This is an amazing bargain as well as being a very easy-to-use piece of test equipment for he hobbyist. Having had electronics as a hobby for over 60 years, there have been many times that I could have used this little device. While I doubt that it is as accurate as a $1000 LCR meter or a $100 transistor tester, it is certainly good enough for my use. I already have meters that will test transistors, capacitors and resistors as well as this one, but have never been able to measure inductance until now. However my existing meters do not measure characteristics like ESR of capacitors and loss percentage as this device does. It is also cumbersome to measure Vf of diodes and Vth for transistors and FETS, as this one does. I have already tried all of the functions and they all work. I even tried a 100,000 uF +/- 10% capacitor and it came up with 104 mF (104,000 uF). There are a number of You Tube videos about the device, but it really does not need an instruction manual. There are multiple "pin 1" socket locations, along with two each of "pin 2" and "pin 3" sockets. You put the resistor, capacitor, inductor, diode, bipolar transistor, or FET in any combination of pin 1, 2, and/or 3 and the coumputer figures out what it is measuring and displays a schematic of the device with pinouts and the measured characteristics. It also tells you if nothing is connected or if there is an open circuit or if the battery voltage is too low for measurement. It pulls about 14 ma from the 9V battery, of which the backlight is only about 6 ma. I was going to dim the backlight with a resistor, but decided it wasn't worthwhile.. I tried to measure the "off " current on a meter that could easily sense 1 uA, but nothing registered, so it appears OK to leave the 9V battery connected without a switch. I plan to find a case that I can modify to enclose it and will definitely use it often. This is a great buy unless you need the precision of professional LCR and semiconductor test equipment.
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Works pretty good. Cheap construction and scratched up display.
Overall, this product works as I had hoped. Like other reviews have noted, the construction is cheap, and the display is pretty scratched up. One issue I didn't anticipate was how cheaply the leads are made. The wires pulled out after only a few hours use matching transistors. This appears to be a problem with leads supplied by other distributors as the other meter I purchased had the same issue.Essentially, the lead wires are only solder tacked on to the terminal. When I repaired them, I noticed the terminals have a through hole. When repairing the leads, I stripped and tinned the lead wire, inserted it through the hole in the terminal and wrapped it around the post to make a secure mechanical connection before soldering it back in place. This is how these leads should have been assembled to begin with.If you have a similar problem, gently pull the cap off, strip and tin the wire, run the wire back through the cap, insert the tinned wire into the hole in the terminal, wrap the lead around the terminal and solder in place. Then just push the plastic cap back on. I'll add a pic or two to show what I did. I'll also post a similar instruction on the other product I purchased since they both had the same problem.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2018
Otherwise it works great and I don't know how I ever went without one.
Build quality isn't very good. Only one side of the LCD is heat ...
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2018
These things seem to be hit or miss. Build quality isn't very good. Only one side of the LCD is heat steaked in, one of the test leads had to be fixed and the battery holder is useless. It is near impossible to remove the battery without brute force (so much so that the case of the battery started peeling off before actually coming out), so I cut the tab off of mine. For the price you really can't complain.Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2018
Otherwise it works great and I don't know how I ever went without one.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2018
Essentially, the lead wires are only solder tacked on to the terminal. When I repaired them, I noticed the terminals have a through hole. When repairing the leads, I stripped and tinned the lead wire, inserted it through the hole in the terminal and wrapped it around the post to make a secure mechanical connection before soldering it back in place. This is how these leads should have been assembled to begin with.
If you have a similar problem, gently pull the cap off, strip and tin the wire, run the wire back through the cap, insert the tinned wire into the hole in the terminal, wrap the lead around the terminal and solder in place. Then just push the plastic cap back on. I'll add a pic or two to show what I did. I'll also post a similar instruction on the other product I purchased since they both had the same problem.
Works pretty good. Cheap construction and scratched up display.
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2018
Overall, this product works as I had hoped. Like other reviews have noted, the construction is cheap, and the display is pretty scratched up. One issue I didn't anticipate was how cheaply the leads are made. The wires pulled out after only a few hours use matching transistors. This appears to be a problem with leads supplied by other distributors as the other meter I purchased had the same issue.Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2018
Essentially, the lead wires are only solder tacked on to the terminal. When I repaired them, I noticed the terminals have a through hole. When repairing the leads, I stripped and tinned the lead wire, inserted it through the hole in the terminal and wrapped it around the post to make a secure mechanical connection before soldering it back in place. This is how these leads should have been assembled to begin with.
If you have a similar problem, gently pull the cap off, strip and tin the wire, run the wire back through the cap, insert the tinned wire into the hole in the terminal, wrap the lead around the terminal and solder in place. Then just push the plastic cap back on. I'll add a pic or two to show what I did. I'll also post a similar instruction on the other product I purchased since they both had the same problem.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2018
