UT61E Digits Question

[SpunkyMonkey]

I am going to order a UT61E but have a question about the display digits.  In all of the youtube videos and on some product photos (including the source I was considering buying from) it shows a 5 digit readout.  But when I go to the UNI-T site it shows a 4 digit readout and there are other sites to buy from where that model shows 4 digits.  I contacted the manufacturer but they were confused about my question.

I know there has been a lot of talk on this forum about the UT61E.  And even in the UNI-T UT61E Multimeter teardown photos topic https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=3391.0 the product box shows 4 digits but the photos show 5 digits.  I was hoping someone could clarify the actual product's display for me.

Thanks!

[alm]

The manufacturer having trouble with answering a simple question about digits makes me worried about getting tech support. I don't own the meter, but based on the teardown pics, my guess is that they're using the same box for all UT61 models, most of which have 3.5 digits. The markings on the box appear to be just UT61, the markings top right and bottom right of the LCD appear different, as does the RS-232 label near the jacks.

[cuban8]

I have this meter and the display has five digits. Since it is a 22000 count meter, you'll get five digits only within a certain range (e.g. in the volts range, you get five digits only up until ca. 2.2xxx V, above it'll switch to a display of x.xxx V).

[SpunkyMonkey]

Thanks Alm and Cuban8.  I think I will go ahead and order it.  I'd love a Fluke but I can't justify the dollars.

In regards to questioning the manufacturer I think there was a bit of a language barrier.  I need to speak more than English.  Can't we all go to Latin again or at least Esperanto?  They seemed to know more about the generic series than the specific product.  The letter suffix confused them.  And additionally I think the manufacturer also had their sales support outsourced so it might have been a double-whammy.  It is good info alm, I was looking at the top right of the display for the product model in the pics but I didn't even look at the other product pics for RS-232 and other things.  Maybe like you said they are using the same box for all UT61 models with repeated graphics to save some money on packaging.

I'm glad you can show 5 digits cuban8.  Is there anything you don't like about the meter?  For the price this meter seems to be quite capable and is cheaper than the parts I priced out to build a capacitor tester and frequency counter.  I'm an electronics nut from way back.  Glad I got into computer programming as a business and only ruined that hobby instead of electronics.  Recently I've been restoring my old test equipment and this meter would come in handy on my current project.  A Heathkit OL-1 O-Scope that I bought around 1980.  It was made in the mid-fifties and I bought it from my boss who assembled it.  We used to fix TV's CB Radios, Stereos, Giant S-Dishes, and other elec-tech.  The O-Scope has been a trooper for the last 60 years or so but lately it crapped the bed and is giving nothing but fuzz on the CRT.  I have all the non-disc caps on order and two of the tubes that were bad (unless the tube tester was bad since it was probably built in the 50's too)

I'll report back when I get my meter to see if it looks the way I expect it to.  I was afraid that they had a cost-cutting revision or something that scaled back the meter readout.

Thanks again both of you for your fast response!

[cuban8]

Well, the meter is quite nice. It has a reasonably fast continuity tester (but still not quite as fast as a Fluke 28II), good accuracy specs and a nice rugged feel. And it is nicely priced ;-) The one thing I don't like is the burden voltage. With 1 kOhm in the uA, 10 Ohms in the mA and 0.3 Ohms in the Amps range it is not very good at all.

[Kiriakos-GR]

(but still not quite as fast as a Fluke 28II)

 

Well it is true the counts haves limits, and no matter the brand or the price, when you get close to those limits,
your digits become less.

About the UNI-T and getting support, in about 18 months that I am lurking around, I have not read an negative comment yet.
They must doing something right, there is no other explanation. 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Thanks Folks.  I ordered it.  Will have to see how long it takes to get from Hong Kong to the USA.  Last time I ordered from overseas it got to New York pretty quick and then sat for weeks before they shipped it inland.  I can't wait to dump my old dmm and give this one a shot since I've been flying blind on so many things I've wanted to measure.

[Kiriakos-GR]

This one here is tested by me as seller, good + best pricing + fast .
http://cgi.ebay.com/UNI-T-UT61D-Modern-Digital-Multimeters-UT-61D-/150631302382?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_SpecialistRadioEquipment_SM&hash=item23125344ee

Shipping times vary mostly from the sellers, lets hope that you "fall"  in someone reliable.

[SpunkyMonkey]

Thanks Kiriakos.  Originally I looked at DinoDirect and did some research on them a few weeks ago.  There was quite a bit of information both negative and positive about their reputability.  I ended up ordering from someone on ebay because I thought I would stand a better chance of having it actually arrive.  I see you also have the UT61E at the hk360radio niche.  I should have waited and purchased it there.  I'll keep you on my bookmarks.  And I also hope I fall into someone reliable.  For me it is mostly the waiting times.  Other countries get it to the USA fast but then the item sits around collecting dust somewhere in New York before it is blessed for shipping it seems.

[IanB]

Other countries get it to the USA fast but then the item sits around collecting dust somewhere in New York before it is blessed for shipping it seems.

It doesn't sit around collecting dust. They stomp on it, kick it around, play football with it and generally try to ensure it is broken when you receive it. There is an undisclosed directive from the US federal government to the customs inspection service to discourage people buying things from abroad. Hence there will be a minimum three week delay and a considerable amount of distress to the package before it is handed over to the US postal service for delivery.

[Kiriakos-GR]

I would speculate that the Americans are about 300 millions, and  probably the USPS receives about 10.000 of such footballs per day.
If the USPS workers was so well trained in playing football, Brazil / Argentina and the world Cup would be in danger.     

I think that the daily load of packages is so great, that they need extra time, so to deal with those packages. 

 

 

[SpunkyMonkey]

I really did laugh out loud at both responses.  You people cracked me up!  The tracking info changed today.  It claims the item is in my city and state.  It might even be on the postal truck but I can't believe that based on past experience.  I always thought as I got older that I would mature enough to not be obsessed about waiting for a package to arrive but I am still as stupid about it now as I was when I was a child.

[SpunkyMonkey]

The UT61E came today.  So only 12 days to get from HK to USA which is amazing based on previous experience.  I've been playing with it and it is awesome!  And they did reuse the box and graphics packaging for the general UTE61 designation.  The box shows the generic lower model pictures but the unit itself has the full 5 digits.  So I'm off to needlessly measure capacitors and twist potentiometers to mark frequencies!  I have one more package arriving today from UPS with the rest of the capacitors for my O-Scope.  Can't wait!

[Kiriakos-GR]

The UT61E came today............  I've been playing with it and it is awesome! 

I do understand your excitement 
I wish you to be healthy and strong to enjoy it.

The date that we get our first semi-pro DMM, it is a moment in our life that we never forget.
Advice: save the carton box and everything inside.
And write in the inner of the carton box the date that you got it. 
 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Thanks Kiriakos.  I'm happy to retire my old one and I really like this one.  And I got a huge smile on my face testing the caps and frequencies off of some 555 circuits that were on my bench.  Before that I had to guess.  Besides the vintage O-Scope I am redoing I also have some voice recognition circuits on the breadboard and other things that are touchy about voltage and frequencies and now I have the tools to really check them out.

I gave the old multimeter to my son to add to his toolbox and he was very grateful.  For both my boy and girl I've purchased them Craftsman tool sets and toolboxes during Christmas many years ago, and I add to their collection whenever I get a chance.  I remember leaving home at 17 and the first thing I bought of importance was a Craftsman set and an old multimeter eventhough I had barely enough money to eat.  Both kids were able to do a full brake change on a vehicle before they were 10 years of age.  They've changed out alternators, troubleshooted emissions sensors, worked on small engines, and lots of other things.  I couldn't be more proud.  I started them off with a 200-in-1 electronics kit that I bought in 1982 when I was a little runt and moved them into mechanics, woodworking, metal fab, and other things.  I should have bought 2 more of the UT61E's.  I might do that before this coming Christmas as stocking stuffers.

[Kiriakos-GR]

Ahh I understand your story more of what you can possibly imagine.

My father was a freelance car electricians, the best in town.
He was planning for me, to take over the business when I would become older, and started to train me from the age of nine.
I had wash with gasoline so many alternators, so to be clean for servicing, and today I do not like to see them even in a drawing. LOL

The positive part of all that training, is that today I can repair the starter of my motorcycle,
or rebuild the all motorcycle, with just my own hands. 

http://dhost.info/ax1/

[SpunkyMonkey]

Nice bike and congratulations for keeping it alive and well!  And good for your father for passing knowledge on to you.  My father did the same.  He was a gruff angry man you didn't dare cross, but I learned a lot from him and others.  I come from a motorcycle family.  My first at age 5 was a Yamaha Enduro 80.  I was still 10 inches from reaching the ground at the time so I had to take off on the kickstand and run along side it to stop.  I rebuilt the engine 3 times and I couldn't imagine the miles I put on it.  Since then I've had several other dirt bikes and road bikes to include a Honda Nighthawk, a Yamaha XS1100 special, a goldwing, and my current bike, a 1999 Honda Valkyrie Standard.   6 cylinder boxer engine with 6 carbs.  It really likes to go through the gas but it has so much power.  I didn't own 4 wheeled vehicle until I was nearly 30 and having kids it made bikes more impractical.  A picture of my valkyrie:

The mechanics, electrical, and electronic training is crucial.  Both my wife's vehicle and mine are over 10 years old and unless it takes a hydraulic press or something to work on them we do all the work and the children are required to observe and participate.  I was so proud when I had my son do a full brake job on my Ranger and my daughter do a full brake job on the Escape.  Both vehicles have front disc and rear caliper so they got to experience the different designs.  It took them a long time to finish the job, but those springs on the rear calipers are not easy to get on.  I recently replaced all the brake lines in my Ford Ranger after they rusted and blew out.  $1800 USD quote from the Ford dealer but I got it done for less than $100 in parts and about 4 hours of my time including removing the bed and gas tank.  And when squirrels ate my wife's main wiring harness in her Ford Escape it was almost a $2000 quote at the dealer but I rebuilt it from scrap I had sitting around.  Ever since they started using soy based insulators for car wiring it has been a pain to keep the rodents from eating all of it.

I see so many people wasting their dollars paying people to do brakes, tires, electrical components.  While I'm still alive I want to pass on as much as I can to my kids.  That way they can use their money for things like food instead of paying a mechanic.  I'm concerned because I see more parents these days that don't service their own mechanical, electrical, and electronics and their kids will never know how to do this.

[Kiriakos-GR]

The truth is that I was not aware, that Ford does so tasty wiring harness ..      LOL

Why people does no do things with their hands ?

Some excuses could be:
lack of time / no space / no tools / lots of mess .

The truth, or my truth about this subject, you must having it in you, speaking about the spark and the determination.

How you can teach to a young boy to be patient ? to not easily feel disparate ? to start a project when he is prepared?
to not quit when there is in front of him a dead end ?  to realize that the elders haves the half of the answers, and he just had to ask their help. 
I never said to my father that : I will do it by my way.
There is only one way to do a perfect job, and some one haves to show it to you.

My father died when I was sixteen, still at my 42 I remember most of the lessons,
he had force me in a way, to become equal of him in a short time.
This is my only complain.
But today I feel strong like a rock , and proud of my self, all that knowledge of electrical / electronics / metallurgy / machinist /painter
makes you feel powerful.
The old days there was not so many spare parts, some of them you should do it by hand.
My dad had even the tools to make home made car or truck batteries.

I do not have experience as a true mechanic, and I am afraid to take the engine apart.
But I can clean my carburetor ..   

It is a honor meeting you, we are so far away but so alike. 
I do not own four wheels too, the wings of Honda is enough, for some one with no Kids.
Thanks for sharing your story. 

[SpunkyMonkey]

The electronics are now all tasty for rodents.  They have had issues with all manufacturers since they moved to soy based insulation.  Especially with people that use long term parking at airports.  They come back after a few weeks to find all their wiring eaten by rabbits or squirrels.  It got so bad here that I started pouring coyote and fox urine under the vehicles each night.  A neighbor's car caught on fire because the squirrels ate his wiring and packed his engine full of dead grass.  It was very expensive for him.

I suspect we will get back to the days when people repair their own things again.  I'm not fond of the throw-away society that we have become.  There are so many neat things out there made by people far ahead of their time and they shouldn't be lost.

And on the original topic.  I have been using the UTE61E every day and I am so impressed.   Wow!  what an incredible device.  It is so fast at auto-ranging and seems very accurate.  It was a crucial piece of test equipment while I refurbished my old 1950's Heathkit OL-1 oscilloscope.  Many of the voltages in it are very high and when testing you draw an arc even before you get the test lead close to the point.  Some of my voltages are not at the proper level and I still have a ripple on the top of square waves which I am trying to resolve.  I replaced all the dry regular capacitors and electrolytics and restuffed the multi-capacitor cans.  I also replaced 2 of the 7 tubes that tested as weak.  We still have a place in town that has a serve yourself tube tester!  They were 12AU7's.  When they came in the mail my wife thought they were really pretty and I had to agree.  I know that they are thousands of times larger than they would need to be and they waste electricity and get hot, but there is just something really neat about tubes.  I may test all the resistors and potentiometers out of circuit for drift and repost as a new new topic if I can't get that ripple out of there.  When I bought the Heathkit in the 80's it worked perfect eventhough the parts were over 30 years old. I thought that replacing all the capacitors and the failing tubes would be enough.

[IanB]

That way they can use their money for things like food instead of paying a mechanic.

Of course that sucks if they want to make their money by being a mechanic and they can get no work... 

All of us have things that we may prefer to use our own time for, and things where we will pay others to use their time. It all balances out in the end (or should do).

[Kiriakos-GR]

Well there is some Jobs, that the people who does it are common thieves, In my area those are all those who does car panting.

With all the material ( paints and primer ) at hand, just to paint the empty body ( skeleton ) of my motorcycle plus the two rims,
they wanted 200- 300$
And I was had prepare those metals to be ready for painting , sanded and all !!

I visited 10, so to find the one who would do it for 100$ .




 

[SpunkyMonkey]

Good point IanB.  You are right and I don't want anyone to think I have a lack of respect for mechanics.  I think a good mech is hard to find and I am more than willing to bow to the skills of others when I don't think I have it in me.  We have a bunch of crooks here and it makes it hard.  I assume that my kids will also realize when they don't have the skills/tools/time and instead take it to someone in the know.  Lots of times when I take vehicles in it is because they have the tools I don't have or they can get it done quicker and make me look like a slow idiot.  Like when I needed to do my front differential but it took a $500.00 socket to work on it.

We had one guy around our area that we would take our work to if it was out of my range.  This guy was incredible and for his age he was way beyond his years in knowledge.  He was in his early twenties but had a freakish memory about all things vehicle related.  And this was just some little muffler and brake shop but he would do deep engine work and really knew his stuff.   He would even come in and work on your stuff late at night.  He just loved cars.  I made sure to recommend him to anyone needing anything.  Unfortunately the franchise got a new manager and the new manager fired him.  The manager doesn't know anything about cars but is quite capable with using a spreadsheet.  I've went back a few times but they have no info on where this guy went.  He should be running his own business.   He was probably ruffling a lot of feathers.  It could even be that that late at night stuff wasn't on the company's books.

[SpunkyMonkey]

That is so true Kiriakos.  We had a 1985 Toyota Tercel a number of years ago that served us very well.  We took it to get it painted. I told the person that was going to paint it that I would do all the preparation work but he said it was no problem.  I was worried because there were a few rust spots around the fenders.

The car came back with a huge metallic sticker across the hatchback with his painting company name.  It fell off along with the paint and the following week we were driving in the rain and all the paint came off of the hood and the roof of the car and was flapping in the breeze.  We spent $1500.00 US and when we went back he was no longer there.  We were totally screwed.

[Bored@Work]

The car came back with a huge metallic sticker across the hatchback with his painting company name.  It fell off along with the paint and the following week we were driving in the rain and all the paint came off of the hood and the roof of the car and was flapping in the breeze.  We spent $1500.00 US and when we went back he was no longer there.  We were totally screwed.

I know that kind of quality as a "Tijuana paint job". Although it was in the context of used car salesmen driving an old clunker over the border into Mexico, getting a quick paint job in a barn, driving the clunker back and selling it for five or ten times its value.

[Kiriakos-GR]

The problem with the technical talented people ( The handy man ), is that we mostly hate to play the accountant and organize the business.

This is why we hope to find someone trusty to cooperate with,  but this is the hardest of all in our days.
There is hundreds of small or large companies, who still looking to hire people with MBA and Masters,
and they forget what a talented person could do, even with out having the top education.

I am not saying that I do not appreciate the people who does bust their ass to get a MBA,
but there should be some percentage when a company hire stuff, so the talented people to have a chance too.
The theory with the experience is the truly winning combination, always was.