Can someone help me pick a DMM? Fluke 87V, BM789, BM215, UT-61E, etc..

[bdunham7]

Moral: Use gold leads.

Yes, the connections are always the weak point in real-life testing.  With solid connections, most decent meters will be good to within a count or two, or the equivalent of that.

I'm actually working on producing some improved ohms-testing probes for bench meters--they're supposedly being assembled now, but given the malaise infesting almost any business these days I'm not holding my breath.  Maybe someday I'll be able to show them off.

[rsjsouza]

The Aneng AN870 has terrible contrast

Not true.

Where's the UT61E in this picture? Oh yes, you don't have one!

The background of the the AN870's LCD has a slightly off putting bluish and the strength of the digits is not great at all when compared to many others including the UT61E

Another series of photos on my website
https://sites.google.com/view/vbeletronico/display-de-mult%C3%ADmetros

It also does not have a bargraph and PC communications.

I'll concede that. The Aneng is better for measuring but the Uni-T has a couple of extra talents.

I still wouldn't spend $80 on one though. Once you get to that price point you might as well save up for a couple more weeks and get a proper meter.

Me? If I needed a meter today I'd buy the Aneng then start saving for a Brymen.

And that's ok. It is your opinion.

Since you never had a UT61E, you don't know about how fast its autorange is - yes, including ohms in all ranges. The Aneng has a behaviour very common in several of the latest releases from China: the autorange comes from the top of the range (megohms) and cycles through all ranges to reach the ohms ranges. Measuring hundreds of kiloohms or megohms is ok-ish with the Aneng, but near the bottom it becomes extremely annoying.

BTW, Newark/Farnell is running a special on the UT61E with better protection (1kV) for $55.

The big problem with the UT61E is that you have no idea what input protection you're going to get. They make many variants with different amounts of protection components and it's a lottery which one you'll get.

Yes, there are two different ones nowadays: the chinese version with a very scant protection (the ones that were burned on Joe's tests) and another one just like the one for sale at Newark with beefier protection (which, considering Joe's tests, would probably still be dangerously close to being damaged but we can only speculate).

Again, Fungus, both the Aneng and the Uni-T have their place. The Aneng has bigger digits, NCV, a backlight, temperature, 20A input, higher diode testing, while the UT61E has 22000 counts, much faster autorange in all functions, bargraph, PC Comms, better tilting bale and so on.

[Anthocyanina]

I still wouldn't spend $80 on one though. Once you get to that price point you might as well save up for a couple more weeks and get a proper meter.

Me? If I needed a meter today I'd buy the Aneng then start saving for a Brymen.


The big problem with the UT61E is that you have no idea what input protection you're going to get. They make many variants with different amounts of protection components and it's a lottery which one you'll get.

At least the Anengs seem to survive Joe's grill starter test, the UT61E didn't.

The thing is, where i live, 80$ is already a lot of money, saving more than that for a significatnly better meter would take me a lot more than a few weeks or even more than a few months. Woud it be better then to keep saving and get something else maybe around may next year? ( winder how awful prices will be next year) How durable would the aneng or the uni-t be? I do need an ok multimeter mostly for resistance measurement soon, but if those meters won't last me for years, then i think it would be better to keep saving and figure out what to do without a good usable meter right now.

Aneng ... do you think i could get a better one for ohms in that range?

No.

or under 80$ they are all the same?

The Aneng is the best measurement bang per buck under $100. It's also a pretty solidly built meter.

If you buy the probemaster probes they'll still serve you when you eventually get a Brymen. 

Thank you! (and everyone who chimed in! )

[Fungus]

Where's the UT61E in this picture? Oh yes, you don't have one!

That's correct, I don't want one.

The background of the the AN870's LCD has a slightly off putting bluish and the strength of the digits is not great at all when compared to many others including the UT61E

Maybe, but you can't say it has "terrible contrast". It doesn't.

If you have both then feel free to upload a comparison photo like I did.

[rsjsouza]

Where's the UT61E in this picture? Oh yes, you don't have one!

That's correct, I don't want one.

C'mon, man!    So you are in a position where you can't make the claims about the UT61E objectively. That is my beef with your argument. I am no fanboy of Uni-T or its UT61E product - I scoffed at it for years before I got one on a fire sale somewhere and it gave me a good impression. Sure, it would have been much less impressive if I had an AN870 in my hands, but it is clearly a notch above it.

The background of the the AN870's LCD has a slightly off putting bluish and the strength of the digits is not great at all when compared to many others including the UT61E

Maybe, but you can't say it has "terrible contrast". It doesn't.

If you have both then feel free to upload a comparison photo like I did.

It is the worse contrast of all my meters. That classifies it as terrible. No photos at the time as my meters are somewhat in disarray due to a recent house move.

@Anthocyanina, I forgot to mention two details:
The UT61E for sale at Newark is a rebrand: Tenma 72-10415
My page with the LCD screens show the RM219, which is the same meter as the AN870.

[Anthocyanina]

@Anthocyanina, I forgot to mention two details:
The UT61E for sale at Newark is a rebrand: Tenma 72-10415
My page with the LCD screens show the RM219, which is the same meter as the AN870.

Was at newark's checkout, but it won't accept paypal! ( the only payment method i can use) i tried to find it or the Uni-T version anywhere that accepted paypal, but couldn't find it (where they also didn't charge too much for shipping). Found it on banggood but significantly more expensive ( 71$) so i went with the an870 and the probemaster probes! now waiting for them to arrive 

[Anthocyanina]

Both the probes and the multimeter have now arrived home! The probe master probes feel super nice, and i love their shape; however, they don't properly fit the AN870, the banana plug is a bit longer and it doesn't go in all the way and the probes come out quite easily from the meter but fortunately they still make good enough contact with the meter's sockets, as long as you don't move it around much, which is fine for what i do. touching the leads that came with the meter reads 40milliohms at the lowest, and with the probe master ones, usually reads 20milliohms and ocasionally reads lower, even 0 some times. I have a 2.2 0hm 0.01% resistor and with the probes that came with the meter + REL, it reads 2.20 ohms, with the probe master probes, i don't have to REL for it to read the same. I'm really happy with this combination, but wish the AN870 had deeper sockets so the probes would fit nicely 

One thing i didn't like about the multimeter is that when opening the bag it came in, it fell to the floor and the display window thing fell off, and in the second it took me to grab it and put it back together, cat hairs had invaded the space and my attempts at getting them out only resulted in more getting in! wish they used better glue for the window thing.

[rsjsouza]

I am sorry to hear about the display cover. For the price, unfortunately the mechanical robustness will be weaker than a mainstream meter.

Regarding the probes, did you see if their jacks have split contacts? You could try to expand them to have a more secure fit.
You could also try to tighten the circular terminals on the multimeter itself.
In my experience, loose probes are a source of headaches and frustration, especially when you most need a reliable reading.

[Fungus]

Both the probes and the multimeter have now arrived home! The probe master probes feel super nice, and i love their shape; however, they don't properly fit the AN870, the banana plug is a bit longer and it doesn't go in all the way and the probes come out quite easily from the meter

You could try trimming a bit of plastic off the super-long shrouds. See if they go further in.

[Anthocyanina]

I am sorry to hear about the display cover. For the price, unfortunately the mechanical robustness will be weaker than a mainstream meter.

Yeah, It's an unfortunate thing but i can live with that

Regarding the probes, did you see if their jacks have split contacts? You could try to expand them to have a more secure fit.
You could also try to tighten the circular terminals on the multimeter itself.
In my experience, loose probes are a source of headaches and frustration, especially when you most need a reliable reading.

The probes look like they use this plug style, which i think is why they feel loose, since it's narrow at the tip, while the included probes are straight. They aren't super loose, but they do come out very easily. I'll take a look later at the inside of the multimeter, I'd like to see if i could find the same kind of socket, the metal part at least, and replace it with a longer one since the metal in the multimeter socket is recessed like 5mm inside the plastic.

You could try trimming a bit of plastic off the super-long shrouds. See if they go further in.

I've thought about this but don't see an easy way to cut it symmetrically, i inserted a plastic rod in the socket and it's as deep as the shroud in the probes, but i insterted a piece of paper around it, and it's about 5mm shallower, so i think this would work, and i think this would be the easiest option if i can find a way to cut it nicely, thank you!

[Anthocyanina]

Well, I did it! having another set as a backup, i decided to try once i realised electrical tape could serve as a cutting guide; its width served as a perfect guide and i used an x-acto knife to slowly cut just barely above the tape. It isn't super clean but also isn't horribly bad, and the few mm i cut were just enough that the bananas fit snuggly in the multimeter sockets and are even fairly hard to rotate inside and remove.

[rsjsouza]

Congratulations on the work!