I own this meter as well as a bunch of others ( can't help myself from buying each new model) and I find Auto modes on ANY multimeter to be of very limited use. I much prefer to set the meter to what I wish to measure i.e. when you have an AC signal riding on DC etc.
I have several test cables with coax cables and standard spacing banana plugs that I like to use. I don't think I'd buy a meter without the standard connector spacing. That indicates to me that the meter's manufacturer either isn't paying attention to their market, or doesn't know it. That's not a good sign.
I'm in the same camp. I think it's quite possible that they don't know the standard. To be as fair as possible, this is one of their fist DMM efforts. They know about it now. Despite that, It's a really good little meter and many potential users would never need the standard spacing. But, none of that is really an excuse.
Thank you for the video! But I didn't understand what the problem was - on the other side of the cable, you have the USB-C plug, and it connects to the soldering iron, in any way: you can connect it in any way you choose (around the clock - even at 180 degrees)! So in fact the polarity of the connection on the side of the DC socket is of no importance - isn't it?
This story provides my POV regarding repair/mod prices, though of course it just applies to me. I do equipment repairs for a government lab in the town where I live. With some of their gear, designed by them in-house 40 years ago I'm the only one I can imagine would ever bother to do all the necessary research to understand it and its quirks, then take the time and care to do the repair job right. I could charge a lot more than I do for most of it, but I don't. I'm semi-retired, single, and I charge what I figure is fair. There was a brand-new manager in one department at the lab who called me on a Friday to tell me he thought my repair quote had been too high since I worked at home and had no overhead or other employees. That sort of took me aback. So I told him, "No problem. I'll go play with radios this weekend." I got a call back from the guy a couple of hours later and he asked me if I could come over and pick up the equipment before closing time. I asked, "Couldn't you find a better quote?" He sounded embarrassed and told me that only 1 company they'd called would do it at all, a place on the east-coast, and they had quoted him $3,500 with a 60 day turnaround. He said he'd be happy to pay me more than my original quote. I told him I'd pick it up before closing time, fix it over the weekend, and drop it off Monday morning for the original quote of $250. After that he never questioned my repair quotes. In fact, since then he's never even asked for a quote. I just pick things up. I fix them as quickly as I can. I return them with a bill. I get paid. That's the way I like to do business. This adversarial crap is just that. I'm too old to play games, and the little extra money I could make by squeezing my customers simply won't change my life. It would just stress me out for no good reason.
Don't be part of the rip-off! This device is way too expensive, and the makers have found a way to market it to an unsuspecting public. It leads to inflation and distrust of the brand, and is, quite simply, just wrong. Thanks for the great channel.
That's a difficult question for me personally to tackle - how much to charge for a repair. On one hand, it doesn't take a PhD to replace two CMOS batteries so I can see the nominal charge of 1 hour labour making sense. What bothers me though is that you do need to bake in some upcharge in case you completely bugger the repair - you NEVER know, you could knock over your soldering iron and melt some expensive components or even break traces inside layer 3 of a 4-layer PCB for example. You can't escape the fact that it is a $10k replacement value item on your workbench at the end of the day. If I were doing it for a friend and the friend had ZERO expectations of a successful repair (AKA they are ready to buy a new unit but would like me to try fixing it first) then I would do it for free or "beer money" - whatever that is for a non-drinker - but if it comes with an expectation of fixing it, you kind-of have to cover the eventuality that it may get borked in the process and that is worth some mone yfor the risk on your end. Where you lost me is the cost of components - 25% is a VERY small margin on those - if the parts cost is very low, it should be closer to 2x the cost of the part! Consider instead of billing out each little part - just charge a "incidentals - parts / supplies" line instead for like 20$ instead of making 10c profit on a socket you know?
The real question is - should you get into the Stenography machine business. $10k for that? A quick suggest suggests what while this may be at the higher end, it's not out of line for the market. I assume you're paying a premium for the small volume here and for the expectation that the keys work at a perfect professional level, probably very quick turn around on the service. The big difference with this machine is that most of the machines have big typewriter-type keys, based on the original design. This machine and the next one are using some very sensitive keys. Additional, this unit works with a PC, while most of the machines use a built in LCD which makes them look a bit like a cheap 1990's kids "laptop", like a V-Tech. As for what the company would charge, while digging for this info I saw that the company mentions they charge $270 restocking fee for returns. While I'm sure this is because the machines are often rented, I think anything you charge would be well below what the company would charge.
The company also charges $120/yr for support, and that's just support. No additional warranty or service. The keys on this a conductive rubber and operate with very little pressure. They don't actually move. It's a neat idea, but hardly ground shaking.
I had been looking at this to make my way into the pemf field just to experiment, Don't really know what i'm doing but if this is so crap, what other options are there in the pulsed signal offerings? My budget isn't crazy but could stretch for more than this unit goes for by a little. Is there even such a thing as a cheap, two channel adjustable voltage pulse generator that works and won't require an expensive oscilliscope to experiment with? I won't likely be going into the high kilahertz ranges, solfegios and such are mainly under 1000hz...
@@uni-byte I've been looking at a few now. CDEK SDS1102X UNI-T UTG962E OWON DGE2070 A little more cost, and i'm leading towards the first cdek, but combined pulsed generator and oscilloscope in one seems good, but I don't know what I might be missing.
@@8thsinner I thought the CDEK SDS1102X was an oscilloscope? I have heard good things about the UNI-T and the Owon. I'm not sure what Owon's support is like but I do know UNI-T do not support their products very well.
@@uni-byte Oscilliscope and generator...so it says at least, but I don't know, is it better to have both functions separate? I'm also not sure of the differences between wave generator and pulse... mm...help...lol
@@8thsinner I know very little abut the CDEK, but I do think it's better to have your scope and FG as separate instruments. Any good function generator will generate bot waves and pulses. Both the Owon and the UNI-T will do this. They will produce any waveform you like.
The downside of charging a lot, for example, $1000 to rotate the tires on a Lamborgini, is that just about any tech can do this job, and there's probably a lot of techs who would agree to undercut your jacked-up rate. You might lose reputation for attempting to price gouge over this as well. Just my thoughts.
As an answer to your question, an honest repair should cost what it costs. For example, my car needs a repair. I take it to my mechanic and he charges me for the time he spends on it plus parts. I don't think he should charge me less than a car worth more than mine. As long as you feel you are fairly compensated for your time, that's all that matters.
Just be an honest person and charge for the material (batteries+consumables) + your honorary. I don't exactly how is the economy of where you live, but i think something like $50/hour would be more or less a fair value, given that you had to afford various equipments, and get educated to do this kind of technical jobs, and your time of course.
Generally, anything that is sold to government (and it is not a consumer product), is charged at highly inflated prices. This is an example of your tax dollars at "work"
$10,000 dollars for that steno machine is probably based on demand and the limited use for it. And the nature of our capitalistic system. One could buy a nice artsy steampunk wristwatch for that amount. You do you!
No need to rip off the buyer for a simple repair job. Seems to me they were already ripped off once. It just gives the industry a bad name. People recommend car mechanics for this very reason.
I don't charge at all. But I do accept what the person offers me. Which is usually more than I would have asked for. But then I don't have a business doing this, just a hobby kind of thing. Great video!
When you have a business, and you want to make money, it makes sense to charge based on the value the customer is willing to pay you. Regardless of how much it cost you to produce the thing. You, as a repairman, can charge as much as the value of a repair is to this customer. The customer can either have it repaired, or buy a new one. And the customer can have it repaired with you, or someone else. So given the option to either buy a new one for $10k, or get it repaired by someone for $200-$500, the customer is definitely willing to pay you more than another customer who has a throwaway device. For example, another customer who has a device whose total cost is $200, is not going to be as willing to pay you the $150 charge to repair it, because the value to that customer is much lower - both from the device, and the repair.
@@uni-byte Just to drive this point further home. My brother is working at restoring lost data on hard drives and SD cards. Do you think that for 30 minutes of his work, he should be charging $50 instead of $1500? Even though people are more than happy to pay an arm and a leg to get their lost data back? It always depends on the value of the repair in the eye of the customer. The amount of work and materials that you do for a repair is irrelevant.
I tend to charge only for the work that I do. The value of my time is always the same, although the cost of parts may be higher in high-value gear. I assume they can charge that price because there is only a limited market for stenographer keyboards. However, if the profit-margin is that high then shouldn't that stimulate competition? Is there anything special about the mechanical constructions of the actual keys? Perhaps a patented design? I wonder if they offer a warranty that helps justify the price.
Nice little meter. Kind of interested in that. As far as labor goes. I never upcharge. Always just charge normal rate. Return business beats no business.
So many parts, so little time. :) I used to use felt pens to try to color polarize connectors. First, it's impossible to use a red felt pen to color a black connector red. But when the did work they also rubbed off or faded pretty badly with time. Then I realized that cheap black and red fingernail polish worked really well for that job. It didn't matter what color the connectors were, and nail polish doesn't fade or rub off. I now have an assortment of colors of cheap fingernail polish in my toolbox to ID various voltages and signals. It doesn't dry instantly, but it's bright and lasts a very long time. I like your soldering iron holder. The old ones made with a big spring were great for melting AC or DC power cables and BNC signal cables that dropped between the turns of the spring, pretty much any wire that dropped between the turns. Very versatile. BTW, I used to say, "Onwards, and downwards!"
I had considered getting a gpsdo as an exxternal reference for my scopes and function generators. Having seen this and the price , that idea is out the window and it's hello ebay and CTI. Thanks for that.
with this 6074BC model being specified with a bandwidth of 70 MHz, but still apparently being able to handle 250 MHz (albeit with amplitude loss), I am wondering how far the Hantek6254BC with its specififed bandwidth of 250 MHz can be operated above its specification.
The amplitude loss was within 3dB which is the point out to which BW is usually measured. On the 6254BC, I don't know but it would be interesting to find out. Are you planning to get one?
@@uni-byte I'm currently looking for the right oscilloscope to purchase, and your videos are a great help during this. Having access to capturing signals at a higher bandwidth could be helpful in some scenarios, such as reverse engineering. Now seeing that the 6074BC is capable of handling threefold of bandwidth it is specified, I was wondering how much the 6254BC can be stretched before hitting limits. Theoretically, with 1 GSa/s, a 500 MHz bandwidth could be achievable. This of course greatly depends on the analog front-end (which may or may not be identical to the 6074BC - who knows, only a teardown of both could tell). The 6254BC currently (as of July 2024) costs 385 EUR including VAT in Hantek's EU online shop (versus 306,13 EUR for the 6074BC).
@@Abdullu Yes, it would definitely depend on the front end as well as how they handle the sampling when fewer channels are used. Have you seen Part 2? In that I tear it down and you can see the silkscreen on the board. They use the same board for all the 6xx4 series scopes. So, they will definitely have to change the ADC and the firmware, but I'm not sure if they change anything in the front end. As it stands, they would not have to as the front end in the 6074 does go to 250MHz, so my guess is they won't, but that's just a guess. I do not know for sure.
It is pretty easy. There is a learning curve but it's not that bad. Easier than anything else I've tried. The product is called DipTrace. They still have a free version that is limited to 500 pins and 2 layers which more than adequate for most hobbyist needs. I'm not affiliated, but I have been using it since version 1. I guess I'm a bit of a fan.
@@uni-byteAnother free option is KiCad. It is a complete, professional-grade electronics design program. No limits on its features. I have used it for years and I love it. So, there are options.
This circuit will not be able to run to 50kHz. The rise time of the LM358 is just too slow. In any case, I have never calculated the formula for frequency. It would depend on the control voltage, the charge and discharge paths (which are different), the output impedance of the op-amp and the saturation voltage of the discharge transistor. The best was would be to do it experimentally. Set the control voltage to 10V, choose the capacitor that give you the frequency you want at 10V and the rest should fall into place. However, like I said, this particular circuit will not run to 50kHz.
I bought one of these clocks from AliExpress for US$3 about 8 yrs ago ! I love that its 24hr time and having the seconds counting all the time 👍😁 Mine worked 100% first time 😜 The buttons are a bit backwards for the display layout. I used an old Nokia phone charger to power mine 👍
If there was only the red and black wires going to the load and no another wires branching off somewhere, it would have to. That is a fundamental law of physics. Do you mean does it measure the same with a DC current probe? It should if you use to probe correctly. As mentioned by other commenters, for readings of small currents, because of stray magnetic fields (the earth's counts here too), you need to make sure the meter (UT210E) is zeroed out for each physical arrangement before taking the current reading.
@@uni-byte I'm just using it for my car battery terminals can't fit the UT210E clamp in positive wire because of large wire, while negative wire is thin, fit perfectly
@@playstation2bigs I don't think I've seen a car with different sized wires coming off the battery terminals, but as long as there is only ONE wire on each terminal then the current through them will be the same.
I find that using a wet sponge to clean my soldering iron tip cools off my tip (soaks some heat away) so I switched to the brass wool soldering iron tip cleaner. I guess this is all dependent on how quickly your soldering iron can recover the set soldering temperature though. Just my $0.02.
Yeah, I think that could happen. That's why I do the wet cleaning immediately before putting the iron onto the stand. For quick cleanings between joints I do use the brass wool. I think I mentioned this.
Agreed. In the prior video's comments, I forgot to mention this... I see a lot of soldering tutorials that say to just press the tip into the brass wool. I find that this method just pushes the residue up higher on the tip. So, I reach the tip over the brass wool, lower the tip onto the wool and draw it backward to scrap off all of the residue. This method works really well. However, you do need to be careful to only use gentle side pressure on the tip. Too much side pressure and you might crack the ceramic heating element, inside the tip. HTH. Cheers.
New standard for USB C is now 48 V PD 3.1 so I imagine this one maxes out at 28 V 140 W any of these power meters that I purchase has to go up to 48 V at 5 A 240 W all these other ones are old technology... PD 3.0
Mistakes lead to learning.! You could build the timer into a box or case, add a battery. NiMH battery's can be left on a trickle-charge for months at a time. 20mA ~ 40mA would be a reasonable value. The right value hobbiest solar cell would be enough. 6 battery's comes to 7.2volts.
@@edwardfletcher7790 NiMH batteries are very robust and far less likely to burst into flames and burn your house down while you sleep if the charging/protection circuitry fails. They have their uses.
Yes, you can set it to off. I do it in the video. You go into the alarm set page then increase the hours until you get all dashes across the display. "-- -- --"
I do. I have an Ayoue, but it's a pain to clean and only worthwhile if you are removing parts with many pins, like an IC, from a delicate board. A tinny LED does not warrant all the work! LOL!
When these gizmos were entering the market, I realized that being able to reach in and read different things on the USB lines could be very beneficial. However, being suspicious of the quality of inexpensive Asian electronics, I thought it would be better to use my own lab-grade test gear to do measurements. Accordingly, I developed a PCB board to facilitate easy access to the USB lines. I call it "The Tapper." Here is how it is arranged... USB-A Input connector to Test Point Loops to Jumpers to a second set of Test Point Loops to USB-B Output connector. Different connector cords can make any needed connection, between the devices being observed. Here is how it works... A Jumper can be lifted, breaking a connection, and a meter can be inserted in series. Or, readings can be taking with the broken connection, on the Test Loops, on either side of the break. Additionally, the jumper can be left in place and traffic can be observed, via the Test Loops. You can configure any arrangement that you need to read any, or all, of the four lines. You could also use it to inject a charge on a battery powered device. Easy to DIY by any means... Point to Point, Perf Board, or have a board manufactured, for you to solder up. Way cheaper than the Gizmo. Way better information, via your own lab equipment, too. Cheers.
You may need to turn the PD-COM switch off, to let the usb-c soldering iron do the power negotiation, instead of the usb meter. It may need to use a different protocol (probably PD) to get 20V from that charger. In that mode, if plugged into a usb-c charger, the meter won't turn on until the device (soldering iron) does the negotiation. Also note that you may need to turn one of the usb-c plugs 180° (while you should be able to plug usb-c either orientation, that only holds for 1 cable between host/device/charger, not 2 joined/chained cables ... usually usb-c cables have just 1 CC wire, host or device ports detect orientation, but the join is not really handled, it's not strictly speaking to usb spec ...)
I had the opportunity to try your suggestion and got it on camera. Have a look that today's video to see the results. I hop to have it out around 2:00 pm or before.
I have both the 48P (bluetooth version in my home and the 58 in my workshop. I love the 48P with its cellphone app. Can always monitor remotely if the device I am trying to charge is charging or not… always having issues with cables…
Great review. I bought the same usb tester from aliexpress a while back and it's a handy little device but I've never been able to get the cable test mode to work. I might not be doing it properly so I'll probably read the manual and try again. Oh and if I remember right I think they have some Pc software you can download that works with this model and the newer one.
