EEVBlog 121GW Discussion thread

[HKJ]

3200 mah Ni-MH would real push the envelope, think two sets of these would be why for me to go :-)

3200mAh NiMH would probably not work very long, the maximum real capacity I have seen is around 2500-2700mAh, anything rated with more usual has a lot less.

[imk]

121GW battery life vs battery type.
As far as the 500 hr battery life claim is this for alkaline or NiCad and what mah rating
My camera packs up much earlier on nicad than on fresh alkaline as the static voltage is lower for NiCad's
Any 121GW test data for various battery chemistry yet?

4.2V dropout voltage, approx 5mA consumption, you can do the math with whatever chemistry.
The spec is Alkaline.

Well quick math looks like a 2400 mah AA NiCd down to 10% charge will still run the 121GW, so still in the region of 500 hr run time.
3200 mah Ni-MH would real push the envelope, think two sets of these would be why for me to go :-)

No mention of a supply date yet, so makes me wonder if not some under the covers magic being worked out 

Hello HKJ,
Like with most things these days what it says on the box is not what it does.
Imk

[EEVblog]

@EEVBlog Just receive a "last minute address change" notification from KS. Are the US units about to be shipped?

Yes, we had to lock down the address changes and KS makes us wait 48hours. We actually have like 150 or something last minutes changes!
1000 units will be available end of April (as in available to ship to the various distributors, Welectron for the EU, here for Oz/NZ/others, EUi/KaneTest for the US)
and another 1000 units end of May
(so I guess their production capacity is 1000 units a month)
As before, the remainder of the Great Scott backers will be shipped first. But given that there will be a lot of leftover units from the first 1000 unit batch, many Johnny B. Goode backers will get theirs at the same time. 

[VEGETA]

So when will this be available to us regular customers?

I am in Jordan, how much will it cost to be shipped to here?

[tomp]

Welectron for the EU

Hi, Dave. I have also received "last minute address change" e-mail, but I have not received the PayPal VAT invoices yet. Have you sent them? I am in Johnny B. Goode group and I chose the EU shipping option. Please be so kind and post an update to Kickstarter as soon as you send the invoices, so we do not miss something.

By the way, how is the "exclusive EEVblog video of the development history of this meter"?

[imk]

@EEVBlog Just receive a "last minute address change" notification from KS. Are the US units about to be shipped?

Yes, we had to lock down the address changes and KS makes us wait 48hours. We actually have like 150 or something last minutes changes!
1000 units will be available end of April (as in available to ship to the various distributors, Welectron for the EU, here for Oz/NZ/others, EUi/KaneTest for the US)
and another 1000 units end of May
(so I guess their production capacity is 1000 units a month)
As before, the remainder of the Great Scott backers will be shipped first. But given that there will be a lot of leftover units from the first 1000 unit batch, many Johnny B. Goode backers will get theirs at the same time.

Already got my name on one at Welectron n waiting, thanks Dave for the heads up, bit of luck be here for my milestone Bday
imk

[Average Meatsack]

Bugger! Missed the email to confirm the delivery address. Will it be a signature required delivery? If not, that may cause problems since the front door of my flat faces the road and I wouldn't want it stolen.

Which courier company is handling the NZ deliveries. I just hope it isn't AusPost as my one and only experience with them was terrible.

[nickdepinet]

@EEVBlog Just receive a "last minute address change" notification from KS. Are the US units about to be shipped?

Yes, we had to lock down the address changes and KS makes us wait 48hours. We actually have like 150 or something last minutes changes!
1000 units will be available end of April (as in available to ship to the various distributors, Welectron for the EU, here for Oz/NZ/others, EUi/KaneTest for the US)
and another 1000 units end of May
(so I guess their production capacity is 1000 units a month)
As before, the remainder of the Great Scott backers will be shipped first. But given that there will be a lot of leftover units from the first 1000 unit batch, many Johnny B. Goode backers will get theirs at the same time.

A bit confused here - are the US Great Scott units being shipped from the fixed units from before or are they coming from this new batch being shipped at the end of April? Basically just wondering what happened to the original great scott units that made it through customs into the US before they got redirected to KaneTest.

[TMM]

Would some kind of inductive powering (like Qi charging) feasible in a safe way in a meter, if the receiving antenna is e.g. well inside the body of the instrument, like the battery compartment?

The main issue is that the inductive field will couple into the analogue front end and maybe throw it out of spec - semiconductor junctions can act as rectifiers and cause an offset on the measurement. I design inductively powered devices and just measuring small signals in the presence of a HF band inductive field can be challenging at times. Unlike electric fields it's not trivial to make a device immune to HF band magnetic fields - thin metal cans do diddly squat. A better solution would just be to power it with a properly isolated DC-DC supply.

[rpb1]

seemingly stupid question... i must have missed something? 

how do i get into the queue for one or more of the 121GW's to be released in May?  i'm in the USA

essentially, how do i purchase?

been spinning around looking in eevblog and i cant find this info.  Found it listed in the "store" but without a means to order it - only view info.

[Brumby]

If you haven't got your name down in the Kickstarter, you will have to wait until Dave gets them into his online shop.  Before that happens, he has to honour the outstanding Kickstarter orders.

Keep checking on his shop - but from what I've gleaned, don't expect to see anything for a month or more.
 Check back on this thread, too - as you will likely pick up on progress here.

There is no "queue" you can get on.  Dave won't be taking back orders.  You will just have to wait until they are available and grab one - just like the rest of us.

UPDATE:
Actually, this post of Dave's gives more detail...

@EEVBlog Just receive a "last minute address change" notification from KS. Are the US units about to be shipped?

Yes, we had to lock down the address changes and KS makes us wait 48hours. We actually have like 150 or something last minutes changes!
1000 units will be available end of April (as in available to ship to the various distributors, Welectron for the EU, here for Oz/NZ/others, EUi/KaneTest for the US)
and another 1000 units end of May
(so I guess their production capacity is 1000 units a month)
As before, the remainder of the Great Scott backers will be shipped first. But given that there will be a lot of leftover units from the first 1000 unit batch, many Johnny B. Goode backers will get theirs at the same time.

[rpb1]

thanks Brumby,

ya i read that post as well... just wasnt sure.

i have no issue with waiting, my Fluke will work fine until then i'm sure !!   
would rather wait for full production anyway when all bugs are vetted.

i'll just wait until it becomes something that can be ordered from the shop.

[lacek]

is there somewhere a "comparison" of 121GW and say BM869s or other good multimeters say in terms of accuracy? 121GW certainly has lots to otter such as wireless PC connectivity, but this 50mV range seems really cool (though I do not understand what does it mean its only in relative mode).

[EEVblog]

@EEVBlog Just receive a "last minute address change" notification from KS. Are the US units about to be shipped?

Yes, we had to lock down the address changes and KS makes us wait 48hours. We actually have like 150 or something last minutes changes!
1000 units will be available end of April (as in available to ship to the various distributors, Welectron for the EU, here for Oz/NZ/others, EUi/KaneTest for the US)
and another 1000 units end of May
(so I guess their production capacity is 1000 units a month)
As before, the remainder of the Great Scott backers will be shipped first. But given that there will be a lot of leftover units from the first 1000 unit batch, many Johnny B. Goode backers will get theirs at the same time.

A bit confused here - are the US Great Scott units being shipped from the fixed units from before or are they coming from this new batch being shipped at the end of April? Basically just wondering what happened to the original great scott units that made it through customs into the US before they got redirected to KaneTest.

Technically they are the original units.

[fanOfeeDIY]

Maybe some people laugh

I purchased some other 50,000 count handheld DMMs just for the video,
from curiosity of the auto range speed.

I think I need to join the therapy thread.

https://youtu.be/3r_a7RUtwpw

[glarsson]

Is it a fair teat to connect several meters together in ohms mode and drawing conclusions from how they behave? Several meters trying to push sequences of various currents and interpreting the resulting voltage. Chaos. Might work ok with shorted probes, but still...

[Brumby]

Is it a fair teat to connect several meters together in ohms mode and drawing conclusions from how they behave? Several meters trying to push sequences of various currents and interpreting the resulting voltage. Chaos. Might work ok with shorted probes, but still...

That was my initial reaction when I first saw that sort of setup - but I think the answer is that it can only work with shorted probes.

[bicycleguy]

...
I think I need to join the therapy thread.
..

Yes, you need help

[fanOfeeDIY]

Does your wife know?      Looking forward to seeing the high resolution pictures of the two meters.

My wife fount it out..... She saw my video.....

So I told her that you are globally famous which is a good thing

Then the reply was silence....

I do not feel I could buy any more multimeter in my life 

[fanOfeeDIY]

Is it a fair teat to connect several meters together in ohms mode and drawing conclusions from how they behave? Several meters trying to push sequences of various currents and interpreting the resulting voltage. Chaos. Might work ok with shorted probes, but still...

That was my initial reaction when I first saw that sort of setup - but I think the answer is that it can only work with shorted probes.

I thought the same.
I am not sure it is in the video, I printed out the spec pages of all multimeters (I had them on right side of the desk) and on manual of DT4282 had the current for every ohm range used, and TY720 had the maximum current could be used for every ohm range. All of the currents were different.

I worried first of damaging the multimeters by current flowing from other multimeters when connecting together.
My brain still only has analog meter age and it might stress the battery inside.
( Then I thought if digital multimeter was so fragile, it would not survive joe's robustness test. )
And the shorting the probe all the current from all meters of all ranges could be the same behavior even for the individually shorting the probe.

End up connecting all multmeters together. I am too lazy to make some jig for taking video.

[Fungus]

Then the reply was silence....

There's already a fancy Agilent and another Hioki in the background so I guess he knows what he's doing.

[Fungus]

Is it a fair teat to connect several meters together in ohms mode and drawing conclusions from how they behave? Several meters trying to push sequences of various currents and interpreting the resulting voltage. Chaos. Might work ok with shorted probes, but still...

That was my initial reaction when I first saw that sort of setup - but I think the answer is that it can only work with shorted probes.

I thought the same.

I worried first of damaging the multimeters by current flowing from other multimeters when connecting together.
My brain still only has analog meter age and it might stress the battery inside.
( Then I thought if digital multimeter was so fragile, it would not survive joe's robustness test. )

It wouldn't damage any meter with a proper CAT rating.

OTOH it might skew the test results by giving some meters a head start. eg. Nether the Fluke nor the Hioki are showing "0L" at the start of each test.

[Scottjd]

Does your wife know?      Looking forward to seeing the high resolution pictures of the two meters.

My wife fount it out..... She saw my video.....

So I told her that you are globally famous which is a good thing

Then the reply was silence....

I do not feel I could buy any more multimeter in my life 

Ok, so it’s a technicality but this idea might work?
You don’t BUY anymore, just do what some other youtubers do.
Contact bangood and they will send you meters. Then your not buying any of them.
I personally don’t work with bangood so I don’t know how it works. But as long as you disclose it’s from a vendor before the video review or testing I don’t think many people watching care that much these days.
Off the top of my head in the genre of electronic YouTube channels I can think of 3 or 4 that get items all the time from bangood and they still have high subs and views, so it probably doesn’t matter much.
This way you can keep your DMM addiction going without buying another one. 

[Fungus]

Ok, so it’s a technicality but this idea might work?
You don’t BUY anymore, just do what some other youtubers do.
Contact bangood and they will send you meters. Then your not buying any of them.

There's a place that sends you free multimeters? For free?

Don't let that information reach the therapy thread. 

[Scottjd]

Is it a fair teat to connect several meters together in ohms mode and drawing conclusions from how they behave? Several meters trying to push sequences of various currents and interpreting the resulting voltage. Chaos. Might work ok with shorted probes, but still...

That was my initial reaction when I first saw that sort of setup - but I think the answer is that it can only work with shorted probes.

I thought the same.
I am not sure it is in the video, I printed out the spec pages of all multimeters (I had them on right side of the desk) and on manual of DT4282 had the current for every ohm range used, and TY720 had the maximum current could be used for every ohm range. All of the currents were different.

I worried first of damaging the multimeters by current flowing from other multimeters when connecting together.
My brain still only has analog meter age and it might stress the battery inside.
( Then I thought if digital multimeter was so fragile, it would not survive joe's robustness test. )
And the shorting the probe all the current from all meters of all ranges could be the same behavior even for the individually shorting the probe.

End up connecting all multmeters together. I am too lazy to make some jig for taking video.

My thoughts on the difference in speed for the readings in addition to what others mentioned.
Despite them all being 50k count meters, you will notice they have different levels of resolution for the resistance mode. Not all 50K or even 60K meters offer high resolution in resistance.
So I was wondering if the meters that show a higher resolution could be the reason for a slightly longer time. This gets tricky, because if you manually set the 121GW to display the same resolution as the others it might have an advantage also not having to auto detect the range of the resistance. I guess either way you run it, it still won’t be exactly a far comparison? Then again you could say the 121GW took a little longer because it’s factoring in a higher resolution of resistance to display even in Auto range.
I think even my Fluke 289 60K count meter shows lower resolution then the 121GW does in resistance. 
But it shows the point you were demonstrating, the average speed of the auto range detection.

I would be interesting to see how the 121GW stands against a bench meter that you can set to display the same resolution and still use auto ranging. Maybe something like a much older HP 34401A in two wire mode?
Joe, don’t you own a HP 34401A? I would try this, but I’m missing the 121GW and still waiting.
I know you have a preproduction 121GW, not sure how or if the firmware updates work on your version or if you tried to update it?

Hopefully it comes soon before I move, I figured after the Kickstarter address update request it was going to be just days away before getting a tracking number. It’s getting so close to the dates I’m looking to sell my house I might have to ask for a refund and forgo the idea of reviewing it despite being in the Great Scott group. Even if I get it before I sell my lab might be packed up by then so I wouldn’t be able to do any videos anyway.