Aneng AN101: The cheapest multimeter that might be worth buying?

Initial impressions and teardown of an Aneng AN101 pocket multimeter.
#electronics #teardown #multimeter #testequipment

[@pault6533]

You and I both have one of the newer versions of this meter, which did not get renamed with the upgrade. Did you get an owner's manual? I didn't, and can't find one online. The new version now has 4000 counts, capacitance, NCV, and frequency. The digits are a little smaller to make room for the additional mode indicators, but still good contrast like the original version. The amount of capabilities is outstanding, as long as you don't do high voltage or high current with it. Diodes top out around 1.8V and capacitance 4mF. The leads have low resistance for how small they are, and ohms range starts at zero exactly. Measures all my sample resistors from 0.1 ohm to 10M ohm very accurately. As for capacitance, did you know you can hold the select button to engage the relative mode? REL shows up on the screen when active. Doesn't work for anything but capacitance I found. This provides better accuracy when measuring a few pF. If you hold the select button while turning the unit on, the auto power off feature will be disabled. It will still beep every 15 minutes, but it will stay on. The wheel, PCB tracks, and springs do not have lubrication. I applied dielectric grease to these areas. I also relocated the buzzer closer to the range selector so it's more audible. I cleaned up the battery terminals which were overloaded with solder. One final note, the newer version doesn't have the adjusting potentiometer that the previous one did. They probably use software offset like they do on their other newer meters. I'm quite pleased with DCV, ACV, current, capacitance, and resistance checks I did against the standards I have. Voltage was essentially spot on, current -0.5%, capacitance -2%, and resistance -0.5% Have fun!

[@picocosm]

Mine didn't come with an owner's manual either. I did notice (only after recording the capacitance test) that holding select puts the capacitance in relative mode -- would have been nice if it worked for resistance also. Good to know the auto power off can be disabled. Let us know if you discover any other hidden features! If we could figure out what chip that is onboard maybe that could shed a little light on the matter too.

[@barryschwartz567]

I found this meter to be reasonable accurate and easy to use. I bought it a few weeks ago on Aliexpress for only $4.

[@marcc482]

LOL… this is actually a neat little unit - I bought 3 (one to keep in my car, one I gave to a good friend for keeping in his motorcycle, one I keep in my mobile toolbox as an emergency spare) 🤷🏻