"Repair" + Teardown of Aneng AN8008 multimeter

[mc349iii]

My ANENG AN8008 cheapo multimeter has a cloudy plastic display "glass"!
I bought this in 2019 for GBP 12.49

This isn't a bad photo, it really does look like this in person!



It's 2 minute teardown time....



It does have a brass insert for the battery compartment!  The support rest feels flimsy as anything though.
It actually clips together very securely and has 4 self tappers to help



The board is marked with component values.
Gold contacts for the range switch!


There seems to be an unpopulated button pad and a jumper,  I wonder what they do...



Reassemble without the plastic screen cover.


Ah that's looking better!

I think the ultra-violet in sunshine through the window clouded up the plastic glass.

Review:   It's actually a decent little meter,  I consider anything >9V high voltage and usually work with DC.
This is fine for my messing about with microcontroler projects etc.
The milliamp range is nice and senstive, good for measuring relative current draw when changing sleep states etc.
I'd give it 8 out of 10,  good for the price, despite the dodgy plastic screen cover.

[strawberry]

polishing maybe

[Gyro]

You've got to love those Cat ratings, but it's fine if chained to the bench!

It looks like a job for a very tiny headlamp restoration kit. Maybe just a little of the clear UV laquer if it's just the outer surface that has matted - try wetting the surface and see if it goes clear. Otherwise it's down to the metal polish and elbow grease.

[GLouie]

Mine went cloudy-blotchy from just sitting in a nylon pouch, I thought it might be the test leads sitting next to it. Looked like styrene does when glue fumes get near it. I used a Novus plastic polish kit with their #1-2-3 compounds plus some ultra fine abrasive films for the rough work.

It wouldn't of ordinarily been worth the trouble, but I was curious if the plastic polish would work, and it did. A lot of work, though. Must be some cheap plastic.

[Gyro]

A bit off the wall, but if the window is only curved in one axis, you might consider replacing it with a sheet of something else. Bubble pack plastic is too thin, but some thin acrylic would curve in response to gentle warming.

[mc349iii]

Interesting that I'm not the only one that this has happened to.

Just tried rubbing away with some Brasso lint polish stuff on half the screen.   It did make a small difference,  but too much effort and for the cost I'm not worrying about it,  it looks great without the "glass" anyway.

If I'm silly enough to spill stuff in the meter or leave it out in the rain somehow,  I'll have to buy another one if I can't repair it.     I have a few of the really cheap £3 meters  and a Uni-T clamp meter too,  so won't be without if that happens.

[strawberry]

cut window from used transparent food .. tray/packaging and glue

[connectTek]

Heat it up quickly with hot air gun,  Worked for me.

[Veteran68]

Apologies bumping an old-ish thread, but searched this out on the off chance this was happening to others.

I have two brand new Aneng 8008 meters inside the nylon pouch they come in, stored inside a plastic "tupperware" type tote since I got them maybe 3 years ago, along with some other meters including an Aneng 870. I got them out recently and both of the little 8008 meters have clouded over screen covers just like this! The 870 though is still crystal clear. Apparently Aneng (or whomever their OEM is) is using different plastics. None have been exposed to UV or even really used beyond initial checkouts for that matter. I have an addiction to buying and collecting "interesting" meters and these were all the rage a few years back so I grabbed a couple. They're not my daily drivers but I was digging them out for a specific use-case and was surprised at the condition of the display cover.

I was wondering if there was a way to clean or polish them. Apparently so, but now wonder if it's worth the trouble.

Heat it up quickly with hot air gun,  Worked for me.

You mean just heating up the plastic screen cover clears up the cloudiness? I would expect that for moisture/fog, but not fogginess in the plastic itself. If that's what you meant, I'll have to try that.

[floobydust]

Scratches can be polished out using toothpaste, or car headlight polish like Meguiars. Works on lots of test equipment, scope graticules too.
chinese plastics are not so great for quality, I find they age fast and are fragile.

[Veteran68]

Scratches can be polished out using toothpaste, or car headlight polish like Meguiars. Works on lots of test equipment, scope graticules too.
chinese plastics are not so great for quality, I find they age fast and are fragile.

These aren't scratches, it's some sort of chemical reaction fogging or hazing. That's why I wasn't sure polishing would do anything, but others mentioned it helping so apparently it's a surface haze and not in the center of the plastic.

[floobydust]

I wasn't sure if the hazing is outside-in due to say UV or environmental exposure, or inside-out due to low grade plasticizers, ala Dollar Store.

[GigaJoe]

when i changed crystal from 4M to 8M , it even a bit 2X faster. less waiting on ohms

[floobydust]

I didn't try overclocking but adding the ceramic decoupling caps (across the electrolytic) greatly improved settling time. 3V power is fairly noisy otherwise.