I have various hobbies including electronics. Here you will mostly find benchmarking of various handheld multi-meters. I am not affiliated with any company distributing or manufacturing meters. For the most part, meters are purchased out of pocket. I run these test purely out of my own interests and make them available for free to the public. I have no plans to use patreon or enable ads. I appreciate those of you who have offered to provide me with meters and such. I have not looked into setting up a PO box. For those of you wanting to support the channel, your views and feedback are more than enough.
The data for the meters I have tested may be found here:
You know as I watch videos like this I am frustrated how people in the comments don't recommend a good budget alternative to the meter being tested in this case, Vici VC99. And what is that piece of test equipment he doesn't name it or list it in the description. I'd like to buy one so I can test my multimeters as I am going to self-teach electronics for a hobby.
Having use Labview for over 30 years, this is sad news. As you alluded, Labview tech support has always been a bit hit and miss, indeed, some of the updates/bug fixes introduced more problems than they solved!. Before Labview I used HP VEE (now called Keysight VEE, I believe) which worked fine although their tech support wasn't great either even though the work I was doing was for HP themselves!.
Logged into my Dropbox account and used the provided Dropbox link and get this error: "That didn't work for some reason". I've tried multiple times and get the same result. I've used Dropbox for work and personally and have never seen this error before.
WHY WHY WHY what is the point? . You are putting 2KV into it? Ridiculous. DO NOT EXCEED SPECS... Simple. I have a few of these HF meters. They are handy for basic uses, for nominal measurements most people make, Volts, Amps, Ohms IN THE RANGE most people doing home and car maintenance, wiring, basic electronic troubleshooting. it does PNP NPN transistor gain hFE and diode tests as well, works. I only added high quality test leads to a few meters (only way I'd do AC with it). I have several. l placed in kitchen drawer, car, airplane, tool box. One $400 meter is great but worthless if you don't have it with you when you need it..... A multimeter in hand when you need it, even this lowly HF meter, is priceless. They battery last forever. I have about 6 HF meters and think. They gave them away free for awhile. I killed one, reason unknown. The rest have been going decade or more. I also have lab quality test equipment on my bench from HP, Tektronix..... I am not a fan of exceeding specs to LOOK SEE.... there is no point. Engineers designed it who are smarter than you. Trust them. (BTW the design does and has changed over time, for the better or worse I don't know. The two I have handy at the moment have 1000V DC switch position.)
Who is using a Multimeter to read very high VHF at higher RF power. This is dumb. The other UT61's are rated at 10Mhz. Driving at higher RF power you intentionally destroyed the meter for no reason. High RF power at high Freq requires special equipment not a general use Multi meter.
As much as I like electronics it seems you could make this into something much more robust and turn the measurement into a more thoughtful process by just making a box with a NC pushbutton switch. Press the button and get your reading.
Good thing I used my cheap Metech MK-05 and not my Fluke 789. I don't know what the hell I was thinking I knew that the meters were rated for a thousand volts In fact this one's 600 volts but I can say the MK05 performed and did not fail, I'm not going to try it with the Fluke
Hi, i search info about all VR potentiometer values. My is broken... Edit: ok, i repair my vici. Replace cpu,q2,q3 and vici works great. I must calibrate only :)
I thought the video is too long, but no - just fine and I watched it all. Very educational indeed. It reminded me one Top Gear episode where they were trying to kill a Toyota pickup, then resurrected it every time . Thanks!
It is a multimeter with a very nice visual appearance, aesthetically you can see that the Japanese thought a lot about it (not like the Chinese who look more like a transformer than a multimeter), but it is a real shame that its screen has a really bad reflective film, making a poor contrast and bad visualization. I hope they improve this in the future.
I have just became aware of your channel. You now have another subscriber! I like your various termination PCBs. Did you make them or are they commercially available? I also tried to download your NanoVNA software but get a 404 error.
Welcome aboard. While this channel has nothing for sale, I have seen others making similar boards which may be for sale. I would just check around. I moved my software from Github to Dropbox about a year ago as many people had problems sorting out how to use it. You can find the announcement and link here or use the link to EEVBLOG and follow my signature. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xDZpQS3Ou6s.html
Interesting, I just got my 3.1 version and it didn’t have a soft plug. I think the 3.1 also stopped the parasitic drain on the battery so customers dont get them with a dead battery past the BMS safety low point. Mine did arise with a battery at 3.95 volts.
@@joesmith-je3tq It’s possible . I did look this up later and also found that the 3.1 also changed the LCD touch screen being used according to the *official website because to supply chain issues. Now the big question is what is the LiteVNA67 (I keep running across that firmware). The name indicates it might be. 7 inch screen version but I can’t seem to get a definitive answer. Have a great day.
Could be a typo. For myself, they could remove the screen, touch, card reader, thumb switch, battery and 90% or more of the firmware. I would rather them have changed the architecture to allow for narrow band measurements, lower noise, higher directivity ....
Joe! I didn’t know you’re afflicted with model train sickness! Now I know why I enjoy you and your channel so much. I’m afflicted with American Flyer disease since 1954. There’s no permanent cure. The symptoms always recur. 😜
I used to really enjoy playing with them as a child. Learned some electrical basics and helped to jump start a long career in electronics. Most of what I have left is in pretty rough condition. I've bought a few bits for parts to rebuild some of what I have. The one video shows an old Marx that I ended up rewinding the motor for. Sadly I none of the American Flyer survived outside of an old decoupler.
@@joesmith-je3tq I’m a bit more “invested “. I have over 35 steam engines, over 40 diesels, and hundreds of rolling stock. I’ve been collecting and operating for over 70 years. Only TWO diesels currently need repair and I’ve already ordered the parts. All my steam engines are presently all ready to run. We’ve recently moved so most items are still in storage bins, about 45 of them…About 25% of the collection is contemporary while the rest are all pre 1960. It’s a sickness….
I have the three engines shown along with a maybe 10 cars. Most of what survived is old tinplate and some plastic. I have a few switches and some other track but it's in poor condition and there is not enough to setup any sort of layout. Also, no transformer. This is why I am testing with DC in these videos. The surviving parts that have been serviced are sitting on display now.
Thanks for the in depth video. I have it now installed on an older i5 laptop, but next I want to see if I can also get it installed on a windows virtual on my mac. I think I need to update the windows laptop with a SSD drive, starting to run sluggish these days being almost 10 years old. By the way I would still be interested in the manual you wrote, I know you probably have made changes since you wrote it but I can refer to the software change log to determine the change difference with the manual. I still feel it might help with the learning curve and understanding of everything.
I stopped updating the manual. What is available on-line is the last revision. My advice, use the open sourced applications. They are tailored towards hams, have a large following, and groups.io that are setup to support them.
Hi Joe! Awesome demo, and great software! I tried your GitHub link, but it says 404. Did you host it elsewhere or delete it? A shame as it looks like a great base to develop further from.
Most likely a hardware failure. Assuming the leads are still alright, you may be looking at a new meter. On the plus side, these are fairly inexpensive to replace.
I've just being watching your video. Many compliments, your work i great! i'm a lot curious on the Matlab script you mentioned that you wrote to calculate the calibration coefficients from S parameters. Can you share the script or at least the formulas to calculate coefficients, or even the literature on these formulas? i've been looking for the formulas form very long time, but i could not find none of them.
That's odd I would state that as I have never written such a script. Provide a timestamp to what you are referring to and I should be able to clear things up.
@@joesmith-je3tq Oh sorry, my bad! you say something about a Matlab script at minute 8:27. Listening again the video you say somebody else gave you help with standards and wrote the script (i think is Mario, not sure i spelt the name right).
Now I understand. Yes, they wrote a scrip that I used to characterize my home made standards based on a set of metrology grade standards. Check out: www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/20db-rf-attenuator-seeking-feedback-to-improve/msg2987982/#msg2987982
@@joesmith-je3tq thank you vey much, I read the conversation and downloaded the Octave file, it is very interesting! I will take inspiration and write my own script.
Post a link when you have it working and I'll have a look. There was another person who had written a similar script but I was not able to locate it. I read that METAS can also do this but I have never tried or looked into it.
I have a 869s and 87v and use the brymen all the time for years now for my lab work. We also have hiokis laying around the lab which are very good 60k count meters. Flukes, Brymens, Hiokis are definitely the top meters for accuracy as of 2024. I was looking into kps meters and this review somehow came up. Thought i would comment. Good job on the comparisons.
A friend caught a few mistakes and provided the following feedback: Great video on your explorations of the EPR world! Only two remarks: (1) At video time point 30:00 you explain the equation E = h = gh, and you say that the last ‘h’ in the equation is planck’s constant. If that would be true, it would drop out of the equation because h is also on the left side of the equal sign. It is actually a printing error in the document that you show. It should be capital H for magnetic flux density (or in the language that I am used to: B for magnetic field). In the next page of the shown document the h is changed into H. (2) Around video time point 1,03:00 you say that ‘It is the manganese that has the unpaired electron’. This is formally not correct. Mn(II) has five unpaired electrons and the spin therefore is S = 5/2, with sublevels mS = 5/2, 3/2, 1/2, -1/2, -3/2, -5/2. And thus with five possible EPR transitions for |mS|=1. It so happens that you only see the transition between the levels +1/2 and -1/2 because the other spectra are much broader (therefore lower in intensity) and anyway beyond your field range.
Hi Joe,i have x2 99 Hayabusa"s but on one the speedometer does not register while bike in motion but when I switch bike on the stepper motor does the self test and pass ,when i swap the clocks the other clock work just fine meaning it is not the sensor,I have opened the instrument and could not see any damage ,I assume it is the speed controller chip,,, any advice
If it runs through the self test, then it's not the stepper motor or controller IC. This is good as these parts are hard to come by. So something else. Problem is this is really a job for a electronics wiz. So unless that is your background, I wouldn't suggest you do anything with it as you may do a lot more harm than good. Opening the unit up without proper ESD protection could easily damage the sensitive parts. Soldering surface mount parts without the proper skills could not only damage components but the main circuit board. Being yours are a 99, I suspect your clusters don't have conformal coating. If the problem does happen to be one of the unobtainable ICs, then you would need to rob the parts from another cluster (like I did for this video). Is it worth having repaired? The labor alone may far exceed the costs of a used one. You may be better off selling the dead one for parts.
I just want to be clear that what you refer to as a "clock" is indeed the instrument cluster. To me, a clock would be something that measures time or in the case of the instrument cluster, it has internal clocks that drive the logic. I thing you mean cluster. If that is the case, one thing you may want to do is just have a look at the speed sensor. Make sure that the gap is still correct, the part that mounts to the sprocket is tight. Nothing funny going it. I suspect you swapped the entire cluster but one may be less sensitive than the other to problems with the actual sensor. Easy to check. Good luck.
44:27 continuity test: looks just as fast as on the BM789 that I bought. For me, this is the main aspect in which Brymen multimeters stand out about the rest. Sluggish continuity on cheaper multimeters was a big source of frustration for me.
You can or course have some random signals, for example, I demonstrated up to PAM8 with it using pseudo random sequences. The clock does need to be synchronized.
Long time Joe. I remember when you first launched this video series and I skipped them. but here I am, figured this would be better and more useful in the long run as it was the same cost for a decent SWR meter that would handle the bands I want to match. So I bought one and started flipping though videos and you were the second one to pop up.
Wow, a blast from the past. Haven't seen you post on EEVBLOG since your move. YT is now flooded. I'm surprised it's remained at second highest. There are also several groups.io setup for the various models and firmware.
@@joesmith-je3tq Yea, got busy the last few years. But time had freed up now, still dont know if I am really going to post any videos. I record, but never get to edit them and delete them eventually. I might do a video on a B&K 9200B I just received broken. Also was going to do a small test repeater rig for GRMS before going for a full HAM setup. It’s been a while for amateur radio with me also. Just going to fill in the gap in the country in case of emergency readings communication is needed. I think I was on eevblog a few times over on the InfiRayP2 Pro thread last year.
@@joesmith-je3tq So I grabbed the NVA-H4, but now I am starting to wonder if I should have grabbed the VNA-F V3 (if that’s a real product from them, I can’t find it on the wiki) or the LiveVNA since I do a lot with wifi and an external cell phone antennas (cell internet, cheaper than sat and faster). And both voter to 6GHz. What do you think of the LiveVNA? My range will most likely be 400MHz to 6GHz, might be worth the extra cost to cover it all for one of them.
I don't know anything about the VNA-F V3. I looked at the original NanoVNA (shown here), the V2Plus4 the LiteVNA64 and H4. I have not used the V2Plus4 since getting the LiteVNA64. The firmware was lacking and not supported. Like the NanoVNA, I did eventually find firmware for the H4 that was stable enough to pass my regression test. I've made several videos on the LiteVNA64. I've shown the pros/cons between the original NanoVNA and LiteVNA64. Getting both gets the best of both worlds. Really all depends what YOU need. There are cases where all the low cost VNAs would be a bad choice as in the linked video. I never run them standalone. They are always headless on the PC. I don't care about any of the peripheral they have added. Nor do I care about any firmware features beyond being able to get the raw data off the VNA as fast and reliable as possible. People will write me asking if my software will work with BrandXYX VNA. My advice is you best research what software is available for the product you buy before making an order. There are a few threads on EEVBLOG for these low cost VNAs as well as groups.io. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y6iOTEU6Zzo.html
Seem like meter design is around 8 years old now, is it still good for 2024? I'm interest this meter since price to quality ratio is seem to be ok for home use.
@@joesmith-je3tq Thank you, while waiting for your reply I did more deeper research on UT181A. Compared to 8 years ago they seem to slightly improve it overtime and now comply with EMC standard. At first I wanted a 287 but after found out that newer UT181 came with accuracy pretty close to 287 (And better on some range), faster graphic (also more logging memory) then I answered my self to go with 181A. Only downside I found is I can't use it while charging but it's acceptable more than frequen changing battery as many people (who hasn't affect by leaking super cap) complaining about 287 being battery monster.
I really have no idea if they have changed the meter or not. If the meter passes the EMC standards, that is impressive as from what I have seen UNI-T in general have fallen way short. I don't use mine enough to tell you how long the battery will live and if you can still find a replacement for it. Personally, I would have rather had standard cells that I could swap.
I tried to download the latest manual direct from the manufacture but seems to be a problem with their site. Other manuals I found on-line appear the be the same as what was included with mine. I assume you saw where the manufacture claims they now meet the EMC standards and not something you saw on some forum. Could you provide a link? YT will not allow direct links so leave out the dots.
Hi, thanks for sharing. Where does the BM 789 fall into category can't seem to find very many RU-vid videos on that one. Is it not a good meter? Anyone willing to chime in seems that the 786 and the BM 869 to be more popular is that just because it's cheaper or am I missing something? Thanks.
Hi, thanks for sharing. Where does the BM 789 fall into category can't seem to find very many RU-vid videos on that one. Is it not a good meter? Anyone willing to chime in seems that the 786 and the BM 869 to be more popular is that just because it's cheaper or am I missing something? Thanks.
@@joesmith-je3tq hi, thanks for your reply. What I meant was I just don’t see that many reviews on the 789 mostly the other two models that I mentioned was wondering why it’s not that popular or is it so that it has not been reviewed that much?
786 is an exclusive product for EEVBLOG. He may provide these to various channels for review. I really don't know the Brymen's sales figures but could believe the 786 is more popular.
This is an excellent video Joe. This reminded me of a magnetic materials class I took in grad school 40 years ago where I had to calculate the resonance vs. field. I really don't remember more than I did it, I have never used it since. This video is great because of your obvious joy heading down this rabbit hole. I really enjoyed watching this and heading down the hole with you. Thank you.
