Multimeter Review / buyers guide: Part 1 - UNI-T UT61E

[MJLorton]

Hi Folks,

Here is part 1 of the UNI-T UT61E review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz6CYDRl1M8

If there are issues / items you would like me to pickup in part 2 / 3 then post them here and I'll see what I can do.

Cheers,
MArtin.

[retiredcaps]

Hi Martin,

I realize while you are filming it is difficult to see what is happening so I noticed a couple of things.

1) At 10:52 of your video, when the UT61E is switching past 22V, it briefly displays 91.04V. Hmm.

2) At 13:00 of your video, when you are switching between DC to AC, it looks like the UT61E goes crazy on the AC readings in the presence of DC V.  I watched it frame by frame and it seems the UT61E displays the following AC voltages.

2.916, 5.521, 55.21, 552.1, 0L, 809.3

Maybe you can redo this test?  Put the UT61E into DC V mode to measure 19.6V DC from your power supply.  Switch the UT61E to AC (leave it there) and watch/record the AC V readings.  Does it eventually settle down to 0V AC or does it go beserk trying to measure AC?

3) Good discovery of the hold function.  The UT61E manual clearly doesn't explain it very well.  I too thought it was the useless hold.

4) The manual says the measurement speed is "updates 2 ~ 3 times/second"

PS. Another great video.  Looking forward to parts 2 and 3.

[iloveelectronics]

Hi Martin and everyone,

I can offer forum members a discount on the UT61E and other items in my eBay store, as I can save myself some eBay fees this way. For the UT61E I can offer a member price of $55, that's including standard worldwide Air Mail shipping. For other items in my store, I can offer 5-7% discount, please inquire.

Even though my eBay account is almost 13 years old, my seller's store is only 2 months old. As such, eBay only allows me to post no more than 40 items (in total quantity), and sell no more than $1100 a month, which really isn't a lot. There are items I haven't listed there yet and I usually have more quantity of the items than I am listing there, so again, if anyone is interested in anything there, please inquire. Thanks!

Cheers,
Franky

[iloveelectronics]

3) Good discovery of the hold function.  The UT61E manual clearly doesn't explain it very well.  I too thought it was the useless hold.

It is different from the Fluke's auto hold in that it doesn't wait for a steady reading, instead, it simply waits 6 seconds and holds the reading at that point. Still a very useful feature when you don't have a third hand

[retiredcaps]

It is different from the Fluke's auto hold in that it doesn't wait for a steady reading, instead, it simply waits 6 seconds and holds the reading at that point.

Instead of an ebay store, you should offer your proofreading/English translation services of technical documention to Uni-T/Mastech for a salary. 

[iloveelectronics]

It is different from the Fluke's auto hold in that it doesn't wait for a steady reading, instead, it simply waits 6 seconds and holds the reading at that point.

Instead of an ebay store, you should offer your proofreading/English translation services of technical documention to Uni-T/Mastech for a salary. 

LOL! I actually picked up that piece of info about the delayed hold from the Cyrustek ES51922's datasheet

[SeanB]

Martin, with the true RMS meters, how about a little demo of the difference between a true RMS meter and a normal sine average meter with regards to waveform distortion, crest factor and such.

A simple method will be to take a standard light dimmer, and connect it to a 12V downlighting transformer ( a proper magnetic one) and show the output waveform on your scope ( when working) along with a variety of true RMS merers and non true rms meters with a 12V 20W lamp as the load. For more interst use a dimmable electronic ballast and see what it delivers as well. Even with your fear of mains it will be doable, you can enclose the dimmer in a surface box, place the transformers next to it and have a safe low voltage output all on a small piece of board, portable and cheap. During the assembly you can also show how wiring is done in SA..

[Monkeh]

1) At 10:52 of your video, when the UT61E is switching past 22V, it briefly displays 91.04V. Hmm.

It's known to have some pretty bad overshoot issues, yes.

2) At 13:00 of your video, when you are switching between DC to AC, it looks like the UT61E goes crazy on the AC readings in the presence of DC V.  I watched it frame by frame and it seems the UT61E displays the following AC voltages.

Also been discovered to have some issues with DC offset.

[Kiriakos GR]

The only UNIT instrument that it worth getting at 2012 mostly for the price is the UT15C volt stick.

The UT61E especially next to the Agilent U1272 it gave me some good laughs,
7 samples per second VS 1/4 than that,
it sends the UT61E back at the kindergarten of multimeters.   

[Monkeh]

The only UNIT instrument that it worth getting at 2012 mostly for the price is the UT15C volt stick.

Okay, because a volt stick is such a useful device.

The UT61E especially next to the Agilent U1272 it gave me some good laughs,
7 samples per second VS 1/4 than that,
it sends the UT61E back at the kindergarten of multimeters.   

Because the U1272 isn't over seven times the price. Totally comparable.

[Kiriakos GR]

The only UNIT instrument that it worth getting at 2012 mostly for the price is the UT15C volt stick.

Okay, because a volt stick is such a useful device.

The UT61E especially next to the Agilent U1272 it gave me some good laughs,
7 samples per second VS 1/4 than that,
it sends the UT61E back at the kindergarten of multimeters.   

Because the U1272 isn't over seven times the price. Totally comparable.

About the specific volt stick, UNI-T offers good pricing among the competition.
The U1272 is not expensive among the competition

Possibly UNI-T in multimeters, it should start offering and advanced solutions which they can stand against the competition.
But they do not do it.
Simple as that. 

[Monkeh]

About the specific volt stick, UNI-T offers good pricing among the competition.
The U1272 is not expensive among the competition

Possibly UNI-T in multimeters, it should start offering and advanced solutions which they can stand against the competition.
But they do not do it.
Simple as that.

And the U1272 is not competition for this meter based purely on the price!

[jwrelectro]

Hi Martin,
Great review!  I do have one comment about the scratchy noise that is heard in the continuity check.  I also observed the same results when I reviewed the AM-140-A.  In one of the forums someone asked me to try and clean the probe tips to reduce or eliminate the noise.  I tried that and it made no difference in the scratchy sound produced when rubbing the probe tips together.  As we both know the Fluke test leads don't really have this problem.  I used my microscope on x40 and was able to see a noticeable difference between the Fluke and Amprobe test leads.  Both have some grooving in bands around the metal shaft portion but the Flukes probes were much, much less than the Amprobe probes.  I think when you drag one probe tip/shaft over the other one, the much deeper grooves in the noisier probes cause the scratching sound, ( a lot of make-break contact).  If this is the common case then cleaning the probe tips will probably have little to no effect on this problem. 

[iloveelectronics]

What I found really helped was actually sanding the tips slightly with very fine (I used #800) sand paper. It made a world of difference!

[Kiriakos GR]

About the specific volt stick, UNI-T offers good pricing among the competition.
The U1272 is not expensive among the competition

Possibly UNI-T in multimeters, it should start offering and advanced solutions which they can stand against the competition.
But they do not do it.
Simple as that.

And the U1272 is not competition for this meter based purely on the price!

Competition is about performance first and the price comes second, at list for the professionals.
Some one send to me one Youtube response and described this UNI-T as industrial meter.. which is the joke of the day.

Personally the last hard earned cash that I spend about getting an industrial meter was about the Fluke 28II,
and this was at the time that the Agilent U1270 Series was not known.   

The sea of the low cost meters does not hide performance or anything remarkable,
I am silently researching this market for the last four years.
Mastech and UNIT-T does not promote product reviews, their swords are not made for an true battle.