Looking for someone with a GDM-8341 to ask about diode/continuity speed

[Inflex]

I'm throwing my Multicomp MP730424 out the door back at Element 14, too many firmware issues and bugs ( my bad, cheap meter, unproven, Owon original I presume but Farnell seem to have fiddled ) but I'm looking at the GwInstek GDM-8341.

Ultimately I prefer the VFD display but that's irrelevant for the most part, what I *really* care about is how fast is continuity mode, and likewise diode mode?

For the work I'm doing 4.5/4.75 digits is ample and precision & accuracy aren't paramount of importance, however a fast continuity and diode mode are.

The reason for going for a bench meter is permanent-power, fitting on the shelf, and permanent data connection to the PC and programmable mode selection. 

Already have a perfectly decent handheld meter that does the job well enough but it auto shuts down and it needs batteries renewed and of course the data connection to the PC has to be manually activated, it's pain to have to remember to sort these things out every day and usually you don't remember until halfway through a job and you've missed a lot of key data.

Thanks in advance.

[alpher]

Tenma 72-13620 has mighty fast and loud continuity, funny I also had and returned that Owon crap.

[Inflex]

Downside with the TENMA is that it has the mechanical mode select, I'll be wanting programmable select for some of the future jobs ( sorry, should have written that in my "reasons for the meter selection" ).

How'd you go sending back the MP730424 / OWON ? What fault did you find on it ( at risk of diverting this thread )

[nctnico]

May I suggest the Vichi VC8145? It doesn't have a VFD display but a backlit LCD with big numbers instead. Continuity is instant on these so very convenient to use for dragging a probe along a chip to find where a connection is. The VC8145 has a serial port connection; the protocol and software are somewhere on this forum.

[Inflex]

Hello nctnico,

  I used to have one, and I have written software for it ( https://github.com/inflex/VC8145 ) but while it's cheap and cheerful it did have some issues that drove me a little insane that I ended up working-around in software.  Other issue I had with it is that the serial port had to be a proper full voltage type else it suffered data errors.   For the price though, it was a convenient meter, even if the case was essentially empty inside.

  You're right though, the continuity was downright instant, which is very much the standard that I now judge meters on

[Inflex]

May I suggest the Vichi VC8145?

I see they now have the VC8145C which is the USB variant, that'll eliminate the serial data issue at least.  Wonder if they also cleaned up the firmware so as to be slightly less annoying ( would be nice to disable beeps for range-changing ).

Hope someone can soon chime in with how fast the continuity and diode modes are for the GDM-8341,  not overly keen on spending almost $500 if it's not sub-100ms type speeds.

[nctnico]

You could order the GDM-8341 from Farnell / Element14 and just try it if they carry it. They take equipment back within 14 days without hassle.

[Inflex]

They are my supplier, so yes, I suppose I could.  Right now I'm trying to get them to take back the Multicomp unit for a credit after it finally went dodgy on me one too many times ( infrequent but definitely starts reading low on DCV ).

[Inflex]

I took the plunge, bought the unit.

Continuity/diode and most testing speeds are vastly better than the OWON/Multicomp unit I traded back to them.

Downside though, the GDM-8341 locks the front panel when you're connected to it via the computer :GRRRRRRR:

Still, because I love VFD's so much and everything else was working nicely ( except that buzzer, that's some weak sauce there! ), I proceeded with writing up a linux app for it.

https://github.com/inflex/gdm-8341

Couple of things to keep in mind;
1) It's not fully fleshed out yet, I have simply put in enough to get me through over the next week for the work I do ( board repairs ), so volts, diode, continuity and resistance are active selections from the keyboard; trivial to add more

2) You will need to modify the cp210x.c driver for the linux kernel.  I'll submit patch for the mainline kernel but don't expect to see it show up in your distro for at least 3 years.  The patch is trivial, you simply have to add the VID:PID pair in to the list of devices the cp210x.c supports

3) It's not meant to be a complete front-panel replacement; again, this is just for OSD data purposes for when I'm doing repair recordings / YouTube.

[Inflex]

Software working nicely now on linux.  Might be a viable compromise after all

[Kean]

If you have a Windows computer I am pretty sure you could reset the CP2102 to default SiLabs VID & PID using their Xpress COnfigurator tool.
There may be a way to do that from Linux as well using something like http://cp210x-program.sourceforge.net/ although that may need a working driver first.  Catch 22?
Last I researched this (a while ago) the SiLabs Linux tools had 64-bit compatibility issues.

[Inflex]

You're right, a bit of a catch-22 for sure there.  Would be nice if GwInstek did it to the machines before departing from the factory