EEVBlog 121GW Discussion thread

[Kean]

Hi, there is any software for windows or iPhone for data logging via Bluetooth?

The non-official iPhone app is Meteor: search for "Meteor for 121GW" or https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meteor-for-121gw/id1452124710
The official Windows app available on Microsoft Store: search for "EEVblog" or https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9N2681HJRTM8

[2X]

I found that the Sigrok supports the 121GW from a David's post but how can I connect it with Sigrok... I download the software but I can't find a Bluetooth option.
Do you know how can I connect it with the Sigrok?


https://sigrok.org/wiki/EEVBlog_121GW

https://youtu.be/vWRJUp93Ab8?si=3Dd7W5UJvc3rSV4w

[2X]

Hi, there is any software for windows or iPhone for data logging via Bluetooth?

The non-official iPhone app is Meteor: search for "Meteor for 121GW" or https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meteor-for-121gw/id1452124710
The official Windows app available on Microsoft Store: search for "EEVblog" or https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9N2681HJRTM8

Unfortunately the windows application is not available for some reason.

[Kean]

Hi, there is any software for windows or iPhone for data logging via Bluetooth?

The non-official iPhone app is Meteor: search for "Meteor for 121GW" or https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meteor-for-121gw/id1452124710
The official Windows app available on Microsoft Store: search for "EEVblog" or https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9N2681HJRTM8

Unfortunately the windows application is not available for some reason.

Seems to be a issue with Microsoft blocking installs on Windows 11.  The application source code is at least available if needed.  We discuss a way to side-load the app in this thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/eevblog-121gw-software-for-win-android/

There is also some discussion in that thread about Sigrok, but not sure anyone has got that working with Windows.  That might need some mucking around to get the BLE to serial python connection working.

[gamerpaddy]

it can be downloaded using https://store.rg-adguard.net/ (select .appxbundle
you can then unpack it using 7zip or double click install it.
to run the unpacked x64 exe you need to get the missing vcredist dlls, havent got that to work tho

[2X]

If any guy could make it work with Sigrok on windows please tell me how.

I download all the files where the Dave has on the github but there is no an exe file. How can I install the app on windows. From the windows store unfortunately I can't download it.

From the store.rg I can't download the two .appxbundle where I found.
I am getting an error... The requested url could not be retrieved.

Also from the windows app I am not sure that you can log and export the data on excel file.

Any suggestions for a windows app or how to install Dave's app or how to make Sigrok to work?


Edit: I changed the location of my PC to United States of America and I download it ok. I believe it is something for developers signatures...some are maybe recognized in USA and not in Europe.

[Kean]

I will attempt to build a new version of the Windows App for distribution.  Give me a day or two.

Edit 1:
I have been able to build the UWP app using VS2017, but it is reporting lots of issues.  I can't build the iOS or Android apps with what I have installed.
The app starts and it can connect to my 121GW, but it is not showing any display.  It is clearly communicating though as I can change the mode and range from the app.
It also looks quite different to the Windows Store version - I have long suspected this is a newer version of the source than available on the MS Store.
I don't have time to do much debugging right now, but will try look at it again soon.  This has been on my to-do list for a while.

Edit 2:
After a lot of mucking around due to the code being so old, and not having the original development environment, I updated a bunch of stuff and then had to fix even more stuff.

I have it compiling again, and after adding some debug statements and error handing it is now displaying an LCD - but not with the correct data.  The data packets are not being interpreted correctly.  At first glance the data seems correct, so it is just not converting properly between bytes and hex before decoding.  This bit should not be hard to fix, just poor handing of byte encoding as UTF-8 I think.

While I was at it, I started fixing the splash screen and icons which seem to be missing from the UWP code in GitHub.  Even the app name wasn't set correctly.  Still a few UI issues, but I won't spend much time on those.

The big issue then becomes distribution, as I don't have a current code signing certificate.  I might ask Dave how he feels about pushing it to his MS Store account, assuming he still has access.

Edit 3:
OK, I had to do major edits to the packet decoding.  I don't know how or if this code ever worked.  It expected the wrong packet size, and many of the byte offsets (but not all) were off by one.  It is now mostly working, but every now and again it seems to lose data (maybe it cannot keep up in debug mode) and then throws exceptions due to garbage data and poor error handing.  It doesn't do a checksum validation, so adding that will help.

The code still seems to be missing some UI features (some text and icons), and some SVG data is bad so some LCD symbols look terrible.

Not sure if it is worth spending much more time on it without knowing if it will be useful to someone.  I am happy to put the fixed code up on Github either way.

[2X]

Until now I installed (with changed location of my PC to United States of America from Greece) in windows 10 & 11. The problem now is that the multimeter is not connected with the PC; both in windows 10 & 11. I used on both PCs the below Bluetooth (V4.0 & v5.0) adapters but no communication. Instead with the "Meteor for 121GW" it work fine.

TP-Link Bluetooth USB Adapter UB500: Bluetooth 5.0
TP-Link Bluetooth USB Adapter UB400: Bluetooth 4.0

Meteor for 121GW
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meteor-for-121gw/id1452124710

EEVblog/EEVblog-121GW - github
https://gitlab.com/eevblog/app-121gw

Thanks to all of you for your replies and especially to "Kean".

[Kean]

Until now I installed (with changed location of my PC to United States of America from Greece) in windows 10 & 11. The problem now is that the multimeter is not connected with the PC; both in windows 10 & 11. I used on both PCs the below Bluetooth (V4.0 & v5.0) adapters but no communication. Instead with the "Meteor for 121GW" it work fine.

I am able to get the EEVblog app in the MS Store to connect using the built-in Bluetooth on my Asus Zenbook (Intel Wireless module).
On a different PC in my lab (an old HP Elite 8300 SFF) using a Simplecom USB Bluetooth 5.0 Adapter (NB409).
Both computers running Windows 10.

Just to confirm... are you enabling BT on the 121GW by holding the "1ms PEAK" button for 1 second?
BT icon should then appear on the LCD.

Forget that - you must have done that if you had the Meteor app connecting.
But I did occasionally have some issues when switching devices, so maybe you will need to turn it off and on again.

[2X]

After half a day of trial and error I found that the problem was the "Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R)" driver. Only when I disable this driver and then disable and renable the bluetooth adapter then the bluetooth works (the bluetooth adapters didn't recognize any other device like my JBL speaker). I don't know if this is a bad luck or because the windows are windows!
I found this solution where and after a restart the "Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R)" driver stays disabled. If anyone knows another solution please tell me. At the pictures I have the steps where I follow.

One more thing is that the 121GW windows software don't have all the options like the iphone app even at the preview screenshots on the windows store shows more options.

Working bluetooth adapters on windows 10 & 11:
TP-Link Bluetooth USB Adapter UB500: Bluetooth 5.0
TP-Link Bluetooth USB Adapter UB400: Bluetooth 4.0
Asus Bluetooth USB Adapter USB-BT500: Bluetooth 5.0

[Kean]

After half a day of trial and error I found that the problem was the "Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R)" driver. Only when I disable this driver and then disable and renable the bluetooth adapter then the bluetooth works (the bluetooth adapters didn't recognize any other device like my JBL speaker). I don't know if this is a bad luck or because the windows are windows!

Weird, because that is the exact driver I am using on my laptop and it is fine.  Do you have an Intel wireless card installed?  Maybe it has a fault...
At least you found a workaround, and it wasn't the EEVblog software.

One more thing is that the 121GW windows software don't have all the options like the iphone app even at the preview screenshots on the windows store shows more options.

Try resizing the window to portrait mode and everything shown in that screenshot *should* appear - LCD simulation, row of buttons, and graph.
I saw *should* because someone else who wasn't running Windows English language build also reported they were missing the row of buttons, but although they were invisible they did work!

Found the link: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/eevblog-121gw-software-for-win-android/msg5844527/#msg5844527

I have updated my earlier post with some edits on how I progressed with rebuilding the EEVblog app for Windows.  I made progress, but it needs much more work which I won't have time for anytime soon.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/eevblog-121gw-discussion-thread/msg6035611/#msg6035611

[2X]

Weird, because that is the exact driver I am using on my laptop and it is fine.  Do you have an Intel wireless card installed?  Maybe it has a fault...
At least you found a workaround, and it wasn't the EEVblog software.

I don't have any Bluetooth card... Maybe this is from something where I had installed in order to check it.
I believe it is software issue between drivers and not hardware issue.

Many thanks again for your help and your spending time to reply and fix the app.

[bicycleguy]

While we're on the topic of small things in the manual anyway, I figured I'd mention a few I noticed while perusing it today.
...

• p16 notes lithium batteries may cause issues. What about NiMH? I'd guess no problem, but would be nice to see it mentioned as well.
• p18 footnote for DC 50 µA range notes something should be "REL'd out." Is that referring to the section "RELATIVE MEASUREMENT (REL)"? That section only mentions use for resistance measurements, not current. And the section on current measurement doesn't provide additional details either.

Again, none of these are a big deal. I don't own a 121GW, but it's a very intriguing product and I'm strongly considering it. Especially because I ordered a Brymen 789 seven weeks ago from WElectron, but it's still backordered, and I'm getting impatient to have a new toy to play with 

Iv'e used NiMH in my KickStarter meter since new and kept and analyzed relatively good records.  I charge the Energizers when they get to 5.0V by the internal check.  Been using the same 4 batteries since 2018.  They last from 2 to 8 months depending on use, although they are closer to the low side lately(old batteries not use)

Great meter for measuring usb currents very accurately, made an adapter cord since I use it so much.

Recommend the Meteor App for iPhone Bluetooth.

Logging on the SD card is extremely useful and handy after adding an access slot to the back so I don't have to take the cover off to get the card out.

[2X]

I will attempt to build a new version of the Windows App for distribution.  Give me a day or two.

Edit 1:
I have been able to build the UWP app using VS2017, but it is reporting lots of issues.  I can't build the iOS or Android apps with what I have installed.
The app starts and it can connect to my 121GW, but it is not showing any display.  It is clearly communicating though as I can change the mode and range from the app.
It also looks quite different to the Windows Store version - I have long suspected this is a newer version of the source than available on the MS Store.
I don't have time to do much debugging right now, but will try look at it again soon.  This has been on my to-do list for a while.

Edit 2:
After a lot of mucking around due to the code being so old, and not having the original development environment, I updated a bunch of stuff and then had to fix even more stuff.

I have it compiling again, and after adding some debug statements and error handing it is now displaying an LCD - but not with the correct data.  The data packets are not being interpreted correctly.  At first glance the data seems correct, so it is just not converting properly between bytes and hex before decoding.  This bit should not be hard to fix, just poor handing of byte encoding as UTF-8 I think.

While I was at it, I started fixing the splash screen and icons which seem to be missing from the UWP code in GitHub.  Even the app name wasn't set correctly.  Still a few UI issues, but I won't spend much time on those.

The big issue then becomes distribution, as I don't have a current code signing certificate.  I might ask Dave how he feels about pushing it to his MS Store account, assuming he still has access.

Edit 3:
OK, I had to do major edits to the packet decoding.  I don't know how or if this code ever worked.  It expected the wrong packet size, and many of the byte offsets (but not all) were off by one.  It is now mostly working, but every now and again it seems to lose data (maybe it cannot keep up in debug mode) and then throws exceptions due to garbage data and poor error handing.  It doesn't do a checksum validation, so adding that will help.

The code still seems to be missing some UI features (some text and icons), and some SVG data is bad so some LCD symbols look terrible.

Not sure if it is worth spending much more time on it without knowing if it will be useful to someone.  I am happy to put the fixed code up on Github either way.

When it is ready please post the github link.
Thanks a lot.

[EEVblog]

Not sure if it is worth spending much more time on it without knowing if it will be useful to someone.  I am happy to put the fixed code up on Github either way.

Thanks. Isn't that what github is good for, like making a Fork of the original code etc?

[Kean]

Thanks. Isn't that what github is good for, like making a Fork of the original code etc?

Yes, but things are rarely that easy... especially when working on someone else's old code that you are not familiar with.

In this case, the code on Github does not match the released app on the MS Store.  That is version 1.4.65 vs the GitHub version of 1.0.4 (based on the package manifest).

I looked at the GitLab copy, and it doesn't appear significantly different other than the APK you added.  There are some branches on both GitHub and GitLab which I might review further, but based on a quick look at the commit history those seem like tests or incomplete refactoring.

I was able to build the app with the GitHut code, but it barely worked.  I updated a bunch of stuff which made things even worse, but I eventually fixed those and got it running.  It could see and connect to my 121GW (and a bunch of non EEVblog BLE devices in my lab) but it could not process the data returned by the 121GW.  The packet processing made no sense per the documented protocol.  I was able to fix that, but it took more than a few edits.  It is still dodgy as it does very little error checking.

Most of the icons/images are missing in the repository, although there are some in the Android codebase which I reused in my build.  I have since extracted better ones from the DLL of the published Windows version.  It will still take some time to merge those back in.  Beyond that I have no idea how stable it will be considering there is likely to be a bunch of other missing stuff that wasn't committed to GitLab.  In particular, the SVG handling needs work at the LCD replica of some annunciators looks terrible.

I did all of this thinking it would just be a quick recompile (haha!), so I didn't fork it or do anything in a way to make it easy for me to now create commits or a pull request.  I will have to do lots of file comparisons and probably start fresh.  Ideally I will break the changes into several commits for different issues.  Thankfully I took a few notes of what I did.

This has been on my list of things to look at for a while but I don't see any huge rush to get it going again considering there has only been one one fork in 8 years, and that is inactive with no commits.  I am happy to spend some more time on it, but it can't be a priority over my own work.

I also was in a car accident last week, so that has not been good for my stress levels or finances...

The new fork is at https://github.com/electrokean/EEVblog-121GW but there is nothing to see yet.

I will initially just be looking at updating the Windows app.  I have some experience with Android and iPhone app, but I have mostly worked with C# .NET on Windows.  It might make sense to start again with a new cross platform tool, but I've not used one I liked.

Properly publishing the app would require some coordination with you for store account access and app signing.

[EEVblog]

Yes, but things are rarely that easy... especially when working on someone else's old code that you are not familiar with.
In this case, the code on Github does not match the released app on the MS Store.  That is version 1.4.65 vs the GitHub version of 1.0.4 (based on the package manifest).

Wow, that's odd, thanks, I'll have to take a look. I thought we uploaded the latest code David2 had before he left.

[2X]

Hi, any news about the new windows version?

[Kean]

Hi, any news about the new windows version?

Nothing from my side.  I was hoping Dave might find some newer code than what is on Github.

[EEVblog]

I couldn't find anything more recent then what's on the gitlab:
https://gitlab.com/eevblog/app-121gw

[Kean]

OK, thanks Dave.

I compared the uploads to GitLab and GitHub and they seemed identical except the added Android APK.  So we have lost some features/fixes, but I have something that mostly works.

I will take another look at this when I have some time.  No promises on timeline, but it's likely I won't be able to spend much time on it before December.

[2X]

Hi, Dave. There is any magnetic hanger/holder for the 121GW? I couldn't find any on the eevblog store.

[J-R]

Hi, Dave. There is any magnetic hanger/holder for the 121GW? I couldn't find any on the eevblog store.

You can use the UEi AMH1 for this: https://www.ueitest.com/ECommerce/product/amh1/magnetic-hanger-digital-multimeter-series
It's not a perfect setup, as the 121GW won't fit very well in the carry case with the hanger installed, and removing it requires some effort.  But otherwise it works.

[2X]

Hi, Dave. There is any magnetic hanger/holder for the 121GW? I couldn't find any on the eevblog store.

You can use the UEi AMH1 for this: https://www.ueitest.com/ECommerce/product/amh1/magnetic-hanger-digital-multimeter-series
It's not a perfect setup, as the 121GW won't fit very well in the carry case with the hanger installed, and removing it requires some effort.  But otherwise it works.

Do you know if there is any other brand where I could bought it from Europe?


I found the below... there is any guy where have use it in the 121GW multimeter?
Applicable To Fluke TPAK Digital Multimeter Flowmeter Magnet Suspension Kit Super Magnetic Force New Universal Magnetic Tape
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004930348197.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller.10.258amvXymvXyjY&gps-id=pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40196.444363.0&scm_id=1007.40196.444363.0&scm-url=1007.40196.444363.0&pvid=30bfb7a8-936b-4c77-aaa7-d18885862c4b&_t=gps-id:pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40196.444363.0,pvid:30bfb7a8-936b-4c77-aaa7-d18885862c4b,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238112%231997&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22432%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22sceneId%22%3A%2230050%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22recommend%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21EUR%219.37%218.32%21%21%2110.58%219.39%21%402103835e17628962268031180e5494%2112000031059069977%21rec%21GR%21138459962%21X%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3Af0f61981%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005004930348197%7C_p_origin_prod%3A#nav-review

[KungFuJosh]

Any chance we could get some basic SCPI stuff added to this meter?

*IDN?
READ?
FUNC?
etc...

I have one of these on the way from another member, and I'd like to add a TestController driver for it, but it doesn't seem like that's worth the current hurdles.

If it was possible for it to function as serial over bluetooth with SCPI support, that would be even better.

Thanks,
Josh