Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BravoV]

I find myself vacillating over what to do next; part of me says to just get a new BM867, but the hole in my soul from my stolen 87 says "You already have 4 Chinese multimeters; you're still looking because you still aren't going to be happy with anything less than me. Suck it up and buy a Fluke, dumbass."

I'm pretty sure there'll be no sleeping widdat assh'o until there's a 189 or better of some generation on my bench. 

Teasing .... 

[Mr. Scram]

I've been tempted by a 289 before, but it doesn't appear to be an as practical as some of the other models. Its interface and battery eating habits aren't very attractive.

[Specmaster]

As you may remember, I called numbnuts on his BS; he folded this morning and opened a return case himself. Pile of crap meter is on its way back to him; when it's delivered I'll have my money back to spend on something else.

I find myself vacillating over what to do next; part of me says to just get a new BM867, but the hole in my soul from my stolen 87 says "You already have 4 Chinese multimeters; you're still looking because you still aren't going to be happy with anything less than me. Suck it up and buy a Fluke, dumbass."

I'm pretty sure there'll be no sleeping widdat assh'o until there's a 189 or better of some generation on my bench. 


mnem
It's entirely too sober in here.

I think that you should watch some of the videos on on Joe Smiths YT channel, he specialises in testing multimeters and even helps manufacturers. He has a whole series of videos featuring his own personal Brymen 869, that's a 867 with extra ranges.

I think after watching them you might reappraise both 867 and Flukes. I used to, like you favour Flukes, hell I have enough of them in my collection. I watched them and I have just brought myself a new 867 for just £129 delivered in 24hrs. I'm delighted with it, feels like a Fluke in its tank like construction and weight, extremely robust, excellent 500,000 count ability, dual display.

I'm even considering selling some of my lovely bench meters and getting another 867 or 2 x 867s. Hell they even have greater accuracy and more functions than the bench meters have, take up less space, that is how impressed I am with the 867.

It is now also Joe's favorite meter and is his bench marker for the other meters to aspire to beating without spending vastly more money.

Don't be be hoodwinked into thinking Chinese (Taiwan in this case) are not as good or crap, you would missing out IMO.

[bd139]

That’s a good description. It’s basically a handheld bench meter.

Honestly I haven’t actually touched my U1241C since I got it.

[Specmaster]

That’s a good description. It’s basically a handheld bench meter.

Honestly I haven’t actually touched my U1241C since I got it.

Interestingly, I think Joe even tests 867 against U1241C and it remains his personal go to meter.

[Specmaster]

Its arrived, my new TTi TG120 function Generator to join my other TTi gear which is cream and this is grey but when it comes to test gear, I'm not in least bit bothered by the colour mismatch, its not a deal breaker.

It works straight out of the box, nothing needs doing to it apart from cleaning it and removing the stickers, it meets the specification well in all aspects as well, the volts out pk-pk can be as high as 27V so it exceeds the design spec 

As is the case with my other TTi gear, all the interesting bits are mounted on a board that sits directly behind the front panel with a huge enclosure full of air and a transformer behind it.

I'm getting quite addicted to sourcing test gear that just works without any further work required to them but I think I might have to start looking for some items sold as not working to use them all on  .

Here are some pics of the unit all exposed.

[bd139]

Looking good  . I like the TTi function generators. They're nicely designed, engineered, easy to cal and made from bog standard bits. Can't go wrong.

[Specmaster]

Looking good  . I like the TTi function generators. They're nicely designed, engineered, easy to cal and made from bog standard bits. Can't go wrong.

Thanks, unlike their 1604 meter, although I can't help but think that must be a fault, I can't believe that they would design it that way.

[bd139]

A lot of continuity implementations are in software. Unfortunately. Ergo it has to read, compare and then react. Ugh.

[Specmaster]

A lot of continuity implementations are in software. Unfortunately. Ergo it has to read, compare and then react. Ugh.

Just done a quick round robin test on my various meters re continuity tests and the results are enlightening
Flukes, bar graph reacts long before the beep is heard.
Bside (cheap meter) usable, latching and quick
Proster VC97, usable latching and reasonable speed
Robin OM840, usable latching reasonable speed
Brymen 867, very quick, latching and beep and bar graph react together making it the clear winner be miles which makes it ideal for quickly identifying which pins of an IC or multipin header etc are connected to ground etc a breeze as you can quickly drag the probe across the contacts and be certain that the meter will react when it finds the connection. Makes trouble shooting so much faster to do.

So the one really pedigree brand name fails the test, it is also the slowest meter to respond to switching on, although the 867 also takes a time before its ready to be used.

[bd139]

Yep. Fluke 802x meters were pretty good. After that, not so good. TBH my old Fluke 77 was shit. Totally dire in that respect. Put me right off them.

Keysight and Brymen ones are instant.

[Specmaster]

Well if the Flukes 802? were considered to be good, the rest must be shit then because by Flukes in my test, I'm referring to 8025 and 8027, later named 25 and 27.

[bd139]

8020B/8024B were good out of that series ie the early ones. They had separate discrete continuity circuits. Fluke 25/27 were along with the 7x pretty dire. Proves the big manufacturers don’t get it right every time.

[mnementh]

A lot of continuity implementations are in software. Unfortunately. Ergo it has to read, compare and then react. Ugh.

Just done a quick round robin test on my various meters re continuity tests and the results are enlightening
Flukes, bar graph reacts long before the beep is heard.
Bside (cheap meter) usable, latching and quick
Proster VC97, usable latching and reasonable speed
Robin OM840, usable latching reasonable speed
Brymen 867, very quick, latching and beep and bar graph react together making it the clear winner be miles which makes it ideal for quickly identifying which pins of an IC or multipin header etc are connected to ground etc a breeze as you can quickly drag the probe across the contacts and be certain that the meter will react when it finds the connection. Makes trouble shooting so much faster to do.

So the one really pedigree brand name fails the test, it is also the slowest meter to respond to switching on, although the 867 also takes a time before its ready to be used.

There are two things that hold the Fluke above in my eye, aside from the already-stated FLAMING RED worst possible color choice and the fact that I'm desperately homesick for a Fluke on my bench.

One is the fact of using a 9V battery... This makes LiPo upgrade a PITA to implement due to lack of space, and it means a bright, clear backlight is almost impossible to achieve, as the current draw causes poor contrast in the LCD. Also it means uselessly short backlight timeouts. I've been spoiled, I guess, by a couple cheap 4AA powered meters that had a 10 min timeout and still had a very bright, crisp display whenever it was on... I keep wanting that feature in my "Go-To" meter. I don't care if my meter draws 20mA when it's lit up; that's what rechargeable batteries are for.

Documentation says "Approx 7V" low voltage... this is right around the 7.2V nominal voltage of a "9V" LiPo battery. There are some 9V batteries that appear to have a boost converter, as they actually output 9V (these usually charge via micro-USB... also nifty for "bench-ifying" portable meters), but they appear to have much lower nominal capacity.

Could you do me a favor and test the actual LVC/LV warning on yours?

Second is the jack assembly. I have great big Shrek hands and Popeye forearms; a byproduct of growing up on a farm. I do NOT have a light touch, and I WILL break the jack assembly; it's just a matter of time. I replaced the one in my 87 three times over 30 years; I call that excellent value. The point being... that in most "budget" meters, this becomes a "put up widdit bein' busted" or "throw it away and get a new one" scenario. I'm dealing with that right now with my current "daily driver" meter, a Sperry DM-6450 I bought cheap at a pawn shop when my 87 was stolen. Yeah, I went around to all of the pawn shops in the area for months in hopes of finding it... don't go there. 

I'll tell you, the BM857 has much of the same feel as the 87 did; clearly it was designed to sell to the same market. I suspect it would even fit in a Fluke 87 holster.

[EDIT] The BM 869/867 appear similarly designed after the Fluke 189; do you think the 867 would fit in a 189 holster? [/b] NM... I could swear I saw a Fluke with the same tapered profile as the 867 when I was shopping; but it wasn't the 189. [/EDIT]

I'll admit I'm getting tired of shopping for a "reasonable" 189 that doesn't look like total crap; especially after this latest charlie-foxtrot. 


mnem
*hoeing out the past for the sake of the future*

[bd139]

I will test the voltage warning on mine tomorrow probably if Specmaster doesn't get there first. I just spent 2 hours soldering my arse off.

Honestly my Keysight wins on battery provision as it has 4xAA and the backlight timeout is programmable. Plus it has a surplus of energy available so they chucked a rather nifty decent quality torch into the back of it which I thought was a gimmick but turned out to be super useful.

Anyway soldering is time nuttery. My shipment for QRP labs arrived so I now have the GPS 1PPS source. I did have another one of these somewhere but I genuinely can't find it anywhere. I fear it might have gone in the bin with the "projects I started but got bored of" box which I just threw out because it was so depressing knowing it existed. I bought the clock kit to test it with as I don't have anything suitable to talk to it and wow that's an impressive bit of kit. It's basically a lowly ATMEGA328P and a 16x2 LCD screen but the software is pretty good. Clock is fully customisable. It automatically picks up time from GPS, does TZ offset, calculates maidenhead grid locator, reports lat/long etc. You can stuff a 40x4 LCD on it if you really want too and it'll report everything back.  Very impressed.

Currently the GPS is bodged to the clock module but here it is reporting GPS info.



Display is much better than it appears in the photo.

[tautech]

Display is much better than it appears in the photo.

Except the dates wrong. 
Some time nuttery.......Fail ! 

[bd139]

You're in the wrong country

Edit: it's 7:40 AM there on 20th. It's 22:40 here on the 19th now.

[tautech]

You're in the wrong country

And I could reply that you are ! 

Actually 9.40am

[bd139]

Haha I am 15 miles from the meridian line. Everything starts here

You in AEST?

Our country is too small to have more than one time zone so we just have DST to make us feel better

[tautech]

Haha I am 15 miles from the meridian line. Everything starts here

You in AEST?

Our country is too small to have more than one time zone so we just have DST to make us feel better

Nah, NZT but we have DST over the summer months.
IIRC we're GMT +12

[bd139]

Gotcha. It's too bloody complicated. 

[Specmaster]

@Mnem, sorry bd139, I did get there first, I was testing it while you were posting I guess.

The warning comes up at 6.4V but it carries on, reading correctly right up til the battery gets to 5.62V at which point it beeps at you and displays blanks to a error message.

Personally I'm pleased that it uses a 9V battery as these are less prone to leakage than single cells but if getting caught without a battery miles from anywhere is why you like Lipo batteries, you can get rechargeable 9V batteries that should provide pretty good battery life seeing as the current draw is around 6.5mA.

The leads are 1KV 10A rated and are silicon, tips are gold plated, I certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over the colour being red as opposed to yellow, I have meters here that are black, yellow, brown and now red, truth is that when you're using them, you totally ignore the colour, the only thing that you focus on is the display and the accuracy and colour has zero influence over those.

These meters are most certainly worth a shot, I have plenty of Flukes that I'm putting on Ebay soon and with the return on them, I'll think I'll be buying another 867 and maybe the PC interface and software, I very much doubt that I'll regret it.

[bd139]

Google for "PP3 explode"

[Mr. Scram]

What gives, eBay? I can't open a dispute, because the option to open a case expired before the last estimated delivery date. That's just stupid.

Oh, and it seems the seller has massive amounts of recent negative feedback. It looks like I got bitten by my first eBay scammer.

[Kosmic]

What the fuck, eBay? I can't open a dispute, because the option to open a case expired before the last estimated delivery date. That's just stupid.

Oh, and it seems the seller has massive amounts of recent negative feedback. It looks like I got bitten by my first eBay scammer.

You can open a case from this link : https://resolutioncenter.ebay.com