Products > Test Equipment
Vichy VC99 Multimeter Review and Teardown
rolycat:
--- Quote from: pascal_sweden on April 29, 2015, 08:01:32 am ---I found the specs for VC99 on DealExtreme.
Apparently it is 3 6/7 multimeter, with 6000 readings.
Still no backlight. Was hoping for the latter.
However I still have a question: if the highest number on the display is 5999.
How does this work out when measuring 1000V and what is the accuracy?
It is easy to understand for 600mV, 6V, 60V, 600V ranges, but how does it work out for the upper range between 600V and 1000V? How is that represented on the screen?
--- End quote ---
The resolution is 1V between 600V and 1000V, and accuracy is given as 0.8% +3 counts in the manual (which is readily available online, btw).
--- Quote ---Other question: the precision of the multimeter is not only defined by the number of digits but also by the number of samples that are taken and averaged.
How do these meters perform here in relation to a real Fluke?
And what about the sample rate?
If I am correct, multimeters can be characterized by safety on inputs, sealing of housing to keep blast inside, number of digits, number of samples that are taken and averaged, and actual sampling rate.
--- End quote ---
And many other things.
Why are you so interested in junk like the Vichy meters? The Uni-T UT139C can be bought for a similar price and reportedly offers much better build quality. It also has a backlight and true RMS.
sync:
--- Quote from: pascal_sweden on April 29, 2015, 08:01:32 am ---Other question: the precision of the multimeter is not only defined by the number of digits but also by the number of samples that are taken and averaged.
--- End quote ---
I don't think it takes several samples and average them for a reading. This is unusual for DMMs like this. They just using a dual slope ADC which gives the reading directly. Thus one sample per reading.
--- Quote ---And what about the sample rate?
--- End quote ---
From the specifications: ~3 samples/s.
pascal_sweden:
--- Quote from: rolycat on April 29, 2015, 08:42:03 am ---Why are you so interested in junk like the Vichy meters? The Uni-T UT139C can be bought for a similar price and reportedly offers much better build quality. It also has a backlight and true RMS.
--- End quote ---
I needed a cheap multimeter for low voltage measurements that is accurate.
From the review video of Martin Lorton, I learned that the Vichy is quite accurate, and therefore I decided to go and buy it.
I happened to buy the Vichy VC97+ from AideTek on Ebay.
Recently I found out that there is a VC99 out there as well, and I was curious about the difference.
I did miss out on the absence of the backlight, when buying the multimeter.
However I was convinced that the meter has True RMS, and I really hope that it does.
On some forums there is an indication that the VC97+ version has True RMS.
pascal_sweden:
If HRC fuses are that much better, can't you just replace the glass ones in a normal meter with HRC fuses of the same size and ratings? Or is there something special there that would make this not possible?
Lightages:
There are so many things that go into the safety design other than just the types of fuses. There is spacing of traces, clearance between parts, ratings of components, and the design of the case and plastics. You can change the fuses to higher rated fuses but this is no guarantee that it increases the actual safety of the meter. It certainly will not degrade the safety but it is only going to make you feel better.
Some meters obviously benefit from installing an HRC fuse and at least one manufacturer has done this to some meters being sold in the EU but also have had to derate their meters to lower CAT ratings than they had originally.
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