 05, 2017, 06:32:00 am »
Dave, when you claim "Low Burden" voltage, which meters did you have in mind for comparison? I initially thought the low current ranges on this meter would be as good as having a built-in µCurrent, but the specs seem about the same as Fluke and Brymen's offerings.

You have to compare to the ranges. The worst is usual the high mA range where a 5xxxx meter can drop about 1V at 0.5A (1ohm shunt + 1ohm fuse), in the 121GW the worst is 0.1V at 50mA. The 500mA range is much lower because it uses the 10A shunt and fuse.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #83 on: December 05, 2017, 06:33:13 am »
Dave, when you claim "Low Burden" voltage, which meters did you have in mind for comparison? I initially thought the low current ranges on this meter would be as good as having a built-in µCurrent, but the specs seem about the same as Fluke and Brymen's offerings.

The uCurrent does not have any fuse protection, that's one of the reasons why it's low.
And it depends on the range.
The Brymen 869 as an example, their best meter has 3.3mV/mA, so that's 1.65V on the 500mA range, insanely high. The 121GW is only about 10mV on the 500mA range,  165 times lower!
50mA range, 121GW is 100mV vs 165mV
5mA range, 121GW is 10mV, vs 750mV!

You need to read the specs closer.
 
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Offline Paul Moir

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #84 on: December 05, 2017, 07:43:07 am »
Would go for it but $30 shipping plus import taxes, duties, and fees from DHL would all add up.
$30 is a solid deal for DHL express though, I certainly don't blame dave for going with one shipping company and hope it goes well (261k USD atm).

I will investigate re-shippers in the EU.
I think DHL is better than FEDEX and certainly UPS for brokerage fees.  It was the last time I had one, but that was a very long time ago.  Canada Post is by far the cheapest in this regard but depending on country of origin they'll take their time.  Stuff from the UK Royal Mail comes in a couple days while stuff from China Post takes 4-6 months!  Naturally you're going to be on the hook for taxes and customs.

Congratulations on beating the towel!
 

Offline Kire Pûdsje

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #85 on: December 05, 2017, 07:50:42 am »
Regarding shipping to EU, measuring equipment should be free from import duties (other than tax).
Please clearly indicate on the shipping form it is an "instrument for measuring electrical quantities."

I do not know if the specific clauses are the same in the EU. In the Netherlands (at least) it should fall under

TARIC
SECTION XVIII - Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical instruments and apparatus; clocks and watches; musical instruments; parts and accessories thereof (chapter 90 - 92)
CHAPTER 90 - OPTICAL, PHOTOGRAPHIC, CINEMATOGRAPHIC, MEASURING, CHECKING, PRECISION, MEDICAL OR SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS; PARTS AND ACCESSORIES THEREOF
9030       Oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers and other instruments and apparatus for measuring or checking electrical quantities, excluding meters of heading 9028; instruments and apparatus for measuring or detecting alpha, beta, gamma, X-ray, cosmic or other ionising radiation
 
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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #86 on: December 05, 2017, 09:35:38 am »
Regarding CE certification, Dave please read this!!!!!
Not to criticize you. I think you are doing a great job, but you might have been slightly ill-advised regarding CE compliance. Just want to prevent you from running into troubles. Don't be afraid, it is probably only paperwork that needs correcting.
BTW on the technical side it looks like a fantastic product. I also signed up for one.

In the clip I see certificates that contain directives that are not applicable in the EU for this product.
Since the meter contains a bluetooth transmitter, the product as a whole is considered to be a radio, and should fall under the RED directive (2014/53/EU).

Relax, it's fine. It's fully tested to RED Directive 2014/53/EU and will be marked as such on the CE Declaration of Conformity
 

Offline mikeselectricstuff

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #87 on: December 05, 2017, 09:45:18 am »
Quote from: EEVblog
The 121GW is only about 10mV on the 500mA range,  165 times lower!
50mA range, 121GW is 100mV vs 165mV
5mA range, 121GW is 10mV, vs 750mV!
Do those figures include the fuse?
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Day Job: Mostly LEDs
 

Offline stach

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #88 on: December 05, 2017, 04:11:01 pm »
Dave said he has some holographic EEVblog serial number stickers, separate from the manufacturer's serial number, that he'll add to the meter.

Good point. He'd have to unpack them anyway to put the stickers on.

Hopefully Dave comes to his senses when confronted with so much work. It made sense for the uCurrent which just had to be packed and didn't already have a serial number sticker.

Even at 1 minute per DMM it would take a week for 2000 signatures. Will it get to 2000 in the next 9 days? Would a sweep on who gets closest without going over be a good competition idea? Win a signed 121GW.  8)  ;D


David probably can do some overtime ;P
 

Offline Fungus

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #89 on: December 05, 2017, 05:26:10 pm »
David probably can do some overtime ;P

You joke, but I've seen it happen.

I once worked at an unnamed video game company. We were going to give away 100 footballs signed by a very famous football player (ie. "soccer").

The football player turns up, signs half a dozen balls and leaves. What to do?

Well... you can't disappoint the fans, can you? We got one of the artist guys to do all the others.

 
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Offline eamoex

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #90 on: December 05, 2017, 06:18:22 pm »
We got one of the artist guys to do all the others.

 :-DD That's a good one. Probably also tells you why you shouldn't ever buy autographed stuff…
 

Offline chriswebb

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #91 on: December 05, 2017, 07:07:48 pm »
You joke, but I've seen it happen.

I once worked at an unnamed video game company. We were going to give away 100 footballs signed by a very famous football player (ie. "soccer").

The football player turns up, signs half a dozen balls and leaves. What to do?

Well... you can't disappoint the fans, can you? We got one of the artist guys to do all the others.

Was it Maradona?
Always learning. The greatest part of life is that there will always be more to learn.
 

Offline Kire Pûdsje

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #92 on: December 05, 2017, 07:26:28 pm »
Regarding CE certification, Dave please read this!!!!!
Not to criticize you. I think you are doing a great job, but you might have been slightly ill-advised regarding CE compliance. Just want to prevent you from running into troubles. Don't be afraid, it is probably only paperwork that needs correcting.
BTW on the technical side it looks like a fantastic product. I also signed up for one.

In the clip I see certificates that contain directives that are not applicable in the EU for this product.
Since the meter contains a bluetooth transmitter, the product as a whole is considered to be a radio, and should fall under the RED directive (2014/53/EU).

Relax, it's fine. It's fully tested to RED Directive 2014/53/EU and will be marked as such on the CE Declaration of Conformity

Sorry for having been too panicky. I just got afraid with you waiving around 'illegal' certificates and with the current (kickstarter) manual being a big mix-up between old and new regulations.
I can imagine, a lot of this stuff has been prepared before June 13 (The day the radio regulations have changed).

With a recent market survey of led flood lights, only 2 out of 90 were compliant to CE regulations, with 87% having serious problems (not just paperwork). This in combination with the new RED regulations being in force for half a year now causes customs to be much more stringent regarding the CE regulation. Especially Germany and Finland block a lot of stuff at customs.

I am happy now that you now have a proper DoC. Less chance of having issues with customs.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2017, 09:36:46 pm by Kire Pûdsje »
 

Offline electronic_eel

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #93 on: December 05, 2017, 09:28:44 pm »
Some questions about the features after reading the user manual (2017-11-25 edition):

Page 26, RANGE button: the manual suggests that it is just for selecting the range of the diode test. Is this true? Doesn't it also allow to switch between manual and auto ranging in all the regular measurement functions and to manually select a specific range for e.g. dc voltage etc.? I mean even the Aneng AN8008 cheapo has selectable manual and auto ranging...

Page 46, CSV format: the manual suggests that the CSV data stored on sd card doesn't contain date and time of each data point. This would severly impact usability of this feature, as you'd have to manually note the exact time you started logging to be able to correlate the data to external events later. Especially since the meter contains a coin cell and a RTC to keep date and time this is a feature I'd expect the meter to have.

Another feature I hope the meter would have: remember the secondary function selected last time on a specific rotary switch position. So when I selected continuity test last time, I'd like the meter to automatically go to continuity (instead of ohms) when I move the rotary switch to ohms/continuity/diode. I think this should be possible since the coin cell and rtc is surely able to store a few bytes in battery backed ram without needing to wear out the flash over time.
 

Offline imidis

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #94 on: December 06, 2017, 04:33:31 am »
Thanks for posting the live video replay on youtube, I could not get it to play on Kickstarter  :-+
Gone for good
 

Offline exuvo

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #95 on: December 06, 2017, 08:46:44 am »
@electronic_eel No need to manually note the time as the file creation date already contains that. And storing both date and time for each measurement would be a waste of storage when you can just calculate it from the start time and number of measurements.
 

Online HKJ

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #96 on: December 06, 2017, 08:57:39 am »
@electronic_eel No need to manually note the time as the file creation date already contains that. And storing both date and time for each measurement would be a waste of storage when you can just calculate it from the start time and number of measurements.

That would require that the file date time always survives, in my experience it do not. It would also require that the logging interval is precise and known (It is configurable).
When the meter has a real time clock it is silly not to include that in the log file, it could be date as part of the filename and only time for each entry.
 

Offline meeder

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #97 on: December 06, 2017, 08:59:57 am »


Unlike in the U.S. credit cards are not a thing here in Germany. I pay cash or with my banking card (debit card) in the real world and for online purchases it is either debit card, bank transfer as advance payment or Paypal // Amazon payments.

[off topic]
I don't get the negative sentiment to credit cards and debit cards in Germany. It seems  to me that it is the only Western European country that is still fixated on cash. Whenever I stay in Germany I am still puzzled by the fact that there are restaurants and shops that don't offer payment by credit card or even debit cards.
I never have more than €40 in my wallet at home in the Netherlands but in Germany you need at least twice or triple that amount in cash with you.
A lot of parking meters do not allow card payments for example.
[/off topic]

 

Offline electronic_eel

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #98 on: December 06, 2017, 09:02:01 am »
@electronic_eel No need to manually note the time as the file creation date already contains that.
Are you sure the file system code used cares for last modification date vs. creation date? Some filesystems also have reduced accuracy on file dates.

Also a slow clock drift between the configured sample rate and the real clock may introduce additional timing errors.

And storing both date and time for each measurement would be a waste of storage when you can just calculate it from the start time and number of measurements.
I'd rather use a bigger micro sd than missing correct and fine grained timing information. Micro SDs are available in 256 GB now. That should last a lot longer than even the best batteries.

 

Offline meeder

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Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 121GW Multimeter on Kickstarter
« Reply #99 on: December 06, 2017, 09:02:27 am »
@electronic_eel No need to manually note the time as the file creation date already contains that. And storing both date and time for each measurement would be a waste of storage when you can just calculate it from the start time and number of measurements.
Storage space is hardly an issue when it uses an SD card. Even on a 2GB SD card you can store a rediculous amount of data when it is a plain csv file.

Since it has a RTC and the firmware can be upgraded by the user wouldn't it be a case of a firmware update to add timestamps to the measurements?
« Last Edit: December 06, 2017, 09:05:13 am by meeder »
 


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