I purchased this meter as a replacement for my aging Beckman which is now 31 years old and is still working ok but has less features on it. It arrived well packed in the usual Amazon outer box inside of which was another stout cardboard box and inside that was the colourful presentation box in English. The meter itself is packed in a black zip up soft case with the leads alongside. The meter uses 2 AAA batteries not 9V as marked on the back cover and is surrounded by a soft rubbery protective holster to guard against knocks. There are two slots moulded into the back of it to store the probes when not being used, a flip out support is provided to prop the meter up when in use. A quick perusal inside revealed a good quality glass fibre double sided printed circuit board with metalised screening card inside the back cover which was grounded by a spring.
The meter itself measures 7.5 inches x 3.5 inches and is 1.75 inches thick. The main switch has a positive feel about it and is easy to turn and locates well at each position. Being auto ranging you don't have to worry about selecting the correct range, it does that automatically and you can switch from AC to DC just by pressing the blue AC/DC button. This button also disables the default auto time off after 15 mins, if pressed at the same time as switching the meter on. The display characters are just short of an inch high and very clear. The probes and leads supplied were of good quality and are rated cat III @ 1000V. 20A. They fit firmly into the 4mm sockets with no slack and are of low resistance.
I did some basic tests on DC voltage using my lab power supply which has an accurate digital read out to two decimal places, the meter stabilizes quite quickly and the readings were within 0.01 (10 millivolts) of the set voltage on the power supply, repeatability was excellent each time. This test was carried out over the range of 1V to 29.99V (the max output of the Power supply)
AC voltage compared well with with my old Beckman meter, but generally this is less critical.
Next test was the capacitor test for this I used a close tolerance 2mfd motor capacitor, the reading obtained was 2.00mfd, spot on. Note, if testing large capacity electrolytics allow time for the cap to charge up fully for an accurate reading.
The frequency test confirmed the mains frequency as being exactly 50hz.
The ohms test, checking a high stability close tolerance 300 ohm resistor gave a reading of 301 ohms. An excellent result.
Temperature readings using the supplied probe in the steam from boiling water in a kettle gave a figure of 103deg C. within the published spec.
This meter can also check the duty cycle of pulse width modulation of square waves, has hold facility to lock the display on a reading, max min button, a range button so that you can select a particular range manually, and has wide current ranges both DC and AC up to 20amps. (Note, the meter is internally fused at 10 Amps on the 20Amp range and 0.5 Amps on the lower ranges, quick blow type.)
A transistor test is built in to check the hfe of both pnp & npn transistors, the wires just plug into the sockets provided. A bar graph is provided at the bottom of the scale, this gives a linear readout of the measurement akin to the old analogue meters with a pointer and is useful if you just want to know if a voltage is present without waiting for an exact figure to stabilise on the display.
I was quite surprised at the quality and accuracy of this meter given the price, and it has enough features to suit the requirements of virtually everybody who has the need for a test meter in their life.....
Pictures show actual readings obtained from my lab power supply, no 5 is capacitance range checking a 2 mfd capacitor, no 6 is on the ohms range testing a 300 ohm resistor of known accuracy (orange, black, brown) the results speak for themselves.
Update: There seems to be some misunderstanding and confusion among some users of digital multimeters as to what to expect and how they typically operate. This is compounded by the fact that many of these are of the auto ranging type which means that the meter automatically sets the range sensitivity for you and will always start at the most sensitive range which is the millivolt one. This is the reason why there are some complaints about the numbers continuously changing when switched on.
Digital meters have a high input impedance and very high sensitivity; this renders them susceptible to static voltage pickup from the test leads which act like aerials. These voltages are of a few millivlots only but sufficient to make the display continuously change, however this has no bearing on the final reading accuracy PROVIDING a good clean contact is made between the probe point and the test item, any dirt or tarnish on the test surface will result in varying readings. Make sure that the probe points penetrate through any such contamination to the clean metal underneath. It is not necessary for the display to be at zero before taking a reading with a digital meter (unlike an analogue meter which must be zeroed first) it simply reads what is there, it does not add the initial display reading to the actual voltage reading. Shorting the probes together will eliminate the static problem momentarily, and you will see the display count down to zero, but it is not necessary to wait for this before taking a reading. More expensive meters will count down more quickly to zero but in real life situations this is of no consequence and adds to the initial cost of the meter.
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