I was at Voltex buying a replacement relay when I saw the display from Toptronics. Inside withy the nice and expensive tool kits were the multimeters, and hiding at the back were these. Rebadged Mastech unit, the newer ones are a Brymen cobranded unit. Had a moment of weakness, and did a little haggling and bought this one. R920 incl VAT, down from the R1000 they wanted.
Nice little meter, has the usual voltage and current ranges, as well as temperature and capacitance. Additional features are Humidity, decibels and Lux, nice to have a meter with these features ( after having seen Dave with his lovely light meter) and overall it is a nice enough meter.
The box has been in the display for a while, as it has faded a little from the inside light ( 18W T8 flourescent lamp) but still is nice looking.
Inside it is a nice enough meter, but no way will it meet the CATIII rating it has, especially with the glass fuse in it. Not a worry, it is mostly aimed for use for the additional ranges, as well as the 4000 count autoranging for low voltage reading. Enough calibration pots there to use, and there is a nice enough calibration guide online which i have printed to a PDF if needed.
Reading light from the desk lamp, just to see how, 2 ranges, 0 to 40000 lux, and nice enough. Sensor is a small silicon photodiode on top under a diffuser cover, with a IR filter front glass.
Checked voltage accuracy with my 10.000v reference , seems to be good enough. Used the relative button to zero it, and then reversed the voltage source to get a -20.00V reading. Remove relative and it dropped to -10.00V There is a very slight bias to positive, as the meter will not flicker around +-0.00V with the leads shorted. Probably around 0.3 LSB offset to get a solid non negative zero point.
Accessories with it are a nice carry case ( big with room for a lot more than just the meter, has a short carry strap as well as a shoulder strap), a set of nice Mastech CATIII probes ( a little scratchy on continuity, they need cleaning and polishing up a little), a rather poor thpe K thermocouple and the manual. In the meter is a 9V battery pre installed, with a very nice battery holder mechanism.
As to use the meter is nice and responsive, updating at over 2 times a second. The voltage ranges are functional, and will give frequency as well for AC voltage and duty cycle as well. Temperature is close enough for a type K, and has 2 ranges, one with 1C resolution and the other with 0.1C resolution up to 400C. Never going to be accurate over full range, unless calibrated properly and even then will still be non linear, but good enough for most applications.
Capacitance range can best be described as usable, but it takes a long time to autorange ( no manual ranging in this mode) and takes 30s to give a reading with a capacitor over 100uF, with a 200uF max. Usable in a pinch, but only filling a feature point.
Resistance works well enough, scratchy beeper and everything, but is fast and non latched ( tried Martin's method and it is definitely scratchy probes, but usable nonetheless) and autoranges fast enough. Rel works as well, to null oyut probe resistance at the low end.
Nice is the white LED display illumination, bright and very usable, though it fades out and switches off after around 10 seconds, but is quite useful. The case is held together by 2 self tapping screws at the bottom, and a clip at the top. You have to remove the case to change the 9V battery, or to change the fuse. A minor drawback.
The blue rubberised case has a deep lip all round, but this would not be nice to hold if it was to be subjected to the IEC61010-1 test, as it has a 600V class III rating. PTC on the voltage input, and a 500mA glass fuse on the mA input, but the 10A range is unfused.
Still a nice enough meter for what it costs, and will do most of the functions on the spec sheet adequately.
Nice to have would have been TRMS capacity, better fuses and a 10A range fuse, along with better input protection.