Brymen BM-867 teardown pictures

[iloveelectronics]

I got this Brymen multimeter because of the great review Martin did on YouTube a while ago. It's a beautiful piece of equipment that's highly accurate and responsive, but not exactly cheap, and I didn't really want to open it up because I was afraid that I could mess it up. Until yesterday I got bored and thought what the heck, let's crack it open and see what it's like inside

From the little I know about this sort of stuff I reckon this Taiwanese made meter is indeed very well engineered. I'd say it's right up there with the Fluke or Gossen standards, or at least not far off.

I don't know enough to make many more comments on its build but here's a few things I noted:

1. The screws to open up the battery compartment is metal threaded, and captive, so they don't fall out and get lost.
2. The screws to open up the housing are self tappers, but also captive.
3. There are 2 PCB's inside, stacked up through some header pins on both sides. 4 metal threaded screws with washers hold them in place.
4. There are removable plastic blast shields around the input jacks and fuses.
5. There are plastic films between the aluminium shielding and the PCB's.
6. The 2 main chips on the boards are coded BTC 0197-0000 and BTC AD-85-4. I can't find any info about them on the web.
7. The input jacks have split conductors molded inside solid plastic tubes. The splitting is likely for the wrong input plug sensing mechanism.

I don't want to sound spammy but I do have a brand new one of these for sale on eBay. I'm not going to post any direct link to it but you should be able to find it with a simple search.

I can't seem to attach all the pictures in one post, so I'll split them into 2.

[iloveelectronics]

More pictures...

[iloveelectronics]

And in case you haven't watched Martin's review, here's it is:

[T4P]

Hmm, i always wondered who this "Frankie" is 

More pictures...

How much did it cost you in HKD? If you can get one and send it to me (Of course i'll pay the shipping) i'll most certainly deal with you but leave this topic for PM

[iloveelectronics]

Hmm, i always wondered who this "Frankie" is 

 

How much did it cost you in HKD? If you can get one and send it to me (Of course i'll pay the shipping) i'll most certainly deal with you but leave this topic for PM

I ordered it directly from Brymen's agent in Taiwan and they actually invoiced me in USD. Anyway, I'll send you a PM.

[Bored@Work]

I think Brymen needs to work a bit on their mechanical construction. The display board has a lot of cutouts, as if they really struggled to fit it.

The input protection looks a bit messy. That big resistor straddling two others looks really ugly, and the varistor on top does, too. On the left there is a vertically mounted resistor too close to the fuse for my liking. But they did go to some length with cutouts and compartments. And they used real fuses, not junk glass fuses. That meter might be much saver than the usual stuff we see here.

There are a lot of unpopulated components on the PCB. I thought that model is one of their top-of-the-line models. Would be interesting to know what features the unpopulated parts are supposed to be for.

[Lightages]

I agree that resistor looks a little close, but other than that the Brymen looks like the perfect multimeter for me. I have on on order, a BM869. This will be the last multimeter I buy I think. My other collection of meters will be used when I need more than one meter at a time.

After seeing the review by mjlorton, the review by he who had to leave, and this teardown, it is obvious that between all the options I have been considering that the Brymens are the best bang for the buck, extremely well made, well protected, and at 2/3 the price of the major brands for the same performance or better.

I would have already had a UEi DM397 if it weren't for tequipment dropping the ball so many times with me when I tried to buy from them. I am glad that happened because I Think I will be happier with the Brymen.

My other choices when looking for my "high end" meter were:
Fluke 87V at around $500 plus hipping
Agilent 125x at around $400 plus shipping
Amprobe AM-160-A at around $250 plus shipping of $40 +$55 for USB cable
UEi DM397at around $250 + $45 shipping including data cable
or
The Brymen BM869 at around $240 plus $29 shipping and data cable at $52, all in around $321.

[FenderBender]

Wait a second...this seems very similar to the Amprobe AM-250/270, AM-140/160 meters. Ex. The"BTC" labled chip. You'll notice the input protection circuitry is very similar and input jacks are the same type.

I would like to comment that a lot of the issues that seem to be prevalent in the the Brymen seem to be fixed or addressed better in the Amprobe. Input protection is still a bit messy but none of that bodge resistor nonsense. The Amprobe has routed isolation slots on the input protection circuitry. That one resistor that seems to be close to the fuse in my meter is assembled so that the resistor lead is facing away from the fuse contacts where on the Brymen that lead gets awfully close. Also seems a bit neater, but that could just be bias of owning that meter.

Both will probably perform well though.

Who makes who...? That is the question.

My teardown here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/product-reviews-photos-and-discussion/teardown-amprobe-am-270-digital-multimeter/

[Smokey]

Brymen is the OEM for some amprobe, greenlee, extech, etc.  The Extech rep confirmed this in another thread, for that extech at least.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-chat/3-dmms-spot-the-difference-%29/msg56100/#msg56100

edit: to add link

[FenderBender]

Goddamn I thought Amprobe actually designed these things. Hmmph.

[T4P]

The design talent that went into the DMM is EXTREMELY unbelievably good for a not so well-known brand!
Looks like 20years of design accumulation there, i could probably mistake it for a fluke

[FenderBender]

I'd agree. Overall very good design. The price is excellent also.

[zega]

Same chip BTC AD-85-4 is in my SANWA PC5000A, in the meantime was someone able to dig out datasheet for this chip?

[Lightages]

That IC is a Brymen proprietary part AFAIK. No data sheets available.