Poll: Dave's Post about doing the conclusion of $100 multimeter shootout

[Kiriakos-GR]

People ....  this is an 100$  market of  meters ..

They do not dance , jump or do acrobatics  .. if they did ,
they would cost more.

There is no military specs , so to be  justified any drop-test or spill-test.
All that matters in this Group are,  if they do act ,  as the enclosed "specs on paper"  says.  

And if they have any special features , to be verified in action.  

By taking in to account , all the previews reviews .

Dave does a good job  in areas like :

1) Battery life - sleep mode
2) General build quality ( in - out )
3) Clear display
4) Accuracy
5) LCD speed
6) Probes response speed ... In this one, he is a master  

The results will be beneficial , for the market segment that needs ,
" his first " honest DMM  ( starters ) .

Most of this meters, or all , because of the low pricing,
they will never see an Calibration Lab ,
So its important to be verified, that they operate well , when they delivered to the consumers .

At the 50$ Review , my only complain was that Dave was speaking very fast ,
and the foreigners had hard times to " keep up " in this " High speed presentation "  

Personally , I am interested to see , if the UNI-T  unit ,
was an pleasurable item ,  compared with rest of the pack.  
Their pricing are extremely  completive  in my region ( EU Greece ) ,
and so far they deliver only DMM's  that qualifies as keepers .  
    

[EEVblog]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I really liked the $100 test, but found the $50 one a bit better thought-out. Okay, it's probably because there were about 6 decent meters in the $100 test and only 2 in the $50 test. A comparison PDF will be really, really helpful here.

I have the comparison PDF but it's not finished yet. Will have to complete and then upload.

Dave.

[ionioni2000]

Big thumbs up, Dave, and many thanks for hard work!
Any $150 DMM shootout on horizon?

[ThunderSqueak]

Big thumbs up, Dave, and many thanks for hard work!
Any $150 DMM shootout on horizon?

wow, if he did a shootout for meters in 50 dollar increments he will soon not have room for anything else in his lab   Meters coming out of his arse if he doesn't already XD 

I have an Idea!

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=850.0

</rawr>

[Kiriakos-GR]

I had download both videos , for  further inspection ..   

Its Bed time in Greece ..

Even so I watched the first five minutes.. 

[PetrosA]

I really enjoyed the reviews - excellent work Dave! I have to say I think I've seen enough of the low end stuff, though. It seems that in this price range you're basically taking a gamble whether you get a known brand or not unless you actually get a model that Dave has reviewed (which eliminates a huge portion of what's out there), and I can't say I'm surprised about the Extech. They are obviously trying to compete on price which means they have to cut corners somewhere and my past experience with their tools sent me running. There was one phrase which Dave used a lot of times that explains it - "They've obviously built this to price." Maybe this is just the consequences of globalization... there are way more consumers with a little bit of money than there are those with enough money to buy a good product, so make it priced to sell.

I was glad to see that the BK Precision scored so well, as this was actually a meter I had looked at pretty seriously, but wasn't sure about since the brand name doesn't seem too well established. My next meter purchase will be well above this price range since I've got the basics covered now - Datalogging capabilities and a digital 5000V "megger" tester are both on my list of toys to tell Santa about And if Santa's feeling really generous, I'm still dreaming of a Gossen and some software to go with it

[johnboxall]

yes he does not need to cut corners but you got to understand he has a life outside of all this. i mean he works, he has a wife, and so on. AND he didnt set a schedule. if he had siad "the review will be out this thrus" and it didnt show up thats one thing but he didnt say something like that. he just said he is trying his best to get it done. thats more than anyone can ask of him.

there i said my peace.....

Absolutely. Without trying to sound like a sycophant Dave uses a lot of personal time making these shootout videos, no matter which way they are done not everyone will be happy. I heard a good saying the other day: "If someone you don't know criticises you - you have become famous". So thanks for taking the effort Dave.

Looking forward to what happens with the thermal chamber

[TheWelly888]

I've just watched both reviews and was disconcerted at the conclusion at the end of part 1! Having read this thread afterwards, I now understand!

I have to take you to task on giving the thumbs up to the model that works from supply voltage as low as 3.9volts. Yes, you did show that the ohmeter reading is still accurate at that supply but what about voltage measurement?? Clearly at such a low supply level, any reference and amplification can become inaccurate. Unless, of course, there is an boost SMP circuit within the device!

Once at work I was routinely testing the energy output of a cardiac defibrillator using an energy meter and ended up with readings much higher than they should be!! First thing I had to do was to remove that defib from the hospital ward in case something was wrong with it, then I tested it in the workshop and I could not find anything wrong with it, ie energy ouputs are within spec! To cut a long story short, I realised that the energy meter's internal re-chargeable battery voltage was getting low and even though the battery low voltage was not being indicated, the readings accuracy drifted out of spec quite quickly!

[EEVblog]

I have to take you to task on giving the thumbs up to the model that works from supply voltage as low as 3.9volts. Yes, you did show that the ohmeter reading is still accurate at that supply but what about voltage measurement?? Clearly at such a low supply level, any reference and amplification can become inaccurate. Unless, of course, there is an boost SMP circuit within the device!

Yes, it still worked on voltage too.
Many meters run off just two AA's (see the $50 shootout), so it's not unusual that a meter can work down to that level. They probably use a chipset that is capable of that, where the other meters don't.

Dave.

[TheWelly888]

^^^
I stand corrected, Dave. You could have shown the voltage reading on the video!

I've just realised, you were powering the meter from your bench psu with a very low supply resistance, a PP3 at such a state of discharge will have quite a high internal resistance which might affect the ohmeter current supply?

I once had a cheapy chinese  digital multimeter which gave false voltage readings when the battery approached the end of life ( the battery was the dreaded GP one!! ) which was why I questioned your thumbs up.

The voltage level at which one should declare a primary battery as used up is debatable - worth another thread? Started one here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=861.0