Bunch of keysight U1252B meters around

[bitseeker]

However when I push the batter test the bar graph advances to 2.6 on the display.  Took the battery out and measured the terminal voltage  at 6.7V.  Is this to be expected?

The bar graph display is 0-100% for battery charge level, rather than voltage.

[Heffa]

One more unit (hopefully soon) on the way to Sweden 

Thanks for the heads-up on this!

[BU508A]

However when I push the batter test the bar graph advances to 2.6 on the display.  Took the battery out and measured the terminal voltage  at 6.7V.  Is this to be expected?

The bar graph display is 0-100% for battery charge level, rather than voltage.

I've kicked out the Powerex MiMH battery, since I do not trust this thing after 5 years not used etc.
I replaced it with this:
http://cpc.farnell.com/ansmann/5035453/battery-9v-300mah-precharged-1pk/dp/BT04675

It is working very well.

[Jono427]

https://servicenotes.literature.keysight.com/litapp/SearchSN.do?method=openExternalSNSearch&prodNum=u1252b

FYI - might want to check if you serial is in any of these (depending on how you use it).

Not sure if you can get the free piece for U1252B-06 still, but mine is not in that serial range anyway.

[Iwanushka]

https://servicenotes.literature.keysight.com/litapp/SearchSN.do?method=openExternalSNSearch&prodNum=u1252b

FYI - might want to check if you serial is in any of these (depending on how you use it).

Not sure if you can get the free piece for U1252B-06 still, but mine is not in that serial range anyway.

My Both DMMs have serials with MY533 (got it from Farnell) and MY532 got it of Ebay, so both of them are in oldest 3 Lists,but only A-ERR worries me, Lets hope they will work w/o issues for rest of their lives.

[cncjerry]

There was a second screen protector fitted on my meter by the way and I regret removing it.  The underlying plastic screen marks easily.  I'm going to purchase a cell phone cover that spans the screen and cut it to fit.

Yep, should have left well enough alone.  It is clearer but they put that second protector on there for a reason.

Glad everyone is enjoying their meters.

[bitseeker]

And they did a pretty nice job with that screen protector. I didn't even notice it until someone mentioned it in this thread. I had to take a really close look to see that the corners were cut with a larger radius.

[grumpydoc]

Well, here's a thing

I arrived home to find a 2nd U1252B - or rather the first, which seems to have emerged from a USPS generated wormhole.

I'll see how the seller wants to handle it

[bitseeker]

Heh, just the other day, the USPS finally delivered to me an eBay purchase that was shipped, and supposedly delivered according to the tracking info, four months ago. Four months!

[PTR_1275]

The boss at my new work saw my meter and really liked it. After letting the other engineers use it for a few days they liked it for measurements away from the benches so he bought 4 of them. They arrived yesterday and were all agilent branded ones, so a bit older than my keysight branded one. I'll check the cal certificates to see what age they are. The low pass filter for DC was off by default on the agilent ones (but it was on with my keysight). The seller seems to still have lots of them available, has anyone worked out where they came from yet?

[Octane]

Thanks for the brilliant info! Bought one for $200+shipping!

[bitseeker]

The seller seems to still have lots of them available, has anyone worked out where they came from yet?

Yep, he still has lots of them. They were from a large job lot purchase of Agilent/Keysight equipment for an industrial project some years ago. Apparently, they didn't use/need the DMMs that were part of the purchase, hence their still being new in the box.

[grumpydoc]

Well I now have a spare

If anyone in the UK wants to buy it then PM me

Aug 2013 cal v217 firmware. Looks to be in spec compared with my DMMCheck/Keithley 2015 but I can't do an exhaustive calibration check.

£200 if anyone wants it - that's cheaper than buying off nmori87-us which comes to about £237 after all charges and fees, even if you offer him $200.

[Metermeister]

Can someone tell me how this model stacks up against the Keysight U1251B.
I was about to purchase the latter but now I'm intrigued. TIA

[HighVoltage]

Can someone tell me how this model stacks up against the Keysight U1251B.
I was about to purchase the latter but now I'm intrigued. TIA

The accuracy of the U1251B is a little lower and a few features are missing, compared to the U1252B.
I have the U1253B, which is the same as the U1252B it just has the OLED display.

Charging the battery for the U1253B takes 3 hours!

[Octane]

Got mine today. Packaging was less then ideal (not padding in between USPS box and meter box), but it survived.
Batterie was empty, but it seems that I can charge it. It says "bAt" on display and something like ~205 m counting down (I assume this are minutes till full!?)

Calibration certificate is from: September 15th, 2012. So rather old. Couldn't look the firmware version up yet.
BTW, it is an "Agilent" one.

After removing the first screen protector I saw a bubble under the second one and decided to remove the second one as well.
Wrong move.  Now I have the sticky stuff messing up the display and no alcohol at hand for cleaning it. I hope I can fix that.
Otherwise it looks good.

I have to confirm that the seller immediately marks it as shipped in eBay, but in my case it only took I'm about a day to bring it to the post office. The shipping from there was pretty fast.

Michael

[slothsd]

Received mine today. Packing is same as poster above with no bubble wrap inside. Cal cert is 31 Aug 2012 and is Agilent branded. Haven't used the packed NiMH bat and instead used an alkaline 9V bat. NiMH measured 2.5V with the meter.

Best offer is was $200 immediate. Tried $195 and the seller came back with $215 so $200 looks to be the sweet spot.

Ordered 31 March and shipped April 4th.

[bitseeker]

Batterie was empty, but it seems that I can charge it. It says "bAt" on display and something like ~205 m counting down (I assume this are minutes till full!?)

The charge circuit monitors the battery to determine when it's full. The countdown timer is just a backup in case it doesn't detect when the battery is full.

Calibration certificate is from: September 15th, 2012. So rather old. Couldn't look the firmware version up yet.

Turn off the meter. Hold down the Null button. Turn on. Release the Null button and the version will be displayed. The latest is 218.

I have to confirm that the seller immediately marks it as shipped in eBay, but in my case it only took I'm about a day to bring it to the post office. The shipping from there was pretty fast.

If a seller purchases shipping via eBay, then eBay will immediately mark the item as shipped and insert the tracking number. eBay doesn't track when it is actually handed off to the carrier.

[Octane]

The charge circuit monitors the battery to determine when it's full. The countdown timer is just a backup in case it doesn't detect when the battery is full.

Thanks, just read that in the manual.

Turn off the meter. Hold down the Null button. Turn on. Release the Null button and the version will be displayed. The latest is 218.

Ah, there we go. FW version is 217. This can't be upgraded in the field, correct?

If a seller purchases shipping via eBay, then eBay will immediately mark the item as shipped and insert the tracking number. eBay doesn't track when it is actually handed off to the carrier.

Ok, didn't know that. Not very clever....

[Iwanushka]

You can ignore 218 FW as far as I know it just enables LPF by default, which you can and need to do in Setup to make it immune to RF noise.

[famalex]

Well, I received my second u1252b two days ago.  The first was Keysight brand, I bought it six months ago,  and the "new" is Agilent. The seller has  warned me about it. Calibration certificate  (of course) is from 2012, FW 217.  Surely,  the battery lost its original capacity,  the time for full charging was only 20 min. Absolutely natural inevitable degradation. Everything is normal here.   After initial switching on I saw some glare and several (normally inactive) segments on the display. I thought that my device, or at least the display, is dead.  Fortunately this abnormality gradually disappeared after 10-15 min of working. LCD displays also degrade when not working for many time, but this is reversible.  In any case,  I hope so.  We will see.  Oh yeah,  the rotary switch! It is wery tight. Certainly for the strong men.   It is necessary to hold the device with both hands to switch it!  Maybe I need to grease it?...   Okay,  okay, I'm joking.  As regards the accuracy,  needs some time to draw conclusions. Perhaps, I  send it for calibration (€60).

[bitseeker]

The NiMH battery, after sitting in storage for a long time, may also come back after a few charge-discharge cycles. So, don't give up on it just yet.

A little lubrication on the rotary switch, if accessible, may help. Otherwise, it'll probably loosen up with some use.

[Iwanushka]

Rotary switch on u1252b is firm and needs more force than squishy/loose ones like on u1282a or u1272a, u1272a is better than u1282a but I hate them it's hard to tell if you set it right, best one from agilent for me is u1252b rotary switch

Edit: and yes NiMH batteries recover after a few cycles

[tooki]

USPS shows mine is out for delivery today. We shall see if it is a meter, or a box of rocks!

Mine arrived yesterday, at my friend's house in USA. I'll be skyping with him to check the units, but given everyone else's experiences, I doubt there will be any issues.

So my friend brought me one of the meters on his visit over here. Keysight branded, firmware 2.18, calibration cert is from March 18, 2015. Powerex battery came with 60% charge. I turned off the LPF, since it slows down the measurement speed so much as to make me rip my hair out. (Since I also picked up a Keithley 2015 recently, I've become spoiled with regards to measurement speed.)

[Kuro]

Let us know how much the customs officers made you bleed...