Shannon was trying to send me a tweezer to do a review video on, unfortunately there were issues with the item being returned due to the battery... so I still don't have it yet, I don't know if Shannon has given up trying to send it to me, I wouldn't blame them !
If Shannon is able to get a pair to me then I will do a review on them.
Hello dear Shannon
congratulation on releasing the tweezers.
on checking Ali, i am getting price of 183 USD instead of 109USD. is the price increased?
Because the $109 version is sold out (Plain ST42). Only the ones with leather case is available ($183). Either wait for him to restock or wait for kickstarter.
As thm_w said, we have sold almost all second batch of st42, the price is not for early birds as you.
New batch of ST42 is on the way, we can update the numbers in store next week.
And the price will be changed to early birds mode
The ST42 arrived today:
- several times I press on the joystick, I get a beep, but no changes in the menus. Solution: do not beep if the key is not accepted; eg: when in scroll mode, accept only Up/Down keys
The logic of this case is that we want to remind the user that you did press the button, but the function is empty. . .
We're trying to improve this, maybe it's a good idea to use left and right in menus for exiting and entering menus, as elsewhere.
- several times I press on the joystick, I get a beep, but no changes in the menus. Solution: do not beep if the key is not accepted; eg: when in scroll mode, accept only Up/Down keys
The logic of this case is that we want to remind the user that you did press the button, but the function is empty. . .
We're trying to improve this, maybe it's a good idea to use left and right in menus for exiting and entering menus, as elsewhere.
Perhaps a quick double-chirp or other 'different' sound in the case of input that doesn't work?
I'm not totally sure it wouldn't bring more confusion instead of helping without trying in practice, but maybe. 'Rejected input' feedback behavior could be made into an option setting (if it's worth the effort and menu space).
Received LCR tweezers today about 36 days after ordering, not bad in todays environment.
Like @eliocor posted #277 sometimes I get beeps with no action, almost always with the down key. Fiddling with this it acts like a bad switch, except for the beeps. Sometimes if I squint just right it works but usually not. This mostly effects the down button. Inevitably when the down works it won't scroll back up. As a programmer this seems like a software glitch, or maybe a crummy switch with less than optimal software dealing with its issues. Perhaps the down and left or right key are engaging at the same time or the left or right key is engaging when it should be the down.
While writing this I found a way to make it work. If I want to go down I have to kind of roll the switch from left to right as I pull down. The attached picture shows the button seems to be down and to the left of center. Some times it seems to look rotated also.
I think it's time to take it apart!
....
I think it's time to take it apart!... BTW we are encouraged by your comments on the comparison with other instruments,
and the performance of accuracy/test speed/auto mode/hold function/mechanical stability and so on.
We will continue to make it better.
Thank you all
....
I think it's time to take it apart!... BTW we are encouraged by your comments on the comparison with other instruments,
and the performance of accuracy/test speed/auto mode/hold function/mechanical stability and so on.
We will continue to make it better.
Thank you all
So I took the front cover off to look at the switch and the display went random and then froze. The switch still beeped. Then the screen went black, but the switch still beeped. Of course I thought I had trashed it. Measured 3.2V at some pads near the top right of the display. Didn't know at the time I could have measured the battery at the bottom right. The battery had measured 80% on the display a few minutes before, so I thought it was ok.
Put the device on the USB charger and went to bed. Sure enough, in the morning all is well, even the scroll down key seems fixed.
So the conclusions are:
1. Charge the device, even though the battery says it's ok. I should have known to do this but you may want to point it out for idiots like me.
2. Perhaps the battery level indicator is off or maybe it dropped real fast since it was a month in shipping.
3. Even when the switch was acting up the meter seemed to measure correctly. Seems a little weird that a lowly switch would need more voltage than a measurement. Perhaps the switch pulldown current in combination with the beep is enough to make the microprocessor glitch on low voltage.
Don't know if this is by design or what but on my device one of the four cover screws was slightly different:
3 screws 10mm long, 2mm dia, .83pitch
1 screw 11mm long, 2mm dia, .62pitch
Not noticeable until you put them side by side. This small difference will surly mess up the self tapping holes if exchanged enough. The longer one was on the top right looking at the back in sticker reading orientation on my particular unit.
However in resistance mode, it was not applying the offset calibration? It reads 25mR, which is high.
Tried running short CAL once, ran it again immediately after and now the screen is stuck displaying "--SHORT CAL--" there is no way for me to exit the screen. Might have to take it apart to reset it?
Maybe it needs an emergency reset or shutdown option, like holding button down will trigger a reset. Currently, as others noted, it just repeatedly beeps when you hold a button down.
We have released the low power protection in version 1.3.9
...
the other strange phenomenon is that you found the battery monitor function has some issue, we have not met before.
so before you teardown them, the battery voltage shows 80%,
after that, the battery is 3.2V tested by DMM.
Is the 80% displayed on the screen when you charge ST42?
We will try to repeat this issue.
...
and if you found this phenomenon again, Pls help us use the joystick switch to System->Service->Battery, and observe the battery voltage.
That will help us find out the root cause.
Really appreciate it.
On the screw issue, my concern is the thread pitch difference, not the length. All four screws should be the same pitch so you don't have to keep track of where it came from. I'd go with the course pitch.
On the screw issue, my concern is the thread pitch difference, not the length. All four screws should be the same pitch so you don't have to keep track of where it came from. I'd go with the course pitch.Agreed, it is poor form to use different thread pitches within a group of screws holding anything together.
...
So in conclusion:
I don't know what the battery display mV or the actual battery V was when I had scroll key issues.
The screen issue I had was from the flex connection from taking the cover off. It didn't immediately work when I put the cover on that night.
The fact it worked the next day and still does may have been better seating of the flex over time? Is there supposed to be a pad or something?
On the screw issue, my concern is the thread pitch difference, not the length. All four screws should be the same pitch so you don't have to keep track of where it came from. I'd go with the course pitch.
The recommendation is to put the tweezers on your desk, and the tweezers will consume the power of the battery and restart.
This process may spend a long time.
edit: tweezers just shut down (~16h), plugged them into USB again and its charging now. Will test them once battery has recovered.
edit2: seem to be working well after another CAL. Seriously impressed at how good these are at reading low value resistances and capacitance. Higher value resistors are usually good but occasionally off depending on what else is in circuit, eg one 10k resistor was reading 10k on fluke but ~6k on these in Rdc mode.
There is a menu option Measure -> Level -> 0.1/0.5/1.2V but this doesn't seem to affect Rdc mode. Rdc is fixed at 0.5V?
RDC is a constant current test mode, so the 1.2V/0.5V/0.1V voltage is the AC mode peak 2 peak amplitude, which is for the Auto Mode and L/C/R mode.
1. have you checked if the DUT res is 10kohm? you can use ST42 0.5V auto mode to do the On Board test.
2. Could you help us check the voltage on the 10kohm res when you use the RDC mode and Fluke doing the test?