Bside.cn ADM01 - $13 multimeter - First impressions

[SA007]

For our hackerspace we were intrested in a number of multimeters for during arduino trainings etc.

So budget is low and this seems to be the cheapest non-toylike multimeters.
Received 2 today for evaluation, but it seems we are going to order more.

So far it seems very good value for money:

• Quite a good blastshield embedded in the casing.
• Ceramic UL marked fuses
• 2 PTC's as input protection
• Beeper is non-latching but very quick
• Autoranging is quite fast, < 1sec for 3 ranges
• So far accuracy seems on-par with the manual
• Manual is not useless at all
• Range selector has a solid feel, but not goldplated or anything special
• Casing itself also seems very solid, like it could easily survive a drop from a bench
• Probes have quite nice finish and good strain relief.
• Even a threaded insert on the battery cover

The are of course downsides

• No battery included
• Probes are not even remotely sharp
• Buttons are cheap trough-hole switches and take quite some force to operate, often shifting the meter, but not falling over.
• You have to take it apart to swap the fuses, not in the battery compartment.
• Volt and milli/microamp are on the same connectors, making it easy to accidentilly fry the fuse
• Hz function has a minimum resolution of 10 Hz and can only go to 20kHz

Some things I noticed so far:
Hz: quite accurate on sine/square/pulse, inaccurate on sawtooth.
On the back it says 'PATEN PENDING', don't know where you can register those...
View angle of the LCD is reasonable in all directions but up.

So far it seems like a very good meter considering the price, can't find any mayor downsides.

If anyone has any (not explicitly destructive) tests the want to see you can ask, but I don't have a cal lab or anything.

[Wytnucls]

Made by Mastech.

[Vgkid]

Pics would be nice.

[rsjsouza]

Pics would be nice.

Some here

[SA007]

Of course pictures

I tried to snap some pictures of the meter and insides.
Lighting is a bit of a hassle, so some are a bit grainy, but most are ok.

Fyi: they are multilevel-clickable up until the camera's full 10mp.



Gallery-ish: http://fotos.sa007.nl/Bside_ADM01/

[radhaz]

Looks pretty good for what it is. Are the banana jacks supported on the z axis?

[Vgkid]

That actually looks pretty good.

[miguelvp]

Source for the $13 price range would be nice as well

Although I did find it on ebay for close that price, I like that you can keep the probes attached to the back of the meter 

[paulie]

Appears to be a copy of UTI UT136b. Same features, specs, and price too. After the $5 bottom enders it is my favorite. It would be my number one if you didn't have to push the "func" button to get continuity and had signal generator like the cheapies.

[iloveelectronics]

I believe it's a rebadged Mastech MS8233D (which usually goes under the brand name Hyelec instead of Mastech, but it's the same factory).

[paulie]

I wonder who was first?

Anyway looking closer it appears the UT136b has advantages: Separate current jacks and 10mhz instead of 20khz. The jack thing is not that imporant to me but I do wish they had chosen continuity as default instead of diode check. The former is far more useful to me.

[SA007]

I bought them from here:
Ebay url...
$13.40 and discount is you buy more.

for unknown reason the seller does not list it as brand/type...

Could be a rebranded MS8233D, it doesn't have the non-contact voltage detector, but some parts are missing.
It is a new case though.

[Lightages]

It actually says MS8233D on the circuit board. It probably a down featured version. For $13 it is better than many from the looks of t.

[SA007]

I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality.
I've had $20 meters that were 'rated' 600V literally blow up in my face on regular mains voltage.

Our initial idea was to buy these, strip off the '600V max' and sticker it with 100V max.
But the build quality seems good enough that it would actually survive 600V without issues.
For the 'real' measuring we just grab a fluke, but buying 10 of them to measure 3.3 and 5V is a tad expensive.

[broderp]

Interesting find.

Can you tell us what the accuracy claimed on this is? Any specs of the meter as stated in the manual vs. what you found? 

I'm a sucker for decent cheap electronics, but more importantly, would make a good gift for my 13 year old son, and if it breaks or he doesn't stick with electronics~ I would get to use it..

[Lightages]

Except for the fuses not matching the CAT rating, I would basically trust this for CATII 600V as rated. I generally don't trust anything made by Mastech but this looks OK especially for the price.

[001]

it is  actually clone of mastech MS8223E

Few my mods:
- 8MHz quarz instead 4MHz gets unit more responsive
- main chip is FS9952 — You can add manual range. etc
- it is simple to combine hold and backlight functions in one button (quick or continuous pressure)

[firewalker]

Does it measure voltage with the mA fuse blown?

Alexander.