EEVBlog 121GW Discussion thread

[GraXXoR]

Message sent. Let me know if the system is having a problem handling my address...
Tho I suspect I'm not far from JDW who successfully received one.
If it doesn't work, I'll order one with a set of brymen probes from that German site.

Seriously, thanks a for the rapid feedback.... Shows the calibre of the man when he can handle individual posts so quickly on an enterprise as big as EEVBLOG.

Cheers,
  Grx

[EEVblog]

Message sent. Let me know if the system is having a problem handling my address...

Sorry, Japan wasn't set correctly in Shopify. Should work now.

[GraXXoR]

damn. the price went up O_O
It was $204 now I have to pay in yen (29,000) not dollars and when paypal converts that back into dollars it's $214... and I'll likely have to pay 10% local tax on that bringing it to ¥31,900.

I can currently get the Sanwa PC7000 locally with a 3 year guarantee for ¥24,800 (~ $180) including tax and postage, so I will have a bit more of a think on it. ¥26,000 ($190) with gold plated test leads.

... thanks for fixing it in any case. I might pick something up from you if the Yen recovers a bit against the dollar. My limit for a tester is 30,000 and this just unfortunately tipped over to the other side.

[thm_w]

Don't let paypal do the conversion, 29,000 JPY is $203.56 USD at current exchange rates.
You'll almost certainly have to pay local tax and likely DHL brokerage fee on top of that yes (guessing $10-15 USD but I can't find any references for your country).

Sanway PC7000 is probably a fine meter, but does not datalog, do power measurement, low burden, etc. So not quite the same feature class. But yes due to low yen its going to make more sense to purchase locally.

[HKJ]

Don't let paypal do the conversion, 29,000 JPY is $203.56 USD at current exchange rates.
You'll almost certainly have to pay local tax and likely DHL brokerage fee on top of that yes (guessing $10-15 USD but I can't find any references for your country).

Sanway PC7000 is probably a fine meter, but does not datalog, do power measurement, low burden, etc. So not quite the same feature class. But yes due to low yen its going to make more sense to purchase locally.

The PC7000 is basically the same as Brymen BM867 including computer connection.

[GraXXoR]

No. It’s not PayPal doing the conversion. It’s Shopify. They are charging ¥29,000. PayPal have a decent rate right now ¥134 per dollar. This is slightly better than the current ¥140 per dollar standard.
When you use PayPal’s considerate rate of exchange then based on Shopify’s Price, Reverse calculated to usd you get $214
.

[thm_w]

The PC7000 is basically the same as Brymen BM867 including computer connection.

Yeah, that is not local datalogging, to be more specific. eg Fluke 289.

No. It’s not PayPal doing the conversion. It’s Shopify. They are charging ¥29,000. PayPal have a decent rate right now ¥134 per dollar. This is slightly better than the current ¥140 per dollar standard.

You are missing the point. "It was $204 now I have to pay in yen (29,000)". These were the same numbers given yesterdays exchange rate, that is how his store works, you can check the numbers today and they will also work out.

When you use PayPal’s considerate rate of exchange then based on Shopify’s Price, Reverse calculated to usd you get $214.

Which is higher than current exchange because its not generous! Paypal are charging you a fee on top of the exchange rate (~4.5%), they will ALWAYS do that. So will most credit cards and banks. Being in Japan, people would expect you to have JPY in the bank not USD...

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=USD&To=JPY

[J-R]

Same story with me, here in the US I've purchased internationally a few times using PayPal and they do "overcharge" a bit for any currency conversions.  So I use one of my credit cards that specifically does not charge for that which means PayPal bills the credit card in that foreign currency directly.

[GraXXoR]

Am I misunderstanding? I believe the shop has determined the Yen price of the product... 29,000 Yen is far too neat and tidy to be a dynamic translation of $204.

Whenever I use Paypal to convert cash, the price ends up something random looking, like ¥28,459... 
29,000 is clearly a set price in YEN.

which translates to 142 Yen per $...

[thm_w]

Am I misunderstanding? I believe the shop has determined the Yen price of the product... 29,000 Yen is far too neat and tidy to be a dynamic translation of $204.

Go to the store again today as I suggested above, you'll see the price has changed to the current days exchange rate, rounded to 100 JPY.
No one is going in and manually setting a price in a hundred different currencies.

[EEVblog]

Go to the store again today as I suggested above, you'll see the price has changed to the current days exchange rate, rounded to 100 JPY.
No one is going in and manually setting a price in a hundred different currencies.

Correct. All my store prices are set in AUD for a stupid reason to do with Shopify (I'd prefer USD, as I buy all my stock in USD), and any other displayed currency is Shopify doing the conversion automatically. I have no idea where it gets the conversion data from.

Use the coupon code orderofmagnitude for 10% off.

[GraXXoR]

Correct. All my store prices are set in AUD for a stupid reason to do with Shopify (I'd prefer USD, as I buy all my stock in USD), and any other displayed currency is Shopify doing the conversion automatically. I have no idea where it gets the conversion data from.

Use the coupon code orderofmagnitude for 10% off.

Yes, that is what I suspected. Shopify is converting to Yen when I could be purchasing it in Dollars since I have funds in both currencies.


But on another note....

Good grief!!!


I think me and this 121GW are destined to be unhappy together.

I just came here feeling chuffed that the exchange rate got better and the $214 has dropped back to about $205 and that puts it 200 yen below the purchase threshold. of 30,000 + tax.

And then now I see that there is a 10% discount on offer that I wasn't made aware of until after I put my order in!!!

My paypal order went through and it was immediately processed... not even a pending on order being accepted by the seller so I'm unable to rescind it within 10 minutes of making it.

Is there a way to apply the code to my order?
Any help much appreciated.

Cheers.

[EEVblog]

Is there a way to apply the code to my order?
Any help much appreciated.

No, but I just refunded 10% manually.

[GraXXoR]

Just want to say it once again; your response to individual requests in a forum of this size is outstanding. And not only that but during the Christmas holidays to boot!

Thank you so much for the post hoc discount. It’s very much appreciated and unexpected little Christmas bonus!
I look forward to putting the 121 through it paces in the new year!

Apologies if I came off as acerbic in my previous post…
Best regards and have a Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating tomorrow!

Grx.

[Dr. Frank]

I bought the 121GW on Kickstarter in 2018.
It came with that nice pouch, and those great test tips from B.T.C.
One of the useful feature of this combo is, that it is possible to make quite stable mΩ measurements in its 50 Ohm range.

After 6 years of intense use, the red tip now showed unreliable Ohm measurements, as the shorted tips are reading unstable ~100..1000 mΩ, instead of < 100mΩ, as before.
This prevented a quick analysis of the power supply fault of my FLUKE 5442A calibrator, see here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/lowest-drift-lowest-noise-voltage-reference/msg5258283/#msg5258283

I already wanted to discard the tips, but had a closer look, as the tip needle could somehow be rotated inside the rubber grips.
To my big joy, the grips can be pulled downwards, if you carefully grab the tips with a pliers at the thread.



The tip needles were tightly clamped to some cable clips, and the cable's wire, maybe silver plated copper, is clamped at the other side.
Latter seemed to be the problem, that due to oxidation this connection made bad contact.



So I used a 20W soldering iron with a bigger tip, and soldered the end of the wire to the clip.



Afterwards, the test tips are again showing stable 100mΩ when shorted.

Great quality, and I just love such repairable test tips. Very rare!

Frank

[EEVblog]

I already wanted to discard the tips, but had a closer look, as the tip needle could somehow be rotated inside the rubber grips.
To my big joy, the grips can be pulled downwards, if you carefully grab the tips with a pliers at the thread.

I've never tried that!

[AVGresponding]

This also raises the question, are new tips available from Brymen? I have two sets of those leads, one is perfect (I owned that from new...) but the other is heavily scarred (came with an abused bench meter I bought) and could use fresh tips.

[EEVblog]

This also raises the question, are new tips available from Brymen? I have two sets of those leads, one is perfect (I owned that from new...) but the other is heavily scarred (came with an abused bench meter I bought) and could use fresh tips.

Not that I know of.

[J-R]

Only 10.90 € for a complete new set:
https://www.welectron.com/Brymen-BL21S2-T4SC-Silicone-Test-Leads

[Martin72]

However, they can still work on the translation of their homepage:

Silicone Test Leads with vergoldeten Testspitzen und aufschraubbaren Bananensteckern, 1000V CAT IV, 10A

 

[J-R]

If you can't read German, you could buy them from Dave:
https://eevblog.store/products/brymen-bl21s2-t4sc-gold-plated-silicone-test-probes

Or 99centHobbies on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/171162377470

Of course kidding about the German part...

[TrickyT]

My function switch has become flaky and I need to know if the shim and replacement knob are still available and, if so, where do I get them. I was part of the original Kickstarter project and my meter was one from the 2nd production batch. (I received it in August 2018, s/n 1418) I didn't pursue obtaining the shim and knob when the switch problem first starting appearing because my meter was working fine and I figured that the thickness tolerance on my PC board must have been such that my meter was not one of those affected. But things have gradually gotten worse to the point where now the meter only powers up if I mess with the function switch a bunch of times. Maybe the springs in switch contacts have lost some oomph or something else has worn. Anyway it would be great to source the updated knob and shim now and any help from this forum would be appreciated.

[EEVblog]

My function switch has become flaky and I need to know if the shim and replacement knob are still available and, if so, where do I get them. I was part of the original Kickstarter project and my meter was one from the 2nd production batch. (I received it in August 2018, s/n 1418) I didn't pursue obtaining the shim and knob when the switch problem first starting appearing because my meter was working fine and I figured that the thickness tolerance on my PC board must have been such that my meter was not one of those affected. But things have gradually gotten worse to the point where now the meter only powers up if I mess with the function switch a bunch of times. Maybe the springs in switch contacts have lost some oomph or something else has worn. Anyway it would be great to source the updated knob and shim now and any help from this forum would be appreciated.

I've got a few left, email me your postal address.

[EEVblog]

If you can't read German, you could buy them from Dave:
https://eevblog.store/products/brymen-bl21s2-t4sc-gold-plated-silicone-test-probes

I also sell them on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/EEVblog-Brymen-BL21S2-T4SC-Plated-Silicone/dp/B0CQH1CXR6/ref=sr_1_1

[TrickyT]

My function switch has become flaky and I need to know if the shim and replacement knob are still available and, if so, where do I get them. I was part of the original Kickstarter project and my meter was one from the 2nd production batch. (I received it in August 2018, s/n 1418) I didn't pursue obtaining the shim and knob when the switch problem first starting appearing because my meter was working fine and I figured that the thickness tolerance on my PC board must have been such that my meter was not one of those affected. But things have gradually gotten worse to the point where now the meter only powers up if I mess with the function switch a bunch of times. Maybe the springs in switch contacts have lost some oomph or something else has worn. Anyway it would be great to source the updated knob and shim now and any help from this forum would be appreciated.

I've got a few left, email me your postal address.

Done.  And thanks!