EEVblog #1248 - INSANE A 0.02% Process Meter for $9? WTF

[Electro Detective]

For some reason I can’t choose PayPal when purchasing at AliExpress. They give a decent number of options here, but for Belgian customers seem to exclude PP.

AliExpress used to offer PayPal, but PayPal became an eBay subsidary 2002 to 2014. AliExpress is eBay's biggest competitor, and eBay decided to ban AliExpress from using PayPal.

I do not know if AliExpress could go back to PayPal now if it wanted to, but they had to develop their own alternatives and perhaps they do not want to let PayPal back in.

eBay still has a very close contractual relationship to PayPal and that expires in 2020.
After this, eBay will still support PayPal, but eBay will cease to give PayPal preference over other credit cards, and PayPal will no longer process credit card purchases for eBay.

Good riddance either way, maybe now a lot of arrogant 'solly iss paypal only' sellers will accept credit cards and COD,

assuming the stock is really available, and not jacked by water pirates 

or held up indefinitely at a security detention center and hosed down every morning   

 

[mnementh]

Woo-Hoo! My tracking has been updated. The items still haven't left China but it appears they are sitting on the dock waiting to be shipped (or grabbed by pirates). Until, and if I get a chance to open the package and actually see the items, I won't believe this is real.

I’ve been a bit busy with “real life” (Doing the whole Natl Lampoon’s “Vacation!” thing; traveling across the US with the fam visiting family & friends), so haven’t kept up with developments here and couldn’t be arsed to pester the fuck out of the seller for the last few weeks. My AliEx dashboard still shows more than 3 weeks to file a dispute, so not too anxious. Yet.

Your timeline is pretty similar to my experience so far with House of Happiness, only they show my order shipped 2 days ago, so still “In Transit, Country of Origin”.

A quick reality check with 17-Track shows something was actually shipped from Guangzhou to Canada on that date with that tracking, and that tracking does have the correct prefix/suffix for current ePacket (which I did pay for) shipments.

China EMS also agrees it is valid ePacket tracking... though not sure how that works to Canada, as my understanding is that ePacket is a service created and provided by the USPS for US labs & startups to be able to get samples/small quantities quickly & cheaply enough to be relevant for dev work. 

I love the strange notes you get to see when you click translate on 17Track. Some part of me wants to phone Peng Ming and ask him/her/it  they did with all our gawddamn meters... 

Number: AZ98*******CN
Package status: In transit
Country: China -> Canada
Destination:

Origin:
2019-10-22 01:51, Guangzhou City, leaving the "International Express Plum Garden" And the next stop , "Shenzhen Post Express Limited"
2019-10-22 00:31, Guangzhou City, "International Express Mei Garden Touting Department" has received, agent: Peng Ming, Tel: 13913913900
======================================
Powered by www.17track.net

mnem
 

[ArthurDent]

Another update on my order after update posts #408 and #418. The "tracking" shows the items are out for delivery but tracking doesn't show the items have even been loaded on a plane or left China yet. Maybe they went by a very fast boat and the rest of delivery (including customs) only took 4 days where it took almost 4 weeks to get to the dock. 

If you're going to fake something, at least make it look reasonable.

[rsjsouza]

Mine is the same. However, as others have said, https://www.ems.com.cn shows the location of the package.

For example, if you see 美国, in the Site column of the EMS tracking, it means United States.

[thm_w]

If anyone who missed out in Canada is interested, $25 CAD, let me know. Just Canada for now to keep the price low.

[Macbeth]

Another update on my order after update posts #408 and #418. The "tracking" shows the items are out for delivery but tracking doesn't show the items have even been loaded on a plane or left China yet. Maybe they went by a very fast boat and the rest of delivery (including customs) only took 4 days where it took almost 4 weeks to get to the dock. 

If you're going to fake something, at least make it look reasonable.

This is what's bugging me. I already mentioned that my tracking shows the Royal Mail (equivalent of USPS and China Post) should be tracking the parcel once it is in the destination country. But there is no record of it. Have you checked usps.com with the tracking number? because that would confirm if it's in the USA or not. Though "it" could be something else in the country like a different customers order and going to another state entirely.

I've previously mentioned that the tracking times for "out for local delivery" and "POD" even in China time or UK time are totally outside the days/hours that Royal Mail staff work so are totally bogus.

But these delivery messages are coming from the official ems.com.cn website. I could understand a dodgy 3rd party like Nigerian scammers use, but not state owned China Post / EMS surely?

[Smokey]

After ever so kindly reminding Manbo Life Store that I was part of the online group of people that all ordered this item, and that I would not accept either "was lost" or "QC fail" excuses, they replied with:

Dear customer
the item do lost
if the item is on the way to you ,there is no reason for us to cheat you
we want give full refund to you
hope you can understand.

I think I am starting to see their point here.  I was saying that I was not going accept "item was lost" or "item is lost".  I didn't say anything about "item do lost"! 

[syau]

The version I got:

Dear buyer,
sorry .we just got the information the parcel will been returned to us due to Crucial Defectives of the elements and function .
we need to return all of these items back to theirs factory for a Security Inspection until the issue solved.
in order to protect your right ,could you please tell us your paypal to get the refund back
or would you like to choose other item as replace in our store ?
sorry for the trouble again and waiting for quickly reply ,
nice day

I opened the dispute and got this reply:

(Attachment Link)

No deal.  Escalating!  My Cozy Life Store is going to suffer the consequences.

I got the same message when I start the dispute. Package show delivery failed then show delivered at 00:00.

I asked the seller to show me a copy of the shipping label so that I can locate the delivered item 

[amspire]

I had ordered 4 meters and received 2. I thought another was just about to arrive from Cozy Life, but it looks like the parcel was just delivered to someone in Sydney - about 170km away from me.

I sent Cozy Life a message and they immediately replied with the "parcel lost" message which does not make sense as the tracking number item was successfully delivered.

At least they have admitted I will not get the meter, which will make a dispute easy to resolve.

[EEVblog]

I ordered two more from  My Cozy Life Store after the video came out and I just got them 
Haven't tested yet.

[amspire]

I ordered two more from  My Cozy Life Store after the video came out and I just got them 
Haven't tested yet.

You didn't have a tracking number ending in "3480CN" by any chance? I would love to know who ended up with the package I have been following for weeks.

Definitely went to someone in a Sydney suburb.

[Smokey]

I ordered two more from  My Cozy Life Store after the video came out and I just got them 
Haven't tested yet.

Before it came out to backers or public youtube? 

[Electro Detective]

DJ should buy up the lot, flog them here, and end this fiasco 


Bonus: truth bending sellers will save face   
and emails many thanks to the VEEblogs Youtooub astralia mans for the bail out   

[Brumby]

DJ should buy up the lot, flog them here, and end this fiasco 

The Sellers might claim he's already done just that....

I ordered two more from  My Cozy Life Store after the video came out and I just got them 
Haven't tested yet.

[PA0PBZ]

Manbo reacted after I filed a dispute:

dear friend ,so sorry for the delaying shipping in order to protect your rights, we can refund to you first
1) please kindly cancel the dispute first and then tell me your PayPal account,
we can return the money to your PayPal account, the dispute hurts us heavily
2) would you please leave a feedback with all 5 stars after you receive the money?
you are my VIP customer,i'm sorry for the troubles and next time we will try our best to make you satisfied

Almost made me cry... almost.

[ebclr]

Oct. 25 2019   
AliExpress stepped in to help

Aliexpress doing her job, as expected


Oct. 25 2019   
AliExpress Processing the Proposal
Proposal:
Refund US $ 13.92
Oct. 25 2019   
AliExpress' Judgment
Proposal:
Refund US $ 13.92

[beanflying]

I am just oh so tempted by this generous offer from DheadGate trusted seller  2 days more until I claim on their ass for false shipping.

[Kjelt]

Got another message from the seller now they did a refund I should leave 5 star feedback or no feedback.
Ofcourse I already gave the the 1* feedback as already stated.
I replied that to them and now they say it does not matter since those negative feedbacks will be rejected due to no shipment has been made.
Nice system thry got 

[maginnovision]

I ordered two more from  My Cozy Life Store after the video came out and I just got them 
Haven't tested yet.

If you have a chance maybe you could trace the calibrator output back to the source. It should be coming from the MCU but I can't seem to find anything that makes sense on my broken unit.

[slobans]

to beanflying,seems like tonethiny has closed his shop,can’t find him anymore

[beanflying]

to beanflying,seems like tonethiny has closed his shop,can’t find him anymore

No items for sale at least. Worst case will still be a refund.

[thm_w]

If you have a chance maybe you could trace the calibrator output back to the source. It should be coming from the MCU but I can't seem to find anything that makes sense on my broken unit.

Here you go, circuit shows 10V output state.
Gnd = - source terminal.
mAIN = the output terminal

[BradC]

Bugger.

Dear friend sorry that your parcel has been returned to us how about we refund to you by paypal Or you can choose anything another in the same value as replacement Many inconveniences hope you understand If any problems here please kindly let us know Thanks for your support and kind gentleness Have a good day and wish your everything goes on well Best Regards

Oh well, have to raise a dispute.

[maginnovision]

If you have a chance maybe you could trace the calibrator output back to the source. It should be coming from the MCU but I can't seem to find anything that makes sense on my broken unit.

Here you go, circuit shows 10V output state.
Gnd = - source terminal.
mAIN = the output terminal

That's pretty close to what I thought but I must have missed the ltc1446. Thanks.

[thm_w]

OK somehow I didn't immediately notice the two three CAL test points at the top: CAL1, CAL2, and GND.
I've tried shorting one or the other to GND, powering on, and it puts the meter in weird states (eg can get into a state where all segments are on). But various button pushing has yet to achieve anything.

CAL1 = pin 8 = RG4
CAL2 = pin 16 = RF2

Neither of these pins have serial hardware, so while software serial input is possible it seems unlikely. I'm thinking they are looking for specific analog or digital voltage states. Both have 10k pullups to 3.3V.
Perhaps one cal is for output one is for input.

edit:
Managed to screw up the 'V' cal data/input by doing the following, mV is still working:
- Set switch to V/mV
- Short CAL1 to GND
- Power up (all segments on)
- Remove short from CAL1 to GND
- Meter now lets you select an 'input' voltage from 0 to 10V. But unsure what to do at this point. Buttons beep but I don't see how to progress or store the point.

edit2:
- The cal pins only affect the operation of the meter in the white ranges of the meter, not the grey ranges handled by the MM chipset.