EEVblog #1248 - INSANE A 0.02% Process Meter for $9? WTF

[Kean]

"Hello again freind, we are still await for sky blue paint shipment to process the order meter

big problem with water pirates here, if catch must pay percent or stock is steal, delivery junk is sinked
and crew sold for slave job or other things 
we not know status yet but pray for positive


If not happy we give refund you money back or upgrade to orange color meter with bigger display than Fluuke 
plus include new tecnology no oxygen test cables

Thank you for understand

Brightest Star Electronic"

That reply has gotta win some sort of award!

I think Electro Detective is pulling your leg based on reply #147
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1248-insane-a-0-02-process-meter-for-$9-wtf/msg2717446/#msg2717446

[CheckOne Two]

Today @ dhgate

Dear friends
very sorry
The products you ordered are not in stock for now.
Can we give you a refund?
Thank you

and at the same time give or take and note the non shipping details. 

(Attachment Link)

I smell  seems a magic number has now been added.......

(Attachment Link)

I have had the exact same messages showing everything up to and including "Package in transit" except I only have "Process completed in yanwen sorting center" and not the further info you have ...... maybe some of those "nice" blue replacement MM's on the way .......................................

[maginnovision]

One of mine arrived in LA today; I should have it in a day or two and see what I got.

[wilfred]

"Hello again freind, we are still await for sky blue paint shipment to process the order meter

big problem with water pirates here, if catch must pay percent or stock is steal, delivery junk is sinked
and crew sold for slave job or other things 
we not know status yet but pray for positive


If not happy we give refund you money back or upgrade to orange color meter with bigger display than Fluuke 
plus include new tecnology no oxygen test cables

Thank you for understand

Brightest Star Electronic"

That reply has gotta win some sort of award!

An award for @Electro Detective perhaps. He's letting his creative juices flow. No doubt.

[Electro Detective]

I tossed in a couple of made up 'seller Reply' based on the beauties I've read here so far for a giggle     

Apologies if people mistook them for real deal seller replies

was hoping it may perhaps ease the suspense and stress on the punters here 
many wondering if and when the ~mystery package~ arrives 
and whether the meter inside is light blue in color,

or 'sorry, is sell out, we only have this one orange color better meter, big display you will like more,
plz not forget post good ebay feedback' 

[thinkfat]

This thread alone is worth the money I might have sunk 

[Xenoamor]

Anyone else hyped for their box of rocks?

I believe the seller is on the hook for the shipping costs if we have to return items. I imagine that'll cost them a lot more than their subsidised shipping cost.

My guess is they've shipped the cheaper meter and they'll not request it is returned, effectively skirting the $20 fine DHgate would have slapped on them otherwise

[bitwelder]

If/When those meters gets delivered from various sellers, it would also be interesting to check whether they have similar S/N (if they happen to have one)

[Macbeth]

I ordered from 2 sellers on 27/09. I've had no communications with either of them.

My Cozy Life meter was sent 06/10 by EMS with tracking (working). The Aliexpress timeout is 59 days.
Shenzhen SuperDeal Technology Co. meter was sent 06/10 by ePacket with a tracking number (not working yet). The timeout on that one is only 26 days.

[rsjsouza]

My two meters were dispatched on the 6th from My Cozy Life Store. Let's see if the gamble pays off.

Buying from Aliexpress should not be seen as a gamble. Several suppliers had this meter at a comparable price.

Each to its own. Until the meter arrives and in working condition, I treat this as a gamble. Aliexpress or eBay.

OTOH, getting back the money is not a gamble due to the buyer protections provided.

[magore]

Ah, yes the shipping problems have started ... Problem with shipping ....

[thinkfat]

I ordered from 2 sellers on 27/09. I've had no communications with either of them.

My Cozy Life meter was sent 06/10 by EMS with tracking (working). The Aliexpress timeout is 59 days.
Shenzhen SuperDeal Technology Co. meter was sent 06/10 by ePacket with a tracking number (not working yet). The timeout on that one is only 26 days.

Oh, interesting. That's about exactly the date I ordered mine from Cozy Life. It hasn't shipped yet.

[Macbeth]

Oh, interesting. That's about exactly the date I ordered mine from Cozy Life. It hasn't shipped yet.

Hmm... that seems unfair, I reckon you ordered quite a few hours before me from the Cozy Life Store...

My order with My Cozy Life Store is still in the queue, but good to know that they're actually shipping again. I also extended the processing time limit.

This is where you went wrong, to the back of the queue you go boy!...   

(Just kidding. I considered this as well, but then thought, meh, it's a fucking heap of trash and gonna need fixing and I'm totally covered by Ali so fuck it! I will totally downvote if they don't ship...)

However, Dave's meter was clearly fucked on some ranges. These must be production rejects or customer returns that factory never sent to landfill, because that costs money, looks bad on the balance sheet, and storage in a barn on the outskirts of guangdong is free.
Then finally the factory sold them providing their name was removed by children scraping the logos off. So no comebacks to the factory but a decent backhander and no need for any of that RoHS/WEEE bollocks.
This also means selling these broken meters to Cozy Store housewives who just want to knit, purl and drop. Even the knitting machine experts wouldn't consider anything beyond a DT830, and so this is where the market price was set. Kept it all on the down low too...

UNTIL THAT FRIKKIN' CRAZY OZZY BLOKE LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG! 

[beanflying]

Mmmm Someone else did it  The pile of lies is growing to cover their backsides and save them a penalty. Not sent yesterday then I get a tracking number showing transit through the postal system and today EXTREME  to again get me to ask for a refund......

tonethiny 2019-10-08 15:13

Dear friends
very sorry
We are the number for the freight forwarder.
Our products are now out of stock.
Can we help you with a refund?
Thank you

[amspire]

I cannot believe it. I got one of my meters. 

It is great except for the fact it doesn't work at all right now. It is only accurate on the 0V and 0mA reference outputs. Nothing on the screen.

I haven't debugged it yet, but the battery connection is a bit dodgy.

[maginnovision]

Tracking shows I have one due tomorrow.

[amspire]

I cannot believe it. I got one of my meters. 

It is great except for the fact it doesn't work at all right now.

The battery connection is the problem. If the tabs from the battery are not bent at the right angle, they can jam on the board before the power pads on the board and the meter never gets power.

Looks like you want the tabs bent so there it is 32mm from the end of the tab and the outside of the case. Any less and the tab may miss the power pads on the PSC. Much more then that and they may never touch the pcb. I also deburred the edges of the battery tabs - they are pretty rough.

[rsjsouza]

I cannot believe it. I got one of my meters. 

It is great except for the fact it doesn't work at all right now.

The battery connection is the problem. If the tabs from the battery are not bent at the right angle, they can jam on the board before the power pads on the board and the meter never gets power.

Looks like you want the tabs bent so there it is 32mm from the end of the tab and the outside of the case. Any less and the tab may miss the power pads on the PSC. Much more then that and they may never touch the pcb. I also deburred the edges of the battery tabs - they are pretty rough.

So yes, they are alpha-quality products. Something similar to the Surpeer AV4 I hot a few months back (and has numerous inoperative functions).

Thanks for sharing the fix/experience.

[amspire]

I am beginning to suspect that these meters are all manufacturer's rejects. I have it powered up, but I still haven't tested most of the functions - cannot even get connectors in the sockets. The meter sockets are the worse I have ever seen, and on mine, it is really hard to bend them into a shape that will allow a 4mm banana plug into the sockets. My 24V output was 23.2V and I couldn't vary this or get the 24mA current out. The fact that Dave's meter was calibrated and some others seem to be completely uncalibrated looks like a rejection in manufacturing testing. Might wait until I get a second meter before I waste too much time on this first one.

I got the reference voltage and current out working after I managed to find a connector that would fit and it was quite accurate. 10V was within 0.02%. I now realise that the 24V output has no accuracy rating so the 23.2 is irrelevant. It is just a source of around 24V. It may be settable by one of the potentiometers on the board.

[EEVblog]

I am beginning to suspect that these meters are all manufacturer's rejects. I have it powered up, but I still haven't tested most of the functions - cannot even get connectors in the sockets. The meter sockets are the worse I have ever seen, and on mine, it is really hard to bend them into a shape that will allow a 4mm banana plug into the sockets. My 24V output was 23.2V and I couldn't vary this or get the 24mA current out. The fact that Dave's meter was calibrated and some others seem to be completely uncalibrated looks like a rejection in manufacturing testing. Might wait until I get a second meter before I waste too much time on this first one.

I got the reference voltage and current out working after I managed to find a connector that would fit and it was quite accurate. 10V was within 0.02%. I now realise that the 24V output has no accuracy rating so the 23.2 is irrelevant. It is just a source of around 24V. It may be settable by one of the potentiometers on the board.

Correct, the 24V is not in any way precision, it's just a DC-DC converter output for supply purposes. Typical spec for such a thing might be say +/-1V

[amspire]

The AMPX1 meter is running quite well after a few mods:

1. Soldered a bit of curved gold plated header pin to the battery tabs so I get gold to gold contact for battery on the PCB. Battery connection is now totally reliable.
2. Cleaned and treated gold contacts on switches with DeoxIT. They didn't look too bad, but the the switches are flawless now.
3. Re-soldered the meter lead contacts. They are out of position. I got a 4mm drill shank and put it in each connector. Grip the connectors and drill bit with pliers. Resolder the meter lead contacts so that the connectors can reposition to suit the drill bit. Put the connector sleeve back on and make sure a lead can plug in easily. When all 4 connectors are accepting plugs easily, re-assemble the meter. The connectors have gone from being unuseable to now feeling very good.
4. The spring contacts on the 4mm banana plug part of the probes made a very dodgy contact with the probes. I was getting 0.1V reading instead of 10v because of these spring contacts.

Now just have to work out how to get the serial port working. It only will work with the meter part of the AMPX1 - not the calibrator part. The meter does come with software but the setup.exe is identified by Windows Defender as a virus. It should be a straight dump of data out the serial port, so it shouldn't be that hard to sort out.

The meters come with a calibration file, but it looks like it will be the same file for every meter. It has the same date and time as the manuals, so it does not look like a custom file added for each meter. Also it has a meter serial number and these meters have no serial number.  Not expecting it will be much use.

[djadeski]

Looks like Cozy Life Store is out of inventory. 

I ordered a unit on 09/27 from Cozy Life Store and then extended the ship date - looks like they have been notified to "return all of these items back to theirs factory for a Security Inspection" 

 Here is the message sent to me:

I did order one of the units from amazon.ca and that is claimed to have shipped so still a good deal not quite as good as 8.85 at CLS. 

[rsjsouza]

I am beginning to suspect that these meters are all manufacturer's rejects. I have it powered up,

I got the reference voltage and current out working after I managed to find a connector that would fit and it was quite accurate. 10V was within 0.02%. I now realise that the 24V output has no accuracy rating so the 23.2 is irrelevant. It is just a source of around 24V. It may be settable by one of the potentiometers on the board.

Richard, you misquoted me. I haven't yet received mine. 

[slobans]

Mmmm Someone else did it  The pile of lies is growing to cover their backsides and save them a penalty. Not sent yesterday then I get a tracking number showing transit through the postal system and today EXTREME  to again get me to ask for a refund......

tonethiny 2019-10-08 15:13

Dear friends
very sorry
We are the number for the freight forwarder.
Our products are now out of stock.
Can we help you with a refund?
Thank you

same with me,tonethiny giving fake tracking numbers and begging me cancel order.i almost feel sorry for this poor chinese seller.but,deal is a deal,he will pay for his seller wannabe

[maginnovision]

Mine showed up, dicky contact switch but ok after cleaning. Matches specs just fine. See if any others show up. Few more checks, multimeter functions seems within specs too. The 24V is also 23.192, so pretty much same as amspire.

For the contact switch it needed to be 100% cleaned as the grease was conductive. After cleaning I tried and it was still poor likely due to the small switch contact(middle) moving around. I lubed the board contacts with good quality grease and it works perfectly fine. I did clean any and all residue from the PCB. Pretty dirty and not just flux, seems the grease they used was all over the bottom half of PCB on display/button side.