DER EE DE-5203 first impressions

[MartinX]

Today I received the DER EE DE-5203 multimeter , I was looking for a simple quality meter and I looked at Fluke 17B+ and Hioki 4212. I have the DER EE DE-5000 LCR meter and I like it so I did a search for DER EE multimeters on Ebay not expecting much because they have been pretty rare in the past but now there is one seller selling the DE-5203 for 105$. This made me change my mind about the other meters because the DE-5203 looks like pretty good bang for the buck compared to the other two, high resolution 22000 counts, true RMS with good bandwidth and selectable filters, 0.1% basic DC accuracy, wide capacitance range and 1pF resolution, I could not find any potentially annoying traits so I went for it.

Now that I have had a look at it in real life I must say the first impression is good, one of the things I worried slightly about was the not so high display update speed but it is OK I think, and the bar graph seems to have a much higher update speed than the numerals. The auto power off can be turned off thank you and the back light have a healthy 60s burn time and a dedicated button. Auto range speed is normal and it does not seem to overshoot, I thought I saw some overshoot one time but it does not seem to be very repeatable. Mechanically the thing is solid no twisting possible, like a brick, the range switch feel is not the best I experienced but I don´t suspect any trouble from it, a white knob is probably not the best choice, no dirty fingers allowed.


Pictures:

1: The box.

2: Content in box

3: Battery and fuse access under the lid, metal inserts for the screws.

4: The probes, feels good, flexible cables, not so sharp points, the shrouds does not seem to bee detachable but they are not of the most obtrusive kind.

5: One of the reasons I wanted the 22000 counts is the resolution measuring 12V vehicle stuff.

[Lightages]

That looks like a nice buy. You need to spend extra for the TC? 2 updates per second is really slow too.

[mirkot]

Probe shrouds are definitely detachable. I got same ones with my Hioki 4212 which apparently comes from the same factory. You can see more than few similarities in my post from yesterday. I even got the same batteries. 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hioki-4212-multimeter-pictures/new/

[Maxlor]

22000 counts, the accuracy and the peak button make me suspect it uses the Cyrustek ES51922, same as the UT61E. It seems though that Der-EE make much better use of the capabilities of the chip, i.e. they don't leave half of the utility functions unused, which is nice.

Maybe you can also open it up and show how it's constructed inside? If it's solid inside, it seems to me that $105 is a pretty good price for what you get. Yes, the UT61E now costs half that, but that's cut-throat pricing... it used to be 50% more expensive. I'd accept that premium for a meter with the same chip if it came without the annoyances and drift of the UT61E.

[crispy_tofu]

Wow, great multimeter!
Now let us see the insides... 

[MartinX]

Lightages, no temperature probe included, I tried a K-type to DMM adaptor from another multimeter and it seemed to work fine so the original adapter is nothing special, you get 0.1 degree resolution on temperature, nice.

Mirkot, I looked at the probes again and they are not the same as the ones from the Hioki multimeter, the shroud is not detachable, I tried really hard to pull or pry them of but they would not budge, on closer inspection the tiny seam from the plastic moulding tool aligns perfectly on the shroud and the rest of the probe on both probes so I have to conclude they are one piece.


I thought there might be a demand for pictures of the inside, so here are some more pictures:

Pictures

1: Overview of the board, no main chip here! Wires from the battery holder permanently attached.

2: Lower part of board, input protection and lots of it, insulation slots, seems like a serious effort.

3: Upper part of board, 14pin SOIC marked ES636 is a copy of AD636 RMS converter from Cyrustek.

4: Other side of board still no main chip visible but a little bit more of the input protection. I found the main chip under the display, no surprise there, unfortunately it looks like the display is held in place by four plastic legs on the display that has a friction fit in the holes in the PCB so if I pry the display off the board I am not sure there will be enough friction left the second time the display is mounted to hold it securely, it's a zebra strip between the display and PCB. I have to confess I chickened out here and left  the display in place, sorry.

[Wytnucls]

Looks reasonably well built, with decent input protection. Something they could have done better perhaps is the battery terminals connections to the PCB.

[Paul Moir]

Interesting about the unpopulated IR port:  is there any hints in the case about where a window might go?
If you still have it apart, what's the SOIC under the current shunt?  Is it a voltage reference? 

[MartinX]

There is a square recess on the bottom, looks just like the DE-5000 LCR meter IR port but no transparent insert in the multimeter. The IC is a Texas 27L2C micropower opamp, amplifier for the current shunt I guess.

[Maxlor]

What are those slotted components in the place where one'd normally find the MOVs? Also, what's that heatshrunk thing on top of the speaker?

[retiredcaps]

What are those slotted components in the place where one'd normally find the MOVs? Also, what's that heatshrunk thing on top of the speaker?

The orange component silkscreen is SPG (sparkgrap).  The heatshrunk component is silkscreened L1 which is an inductor.