Author Topic: Agilent U1272A crappy soldering (Read 52915 times)

wraper · « **on:** April 25, 2013, 06:59:43 pm »

I taked apart my new Agilent U1272A multimeter and saw that a places where parts were not populated looks weird. Inspected it with a microscope and wow, all soldering is a pure crap. On some places it looks like that the parts will fall off if I touch them. Seems that a soldering paste they used was well expired. I can't believe this

, shame on you Agilent. All images are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/117212633093763827202/albums/5870856500768671777

DavidDLC · « **Reply #1 on:** April 25, 2013, 07:02:17 pm »

Man, I will return it immediately. You mentioned it is brand new.

David.

wraper · « **Reply #2 on:** April 25, 2013, 07:27:43 pm »

I bought this as Agilent bench PSU + free U1272A promotion about a week ago at EU Farnell.

DavidDLC · « **Reply #3 on:** April 25, 2013, 07:35:11 pm »

It does not matter, you should receive a quality product.

Contact them and tell them about the problem.

David.

KJDS · « **Reply #4 on:** April 25, 2013, 07:40:38 pm »

That's either very poor solder paste or something is amiss with the thermal gradients in the oven.

It's certainly not acceptable.

2nOrderEDO · « **Reply #5 on:** April 25, 2013, 07:57:12 pm »

I was very happy because that PSU + Free Agilent multimeter offer. We should wait until someone else buy that kit and teardown the multimeter. Maybe they have a bad batch and they are offering this promotion because they want to get rid of their stock.

sullyRD · « **Reply #6 on:** April 25, 2013, 08:53:32 pm »

Wrapper is correct "shame on you Agilent."...Bad Quality control, a meter like that will not last long i would return it.

casper.bang · « **Reply #7 on:** April 25, 2013, 09:16:06 pm »

Shit.. just ordered the same combo. However, Dave did a teardown which did not reveal anything remotely this nasty.

Corporate666 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 25, 2013, 09:28:02 pm »

That is absolute crap!

I have had boards come out like this and it was when we tried to use solder paste that was way, way beyond the expiration date and that had been left out and had most of the flux evaporate.

Solder paste is actually very accommodating - you have to *really* abuse it to get results like that. That is shockingly bad... should never have been let out the door like that. Hope you can return it for one that was made right!

2nOrderEDO · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2013, 09:31:07 pm »

Quote from: casper.bang on April 25, 2013, 09:16:06 pm

Shit.. just ordered the same combo. However, Dave did a teardown which did not reveal anything remotely this nasty.

Teardown your multimeter and keep us updated!

uoficowboy · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2013, 09:37:14 pm »

I took apart one of our U1272As that we got through the promotion and the soldering looked just fine on it. I think you got a bad batch.

Barny · « **Reply #11 on:** April 25, 2013, 09:40:54 pm »

My U1272A should arrive tomorrow.

I'll take a look and share the results.

wraper · « **Reply #12 on:** April 25, 2013, 10:50:31 pm »

If anyone takes apart his multimeter to check this please use some kind of magnifying. It didn't look bad at first glance when I looked with naked eyes.

Mike Warren · « **Reply #13 on:** April 26, 2013, 01:23:26 am »

That's some of the crappiest silk screening I've seen for a long time, too.

I, too suspect that this is why they are being given away, but is it really worth Agilent's good name to do something like this?

Lightages · « **Reply #14 on:** April 26, 2013, 01:43:23 am »

So with the bugs in the software, the weird recovery from over voltage on the ohms range, and now this do we need to rethink Agilent as something to recommend? I hope we get to see inside more of these from others soon.

BravoV · « **Reply #15 on:** April 26, 2013, 02:01:47 am »

You should pm Mike Kawasaki, he works for Agilent and also a forum member here -> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=12309 or email him directly mike_kawasaki@agilent.com pointing to this thread to hear his reply here.

This is definitely a bad press for Agilent, they should rectify this asap, not good especially in this highly competitive market for handheld DMM.

Corporate666 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 26, 2013, 02:06:27 am »

Quote from: Lightages on April 26, 2013, 01:43:23 am

So with the bugs in the software, the weird recovery from over voltage on the ohms range, and now this do we need to rethink Agilent as something to recommend? I hope we get to see inside more of these from others soon.

I actually hope that someone from Agilent gets in touch with this forum, or at least with Dave. I notice the OP is in Latvia. I am not sure if Agilent uses a central facility for manufacturing or regional centers, but there is no way such soldering work can be in line with company standards. So the big questions are what happened and what are they going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again? I wonder if it was just a lazy employee at Agilent... or perhaps it's a Chinese supplier trying to save a few bucks by using old expired solder paste?

BravoV · « **Reply #17 on:** April 26, 2013, 02:10:58 am »

Quote from: Corporate666 on April 26, 2013, 02:06:27 am

I wonder if it was just a lazy employee at Agilent... or perhaps it's a Chinese supplier trying to save a few bucks by using old expired solder paste?

With the price range they charged, if this happened to me, I don't care, its their problem, I'd expect they will provide a full replacement and free of charge.

To Dave : If you're reading this, you should make some noise at your tweet there about this.

EEVblog · « **Reply #18 on:** April 26, 2013, 02:27:01 am »

Quote from: casper.bang on April 25, 2013, 09:16:06 pm

Shit.. just ordered the same combo. However, Dave did a teardown which did not reveal anything remotely this nasty.

Not at all. Mine was acceptable.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eevblog/sets/72157626761928610/

reagle · « **Reply #19 on:** April 26, 2013, 03:10:22 am »

Quote from: Mike Warren on April 26, 2013, 01:23:26 am

That's some of the crappiest silk screening I've seen for a long time, too.

I, too suspect that this is why they are being given away, but is it really worth Agilent's good name to do something like this?

Drill registration is a crappy as well

poorchava · « **Reply #20 on:** April 26, 2013, 06:18:13 am »

Looks to me like the PCBs might have expired. I have seen similar effect on some occasions when the vacuum sealed container with PCBs was damaged. Even ENIG goes bad after some time. HASL or OSP even more so.

Maybe they have realized that they manufactured a bad batch and decided to give them away thinking that people won't file that many claims ("well, it was free, what did u expect").

casper.bang · « **Reply #21 on:** April 26, 2013, 10:27:27 am »

Quote from: 2nOrderEDO on April 25, 2013, 09:31:07 pm

Teardown your multimeter and keep us updated!

I definitely will. The combo is in back-order though, back in stock may 1'st so I reckon it will be a few weeks before I receive it.

wraper · « **Reply #22 on:** April 26, 2013, 10:42:40 am »

Hope you will get different batch then.

blackdog · « **Reply #23 on:** April 26, 2013, 10:55:49 am »

Hi,

I opend my Agilent u1272a and the soldering is CRAP!

Soldermask is OK.

This meter game with a Agilent powersupply.

I have never seen this bad quality in a HP ore a Agilent product :-(

Kind regarts,
Bram

casper.bang · « **Reply #24 on:** April 26, 2013, 11:24:57 am »

Assuming Agilent is aware of this and it's at the heart of their free campaign (meaning not liable for guarantee since it was never technically purchased), what is the prospect of repairing it yourself? I assume a reflow ain't going to change much? $:-\$


EEVblog Main Site	EEVblog on Youtube	EEVblog on Twitter	EEVblog on Facebook	EEVblog on Odysee

Author Topic: Agilent U1272A crappy soldering (Read 52915 times)

Share me