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| Multimeters with (Color) Graphic Display - Summary & Comparison |
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| bugi:
--- Quote from: Markus2801A on April 20, 2019, 07:13:32 pm ---I sorry, but I don't understand why do "we" want to destroy those devices with extrem torture testing, which will never occur in real life. A technician, who spends so much money for a DMM like the Metrix MTX 329x-Series or other high end Meter like Fluke, Gossen etc. will take care of his equipment! I indeed do understand, that good input protection and rigid construction, high quality Materials and electrical parts should be present in higher priced meters. But aren't some of these exaggerated stress tests a little bit absurd. Sorry if I say directly what im thinking, but I'am a very careful person as I know how long I have to work to be able to buy such a high priced meter! --- End quote --- Some people take good care of their equipment, and maybe even try to ensure the devices do not meet unexpected stuff at inputs. Some other people are in a hurry, or they don't pay for the meter themselves and don't care, or are otherwise human and make errors. For the latter combined group of people (i.e. majority), extra beefy protections are nice. I belong to the latter group, having caused flashy stuff both via accidents (e.g. probe slipped from fingers, ended up hitting bad spot) and via lack of thinking (e.g. forgetting a bit of info that I had figured out earlier, then expected 0V, flash.. oh it was about 160V). And even for those few people that do not make mistakes themselves and take good care of their equipment may end up having to measure stuff that was made/modified/handled (somewhere out there) by who-knows-which-clown, or needs to deal with the unpredictable real world (lightning, somebody digging through a power cable, etc.)... leading to nasty stuff. For these cases, extra beefy protections are nice. I prefer to see a meter survive a 2000V hit and break at, say, 2500V, rather than only see it survive a nominal 1000V - the first way gives better confidence and trust to it (or well, to the non-tortured siblings of it). Or maybe I'm just sadistic towards meters and like watching those videos... (also cheaper than blowing meters by myself.) On the topic of color displays on DMMs: There is definitely some value to having colors on a well designed UI. Unfortunately, in general (not considering just DMMs) I haven't seen many examples of that "well designed", yet. Seems like the devs just throw various colors for the sake of colors, without thinking how to get the best usability benefit from using colors. It tends to require people that have been educated on that particular area, and using them is often quite a bit of extra development cost... and boss then says "not needed". But even less sophisticated use of color can help with an UI (as long as it hasn't gone too far). But is it then worth the extra cost, especially on a DMM with somewhat limited amount of info shown. I guess this depends on that extra cost and the needs and preferences of each user. |
| 2N3055:
--- Quote from: bugi on April 21, 2019, 02:23:00 pm --- --- End quote --- In my country some people are having monthly salary on a level of how much MTX 3293 cost. I buy equipment with my own money, too. So yeah, I'm careful with my equipment. Very. That doesn't mean I never had slipped probe. Which usually destroys probe and/or DUT.. I didn't work on CRT, or vacuum tube based equipment in a decade.. No 1000V for me. Maybe 400V,on primary side switching PSU. Pretty much if meter survives static discharge test, that's all high voltage it will see on my desk. And that not much, with ESD mat and such.. I do have some equipment installed on the street, connected to power from street lights. Voltage is 240VAC, but that is CAT IV environment, and there I use proper voltage tester or Brymen BM525S. |
| joeqsmith:
--- Quote from: bugi on April 21, 2019, 02:23:00 pm ---Or maybe I'm just sadistic towards meters and like watching those videos... (also cheaper than blowing meters by myself.) --- End quote --- :-DD I do still find it interesting just how well designed some meters are at a very low cost. The Fluke 101 is a great example. Obviously, designing an electrically robust handheld meter doesn't mean it needs to add a lot of cost to the product. I would say that is true even for the mechanical robustness (function switch). That Fluke 17B+ is still one of the best meters I have looked at for switch wear. Then we see a Keysight with it's glass filled detent spring cracking after a few cycles. I've seen over and over that high cost doesn't equal a well designed and constructed meter. It's too bad that there are not independent labs testing these products and informing the public so they can make better choices. |
| Markus2801A:
--- Quote from: bugi on April 21, 2019, 02:23:00 pm ---... I prefer to see a meter survive a 2000V hit and break at, say, 2500V, rather than only see it survive a nominal 1000V - the first way gives better confidence and trust to it (or well, to the non-tortured siblings of it). Seems like the devs just throw various colors for the sake of colors, without thinking how to get the best usability benefit from using colors. ... --- End quote --- Totally agree with your statements, didn't want to "Quote" all just to keep this thread readable. UI-Design is very important, so we can only hope that the devs will keep on progressing with colored UI design to make an extra benefit of using a color display. It seems that the C.E.M. - as I have seen on youtube reviews - has got a good visibility. Don't know if every possible information layout possibility is user freindly and logically placed, but reading of values should be very clear. The DT-9987 is approx 260€-280€, and also has BT Capability, so maybe it would satisfy my needs of showing some device in class und do some basic measurements with possibility of displaying values via BT and over beamer. But I am somehow a perfectionist and would like to put something special in terms of workmanship and accuracy and professionalism to the day. I know that most of my student will not dig so deep into this topic as we do here. So most of them will not recognize the difference or appreciate the quality of higher priced DMM vs lower Cost Multimeters. |
| mqsaharan:
The older model MTX3282 had MOVs in it. I can only guess that these blue SMDs under the clear plastic shield are MOVs. The manual does say "Protection by varistors" under DCV and ACV specs. I am not sure how well it'll behave with high voltage transients. The MTX3293 is using Hycon chip for front end and ES5 TRMS converter from Cyrustek (if I am not mistaken). Sadly they didn't use a Precision Decade Resistor Divider (hybrid resistor network) like Gossen. I am not sure how linear its ranges are. It has the worst bar graph for such a high priced meter. I wonder why they'd even put it there. The meter is also missing Conductance function. I am not sure how many people will miss it. By the way, does anybody know what "Hold" function is actually for? Even Fluke has opted for "Hold" in 10x series over "Range" which they used to prefer in their older meters. The good thing is it is speced for 7A continuous current measurement (page 51) while Gossens usually are speced for 0.7A continuous current measurement. I like single input Ampere jacks with preferably no new manual function selection for uA to A current measurement. |
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