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Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: jammet on February 18, 2015, 02:19:01 am

Title: Who created/invented 830 multimeter?
Post by: jammet on February 18, 2015, 02:19:01 am

Okay, so, I know that everyone knows here the 830 multimeter.
It's a really cheap one and been rebranded by a lot of chinese manufacturers etc.
It's been around here in the Philippines, for like 100php or $2.50 USD.

Well to say, its the second multimeter I bought 5 years ago, when I was just starting electronics, :-// just because of diode check function. It's hard to differentiate BE junction to CE junction (yes i still work with BJTs  :-+) with an analog multimeter. I still have this, just for doing something sacrificial, like shitting with an FBT/LOPT  :-DD

But who really created this thing?
Is it really UNI-T, MASTECH or what shit?
You can see it in youtube, every electronic forums, "ITS EVERYWHERE."
How this this shit spread?
Who designed this crappy dmm?

Also, share your experience with this. :)

Title: Re: Who created/invented 830 multimeter?
Post by: Robomeds on February 18, 2015, 03:29:56 am

Check out reply 55 in this thread
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/harbor-freight-cen-tech-90899-small-teardown/45/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/harbor-freight-cen-tech-90899-small-teardown/45/)

It seems the basic IC was a rip off of an original Fluke asic. 

Title: Re: Who created/invented 830 multimeter?
Post by: Pasky on February 18, 2015, 04:03:38 am

That design was also my first multimeter.  Would use it when I was working on my Camaro, bought it at Autozone for $3.  Amazing how many clones there are of it.

Title: Re: Who created/invented 830 multimeter?
Post by: BradC on February 18, 2015, 05:28:44 am

I have about 6 of those at the moment. I buy 5 every time I get an order from Bangood at about a dollar each on special, weed out the duds and keep the rest. I have one in every car, under the seat on the motorbike and tucked away in all my travel bags. I also give them away when someone shows an interest in electronics with the caveat they are cheap and nasty, but they'll tell you enough to diagnose a fault in a car electrical system. The deal is when they eventually buy a better meter, they need to pass the cheap-o to someone else with the same rules.

Title: Re: Who created/invented 830 multimeter?
Post by: jammet on February 18, 2015, 07:24:26 pm

At first, I can't really do more with an analog meter, since this came, I understood, hFE, Vce, Vbe, relation of Ic to Ib to Ie.
Well now, I'm dealing with FETs and IGBTs, so I can say that this shit spiked my interest in transistors, the basic of every electronic switching, and everything that I know now.  ;D