EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: Fungus on November 13, 2020, 06:30:14 am

Title: Why are testgear screens/displays so rubbish?
Post by: Fungus on November 13, 2020, 06:30:14 am
What's the problem with screens/displays on test gear?

It seems like even the cheapest DT830 multimeter has an awesomely black display with zero viewing angle problems where multimeters that cost hundreds of $$$ struggle to be readable? Dave's even done videos on fixing them by changing capacitors in his BM235.

Similarly TFTs, I use loads of $2 cheap-ass TFTs from aliexpress with my Arduinos and they never have problems with brightness or viewing angle but many expensive oscilloscopes seem to struggle to be readable if you're not viewing them optimally.

What gives?
Title: Re: Why are testgear screens/displays so rubbish?
Post by: hugo on November 13, 2020, 07:23:13 pm
Can your $2 cheap-ass TFTs from aliexpress do 50,000 waveform updates per second?  ;)
Title: Re: Why are testgear screens/displays so rubbish?
Post by: Fungus on November 13, 2020, 07:29:14 pm
Quote from: hugo on November 13, 2020, 07:23:13 pm
Can your $2 cheap-ass TFTs from aliexpress do 50,000 waveform updates per second?  ;)

Neither can you DSO. It probably runs at 60Hz like the $2 cheap-ass TFTs from aliexpress do.

Title: Re: Why are testgear screens/displays so rubbish?
Post by: HKJ on November 13, 2020, 08:18:27 pm
Quote from: Fungus on November 13, 2020, 06:30:14 am
What gives?

I do not agree, I have a large pile of test gear and most have decent or good displays. There are exceptions like the Fluke 289 with a very low contrast display (Reason: lots of segments*), but generally the displays are good.

* More phases on a LCD display means lower contrast, how serious this is depends on the starting point.