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Member's Forum Should Handheld multimeters have color LCD displays?
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Related

Should Handheld multimeters have color LCD displays?

scottiebabe
scottiebabe over 3 years ago

As I am waiting for my OWON HDS242 to come in the mail, I thought I might ask other members how they feel about a handheld multimeter having a power hungry color LCD display.

The product webpage suggests a battery life of 3-6 hours. https://www.owon.com.hk/products_owon_hds200_series_digital_oscilloscope 

Even more interesting/exciting is the batteries can be recharged with a USB-C cable.

Based on Kerry Wong's teardown: http://www.kerrywong.com/2021/09/18/teardown-of-an-owon-hds272s-3-in-1-handheld-oscilloscope-dmm-awg-compared-with-hantek-2d72/ the multimeter functionality is galvanically isolated from the usb connector.

What do you think?

First time trying the poll feature, hopefully I didn't goof it!

Based on Kerry's notes the meter also has the bones of a real oscilloscope (ADC, FPGA, Sample memory, etc..) How performant is oscilloscope it? I don't know yet.... But I am intrigued!

Update: The scopemeter arrived!

Indoors the color LCD looks awesome! For me my multimeter ends up either sitting flat on my desk on in my lap and in both those cases the display is 10x easier to read than a segment LCD without a backlight.

Outdoors with direct sunlight the segment LCD is easier to read than the color LCD.

In the shade outdoors, I think both display technologies are equally legible.

image

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  • scottiebabe
    scottiebabe over 3 years ago

    I don't know if it is going to be love at first sight (not this particular meter it is just an example I found):

    image

    I am in no way recommending this meter, it doesn't have an internal rechargeable battery. I am so intrigued! 

    Do you still need a rotary selection switch? I don't know...

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  • scottiebabe
    scottiebabe over 3 years ago

    I don't know if it is going to be love at first sight (not this particular meter it is just an example I found):

    image

    I am in no way recommending this meter, it doesn't have an internal rechargeable battery. I am so intrigued! 

    Do you still need a rotary selection switch? I don't know...

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  • Jan Cumps
    Jan Cumps over 3 years ago in reply to scottiebabe
    scottiebabe said:
    Do you still need a rotary selection switch? I don't know...

    For a handheld, I still think it's the ergonomic winner.
    Meter in one hand, turning the switch with the other. Just looking from the corner of your eye is enough to see if it's correct (if you know your meter)

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