Poll

How many cycles will the KeySight U1281A's detent spring last?

0-2000
7 (17.9%)
2k-4k
5 (12.8%)
4k-8k
14 (35.9%)
8k-16k
7 (17.9%)
>16k (most rubust meter ever made)
6 (15.4%)

Total Members Voted: 36

Author Topic: Handheld meter robustness testing  (Read 1149678 times)

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Offline malagas_on_fire

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3275 on: April 04, 2019, 08:20:51 am »
Correct if im wrong but Most of the new meters beep on anything , eg rotary switch, buttons, power going off,  they should have an option to mute beep except on continuity . The Mestek it is a good alternative, looses the splitted jack for the mA , but at least NCV has the antena functional and visible, has well other functions.

One more thing about the 133A, they claim a drop of 2 meters :P I was looking for a alternative on the uni-t 50b that i could easly carry on a toolbox
« Last Edit: April 04, 2019, 08:25:46 am by malagas_on_fire »
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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3276 on: April 04, 2019, 04:25:17 pm »
Correct if im wrong but Most of the new meters beep on anything , eg rotary switch, buttons, power going off,  they should have an option to mute beep except on continuity .
Most of the chinese ones, at least. The Brymens and the Flukes and Keysights are quite silent, depending on the model. All of them beep when entering auto power off and the Keysight U1281A/U1282A have two settings for beeps: beep for everything or beep only for continuity/input alert/NCV.

The Mestek it is a good alternative, looses the splitted jack for the mA , but at least NCV has the antena functional and visible, has well other functions.
That is what is so hard about the Mestek: if it had better input protection, it would be a great all around meter for small jobs around the house:
  • The NCV is really good, with the proper sensitivity to identify which side of the romex cable is carrying the live
  • The capacitance is reasonable for HVAC systems
  • The flashlight saved me from a few bad scenarios
  • The 1.5V and 9V battery testers are quite handy
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Offline Fungus

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3277 on: April 04, 2019, 04:35:17 pm »
The Mestek it is a good alternative, looses the splitted jack for the mA , but at least NCV has the antena functional and visible, has well other functions.
That is what is so hard about the Mestek: if it had better input protection, it would be a great all around meter for small jobs around the house:
  • The NCV is really good, with the proper sensitivity to identify which side of the romex cable is carrying the live
  • The capacitance is reasonable for HVAC systems
  • The flashlight saved me from a few bad scenarios
  • The 1.5V and 9V battery testers are quite handy

Downsides:
* Basic accuracy isn't very good (0.7% DC voltage)
* It's a bit slow at everything (eg. continuity tester is awful,  it takes ~3s to measure a 100 Ohm resistor)
* If you're not interested in AC mains the the first two stops on the selector will annoy you every time you have to click past them.
* It's not small
 

Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3278 on: April 04, 2019, 05:53:55 pm »
The Mestek it is a good alternative, looses the splitted jack for the mA , but at least NCV has the antena functional and visible, has well other functions.
That is what is so hard about the Mestek: if it had better input protection, it would be a great all around meter for small jobs around the house:
  • The NCV is really good, with the proper sensitivity to identify which side of the romex cable is carrying the live
  • The capacitance is reasonable for HVAC systems
  • The flashlight saved me from a few bad scenarios
  • The 1.5V and 9V battery testers are quite handy

Downsides:
* Basic accuracy isn't very good (0.7% DC voltage)
* It's a bit slow at everything (eg. continuity tester is awful,  it takes ~3s to measure a 100 Ohm resistor)
* If you're not interested in AC mains the the first two stops on the selector will annoy you every time you have to click past them.
* It's not small
Fungus, using the meter I can tell it is slow only on continuity - the rest is quite on par with meters of the same class. 
The first two stops are indeed annoying. I have no idea why they chose this arrangement.
The meter is marginally larger than the AN8008/8009/UT136C and thicker (149 x 70 x 47 mm). Remove the rubber boot and you get 149 x 66 x 35 mm - only 15mm longer than the Anengs and the UT136C, but with a stand.
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Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 

Offline malagas_on_fire

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3279 on: April 04, 2019, 07:40:34 pm »
For the intent of replacing an compact meter such as a aneng 800x , uni-t 136C, the mestek is another alternative . The arrangement of this meter is maybe due to be target for electrical purposes as mestek sells various products in this range, like socket testers, NCV's , clamp meters ( notice the first position is in LoZ )

http://www.mestek-tools.com/en/productdetail.aspx?detailid=56

 As for the beeping the U1282A if not turned off its a bit anoying  at work :P The U1252A/B are definitly more silent and quite good to work. Brymen doesn't beep as much but has a loud beep :P Fluke its tolerable

Here is another option:

https://www.tacklifetools.com/product/product/index/id/177

But watch out for the description :P 4 x 15V AAA batteries
« Last Edit: April 04, 2019, 08:12:57 pm by malagas_on_fire »
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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3280 on: April 04, 2019, 09:34:05 pm »
As for the beeping the U1282A if not turned off its a bit anoying  at work :P The U1252A/B are definitly more silent and quite good to work. Brymen doesn't beep as much but has a loud beep :P Fluke its tolerable
My U1282A is beeps hysterically when the switch range goes to the µA/mA/A ranges, with or without probes connected anywhere on the meter. Does yours do that as well? It is quite an annoying behaviour.
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Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 

Offline malagas_on_fire

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3281 on: April 04, 2019, 09:59:16 pm »
Beeps  5 times fast when probes are not properly connected, eg leave probles in V when rotate to A / mA The Keysight / Agilents are on the company that currently work. Good tools for longevity since this are the ones that stills get's OK for calibration routine :P
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Offline bitseeker

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3282 on: April 05, 2019, 03:00:14 am »
Yes, the U1282A is pretty vocal in current modes with no probes connected in either beep mode. I was quite relieved when I found the option for continuity/NCV-only beep mode. The probe warning is nothing in comparison to the default beep mode for annoyance.
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Offline malagas_on_fire

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3283 on: April 07, 2019, 04:07:25 pm »
The Keysight U1282A is also water resitant .. ip67 , i would like to test this in a swimming pool,  :-DD maybe every 100m to check if water as getting inside but dave has done a good job on giving a bad time to it.

Here is another alternative for the aneng  800x, the aneng V01B ... bah loses uA, temperature and 1 splitted jack.  try the H01

For the 55000 counts meter here's a maybe new comer Victor 189B (Edit not new and expensive compared to another thread :S ):

- Multimeter Accuracy 0.025% 1ms Peak Sampling True RMS TC RTD Log USB

https://ebay.us/to4qhG

And local meter... cat iv :P Xindar DPLAB250 :

https://xindar.com/producto/multimetro-digital-true-rms-profissional-industrial-dplab250/?lang=pt-pt




« Last Edit: April 07, 2019, 04:31:04 pm by malagas_on_fire »
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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3284 on: April 07, 2019, 07:53:33 pm »
The Xindar looks very similar to the Mastech MS8250 series (MS8250D, perhaps?). They came with this new "transformers" format somewhat recently.

http://mastech-group.com/products.php?cate=93&page=2

Credit: the "transformers" idea came from another thread:
I'm pretty sure the design is modeled on the "Transformers" movie franchise.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2019, 07:55:04 pm by rsjsouza »
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Offline malagas_on_fire

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3285 on: April 07, 2019, 08:31:29 pm »
Yep very similar and maybe an overpriced clone or it's the EU version.    The other meters from the same brand looks like peakmeter's  and "transformer" stylish, spaceship, like the Aneng V01A :P

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Offline Cliff Matthews

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3286 on: April 08, 2019, 12:05:43 am »
Found a rather comical DMM testing guy on YT this evening.. he says he's got a bunch of items on order for new reviews, so I subscribed for the variety. I was also surprised the 10,000 count Mestek DM91a can sell for just $16.51 on flea-bay.
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3287 on: April 08, 2019, 01:03:37 am »
Found a rather comical DMM testing guy on YT this evening.. he says he's got a bunch of items on order for new reviews, so I subscribed for the variety. I was also surprised the 10,000 count Mestek DM91a can sell for just $16.51 on flea-bay.

You old age is showing.   I remember that guy with his 10,000s of thousands of annual switch cycles.  :-DD :-DD    I couldn't sit through the videos he made on the Keysight meter to debunk my test results.  I think Fungus may have watched them. 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/2175/

Offline Cliff Matthews

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3288 on: April 08, 2019, 01:20:56 am »
I said he was comical.. ??? but obviously not at your level. IMO I like it when someone else (not me) shells-out coin for these iffy DMM's to give me PCB shots so I can make my own judgments. Now an old pro wouldn't be jealous, would you? :-DD
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3289 on: April 08, 2019, 01:54:48 am »
I said he was comical.. ??? but obviously not at your level. IMO I like it when someone else (not me) shells-out coin for these iffy DMM's to give me PCB shots so I can make my own judgments. Now an old pro wouldn't be jealous, would you? :-DD
I think he said he was in IT and they used that meter for service work, some story like that.   

I watched one of his videos.  He had a bunch of sound effects, blabbed on with no substance and then gave the meter 5 stars.   I wasn't finding any entertainment and certainly no data.  That's why I just couldn't sit through another.   

If you like his work and feel this is the proper place to advertise his channel, that's fine.  Personally, I don't see the correlation.   Perhaps it's more about you being still upset after I called you out about your comments and you having the admins waste their time erasing it.   Or perhaps you are indirectly suggesting that I stop making hardcore reviews on these meters.   

Offline Cliff Matthews

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3290 on: April 08, 2019, 03:21:22 am »
Correlation: He spends $$, we see the guts in what we shouldn't buy in the first place. I don't recall anything about 10,000 switch cycles.. if I saw his comments prior, I obviously didn't think it was worth remembering.. some things aren't ;)
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3291 on: April 08, 2019, 12:12:39 pm »
Correlation: He spends $$, we see the guts in what we shouldn't buy in the first place. I don't recall anything about 10,000 switch cycles.. if I saw his comments prior, I obviously didn't think it was worth remembering.. some things aren't ;)

If spending money and taking meters apart is all you are after, there are a lot of channels out there you may find interesting.   I was attempting to bring something more to the table but maybe these hard core tests really are meaningless to the average viewer.   Back when I took a poll,  a fairly high number of votes were to stop.  It could be there is even less interest now.       

If you spend the time to read that couple of pages I linked, he wouldn't even take that Keysight meter apart as part of his big debunk video that he had made such a fuss over.  He did however talk about how many cycles they put on their meters.  You like his videos, I suggest you actually watch them.   So again, why are you advertising for him in this thread?   

Offline Cliff Matthews

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3292 on: April 08, 2019, 02:33:05 pm »
If I said his channel was comical, I fail to see that as promotion.. but I'll not exercise this kind of liberty on the thread further. As for you saying "It could be there is even less interest now" I respectfully have to disagree. Your work has been monumental and has made some mfg's (of any worth) sit-up and take notice. Keep going Joe, even though we periodically "give each other the rub" I am for and not against your efforts. FWIW, Joseph may recall the effort's and encouragement's we gave to a YT friend in the Ukraine (I don't remember the channel name), but when he was discouraged, we told him the same thing.. keep going! It may sound rather groupie-ish to say it, but we are some of your biggest fans :-+  Cheers!
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3293 on: April 09, 2019, 02:12:57 am »
There was a time in my life when I found funny sounds entertaining.  Maybe till the age of two. 

It really doesn't require a lot of intelligence to spend money on meters.  Making videos is a struggle and there will be countless people doing a much better job.   I really have little interest in that aspect.  What you may not find very often is people who have the ability to take a cheap 35$ clamp meter and increase it's bandwidth from a few KHz to a 100KHz.   Solving problems like this is really what I enjoy doing.         

I don't sell products, take donations or get paid by any companies for the data I show.   As you said, it's my money that pays for it along with my time.  I make it all free to the public.  It's a total loss on my part.   The only thing I gain from it is seeing for myself how these various meters hold up to one another.   I suggest you consider this when using the thread.   

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3294 on: April 09, 2019, 03:41:40 am »
Here you go!!  I have started a new poll where you have a chance to voice your opinion about continuing these tests.   

Offline Fungus

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3295 on: April 09, 2019, 09:25:37 am »
Here you go!!  I have started a new poll where you have a chance to voice your opinion about continuing these tests.

Zap 'em! Grind 'em! Lick 'em to death!
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3296 on: April 09, 2019, 12:19:50 pm »
Here you go!!  I have started a new poll where you have a chance to voice your opinion about continuing these tests.

Zap 'em! Grind 'em! Lick 'em to death!
You may enjoy watching the next video.  You're big on the drop and vibration tests.  I plan to use that poor man's vibration table as part of my testing.   I'm sure those speakers were not designed for what I am doing with them....
« Last Edit: April 12, 2019, 10:28:00 pm by joeqsmith »
 

Offline malagas_on_fire

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3297 on: April 09, 2019, 09:08:02 pm »
Not all meters were completly destroyed but yeah  damaged by the tests   and the very good part (Edit terrible english sorry ) was they where able to be repaired which all bonds to all work one here.  There's also the third option. Take to an ESD or IEC certification lab for testing :P 
« Last Edit: April 09, 2019, 09:26:04 pm by malagas_on_fire »
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Offline sylvandb

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3298 on: April 09, 2019, 10:16:30 pm »
I plan to use that poor man's vibration table as part of my testing.   I'm sure those speakers were not designed for what I am doing with them....

Ever heard of buttkicker transducers? Might be just the ticket if those speakers aren't sufficient...  thebuttkicker.com
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

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Re: Handheld meter electrical robustness testing.
« Reply #3299 on: April 09, 2019, 10:39:20 pm »
Not all meters were completly destroyed but yeah  damaged by the tests   and the very good part (Edit terrible english sorry ) was they where able to be repaired which all bonds to all work one here.  There's also the third option. Take to an ESD or IEC certification lab for testing :P
A very low percentage of the meters I have looked at were able to be repaired.  Most go to the recycle bins.  That's one of the main differences I see with these low end meters, they are disposable.  I may damage the higher end meters but they have normally paid enough attention to the details to where the controller IC is not damaged and I have been able to repair them.   Maybe 30%. 

To rent time at a lab and have a product certified I would imagine is in the order of $20,000 or so USD.   I really don't see that as being an option.  Even if we didn't certify them, the rental costs would far exceed what I would be willing to spend.   The we have the problem that I am not really interested in seeing the meters pass their safety standards or not.  A lab like this will have generators specifically for running the IEC standards which is not at all what I have been showing.   


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