#1675

Episode 1675
sent into the channel for review
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[@bald_engineer]

Glad you took a look at it-saves me the trouble! I was also offered one but passed. They sent a bizarre series of emails when I asked for a datasheet. Also, I’m skeptical when I get emails for T&M products from generic email providers.

[@wa4aos]

Excellent review. Hopefully, this will encourage the manufacture to go back to the drawing board and get it right. If they do, I hope they will give you another opportunity to evaluate the Rev 2 model. Personally, I was getting stoked to buy at the beginning of your video, but they need to make the product reliable with instructions and MAYBE a block layout diagram of the unit and a schematic would be nice. Thanks again !!

[@NikiBretschneider]

I was completely unsure about the purpose of that unit, so I did a little bit research (it's a good way to procrastinate, I have much more important things to do, but, well). I didn't find that company (or what it is), but what I found is a set of videos on YT describing how to use this product. And the purpose of that thing is fast measurement of low and high currents drawn from that unit (or other device), displaying them on the screen of connected computer and integrating them in time to display them on the device's screen. This should be useful in case of analysing devices that consumes power in pulses or bursts, which is measurement you can easily achieve using an modern oscilloscope and current probe (or current shunt). But in this case, you have it in one thing with weird UI and, of course, you need an computer running obscure chinese software to obtain at least some useful data from that unit. That thing is in fact unable to measure currents in hundreds of nA, it would have to utilize at least some kind of guarding, that thing can go down to abt mA, maybe hundreds of μA, but as it integrates across (some unknown) time period and is capable of catching a really short pulses, the indication goes down to tenths of nA, because that's the result of computation of that integral. Is that thing useful? Maybe. It heavily depends on its price tag. In fact, there are available a bunch of different devices capable of doing this, but in much better way, like they have a huge dynamic range, they are incredibly fast, etc., but they cost you a fortune. Or you can use an oscilloscope to achieve results almost similar to this device, but in much predictable and convenient way. And on top of it, oscilloscope is something you typically have on your desk, so it costs you near to nothing.

[@Manf-ft6zk]

The white on yellow display is somewhat special, the power switches are inserted in Australia. The equipment might be for special applications, maybe for the secret service. 17:23 10 MOhm is the usual impedance of DVMs.

[@sasines]

The finest chinesium.

[@wenchan8098]

$500! +- 10% accuracy, if you are lucky..😅

[@TheDigitalAura]

They want $500 for that piece of trash! My Fluke 289 does a better job at reading uA. They seriously need to work on the interface and instructions. I guess they got a bunch of op-amps from the Shenzhen market on a bulk deal. That's terrible Muriel.

[@gorak9000]

it's as useless as a dead dingo's donger!

[@ivolol]

When you complete 90% of the product but you forget to complete the other 90% of it COS721SR is 10Mhz 5.5V RRIO opamp I guess you have to zero because they refuse to use any precision opamps anywhere You'd think you'd want guard traces and a guard terminal to do good uA measurements. But not a charge pump switching inverter right next to the inputs!? I'm guessing most of the utilty of the device, if there is any to be found, would be from it logging values to a CSV in a computer to analyse.

[@absurdengineering]

I think I could do it better using the same op amps :) For a cheap product at room temp in a case that stays cool you can get plenty enough performance. But whatever MCU mangles the measurements is the source of another trouble. Low cost analog demands a bit more from firmware to make it work well. And some inventiveness. This one is a story about how not to do it.

[@tobi_n]

More affordable solutions for power measurement are the Power Profiler Kit II from National semiconductor or the X-NUCLEO-LPM01A from ST Microelectronics. ST also has a debug probe with integrated SMU, the STLINK-V3PWR. All three solutions are around a 5th of the price of the demonstrated unit.

[@douro20]

You mean Nordic Semiconductor?

[@tobi_n]

@@douro20 Yes, you are right. I messed the name up.

[@W1RMD]

Maybe you can use the box for another project. The wall wort could be used to make a good linear power supply if it's got a transformer in it. You do a great job on your reviews. Thanks for sharing!

[@KeritechElectronics]

A very nicely built unit. At first I thought it was a power supply or programmable load.

[@Janktzoni]

A power monitor that is not measuring power for only 500$ !! It's a steal. Don't measure the ripple on that output !

[@davidv1289]

Not sure I would waste expensive hot melt glue on it! $500 - Really? Thank you for the review, always enjoy them. Regards, David

[@BjornV78]

Measuring µA with a device that is powered with noisy switching powersupply can't be accurate. The DC jack is probably 5.5mm x 2.5mm, if you have a old notebook charger or other faulty powersupply with such a lead connected, cut the lead from the charger and attach banana jacks, then power this "Analyzer" with a linear powersupply, and i bet that it is more stable and not jumps arround like that. The wires from the DC input to the On/Off switch run over many IC's, where the switching noise gets injected in those IC's beneath. If you use a Non Contact Voltage detector like a Fluke Volt Stick or a generic one, those react to the switching noise on top of the DC from switching powersupplies. It wil light up like a christmas tree inside that "Analyzer". Because this switching powersupply doesn't have a earthpin, there is also a certain amount of mains voltage (in µA range) leaked by the safety cap between the primary and secundary side of the transformer inside that switching powersupply, this mains leakage is also present on the banana jacks. With all those flaws together, you can't have a decent and stable readings.

[@electrodacus]

It is $199 for the version seen in this video witch seems about fair for what it looks to be a very low volume product. It is 12V 2.5A so sufficient range to test battery powered devices. It uses the 16bit sigma delta ADC build in to the microcontroller so plus minus 32000 counts that means for 2.5A max it could measure down to 0.1mA thus it needs to change ranges and based on the video that is not done fast and it also means it will need to zero out all ranges. He should have added a dedicated button for zero offset calibration or he should do that at power up then leave that button for ON/OFF. Software could be better and probably also the hardware but how much effort can be spent if this is maybe 100 or 200 units of volume per year if he is lucky. The user interface is fairly bad but even if he spent more time to improve that and even fix everything it will still remain the same niche product and he will still not sell more of them.

[@myradiovideos]

Amazon said only 2 left in stock!! At $500 better act fast before this quality item is sold out and you will miss not having one!!! Back to my Fluke! 🙂

[@MaxPivovarov]

It looks like a children's craft for the school lesson of labor, and not as a tool.

[@wiwingmargahayu6831]

some of my school mate are electronic engineering student some are power engineering some are telco some are it engineering

[@absurdengineering]

Looks like something you could put together for $150 qty 1. Mass made junk is supposed to be cheap! This is worth maybe $40 and the only reason I’d be ever getting it would be to repurpose the case and display…

[@rolandprocell]

Love your videos. Can you say some words about your speedmaster watch, on a future video?

[@nickcaruso]

they're asking $500 for it on amazon!?! Holy cow.

[@PeetHobby]

It looks like the power line is running under all four TL081 opamps and is also not traced out from a single point to all the opamps, but there is a long trace that runs under all opamps, and the opamps are hooked up to trace with caps in between, or am I mistaking? That is, IMO, not the right way to hook up an opamp or any analog circuitry.

[@KG4JYS]

Too bad it doesn't work. I've been using a uCurrent and oscilloscope for small current measurements, but it sure would be nice to have a power supply that could current limit in the micro amp range.

[@paulperano9236]

I don't think you'll get anything else from 'ReeJoee'. The user interface seems a bit clumsy. adding a push button switch would make things easier. Then there is the specs issue you talked about. As soon as I see switchmode supply on delicate test gear I cringe - noise noise noise. Sadly it so common now. The display is good to my eye. Having the 1sec average value is good as the fast varying on the 'live' value is of very limited value.

[@ashleydawson5070]

Shut up and take my money!

[@Ruth_Asada]

it looks like the development of a lazy student

[@TheElectronicDilettante]

With no specs , there’s no expectations. If it doesn’t blow up, hurt the user or damage your other equipment then that must be a win. The internals look like a function generator, like exactly like a function generator. Weird! Did it come with a return address, if so , avail yourself of it. Don’t hook it up to your computer.!!!

[@ByteOfSilicon]

What a waist of time, I wonder what they expected sending it in for a demo.

[@mr1enrollment]

POS from the get go. They sent this for review? LOL

[@silverXnoise]

That’s a lot of effort for…not much.

[@GeorgeGraves]

Engineers shouldn't be allowed ot make UIs.

[@spudhut2246]

would be nice if the tester had a front leg to raise and lower it for better viewing; then you wouldn't need a block of wood. 🤣 Good thing you review these products. It's become more obvious, "Some form of quality" to specifications doesn't exist with some of these testers. You called it "that's just stupid".... 🤣 Thanks for reviewing these, your experience and 'truth's" to them really helps to spending our monies on good devices for our benches. Priceless. My take away on this......GARBAGE! wont be seeing my money.

[@simontay4851]

What a piece of crap. They really need to fix the noise on the output.

[@Janktzoni]

Noise? ?? that's it , it's a RADIO !!! We're all wrong, this thing is meant to be connected to speakers.

[@fredmitchel1236]

That is not good at all.... Thank god you reviewed this pile. And I am not interested Thanks for screening it...

[@herbertsusmann986]

Typical low end Chinesium. Designed by someone just out of Jr. Engineering school. Probably used single op amps because they couldn't get fake quads, only fake singles for cheap.

[@andymouse]

Or not aware of them.

[@jimomertz]

That was my first thought even just seeing the thumbnail. Looks like some college project and the guys thought they’d market it and make millions! Or maybe $500 for the one sale to IMSAIGuy. 😂

[@herbertsusmann986]

@@jimomertz I googled that company name. Shenzhen came up. Why is this not surprising?

[@djfwalker]

First ? Yay !!

[@jms019]

Very Chinese.