Appears to have less contamination but we have no idea how many cycles were on the two meters posted so far. Can you tell with your eyes if any of that is metallic?
I wonder how the people with the intermittent switches would compare with the ones the work as expected. It would seem that the intermittent meters make have less contact force and would be less prone to wear but we really don't know.
Appears to have less contamination but we have no idea how many cycles were on the two meters posted so far. Can you tell with your eyes if any of that is metallic?
Practical world sounds like a marketing term. I really have no idea idea about the 87Vs reputation, if it has one or how it came to be.
I also would like to get more updates on the meter. Any rumors, estimations, etc. So, we could see it's not abandoned. If possible. Or, better, a UEI representative here in the thread. Like other manufacturers do on this forum (e.g., MicSig, R&S, Siglent (tautech), Rigol, etc).
I also would like to get more updates on the meter. Any rumors, estimations, etc. So, we could see it's not abandoned. If possible. Or, better, a UEI representative here in the thread. Like other manufacturers do on this forum (e.g., MicSig, R&S, Siglent (tautech), Rigol, etc).
Dave, I think it is time that you found your voice and provide an update of the current situation!
What progress, (if any) has been made by you and UEi in rectifying the faults?
I am becoming concerned by the lack of communication and wondering if the root cause of the "bugs" is hardware related and only you can provide details on the meter to make clear the situation.
Considerable time has passed without you providing meaningful info on the rectification of the meter's abundant faults.
The meter comes with a warranty and is covered under ACCC laws, but I'm hoping you will be proposing a meter replacement/fix program for the shipped meters and a thorough revision for the meters awaiting manufacture/shipping.
With great respect, what is the current state of play Dave?
I also would like to get more updates on the meter. Any rumors, estimations, etc. So, we could see it's not abandoned. If possible. Or, better, a UEI representative here in the thread. Like other manufacturers do on this forum (e.g., MicSig, R&S, Siglent (tautech), Rigol, etc).
Dave, I think it is time that you found your voice and provide an update of the current situation!
What progress, (if any) has been made by you and UEi in rectifying the faults?
I cant see us hearing from Dave anytime soon as he is keeping a very low profile and with good reason. He cant comment until he has a defined course of action to rectify the bugs and switch issue. Its up to UEi at this stage to pull their finger out and and turn this first "production" run meter into what it should be.
Dave needs to be extremely diplomatic with both his backers/buyers and with UEi. Nothing to be gained by pounding a fist on a table! As much as I dislike the situation with this meter, I am following Dave's lead with patience and high expectations for speedy fix.
Dave, I think it is time that you found your voice and provide an update of the current situation!
What progress, (if any) has been made by you and UEi in rectifying the faults?
I am becoming concerned by the lack of communication and wondering if the root cause of the "bugs" is hardware related and only you can provide details on the meter to make clear the situation.
Considerable time has passed without you providing meaningful info on the rectification of the meter's abundant faults.
The meter comes with a warranty and is covered under ACCC laws, but I'm hoping you will be proposing a meter replacement/fix program for the shipped meters and a thorough revision for the meters awaiting manufacture/shipping.
With great respect, what is the current state of play Dave?
I also would like to get more updates on the meter. Any rumors, estimations, etc. So, we could see it's not abandoned. If possible. Or, better, a UEI representative here in the thread. Like other manufacturers do on this forum (e.g., MicSig, R&S, Siglent (tautech), Rigol, etc).
Dave, I think it is time that you found your voice and provide an update of the current situation!
What progress, (if any) has been made by you and UEi in rectifying the faults?
The issues are being investigated, stuff just takes time, especially when you have more than one issue. There is no point in me speculating daily.
There is essentially very little I can do personally to speed this up or really even help them out from a technical perspective.
They are still waiting on the range switch parts, due in a few days I believe, and then there is testing etc.
On top of that of course are several software issues, some like slow autoranging for example has been solved (to match that of the U1282A), others are still being worked on (presumably one by one).
Please be patient, when I know for certain, you'll know.
This certainly won't be my first or only meter. Whether I get it today, next month or even a few months from now really makes no difference. Sure, I'm looking forward to receiving it because, among other things, it is already paid for. But I would rather have the upgraded switch and firmware rather than try to figure out what to do next. It takes what it takes and getting these issues resolved before it ships to me makes all the sense in the world (to me).
I'm hoping to use this meter for measuring ucurrent on my ESP32 projects. Has anyone used the meter for ucurrent measurement by placing a zero ohm shunt in place of the fuses? If you have tried it what burden voltage was present and how does it compare to the uCurrentGold?
About a week ago I reported the mechanical issue I had on my 121 with the switch and input terminals here ;
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/eevblog-121gw-multimeter-issues/msg1403241/#msg1403241
....
The best size for my meter was 6.1mm OD. To help alignment further I made the ID be a good sliding fit to the hex shaft of the knob at 5.6mm.
The resulting sleeve I machined up can be seen in the photo below in its final position (I left it longer so its easily removed.). The material used was PEEK which is
reasonably stiff and has good insulation properties, (I also had it anyway ). Did not want to use PTFE which would have been too soft at the cross section used.
....
So the end result of this exercise was a considerably less 'wobbly' feel to the knob and more importantly all the issues I had reported have now gone
completely and any movement of the input plugs have no effect on the switch nor does wiggling the knob itself set off any failures of the mode its in.
By adding the sleeve, I wonder if the PCB will wear away at shaft where it rotates in the hole. Time will tell.
I forgot to mention that a couple of days ago I dumped the batteries out of a set top box remote control I need to return and was surprised to see that they were made by UEI. I wonder if the 121GW comes with a UEI battery?
So after returning from holiday I thought I would have a look inside at what may be happening with my meter.
What I can see happening with mine to cause my issue was the small flexing of the PCB by the input plugs movement
was causing referred movement at the switch area and since my switch was rather 'sloppy' in its location hole this had caused
either contact or contact location issues on their relevant PCB tracks and thus the mode failures.
Further investigation of the switch rotor showed quite a lot of lateral movement in the PCB locating hole.
So next step was what to do to reduce this lateral 'slop'!.
After removing the PCB from the switch knob I could test fit various rod diameters, (rear ends of twist drills in 0.1mm inc.), to lightly expand
the switch plate plastic fingers that go through the main PCB to remove the slop but still have easy rotational movement.
The best size for my meter was 6.1mm OD. To help alignment further I made the ID be a good sliding fit to the hex shaft of the knob at 5.6mm.
The resulting sleeve I machined up can be seen in the photo below in its final position (I left it longer so its easily removed.). The material used was PEEK which is
reasonably stiff and has good insulation properties, (I also had it anyway ). Did not want to use PTFE which would have been too soft at the cross section used.
As an additional exercise I also cut up some 0.3mm PTFE sheet as spacers under the knob circlip, see photo below. Two pieces provided a good take up
of the space between the housing and the circlip. This reduced the knob free play up and down but allowed some compliance in the well in the top housing and the circlip too
due to the soft flexible nature of the PTFE.
Appears to have less contamination but we have no idea how many cycles were on the two meters posted so far. Can you tell with your eyes if any of that is metallic?I posted the first pictures and checked today. I think it's not metallic at least not magnetic. I checked with a strong neodyn magnet and it doesn't feel metallic.
I cleaned it and will check in some weeks.I wouldn't have expected it to be magnetic but it's good to know.
So after returning from holiday I thought I would have a look inside at what may be happening with my meter.
What I can see happening with mine to cause my issue was the small flexing of the PCB by the input plugs movement
was causing referred movement at the switch area and since my switch was rather 'sloppy' in its location hole this had caused
either contact or contact location issues on their relevant PCB tracks and thus the mode failures.
Further investigation of the switch rotor showed quite a lot of lateral movement in the PCB locating hole.
So next step was what to do to reduce this lateral 'slop'!.
After removing the PCB from the switch knob I could test fit various rod diameters, (rear ends of twist drills in 0.1mm inc.), to lightly expand
the switch plate plastic fingers that go through the main PCB to remove the slop but still have easy rotational movement.
The best size for my meter was 6.1mm OD. To help alignment further I made the ID be a good sliding fit to the hex shaft of the knob at 5.6mm.
The resulting sleeve I machined up can be seen in the photo below in its final position (I left it longer so its easily removed.). The material used was PEEK which is
reasonably stiff and has good insulation properties, (I also had it anyway ). Did not want to use PTFE which would have been too soft at the cross section used.
As an additional exercise I also cut up some 0.3mm PTFE sheet as spacers under the knob circlip, see photo below. Two pieces provided a good take up
of the space between the housing and the circlip. This reduced the knob free play up and down but allowed some compliance in the well in the top housing and the circlip too
due to the soft flexible nature of the PTFE.In the following, when I refer to just the "switch", I meant all the parts attached to the circuit board. The "switch rotor" is the knob part attached to the case.
I decided to fix my 121GW wobbly switch up a while ago, but after looking at the mechanism, I took a very different approach. I did look at your method but I think it was making the situation even worse rather then better mechanically.
First, instead of putting a spacer under the circlip, I put a spacer between the switch rotor and the the nylon detent spring so that the circlip was in contact with the case plastic. This lifts the rotor upwards. I didn't make it tight. I just wanted to stop any signifigant vertical movement. The reason for this method was so that the circlip does not press on the switch at all. If you put spacers under the circlip, the circlip is pressing on the switch which I think is wrong. The spacer was actually just many layers of duct tape. I had a punch to make a nice hole in the middle.
But now the switch rotor was even looser. So I added a few strips of Kapton tape around the switch rotor sides to widen it till it stopped wobbling much. You want to change a cone shape that is narrowest at the top to one widest at the top, so start off with a thin strip of tape just near the top side of the switch rotor. Then a thicker one that goes to 2/3 down the rotor sides. Then some that goes around the whole sides. The idea is to increase the switch rotor diameter to the point it can hardly wobble, but still have a tiny clearance to the case. Correctly done and the switch rotor is no stiffer then before.
A bit of heat (I just used some hot water) to set the Kapton adhesive and it stays in place really well.
The way you have fixed the switch is you are trying to use the switch to stop the rotor from moving which is putting more stress on the switch. It should be the switch rotor that correctly locates the switch. The switch should be free to float a bit.
After this fix, I don't think anyone would notice an issue. I didn't take the tape right to the top and you cannot actually see it at all.
Richard