Keysight U1282a Review Part1, Initial Checkout

After 2000 of you crazy people decided to join this channel, I offered you a choice of which high end meter to look at. You chose the Gossen Ultra. With 20,000 of you now following, it seemed fitting to once again let you pick which meter to run. This time, you chose the Keysight U1281A. I wasn't able to locate stock and we ended up with its big brother.
Part 1, we perform an initial checkout of the Keysight U1282A
My video comparing the U1282A's GDT protection with the more common MOV approach. This video was inspired after watching the EEVBLOG review below.
• Multimeter Protection ...
EEVBLOG reviews the U1282A
• EEVblog #832 - Keysigh...
VBE reviews the U1282A
• Vbe 021: Keysight U1282A
Feel free to join the thread:
www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear...
The data for the meters I have tested may be found here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions may be found here: docs.google.com/document/d/1g...

[@pa4tim]

I have a U1273A , some Flukes, a Brymen 869S (recently killed in action) and some more. I do not have the Keysight here at this moment to test the function knob but I use it now like a month or so and if it was not nice I think I would have noticed it in a negative way. I like it but is is a bit slow.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

Fill us in on the Brymen's death.

[@pa4tim]

@@joesmith-je3tq The Brymen got something like 10 kV from a HV / high energy PSU on a rail that should be only 350VDC. It was really nasty, two 800V/12A IGBTs killed with such a bang that my ears beeped for days, a 12 ohm 11W series resistor on the output connected to nothing went dead in a flash, one off the several arcs burned a spot on my wooden desk via/on the edge of the antistatic mat and a metal grounded emergency switch enclosure. It frooze my R&S DSO and that was not even connected to the PSU. The Brymen still showed values and switched functions but did not measure anything. The input protection was fried/exploded/vapourised. Replaced everything that was dead incl some vaporised traces but it still is not good. I had no time to dive deeper into it, Maybe some diodes further on the signal path are dead (measured in situ they look to be OK) because all function seem to work but the values are way off. I will look at it when I have more time because I liked it a lot. It is fast and still spoton after a few years of daily (ab)use. 🙂

[@joesmith-je3tq]

@@pa4tim Thank you for taking the time to post that story. Worth getting pinned!

[@worroSfOretsevraH]

You haven't uploaded a video for ages. C'mon!

[@filipsz6728]

Soon you will have a big problem with this function knob like I did. Basically the grease between the knob and meter body will become a jelly and meter will start turning off suddenly or freezing. You can disassemble it and try to change this jelly but pray to not damage fragile locking plastics because then the switch will be gone. Someone who designed this switch had to be totally noob.

[@reveal1693]

Thank you for the video Joe! 👍

[@rickeaston3228]

Only $800 on Amazon. I'll buy none of them!

[@Joetechlincolns]

Lol

[@SIXSTRING63]

It’s cool you asked your wife her opinion of the switch feel. Definitely it is a good idea to get a very unbiased opinion. Like you said, she has never switched the range switch of a multimeter.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

Now she's an expert. lol.

[@SIXSTRING63]

@@joesmith-je3tq 😝

[@TheDefpom]

I was just sent one of those by Daniel at Keysight to review, I recorded the review yesterday, I check it’s accuracy on my calibrators and references.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

Perfect timing. Maybe they are trusting you to do damage control. You can tell them my channel is small and the products are all treated the same. If the Keysight does well, it's only because their designers did their jobs.

[@joey24698]

Thank you for this review & your wife :) it saved me from making an expensive mistake, I was originally impressed by a tear down of the insides I seen, but yea that switch is a deal breaker especially at the price point

[@OneBiOzZ]

Im glad im not the only one who turns a 1282 and goes "bleh" internally every time Honestly i really like the older UT61E knob over the 121GW or the 87

[@hightttech]

My dog HATES the beeps from the Keysight; that's a deal breaker since he joins me at work every day 😆.

[@worroSfOretsevraH]

Oh yeah, joe is back!

[@joesmith-je3tq]

I missed all of you too!

[@TheDefpom]

Yeah I didn’t like the way the AC gets stuck in the frequency display once you look at it, the only way I found to get out of it was to change modes, just like you did.

[@Vbeletronico]

Long press the "Dual" button to go back to AC mode. However, if you are in period or duty cycle, you need to keep pressing the "Hz" button to get to the frequency and then long press the "Dual" button to get back to AC. The U1282A's button logic is not its forte.

[@MrDoneboy]

Dave swam and did drops with a Fluke meter, that I think held up better!

[@Homer19521]

In the auto industry we call that the "broken stick" aka spongy feel. It doesn't give you that warm feeling. Plus the recorded audio reminds me of the soft mute on my Tecsun PL330. Pretty annoying for such a high quality review. I don't recall that on past vids.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

Same camera, mic that's been used for the last several years. Looking at the editor, same audio levels.

[@Homer19521]

I was listening at 1.5x speed during all the clicking while the young lady was switching the multiple DVMs. The AGC/ALC was ramping up & down on your equipment on every sharp click. KZbin speed may have have been it. 👍

[@mrpetit2]

....if you want to know the truth.....ask your wife! 😁 Great move to get a fully unbiased opinion.

[@tooby98765]

Looks like the Brymen does a better job for a quarter of the price.

[@lewisshardrockheavymetales4519]

You press range to get nS (with 10pS resolution) conductance

[@joesmith-je3tq]

Right, that was covered in this video if you watch it.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

Try 23:00 in.

[@SIXSTRING63]

My old 1241A is terrible at resistance measurements. Slow, takes forever to drift into range. Mine gets worse as the resistance gets higher. Bought it cheap used, never will buy a new one. Voltage measurements read low on mine as well as compared to every other brand meter I own including some ancient Beckman meters I restored.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

This is certainly one of the slowest meters I have looked at.

[@mp1454]

👑♥️💯multimeter👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@Brian_Of_Melbourne]

Perhaps there should be a way to objectively measure the 'feel' of the range selection switch? A machine could attempt to measure the force vs (rotational) displacement and graph it. This would hopefully lead to being able to associate 'mushy', 'firm', 'exact', etc with measureable attributes. One could also compare behaviour out-of-the-box with that after the switch trashing machine has had its way - 0, 5k, 10k, 15k, etc.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

You most certainly could and I do something like this today when I life cycle the switch. The problem would be how you relate that to viewers. In the end it's still a personal preference and not something I track.

[@filipsz6728]

Keysight U1282A is a multimeter with really nice big display and perfect battery efficiency but the main selector is a total garbage which change this meter into a useless tool after few months of everyday use. Basicly locking plastic at the bottom of this selector breaks with no reason and also metal contact are stucking between the different positions and multimeter is going crazy (grease between selector and body is changing into a jelly after few months of indoor using 🤯). Sometimes it can even turn itself off during mode changing... And did I mentioned about super slow resistance and capacitance mode? And the most ridiculous thing is that they advertise it as an industry IP67 with 3m drop withstand🤣... but because this crappy selector, whole meter can be used only indoor and you need to treat it like an egg. I really regret I bought three of them in my job. Never ever Keysight garbage. Only Fluke 87V Max baby💪 Keysight Design is beautiful but believe me and don't buy it and soon you will thank me.

[@johnshaw359]

An underwhelming meter for the price.

[@joey24698]

maybe after seeing this they'll release a U1282B :)

[@joesmith-je3tq]

Maybe. I would certainly be willing to invest the time in testing an improved version of this product. If you continue to watch this series, you will find several more shortcomings.

[@jb3757]

In the 100Mhz range, the sensitivity is 330mV with input with a load of 50 Ohm, but it seems like you are only providing around 63mV (23dBm into a 50 ohm load), am I correct? and if it is the case, no wonder it doesn't function correctly. and about the different Voltage measurement positions, I find them very annoying and confusing, seems like people just don't put the effort to automate these ranges and integrate them into one or two positions. The Brymen BM869s is even worst with 5 voltage measurement positions and all of them can measure ACV or ACmV! Let's take the Gossen-Metrawatt Energy meter for example, that meter can measure from uV to the max ACV range and any other AC-related measurements possible on a single range position! and also the same story for the DCV as well. that meter has 10 selector switch positions just like other high-end meters on the market but much more features and functionalities.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

I have no idea where you would get 63mV. 23dBm is 3.2Vrms. I demonstrated with up to 13dBm or 1Vrms. Then with 20dBm or 2.2Vrms. Later I switched to adding a small power amp to bring the levels up even higher. At one point I attach a scope to show the sine wave. In part 2, I change to an LVDS driver (1.2V). I also tried it with PECL but it had no effect so I left it out of the video. Eventually during part 2, I compared it against some other very low end meters I have as well. Have a look and let me know if you have any other questions.

[@jb3757]

@@joesmith-je3tq I used division instead of multiplication under the square root, that was my immaturity unfortunately, so your values are correct here, but now it arises a different set of questions. So here at 23:51 for the first time, you attached a +-2.5Vp to the frequency counter of the meter which it clearly states in the manual that the Maximum measurement value is +-1.8Vp so I guess you damaged the meter's frequency counter right there, then you proceed to apply a 5V signal after that, then comes the frequency counter test at 24:22 which again the amplitude is about 3.2Vrms or +-4.5Vp or 9Vp-p according to 24:52 which is devastating for this meter's frequency counter that can only take +-1.8Vp or 3.6Vp-p.

[@joesmith-je3tq]

@@jb3757 The box in question will put out a 0-5V signal which can be AC coupled. This is not 9Vp-p. While the datasheet does state this is a low voltage input and that it has a maximum measurement level of +/- 1.8Vp. This does not suggest the meter is devastated at these levels as you suggest. They do however warn you not to use it "on AC power line systems." If you were to actually take the time to read the manuals, you will notice that the frequency counter input has an overload protection of 1000Vrms. You would also notice that the meter is supposed to be rated for EN61326-1. Normally from what I have seen, the meters that pass that test will typically survive several kV from my generator. Of course, if the meter were damaged from this 5V CMOS signal, I would have a field day with it.

[@silverXnoise]

@@jb3757 The manual’s figures are typically to guide/guarantee accurate measurements and rated performance. I personally wouldn’t expect a multipurpose instrument like this to suffer damage from a simple overload, especially such an anemic one at that.

[@jb3757]

@@joesmith-je3tq sure the 0-5V is, in fact 0-5V, and I'm not suggesting that it's 9Vp-p, but instead, I was pointing out the 23dBm signal amplitude is 9Vp-p, now I'm not suggesting that the 9Vp-p "should" devastate an instrument like this but rather "could".(I meant to say could devastate) what I'm suggesting is that we should've started the test with the recommended Max voltage level for the frequency counter, the 1Vrms for example. Of course I was aware of the fact that the input is protected against 1000Vrms, but I think there might be a creep or dead zone in protection, what I mean by creep: let's say the input is protected in different stages, one is the large input protection devices like PTCs and MOVs or GDT in this case which does trigger above 1000Vrms, so nothing they can do for low voltage, then we have the back to back transistor Zeners which I'm not sure what type of transistor they are using but the VEB breakdown + VBE would be around 5 or 6 Volts, so for a 3.3V system that they are using here it might point a hazard to it, now we should have anti-ESD diodes at the input of the edge detector but I can imagine they might blow up.(I'm just calling out the potential scenarios.) but all in all, I think you should send an email to Keysight about this confusion or problem, so they would have a chance to explain themselves. it's so strange indeed, I don't know what they were thinking with this feature! +-1.8V only is just not of any use to me personally.

[@JanioRibeiroSilva]

Please enable subtitles

[@joesmith-je3tq]

It's automatic and requires time to complete. When I upload a video, the very low resolution video is done first, then for a video this size after a few hours, the highest resolution is available. Eventually, YT will finish up and you should have it.