WTF is the price?!

[Mortymore]

The pictures with "readings" are poorly photoshopped.

Maybe they had to photoshop it later, because they didn't have 6 AAA batteries to power it on during photo session.   
The batteries may cost more than the meter.

[sleemanj]

Is this the meter Dave is on about?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000057162875.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.51.1496337fjw2MyT&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.13338.128125.0&scm_id=1007.13338.128125.0&scm-url=1007.13338.128125.0&pvid=860e0327-a75f-4901-9de5-a87d2125b99f

That is the same meter as previously written in the thread, and reviewed by this friendly french fellow as I linked on page 1...



You don't need to speak french to see what's going on, this is in the video description

Les plus
- Emballage de qualité
- Cordons Ok

Les moins (éliminatoires !)
- Ne fonctionne pas de base
- Prise négative défectueuse
- Précision en mode géné très loin de celles annoncées
- Mesure capa basse valeurs erratique
- Virus dans le soft livré !

Which translates something like, good points: quality packaging, and the leads are OK, bad points: (I'm not sure what the first translates as, native french speaker please?), there was a defective socket (I think), the voltage output mode is terrible, the capacitance mode is erratic at low capacitance, and the the software had a virus.

[Psi]

Ok, I'll take a punt.
I just grabbed 2.

Hopefully the AMPX1 is actually what Dave is talking about, otherwise i just bought 2 rubbish meters and wasted $20.
Although, I guess i can use the probes, they looked quite good from the pics.

[Daixiwen]

What he meant in the first point was that it didn't work straight out of the box. He put the batteries in and nothing happened when he turned it on.
He then opened it and discovered that there are two contacts used to detect whether the back cover is on, and those contacts were bent. He put them back into place and the multimeter worked after that. He also shows a connector, I think for USB power, that wasn't plugged in.
It at least shows that they have a good quality control and test all units before shipping  You probably can't expect too much at this price

[Psi]

It sounds like someone got hold of like a shipping container of parts to make like 200 of the meters.
Maybe they was all intended to be destroyed due to end of line or whatever and instead they assembled and resold them.

[CDaniel]

From that video the calibrator is very inaccurate ... useless . The measuring part seems OK ,  but only 4000 counts and a few features , even for 10$ I wouldn't bother to collect this chinese crap

[all_repair]

It is cheap, but my shelf/bench space is not cheap.

[ebastler]

Seems a bit speculative to assume that Dave was referring to that meter/calibrator?
@Dave -- go ahead please and post details in the Supporters Lounge section!

[Noy]

It will be enough to say that we are false, if we are.

If it is the wrong meter it will be still a nice Christmas gift for this price. 

[Psi]

Apparently the probes are ok,  so worst case you got some probes for $8

[MadTux]

I get a "WTF is the price?!" quite often with used equipment.
Sometimes requires minor repairs or even sells as broken for like 2000% the acquisition price.

But with chinese crap, I usually regret every penny that I wasted, unless I buy it as throwaway item that gets trashed in the shop anyway, so I don't have to worry about my good gear destroyed.

[Kosmic]

Which translates something like, good points: quality packaging, and the leads are OK, bad points: (I'm not sure what the first translates as, native french speaker please?), there was a defective socket (I think), the voltage output mode is terrible, the capacitance mode is erratic at low capacitance, and the the software had a virus.

there was a defective socket (I think)

The pins from the battery compartment were bent and not making contact with the pad on the PCB. So when he received the meter it was just not powering on.

the voltage output mode is terrible

in meter mode the accuracy was fine. But in Process calibrator mode the output voltage was completely off. Definitely not 0.02%. Hopefully the device can be calibrated to meet it's specs 


The rest of your translation was accurate. Also don't forget that the guy paid 100 euros for the device not 8$ 

[shakalnokturn]

The Chinese stuff even new you'll often be spending time finishing or improving the design. Used equipment you may have the disappointment of it arriving defective when sold as working.
Now if you buy defective stuff cheap you're cutting risks and adding excitement.

As for our valued administrator, we all know how much he loves DSO's, he can't have that much cash to invest (who can claim to live off selling one model of DMM and broadcasting YouTube videos?) so it has to be  WTF  cheap, by the time he's got all the members intrigued enough to want one he'll be buying them and selling them here for four times the price.

Edit: I was wrong again...

[001]

What about soul traders?

[EEVblog]

he can't have that much cash to invest (who can claim to live off selling one model of DMM and broadcasting YouTube videos?)

You'd be surprised.

[AVGresponding]

Haha cue the mass EEVBlog invasion of Aliexpress...

Just ordered 2 myself, worth the risk for just over £12 

[BravoV]

Everything from the "House of Happiness" should make me happy, right ? 

[Kosmic]

Got mine from "My Cozy Life Store " 

[Noy]

ME TOO 

Had the most orders...

[ebastler]

Everything from the "House of Happiness" should make me happy, right ? 

Maybe the residents are the happy ones? ;-)

[BravoV]

Chaos theory, the butterfly effect in making ?

As Dave flaps, typhoon strikes Aliexpress ? 

[shakalnokturn]

As much as I respect Dave, the forum and the PRC, I'm not falling for this rush, I'll save that cash and the CO2 associated with this rush to get one and put it towards some oldies.

[Kilrah]

Les moins (éliminatoires !)
- Ne fonctionne pas de base
- Prise négative défectueuse
- Précision en mode géné très loin de celles annoncées
- Mesure capa basse valeurs erratique
- Virus dans le soft livré !

bad points: (I'm not sure what the first translates as, native french speaker please?)

- Doesn't work out of the box
- Faulty negative socket
- Precision in generator mode way below specs
- Errors in small cap measurements
- Virus in software

[TurboTom]

Les moins (éliminatoires !)
- Ne fonctionne pas de base
- Prise négative défectueuse
- Précision en mode géné très loin de celles annoncées
- Mesure capa basse valeurs erratique
- Virus dans le soft livré !

bad points: (I'm not sure what the first translates as, native french speaker please?)

- Doesn't work out of the box
- Faulty negative socket
- Precision in generator mode way below specs
- Errors in small cap measurements
- Virus in software

- Experience based on a single specimen 

[luma]

- Doesn't work out of the box
- Faulty negative socket
- Precision in generator mode way below specs
- Errors in small cap measurements
- Virus in software

It seems that the generator function is the core reason one buys a process calibrator in the first place.  If that doesn't work well... I can't see the point in buying this at any price.