Brymen 827? (more pictures added)

[anwe]

Hi, my name is Andreas, I'm new here.
I'm a hobbyist from Sweden, not too serious at the moment, but I hope to get more active in the near future.
I've watched the odd show or two before and always found them entertaining, but I got really hooked now that I was shopping around for a decent multimeter.
I've got a dying DVM891 that needs replacing and didn't feel like wasting money on something like that again, so this time around I did some research.

I first considered getting a Uni-T 61 or 71 locally, but looking at some of the videos, the lack of attention to safety and detail gave me second thoughts.
Then I saw the Brymen 257 (I think in the $100 shootout vid), and that looked like very good bang for the buck.

I went to tme.eu to pick one up only to find they were sold out.
Browsing around a little for other Brymens, I spotted an 827, which I hadn't heard of before, so I started looking into it a bit.
It's about €118, nearly the same as an 857A, and only about €20 more than the 257.
It looks to be somewhere in between the 257 and 857A feature/specs wise.

The full specs are available at http://www.brymen.com/product-html/cata820/BM820_Catalog.pdf

I couldn't find much of second opinions on the web for it, but looking at the positive response for other Brymens, I figured they have consistent quality and they seem to pay attention to detail.
After some debating with my self about the 257 vs 857A vs 827, I pulled the trigger on an 827. It's on it's way to me right now, so I haven't seen it in the flesh yet.
For my needs I felt the usability features (dual display mainly) on the 827 won over the better precision of the 857A.

The features/differences that stood out to me compared to the 257 and 857A were:
0.08% + 2 counts VDC
Bigger  than a 257 (208X103x65.4 mm)
Dual Display
10000/6000 counts (I only discovered it's not 10000 across all ranges as I was typing this up)
No "AutoCheck" (coming from a manual I'm probably not going to miss it)
10 pF - 25 mF capacitance range
No Backlight (never had one,  not gonna miss it)
5 / 60 Hz display / bar update
Cat IV 1kV
AC True RMS
EF detection
Duty cycle

From the looks of the PDF, it's supposed to have a "fast" continuity meter and auto ranging, but I suppose that could mean anything in sales-speak.
I do hope the continuity is latching though. I'm betting on it being newer it would be more similar to an 257 than an 857A.
The "big brother" 829 shares the autocheck features with the 257, so I figure it's not impossible that it has the same good continuity test.

TL;DR
Has anyone tried one of these out?
Did I make a mistake not to go for the 857A or 257?

I have a gut feeling I'll be very happy with this, but since I'm used to the DVM891 (cheap crap), anything decent will probably seem brilliant in my eyes 
I would have gone for the 829, but it's almost €50 more again, that just felt too steep for the few extra bells & whistles.
I may miss the dBm mode for audio stuff, but oh well...

I'll report back with my impression once it gets here, but as I'm not very experienced it's just going to be scraping the surface I suppose.
If there are no pesky warranty stickers, I'll probably pop it open for some photos though

/Andreas

[ddavidebor]

Brymen multimeter are all good.

Just pick the one you want.

[Lightages]

Yes, the BM827 is a nice meter. The lack of back light might put some people off. If you can live without temperature and want a back light and better accuracy plus 50,000 count, have a look at the BM857A for about the same price. The BM857A will also light up white leds for testing whereas the BM827 will not.

[anwe]

Thanks for the input, I got it today (fast!), and it looks very nice.

I snapped a few photos in case anyone is interested, see below, but I want to try it out a bit more before I rip it apart and void the warranty.

The continuity tester is a bit scratchy, so I assume it's not latched.
At least there's no delay, that would have driven me nuts.

The autoranging seems ok, about 2 seconds to get a value, and maybe 2.5-3 seconds for it to autorange and settle at a dead short in resistance mode.
Slightly quicker in the 30k range i think, maybe 2 sec to get a stable value.
I don't know if that is considered fast or not (haven't really used an autoranging DMM before).

Capacitance mode seems pretty quick too. I measured an old 250v 1200 µF electrolytic (which has been sitting unused for years).
After a few seconds of what looks like autoranging (wandering dot) the display turns to "disc", stays there for a few seconds and then settles at about 1.266 mF.
All in all I'd say about 5-10 seconds until a stable reading, probably closer to 5.

I don't have any references to measure, but I have some precision components that will have to do (just to make sure the meters not at dud).
A few mil spec resistors (RNC55H3012FS, 30k1 1% ) reads 30k12, 30k14 and 30k19, so that seems quite good.
An MKP1837 (1% i think) .1 µF film cap came up 100.8 nF, not much to complain about.
A 47 pF film cap (BC 1% KP464) measures .06-.07 nF, so it looks to be in spec way down low too.

I tried some 24 V DC and 240 V AC, and response is quick to settle. Autoranging isn't really an issue here since it's manual selection between mv/V.

The EF-mode seems quite useful and fairly sensitive. It starts beeping about 10 cm from a 230 V flourescent bulb lamp.
For a mains lead, you need to be a bit closer, 2-3 cm perhaps. I suppose RF will set it off, my cell phone just laying charging gets it beeping like crazy at about 15 cm .
It does also seem to make a false positive if you wave it close to a big magnet (speaker). Still a nice feature though. Haven't tried the direct contact mode yet.

The leads are unmarked. They're nice and soft, but I think it's soft plastic, not silicone. The probes themselves are harder plastic with sleeved tips.
The stress reliefs seem a bit too stiff and quickly get white bend marks, so I think they might break if you bend them a lot.

I haven't tried the K-probe yet, but it does look a bit flimsy.

The battery compartment looks nice, but there's no fuse access.
Metal inserts with captive machine screws for the lid. The lid also has a blast shield and seal around it.

To sum up, I'm very happy with my purchase, it feels solid all around and looks like it's built to last (apart from the leads maybe).

PS. There was a nice comparison table on the back of the box, why don't they publish one like that for their entire 5xx/8xx range?

/Andreas

[Lightages]

I am glad you are happy with your meter. I now have three Brymens for a reason.

The leads you were supplied were the choice of the retailer. Brymen also makes and supplies gold plated probes with silicone wires at the retailer's respect. They are much better leads but the type you got aren't junk at least.

[anwe]

Yes, I saw the nicer probes in a review of one of the higher end models.
I was keeping my fingers crossed  , but that would just have been icing on the cake, I didn't really expect to get them.
These ones are just fine, and I suspect one would have to abuse them quite a bit before the stress reliefs really break (by which time the leads themselves are probably done for anyway).
Besides it's fairly cheap to upgrade the probes if i feel the need later.

/Andreas

[anwe]

I figured since I can't read polish, what good is that little sticker on the side anyway? 

Here are some pics of the innards for those who may be interested.
I'm not really qualified to tell anything about the safety/build quality, but it seems pretty good to me.

One thing I noted is that one of the four screws holding the upper PCB to the switch is a self-tapper, what's up with that?
There also seems to be a self-tapper missing on the blast shield, there's an empty hole with a matching post on the body.

Other that those little oversights, construction seems rugged all around.
Captive self-tappers hold the body together, and there's a seal in the slot that goes around the body.

Note that the 820- and the 520-series seem to share the same PCB.

According to the manual the 820 series comes with 600VAC fuses while the 520-series has 1000 VAC fuses.
There are a fair amount of unpopulated spaces on the 827 PCB, it would be interesting to see what the differences to an 829 or 525 are.

(sorry about the dodgy focus on some shots, should've used a stand...)
/Andreas

[Lightages]

The "warranty" sticker on the side is a farce anyway. You need to open the case to change the fuses so the warranty sticker is not legal I think. The Brymens I got from Franky did not have any so I am sure it is just TME being asses.

I have a BM525 and noticed the multipurpose circuit boards too. I will have a look at mine and take some pictures later to provide a comparison. I am sure that adding parts will not  change the model nor add any functions.

[mos6502]

Looks like excellent value for money. Especially the 857.

But why is the 525 so much more expensive than the 857? The 857 has 50.000/500.000 counts and .03% accuracy, while the 525 has 10.000 counts and only .06% accuracy. Yet, the 525 costs 50 Euros more.

Same with the 827, the 857 has better specs, yet they're the same price ...

[anwe]

Lightages: Yes, the sticker looks to be from the polish distributor "Biall".
It's one of those that tear some of the print off the sticker, so it's going to show you've tampered with it even if you are very careful when removing it.
Meh, I hardly think I'll ever send it in under warranty anyway...

Yep, the missing features probably need a firmware update too, the missing bits may only be minor stuff like backlight, secondary temp preamp et.c.

mos6502: Yes, the Brymen product ranges are quite confusing, they seem to have many options that are fairly close in spec/features/price.
I suppose the main attraction for the 82X-series is the dual display, and the 52X-series has that  + stand alone data logging as well.
Even the 869 doesn't seem to have those data logging features, which seems a bit odd.
The 829 OTOH seems to be a bit overpriced, but one of the extras may be a killer feature for some, I don't know.
I suppose the 857 is a previous generation design that has had some price cuts.

If you don't need/want the extra features of the 82X/52X/86X-ranges, the 857 seems to be a real steal.
Personally I fell for the dual display of the 827, I doubt I need the super accuracy of an 857 anytime soon.

/Andreas

[nanofrog]

Yes, the Brymen product ranges are quite confusing, they seem to have many options that are fairly close in spec/features/price.
I suppose the main attraction for the 82X-series is the dual display, and the 52X-series has that  + stand alone data logging as well.
Even the 869 doesn't seem to have those data logging features, which seems a bit odd.
The 829 OTOH seems to be a bit overpriced, but one of the extras may be a killer feature for some, I don't know.
I suppose the 857 is a previous generation design that has had some price cuts.

If you don't need/want the extra features of the 82X/52X/86X-ranges, the 857 seems to be a real steal.

The BM857 is the older version of the BM867. The newer model got a new case and a dual display.

There's pics of both the BM859 (rebranded as Extech MM570A) & BM857 in this thread (pgs 1 - 2). Here's another thread that covers the BM869 (review & teardown).

Snagged my 857 for a bit under $80, so quite a steal indeed.