Metrix MX52 tear down session begins, The first thing you notice about this meter apart from its slightly odd looks is that there are no screws holding it together, how then do you gain access to the insides. Trawling the web for a manual reveals what the French jokingly call a user manual, 8 pages of general information about the meter and a cryptic picture that sort of shows you how to without actually stating it, there was a reference on the opening pages that the kickstand was a patented tool. You have to pull the input guard up and off, remove the kickstand and insert the tips in the side of the meter as indicated by the red arrow in my photo and pry the cover upwards and outwards to release 3 clips on each side.
This reveals the batter and fuse compartment, sealed against liquid ingress (IP66) and there are 2 ceramic fuses 10A and 630ma. Use the kickstand in the same fashion to remove the rear casing of the meter and this reveals a very beefy seal for the back so the IP66 rating is very believable. The input jacks are solid tubes and are connected to the pcb by way of 4 nuts and washers, very impressed and similar to the Fluke 25/27 series (albeit they used screws). Removing the nuts and washers and 2 self tappers halfway along the pcb, accessible via holes in the shielding and the pcb assembly is then only held in place by the battery and the fuses. Removing these allowed the assembly to be gently teased out of the case.
I have to say the case itself is made out of pretty thick plastic and is pretty rigid and impressive in its construction, the soft membrane buttons are released in a similar fashion as the fuses to maintain the IP66 rating.
Taking the photos during the process also revealed that this particular meter has had a hard life and the plastic has suffered some cracking, not visible normally so this deterred me from attempting to take apart the pcb layers of the meter any further as it was working OK and I didn't want to break it just for the sake of of some pron shots
although I did want to but I rather like this meter and its charm so I didn't go further with it.
I had already tested it and blow me down with a feather it still seems to be in calibration when connected up to my voltage, current and resistance references.
With the leads that would have been supplied with it when new, the leads are securely locked in to the input jacks and the there is a small locking mechanism that needed to be pressed at the time of unplugging each lead to release the lock. Given that the leads were shrouded, I'm not too sure what added safety this feature afforded although it is attention to detail.
It has Max hold function, Logic function, frequency, 5 steps of data logging and a nice centre zero function on the barograph so it is also very useful of working on FM radios etc.
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