TLDR; It's not very accurate, limited resolution, limited ranges, accuracy issues between Auto and Manual modes, non-standard test frequencies, can't be used while charging, lose the custom charge lead and you are screwed, tilt head detection has a bit of an alignment issue, LED testing is limited, and the secondary measurements basically don't work. But for $70 it's very handy and nothing else can touch it, and the probe design is gorgeous. Absolutely no match for the much more expensive SmartTweezers. Maybe they can fix some stuff in firmware to improve it.
For 70 bucks and it doesn't have good accuracy, resolution, range, accuracy, can't be used while charging, proprietary charge lead? Yeah it can jog on. I'll stick to the bulkier LCR meter that doesn't have those same flaws. Also hate hate hate hate that sort of one-button interface nonsense. I'd honestly rather see them just release those pincers as a lead for traditional meters.
It looks like most of the wok has gone into those tweezers! And the explicable heads is GENIOUS Meaning upgraded heads can just be stop and swapped! Plus a banana plug adapter is totally in the woks! As for wear and tear on the connector its TRS. Already really really robust and long lasting. TRS is about as solid as it gets!
Thank you for your review. We will continue to improve the firmware and products, In the DT71 configuration file, you can choose left and right hand mode and turn off screen rotation, Accurate calibration, we made an excel file, only need to fill in the measured value according to the prompts to accurately calibrate. Thank you again for your comments, we will fix the BUG in the new firmware.
@@cheryldroffner443 In circuit? I think that would require both polarity reversals and frequency sweeps to analyze, approximate and subtract from the results. Check-out YT video *Peak Atlas ESR70 plus in circuit* for a better look, because this process is difficult. BTW, don't buy it on Amazon, buy it direct using the Atlas discount code on EEVblog. Search the forum for "Special Offer to EEVblog Forum Members" (I think it's only about $20 more than this rubbish).
I think the 3.5mm connector will last ok, I plug headphones into my iPhone 2 or 3 times a day and have done for a few years, still going fine, I’m pretty sure it’s not an issue in general.
For what I need in work, this is perfect. We have a single LCR meter for the entire factory and despite its shortcomings, this would be ideal for quick measurements. If they seemed off, we get the proper meter but at a glance readings, seems perfect.
I actually like it polarised for LEDs, because I always forget which side is +/- lol. Top heavy would sux because it would want to flip back over your hand.
Just my anecdotal experience but to the age of 8 with two kids plugging and unplugging headphones from their tablets sometimes a few times a day over the cours of years, I have had many cables fail, but never once had a connector fail.
It is quite common to see sockets ripped off boards: sometimes solder fails, sometimes pads get lifted, sometimes pins break off. And i hate the plugs for diy with leaf terminals, they are pressed together and become loose with use. Other than that, TRS connectors are usually very robust, indeed.
@@victortitov1740 some people are animals with them. They do have their limits :) I mean they're not supposed to be rescue tethers for dropping your phone and not infrequently serve that purpose, in some cases succeeding.
As a hobbyist I really hate products that have high standby current like that and rechargeable batteries. I'm only likely to pick it up once in a while, and when I do it's inevitably dead and needs charging before use. Then after a few cycles of overdischarge like this, the battery itself is basically toast. My 1990s HP DMM has a soft power button and it lasts for years on standby, why is this so hard :|
Same problem for me. I had to buy 3 digital calipers to find one that doesn't drain it's battery between two usages. The well known open source component tester is also such an offender. Fortunately there was enough space for a switch in the case.
@@MetalheadAndNerd Interesting, I've got one of these open source component testers as well and use a rechargeable 9V battery to power it. I don't use it often (the electronics hobby has been on the backburner last couple of years) so standby current for my battery powered equipment is rather important for me. I only have to recharge the battery of my mostly dormant component tester once a year or so, most likely because of self-discharge characteristics these batteries have. This component tester uses a transistor to cut power to its entire circuit when it is powered down, i.e. it doesn't rely on the sleep mode of the AVR microcontroller to keep the standby current low.
@@Retep4565 I use mine with non-rechargeable 9V batteries amd before the power switch mod it took 2 months of non-usage to completely drain a fresh battery.
@@EEVblog totally agree, wouldn't have taken too much to put the extra touches in either. Even if they made it better at $100-$120 it would have been a super competitor.
To be very fair TRS style 3.5mm jacks have been tested to be pretty darn reliable... We has them in walkmans, cd players, amplifiers, laptops etc from way back when till now, and they seem pretty (and I'd argue proven) robust over the years, more so than micro USB even... That being said, I don't agree with the solution of a proprietary cable, that if you lose it, you're hooped. I would have selected a more ubiquitous connector on the head for comms and charging, probably not USB C (for size constraints due to extra circuitry required for negotiating the standard). That cable was probably selected because people would have bleeted to no end, if it didn't have USB C, and that was the only way they could use that type and keep the form factor. I completely disagree with a replaceable AAA or any other disposable battery for that matter, and the main reason is that they all leak if left unused in the device for a while, and would have made it unbearably top heavy. As with most, if not, all Miniware products they are open source as well as STM32 based and can probably be tweaked to display the other measurements such as ECR for inductors etc in addition to the rating. The biggest issue I have is with the fact that it can't test transistors (other than 2 legs at a time in diode setting), that is one thing those DIY $7 jobs will do.
At first I thought the connector for the head was a bad idea due to possible poor connection, but it provides infinite rotation to give the best viewing angle, without wires inside to get twisted up or wear out. The display flipping seems to lack hysteresis. Seems common for these kinds of things. EDIT: Also makes it easy to replace the probes and built-in battery without having to replace the main display unit.
I think you could do it with a simple spring loaded pins and a magnet, where the 4 tracks are just concentric circles on one part and the pins aligned on 4 "corners". I really don't understand why magnetic connectors aren't more of a thing especially in equipment that require constant unplugging like phones, watches and misc electronic devices. If there's one thing that electronics manufacturer should have copied apple on is those god damn mag chargers! it took for ever for others to "copy" them and yet we are still dependent on a flimsy USB connection on our phones. /rant
The charging system is pretty ridiculous, they could put the USB port directly on the device, maybe the body would be 5mm longer but still better than that dongle-thing
@@Okurka. Who said directly to mains?! 5V like it actually is, but not through 3.5mm jacks, nor through USB but by putting the tweezers into a two holes custom socket.
Good review! I bought one, and I’m somewhat happy with it. I knew what I was getting when I purchased it. For me, it comes in handy for quick testing on boards and hunting for blown fuses and caps. I have compared it to my NIST traceable LCR lcr meter, and would never depend on it for accuracy. You did a great job with this review.
@5:40 "Caliberation". :) Someone was really thinking when they made it auto switch the display orientation when switching which hand is holding the device.
To summarize: 9 out of 10 for the mechanical design, 5 out of 10 for the functional design. Wait for the next generation to work the bugs out (hopefully)
@@EEVblog The real question is: is it repeatable? Maybe the ultra low ESR or the nature of the loss (tan delta) is confusing the LCR meter permanently.. that would be interesting!
Not bad for a quick measurement. When I was doing incoming goods inspection for SMD parts we had a 5U monstrosity (pretty old but still very accurate).
Actual AC based LCR tweezers with numerous secondary parameters displayed, and selectable freq 100,1k,10k and voltage 0.3v, 06v, that can datalog values to memory, and fitted with colorscreen, battery, TypeC, and incl. formfitted bag and extra gold-plated tips, have come down in price a lot this summer with retail CN prices at around 19 $
You can display two lines of text on that screen, probably dual parameters will come in custom firmwares. Though older audience wouldn't be able to read that.
One solution to the 3.5mm jack life issue might be to make or find a short male to female rigid coupler. This would put the stress non the replaceable coupler. But after watching this I think I'll wait and buy the good one for $300. Cheap tools are no bargin no matter what it is.
Miniware should make/sell the tweezerbit as a separate unit with leads to use with a stand alone lcr meter. The tweezerdesign with the magnets is the best part of this device, the rest is meh.
Yeah, or they could just include (or sell) some 4mm plug leads to use the tweezers with a normal multimeter. That would be nice. :) Hm.. actually, since the plug looks like a normal 3.5mm 4-pin plug.. maybe making one yourself would be easy.
Those gimmicky modes you're talking about there would actually be pretty handy for a hobbyist on the cheap that has to limit their budget on tools, nothing to write home about for sure but it'll do in a pinch.
For best results, keep in mind that the user's hands and other nearby objects can affect accuracy from measurement to measurement. I recommend that when performing calibration or zero, hold the tweezers a certain and comfortable way, as they would be held during use, perform the zero or calibration, then continue holding the tool the same way. If planning to probe narrow objects, check/correct calibration using a narrow object, and vise versa. They appear to have nicely designed everything except the plug-in electronics module. The great thing is, the tweezers mechanism is a platform upon which they can market better and better electronic packages.
Those are some amazing tweezers. If they fix some firmware issues, it's a real winner. I see the same company has a mini logic analyzer and power supply now that look great, too.
The little powered screwdriver they have is great as well, Marco Reps has a video going over both versions of it. And they sell a mini hotplate, that again Marco Reps shows partially in a recent video. I love the company, they make brilliant things, and their designs are amazing, the products always feel super high quality. It's nice that we're starting to see China put out more and more high quality products like this. Especially while still keeping such a cheap price. Imagine if the TS80 or this was designed in the EU or US, it would cost a fuck ton.
It would have been a fantastic practical tool if it were existed in my years of audio and video serviceman in the 1990's. It is not that accurate as a bench instrument, but in field work conditions it is very handy. The signal generation function you find it almost useless, but measuring components plus signal tracing/injecting in a single small instrument is a winner formula in field repair service! Dave, best regards from Buenos Aires. Waiting for springtime :-)
23:52 That light pipe is awesome! Always hated when LED is so much brighter pointed directly in your face. And this one is installed on the same side as display. Not sure if this is intentional, but I recon it is, judging how everything else mechanical was engineered. It really only sucks in software and simplistic circuit.
Thanks for the review. I bought one of those Multi-Function Tester (square beige box) and it has be serviceable, using a tweezers insert for smd. Also: I really like when the timeline of the video can be seen, thx!
Pretty neat little device. It's nice to see so many cheap *and* decent items showing up on the market through ali, especially for the hobbyist scene. Might not be the most accurate thing around, but for $70 I can't see you going wrong if you're not doing super accuracy critical work.
I like how you put in some time to go into good detail for these tweezers. Look great and nice modern display. Good video, just like your older video's you used to do. My favourites were the Oscilloscope reviews. Fromwatching the vid's my choice if i were to get one would be the Rigol DS1000Z , price is great and it seems to do alot for the money. If these videos hadnt been made, i wouldnt be any wiser about the choices i should make.
i would not allow a user to plug it in and use it at the same time, some idiot will plug it in to a laptop and probe a shunt resistor on a live power supply, my LCR meter has an optically isolated RS232 connection on it i assume for that reason also im sure the TRRS jack is fine, i have plugged and unplugged headphones in to my phone multiple times a day for years without any issue watching this i dont think i will get a pair, but i do now want to get a tweezer adapter for my LCR meter and start sorting my cup of lost SMD parts
NOOOOOOOO! Not another cable to loose! Like the device but would have liked to just have a female usb-c connector on the top along with a real physical button and may be even a button near the tip to have some functions handy when testing. Thank you for the video Dave and keep up the great content!
The important thing with Miniware is that the firmware tends to be open source. There's an open source firmware for the TS-100 that gives it loads of extra features, it's actually really nice. So just wait until someone does their own firmware for this. I think this product really has potential, and I'm absolutely going to be buying one.
14:02 if the test frequency is 100kHz then when when R goes from 100k to 200k and C is 6.7pf then the reactance starts being greater than the resistance
I was really just hoping for a teardown. It is pretty small...does it do everything with MCU GPIOs? Or is there extra circuitry? If so it must be nice and small and I'm a sucker for that :)
Sometimes I just need to know order of magnitude of a component. This seems really handy for those times. To be honest not having yet another set of leads on my bench is the real win here.
My problem with tools like this is lifespan. If you buy a fluke dmm/testgear (or other quality brand), you'll still be using it in 30 years. With gear like this, the internal rechargeable battery will be toast in 5-7 years. What then? Buy a new one? (And again and again....). Even dmm's with lipo's. If that lipo is toast in 5-10 years, can the dmm manufacturer provide a new one, or do you have to try and get a similar cell on ebay, change over the leads/connector etc. I prefer testgear with simple batteries and when poweconsumption is very high a set of eneloops will do the trick. I'm certain that in 20 years AA's or 9V blocks will still be around as form factor.
Well if a multimeter has a common standard of li-ion like 18650 or a common NiMH like AA then I have no problem with rechargeable batteries. But when it comes to proprietary Li-po packs, i don't like them either.
Contrary to most comments, I think it should have no screen at all. Only analog goodness, ADC, microcontroller/BTLE transceiver, battery, and charge port. That way, you get all the data displayed on a phone or whatever, the battery lasts longer, and it might even be nicer to handle.
Instead of the head coming off for charging, I'd design it as a docking station. When you're done you plop it down in a vertical holder which keeps it out of the way and prevents the tips from poking things as it rolls around. Design it so the tips naturally fall into two contacts so you don't have that awful TRRS connector, and work out a signaling system to do the charging through those contacts. Put the USB port on the dock so that the tweezers themselves are free from extra connectors. You could even do fancy stuff like have the dock offer banana plugs that bring out the tip connectors so you could do measurements of through-hole components with alligator leads. (You might need a physical switch or button for that so that it doesn't interfere with charging.)
i like fluke equipment and other hi-$ brands... but for home, i really-really like cheap hobby test-equipment that does almost as well at a fraction of the price... great video as always, thanks...:)
It would be too costly for safety and certification reasons but to me the ideal charge connector would be shoving the tweezer ends into our already dodgy plugs we have here in the USA.
i noticed it was showing a resistance when you where holding the "silver" plastic bits and touching one of the probe legs with your finger!..i bet the silver plastic bits are conductive.. that would explain the resistance..aswell as the weird readings when taking measurements (due to the silver bit touching your hand)..doesnt seem like the best design when it comes to the electonics side of it of it... it does look nice tho.. ....looks like its time to "take it apart" Dave! :P
Identify mode looks like it displays "standard" component values closest to whatever it's reading. i.e. 46.78K actual value would be a standard 47k 5% resistor... that could be useful if you're sorting a box of "oops" components.
Why wouldn't they just put the USB-C port on the display unit itself? Then you could probably use it in wired mode if required. Could then even couple with a program on your PC for logging data or showing more info than the screen can.
All I want an LCR meter for is checking for bad caps on old consumer electronics. $70 sounds much more reasonable for this than the meters I've been looking at. Will this do the job? I think the only time ESR was mentioned was when it showed up randomly on the inductor.
As for Wave Form Output... Why not, it already has to do something of the sort for Capacitance and Inductance measurement. If its Microprocessor run, its not like its more then a few dozen lines of code.
They've included such cool ideas like the magnets instead of springs and the autorotation of the screen. Then why did they not use the OBVIOUS BIG PADS IN THE FRONT for charging this thing? It'd be great if they made a cradle where you can just stick the device in, and it charges!
The only thing I want to know is do they sell just the tweezers part separate from all the meter head and cable gerbage and if so then for how much. They mechanics and overall design look so nice that I would happily pay 10 or maybe even 20 bucks just to crack them open and run a coax with a banana jack adapter right through the 3.5mm socket hole directly connected in place of its original guts and then use them as a premium multimeter SMD adapter.
...but when do you ever need precision inductors or precision capacitors. Most of these come with quite wide specs alreaday from the device manufacturers, especially if it's smd parts.
The Atlas ESR70 is $20 more with the "Special Offer to EEVblog Forum Members" they posted, and.. it will test in circuit and it's made in Derbyshire.. ;-)
I never liked the tweezer tools. I guess there might be a few instances where the tweezer-grab might be handy but you can get a tweezer for a multimeter if you really want that, and then you can use whatever multimeter or scope that you like. A problem with the tweezer is that anything you can't get the tweezer tips onto, well, you can't measure it.
I hate those tiny displays, limited info on them, and hard to read (my eyes aren't great up close). I'd prefer the device had a bluetooth link to a larger display unit or cell phone. That way, you set up your display someplace convenient and stable, then probe whatever you like. This eliminates issues such as tool angle in your hand and the limited space on such a small display. A standalone display with the wireless link can display larger numbers and potentially a lot more info and it's always convenient to read. Call me old-school, but using standard wire-lead probes with a meter has never felt like an inconvenience to me. I bought a very expensive tweezer LCR tool (it was about $350 or so) about 15 years ago and I've used it maybe 3 times and never liked it. Once it came in handy when someone in the lab spilled a bunch of 1206 and 0805 parts (like a few thousand parts of many values) and the parts had to be sorted one by one.
Why don't they just integrate a good LCR meter in a multimeter? Seems like there would be a market for it, and it would be convenient. With modern small ICs I can't imagine it would make the device much larger...
I could see this being a handy tool for a home gamer but even for me who is a home gamer ehhhhhh I would rather use a proper LCR meter at the risk of Murphy!
It's a good idea. Better than trying to read that stupidity small writing on the sm components. You just need to know if you have picked up the correct value. It's still useful as yes that's the 33k ohm resistor that's the 1k before soldering in . I for one would still find them useful 👍
The good thing with miniware products is they're open source. Hopefully someone writes new firmware to fix the issues, if it is a software issue And yes, that cable is very silly. A real shame seeing as the ts80 uses usb C
@@ciarfah I don't like the idea of supporting a company that makes people work for free for them. Nothing against open source, but make something decent first.
I don't know why you so hate signal generation feature on every DMM you review (maybe not on all but all I can remember :)), I personally like having it. Use it maybe twice a year but when I need it is there. And cost almost nothing to implement. On device like this I see it can be annoying to skip, like S.O.S function on cheap Chinese flashlights but still I'll rather have it than not.
TLDR; It's not very accurate, limited resolution, limited ranges, accuracy issues between Auto and Manual modes, non-standard test frequencies, can't be used while charging, lose the custom charge lead and you are screwed, tilt head detection has a bit of an alignment issue, LED testing is limited, and the secondary measurements basically don't work.
But for $70 it's very handy and nothing else can touch it, and the probe design is gorgeous.
Absolutely no match for the much more expensive SmartTweezers.
Maybe they can fix some stuff in firmware to improve it.
Jeez Dave, are there any downsides? 🤣 Dave would make the worst car salesman ever!...😂😂
For 70 bucks and it doesn't have good accuracy, resolution, range, accuracy, can't be used while charging, proprietary charge lead? Yeah it can jog on. I'll stick to the bulkier LCR meter that doesn't have those same flaws.
Also hate hate hate hate that sort of one-button interface nonsense.
I'd honestly rather see them just release those pincers as a lead for traditional meters.
@@Spector_NS5_RD But it's seventy bucks! :->
@@TestECull I did get used to the touch button interface, it's ok.
I'd certainly buy the leads on their own with banana plug interface.
It looks like most of the wok has gone into those tweezers! And the explicable heads is GENIOUS Meaning upgraded heads can just be stop and swapped! Plus a banana plug adapter is totally in the woks! As for wear and tear on the connector its TRS. Already really really robust and long lasting. TRS is about as solid as it gets!
Thank you for your review.
We will continue to improve the firmware and products,
In the DT71 configuration file, you can choose left and right hand mode and turn off screen rotation,
Accurate calibration, we made an excel file, only need to fill in the measured value according to the prompts to accurately calibrate.
Thank you again for your comments, we will fix the BUG in the new firmware.
If you can add capacitor ESR measurement in a firmware update, i will buy one.
MINIWARE I just ordered one but I and very interested in being able to measure cap ESRs in circuit. I hope you add that feature!
@@cheryldroffner443 In circuit? I think that would require both polarity reversals and frequency sweeps to analyze, approximate and subtract from the results. Check-out YT video *Peak Atlas ESR70 plus in circuit* for a better look, because this process is difficult. BTW, don't buy it on Amazon, buy it direct using the Atlas discount code on EEVblog. Search the forum for "Special Offer to EEVblog Forum Members" (I think it's only about $20 more than this rubbish).
So is it fixed yet? Looking to buy one right now
I think the 3.5mm connector will last ok, I plug headphones into my iPhone 2 or 3 times a day and have done for a few years, still going fine, I’m pretty sure it’s not an issue in general.
For what I need in work, this is perfect. We have a single LCR meter for the entire factory and despite its shortcomings, this would be ideal for quick measurements. If they seemed off, we get the proper meter but at a glance readings, seems perfect.
"but then I'd have to bodge up a lead"
Great procrastination there. I'm gonna steal it.
I actually like it polarised for LEDs, because I always forget which side is +/- lol.
Top heavy would sux because it would want to flip back over your hand.
exactly, most of the time i need to probe a led is in order to find out the polarity.
Just my anecdotal experience but to the age of 8 with two kids plugging and unplugging headphones from their tablets sometimes a few times a day over the cours of years, I have had many cables fail, but never once had a connector fail.
It is quite common to see sockets ripped off boards: sometimes solder fails, sometimes pads get lifted, sometimes pins break off. And i hate the plugs for diy with leaf terminals, they are pressed together and become loose with use. Other than that, TRS connectors are usually very robust, indeed.
@@victortitov1740 some people are animals with them. They do have their limits :) I mean they're not supposed to be rescue tethers for dropping your phone and not infrequently serve that purpose, in some cases succeeding.
Using magnets in place of springs is pure genius! They've put a whole crapload of thought into this thing
I actually love the charging LED thing. So many indicator LEDs are way too bright...
@@Okurka. Definitely enough ^^
As a hobbyist I really hate products that have high standby current like that and rechargeable batteries. I'm only likely to pick it up once in a while, and when I do it's inevitably dead and needs charging before use. Then after a few cycles of overdischarge like this, the battery itself is basically toast. My 1990s HP DMM has a soft power button and it lasts for years on standby, why is this so hard :|
Same problem for me. I had to buy 3 digital calipers to find one that doesn't drain it's battery between two usages. The well known open source component tester is also such an offender. Fortunately there was enough space for a switch in the case.
@@MetalheadAndNerd Interesting, I've got one of these open source component testers as well and use a rechargeable 9V battery to power it. I don't use it often (the electronics hobby has been on the backburner last couple of years) so standby current for my battery powered equipment is rather important for me. I only have to recharge the battery of my mostly dormant component tester once a year or so, most likely because of self-discharge characteristics these batteries have. This component tester uses a transistor to cut power to its entire circuit when it is powered down, i.e. it doesn't rely on the sleep mode of the AVR microcontroller to keep the standby current low.
@@Retep4565 I use mine with non-rechargeable 9V batteries amd before the power switch mod it took 2 months of non-usage to completely drain a fresh battery.
@@MetalheadAndNerd I have 2 devices. 1 drains and other not. never compared schematics, but think they are similar, so it's probably a software issue
Good review, agree with the comments about a bigger head / screen, this should also allow for better resolution having more space for circuitry.
Making it too small and simple and cheap was probably a mistake. It really could have been a good competitor to the Smart Tweezers.
@@EEVblog totally agree, wouldn't have taken too much to put the extra touches in either. Even if they made it better at $100-$120 it would have been a super competitor.
To be very fair TRS style 3.5mm jacks have been tested to be pretty darn reliable... We has them in walkmans, cd players, amplifiers, laptops etc from way back when till now, and they seem pretty (and I'd argue proven) robust over the years, more so than micro USB even... That being said, I don't agree with the solution of a proprietary cable, that if you lose it, you're hooped. I would have selected a more ubiquitous connector on the head for comms and charging, probably not USB C (for size constraints due to extra circuitry required for negotiating the standard). That cable was probably selected because people would have bleeted to no end, if it didn't have USB C, and that was the only way they could use that type and keep the form factor. I completely disagree with a replaceable AAA or any other disposable battery for that matter, and the main reason is that they all leak if left unused in the device for a while, and would have made it unbearably top heavy. As with most, if not, all Miniware products they are open source as well as STM32 based and can probably be tweaked to display the other measurements such as ECR for inductors etc in addition to the rating. The biggest issue I have is with the fact that it can't test transistors (other than 2 legs at a time in diode setting), that is one thing those DIY $7 jobs will do.
At first I thought the connector for the head was a bad idea due to possible poor connection, but it provides infinite rotation to give the best viewing angle, without wires inside to get twisted up or wear out. The display flipping seems to lack hysteresis. Seems common for these kinds of things. EDIT: Also makes it easy to replace the probes and built-in battery without having to replace the main display unit.
Yes, it's clever.
I think you could do it with a simple spring loaded pins and a magnet, where the 4 tracks are just concentric circles on one part and the pins aligned on 4 "corners".
I really don't understand why magnetic connectors aren't more of a thing especially in equipment that require constant unplugging like phones, watches and misc electronic devices.
If there's one thing that electronics manufacturer should have copied apple on is those god damn mag chargers! it took for ever for others to "copy" them and yet we are still dependent on a flimsy USB connection on our phones.
/rant
@@svampebob007 at least most new phones use the more durable and revisable usb c
The charging system is pretty ridiculous, they could put the USB port directly on the device, maybe the body would be 5mm longer but still better than that dongle-thing
I also don't really understand the point of that extra length of cable on the dongle. Wonder why it isn't just a rigid single piece?
@@ville_syrjala Yep.
Why not to charge through the tweezers? Simple adapter and replaceable by any clips in case of need.
@@Okurka. Who said directly to mains?! 5V like it actually is, but not through 3.5mm jacks, nor through USB but by putting the tweezers into a two holes custom socket.
Piotr Chec because it can measure voltage. How would it know if you wanted to measure a voltage or charge it.
Good review! I bought one, and I’m somewhat happy with it. I knew what I was getting when I purchased it. For me, it comes in handy for quick testing on boards and hunting for blown fuses and caps. I have compared it to my NIST traceable LCR lcr meter, and would never depend on it for accuracy. You did a great job with this review.
@5:40 "Caliberation". :) Someone was really thinking when they made it auto switch the display orientation when switching which hand is holding the device.
Sounds like it might double as a tool for the gun range.
To summarize: 9 out of 10 for the mechanical design, 5 out of 10 for the functional design.
Wait for the next generation to work the bugs out (hopefully)
The moment you accept that your 22nF ceramic capacitor has 300Ohm ESR and just continue on.....
(10:30)
Err, yeah, totally missed that.
@@EEVblog The real question is: is it repeatable? Maybe the ultra low ESR or the nature of the loss (tan delta) is confusing the LCR meter permanently.. that would be interesting!
Not bad for a quick measurement. When I was doing incoming goods inspection for SMD parts we had a 5U monstrosity (pretty old but still very accurate).
Actual AC based LCR tweezers with numerous secondary parameters displayed, and selectable freq 100,1k,10k and voltage 0.3v, 06v, that can datalog values to memory, and fitted with colorscreen, battery, TypeC, and incl. formfitted bag and extra gold-plated tips, have come down in price a lot this summer with retail CN prices at around 19 $
You can display two lines of text on that screen, probably dual parameters will come in custom firmwares.
Though older audience wouldn't be able to read that.
I have a old ESI 296 I paid $25 for at the Tek store. Took it to work and checked it out and it works perfectly darned near 45 years later.
Dont turn it on, take it apart :(
He does at 3:43. /s
One solution to the 3.5mm jack life issue might be to make or find a short male to female rigid coupler. This would put the stress non the replaceable coupler. But after watching this I think I'll wait and buy the good one for $300. Cheap tools are no bargin no matter what it is.
Miniware should make/sell the tweezerbit as a separate unit with leads to use with a stand alone lcr meter.
The tweezerdesign with the magnets is the best part of this device, the rest is meh.
Yeah, or they could just include (or sell) some 4mm plug leads to use the tweezers with a normal multimeter. That would be nice. :)
Hm.. actually, since the plug looks like a normal 3.5mm 4-pin plug.. maybe making one yourself would be easy.
Make an adapter so you can plug the tweezer front end into a nicer LCR meter. Best of both worlds and a nice mobile fallback if needed!
Caliberation? :) Metrologist in me died a little...
You mean the meteorologist.
Meteorologist? The motorist in me died a little.
@@thegoodhen Very big oof
A metrologist? Are you one of the guys who draws all the underground metro station diagrams or something?
Jee, people :) Metrology = science of measurement. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrology
Those gimmicky modes you're talking about there would actually be pretty handy for a hobbyist on the cheap that has to limit their budget on tools, nothing to write home about for sure but it'll do in a pinch.
For best results, keep in mind that the user's hands and other nearby objects can affect accuracy from measurement to measurement.
I recommend that when performing calibration or zero, hold the tweezers a certain and comfortable way, as they would be held during use, perform the zero or calibration, then continue holding the tool the same way. If planning to probe narrow objects, check/correct calibration using a narrow object, and vise versa.
They appear to have nicely designed everything except the plug-in electronics module. The great thing is, the tweezers mechanism is a platform upon which they can market better and better electronic packages.
For hobby it seem better a 7$ device with the leads shortly shown in the video
I think it's nice having no wires to get in your way or snagged.
Noticed these last week. I'd wait for the future generations.
Soon as I saw the Miniware logo I knew this was going to be good.
Damn, this is tempting.
Those are some amazing tweezers. If they fix some firmware issues, it's a real winner. I see the same company has a mini logic analyzer and power supply now that look great, too.
The little powered screwdriver they have is great as well, Marco Reps has a video going over both versions of it. And they sell a mini hotplate, that again Marco Reps shows partially in a recent video. I love the company, they make brilliant things, and their designs are amazing, the products always feel super high quality.
It's nice that we're starting to see China put out more and more high quality products like this. Especially while still keeping such a cheap price. Imagine if the TS80 or this was designed in the EU or US, it would cost a fuck ton.
It would have been a fantastic practical tool if it were existed in my years of audio and video serviceman in the 1990's. It is not that accurate as a bench instrument, but in field work conditions it is very handy. The signal generation function you find it almost useless, but measuring components plus signal tracing/injecting in a single small instrument is a winner formula in field repair service!
Dave, best regards from Buenos Aires. Waiting for springtime :-)
23:52 That light pipe is awesome! Always hated when LED is so much brighter pointed directly in your face. And this one is installed on the same side as display.
Not sure if this is intentional, but I recon it is, judging how everything else mechanical was engineered. It really only sucks in software and simplistic circuit.
Thanks for sharing this is perfect for my amateur lab.
Thanks for the review. I bought one of those Multi-Function Tester (square beige box) and it has be serviceable, using a tweezers insert for smd. Also: I really like when the timeline of the video can be seen, thx!
Pretty neat little device. It's nice to see so many cheap *and* decent items showing up on the market through ali, especially for the hobbyist scene. Might not be the most accurate thing around, but for $70 I can't see you going wrong if you're not doing super accuracy critical work.
The nice thing with the modular way they've designed it is that they could come out with a larger display unit that just plugs into the tweezer body
I like how you put in some time to go into good detail for these tweezers. Look great and nice modern display. Good video, just like your older video's you used to do. My favourites were the Oscilloscope reviews. Fromwatching the vid's my choice if i were to get one would be the Rigol DS1000Z , price is great and it seems to do alot for the money. If these videos hadnt been made, i wouldnt be any wiser about the choices i should make.
i would not allow a user to plug it in and use it at the same time, some idiot will plug it in to a laptop and probe a shunt resistor on a live power supply, my LCR meter has an optically isolated RS232 connection on it i assume for that reason
also im sure the TRRS jack is fine, i have plugged and unplugged headphones in to my phone multiple times a day for years without any issue
watching this i dont think i will get a pair, but i do now want to get a tweezer adapter for my LCR meter and start sorting my cup of lost SMD parts
NOOOOOOOO! Not another cable to loose! Like the device but would have liked to just have a female usb-c connector on the top along with a real physical button and may be even a button near the tip to have some functions handy when testing. Thank you for the video Dave and keep up the great content!
The important thing with Miniware is that the firmware tends to be open source. There's an open source firmware for the TS-100 that gives it loads of extra features, it's actually really nice. So just wait until someone does their own firmware for this. I think this product really has potential, and I'm absolutely going to be buying one.
Awesome
I love the enthusiasm man
14:02 if the test frequency is 100kHz then when when R goes from 100k to 200k and C is 6.7pf then the reactance starts being greater than the resistance
Can’t wait for EEVBlog1337
No teardown? Please, another episode with teardown.
Yep. Manual says you won't be able to get it back together, so it will likely be destructive.
@@EEVblog Even better, a challenge! Leave it on the healing bench for a few weeks before you re-assemble that'll help.
I'll wait 'til the price drops!
I just placed a pre-order on BangGood for one of these. It is supposed to ship by Sept 20.
Paid $63.91 USD Shipped to Canada.
Chinese hardware engineers can use multimeter probes like chopsticks
they can and they do, and you should too.
@Mai Mariarti Before measuring,take your probe at a good angle,and there is no need to grind down the finger guards
@Mai Mariarti 2:02 in ua-cam.com/video/0kE9d-uKLsM/v-deo.html
Teardown Pls, Wanna see what's generating those AC signals
PHUCKING brilliant !
I was really just hoping for a teardown. It is pretty small...does it do everything with MCU GPIOs? Or is there extra circuitry? If so it must be nice and small and I'm a sucker for that :)
12:24 "Caliberation" LOL
Lyiberation.
"A bad day with murphy" rofl love it thanks mate :-)
Wait till Ralim starts to work on the software re write on this like he has done for the TS100 TS80 and TS80P
Sometimes I just need to know order of magnitude of a component. This seems really handy for those times. To be honest not having yet another set of leads on my bench is the real win here.
My problem with tools like this is lifespan.
If you buy a fluke dmm/testgear (or other quality brand), you'll still be using it in 30 years.
With gear like this, the internal rechargeable battery will be toast in 5-7 years. What then? Buy a new one? (And again and again....).
Even dmm's with lipo's. If that lipo is toast in 5-10 years, can the dmm manufacturer provide a new one, or do you have to try and get a similar cell on ebay, change over the leads/connector etc.
I prefer testgear with simple batteries and when poweconsumption is very high a set of eneloops will do the trick. I'm certain that in 20 years AA's or 9V blocks will still be around as form factor.
Well if a multimeter has a common standard of li-ion like 18650 or a common NiMH like AA then I have no problem with rechargeable batteries. But when it comes to proprietary Li-po packs, i don't like them either.
Don't be so pessimistic !
Contrary to most comments, I think it should have no screen at all. Only analog goodness, ADC, microcontroller/BTLE transceiver, battery, and charge port. That way, you get all the data displayed on a phone or whatever, the battery lasts longer, and it might even be nicer to handle.
As always...Thanks, Dave!
Instead of the head coming off for charging, I'd design it as a docking station. When you're done you plop it down in a vertical holder which keeps it out of the way and prevents the tips from poking things as it rolls around. Design it so the tips naturally fall into two contacts so you don't have that awful TRRS connector, and work out a signaling system to do the charging through those contacts. Put the USB port on the dock so that the tweezers themselves are free from extra connectors.
You could even do fancy stuff like have the dock offer banana plugs that bring out the tip connectors so you could do measurements of through-hole components with alligator leads. (You might need a physical switch or button for that so that it doesn't interfere with charging.)
i like fluke equipment and other hi-$ brands... but for home, i really-really like cheap hobby test-equipment that does almost as well at a fraction of the price... great video as always, thanks...:)
It would be too costly for safety and certification reasons but to me the ideal charge connector would be shoving the tweezer ends into our already dodgy plugs we have here in the USA.
i noticed it was showing a resistance when you where holding the "silver" plastic bits and touching one of the probe legs with your finger!..i bet the silver plastic bits are conductive.. that would explain the resistance..aswell as the weird readings when taking measurements (due to the silver bit touching your hand)..doesnt seem like the best design when it comes to the electonics side of it of it... it does look nice tho..
....looks like its time to "take it apart" Dave! :P
Just ordered one (to be my first/only LCR meter)... :)
Identify mode looks like it displays "standard" component values closest to whatever it's reading. i.e. 46.78K actual value would be a standard 47k 5% resistor... that could be useful if you're sorting a box of "oops" components.
Why wouldn't they just put the USB-C port on the display unit itself? Then you could probably use it in wired mode if required. Could then even couple with a program on your PC for logging data or showing more info than the screen can.
All I want an LCR meter for is checking for bad caps on old consumer electronics. $70 sounds much more reasonable for this than the meters I've been looking at. Will this do the job? I think the only time ESR was mentioned was when it showed up randomly on the inductor.
I nearly jumped to buy these before you got to the negatives!
Should just make a tweezer style probe that plugs into your LCR meter. Or a tweezer style holder that you can stick your existing probes inside of
As for Wave Form Output... Why not, it already has to do something of the sort for Capacitance and Inductance measurement. If its Microprocessor run, its not like its more then a few dozen lines of code.
SEEED STUDIO seems to sell the same thing for 60.00. DT71 Mini Digital Smart Tweezers -
No thanks, I will stick with the DER EE DE5000 proper LCR meter which is only 30 buck more and way more useful.
I definitely agree with you but I had to buy the leads (tweezer & alligator) , grand total was 130€ from Japan eBay
They've included such cool ideas like the magnets instead of springs and the autorotation of the screen. Then why did they not use the OBVIOUS BIG PADS IN THE FRONT for charging this thing? It'd be great if they made a cradle where you can just stick the device in, and it charges!
The best LCR meter is a vector network analyzer. Everything else is a half-measure.
The only thing I want to know is do they sell just the tweezers part separate from all the meter head and cable gerbage and if so then for how much. They mechanics and overall design look so nice that I would happily pay 10 or maybe even 20 bucks just to crack them open and run a coax with a banana jack adapter right through the 3.5mm socket hole directly connected in place of its original guts and then use them as a premium multimeter SMD adapter.
...but when do you ever need precision inductors or precision capacitors. Most of these come with quite wide specs alreaday from the device manufacturers, especially if it's smd parts.
Cheers and thanks for sharing!
Someone will come up with a custom firmware in no time. I'm sure things will get better as long as the hardware is designed well.
I'll wait for a second revision.. I hope this is the TS100 and there's a TS80 coming.
Looks good, If I didn’t already have more stuff than I can ever use I would get one.
The Atlas ESR70 is $20 more with the "Special Offer to EEVblog Forum Members" they posted, and.. it will test in circuit and it's made in Derbyshire.. ;-)
I never liked the tweezer tools. I guess there might be a few instances where the tweezer-grab might be handy but you can get a tweezer for a multimeter if you really want that, and then you can use whatever multimeter or scope that you like. A problem with the tweezer is that anything you can't get the tweezer tips onto, well, you can't measure it.
hope they improve the accuracy. ill get that bad boy after the fix.
Thank you M.r
Nice product
I hate those tiny displays, limited info on them, and hard to read (my eyes aren't great up close). I'd prefer the device had a bluetooth link to a larger display unit or cell phone. That way, you set up your display someplace convenient and stable, then probe whatever you like. This eliminates issues such as tool angle in your hand and the limited space on such a small display. A standalone display with the wireless link can display larger numbers and potentially a lot more info and it's always convenient to read. Call me old-school, but using standard wire-lead probes with a meter has never felt like an inconvenience to me. I bought a very expensive tweezer LCR tool (it was about $350 or so) about 15 years ago and I've used it maybe 3 times and never liked it. Once it came in handy when someone in the lab spilled a bunch of 1206 and 0805 parts (like a few thousand parts of many values) and the parts had to be sorted one by one.
Why don't they just integrate a good LCR meter in a multimeter? Seems like there would be a market for it, and it would be convenient. With modern small ICs I can't imagine it would make the device much larger...
I could see this being a handy tool for a home gamer but even for me who is a home gamer ehhhhhh I would rather use a proper LCR meter at the risk of Murphy!
Looks cooler than it is, as with most things these days.
Use 2 sided tabe to hold the part
that thing flips the screen better and faster than my $2k smartphone...
They should put that tweezer probe sans battery at the end of a pair of banana leads. I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
Why wouldn't they gold plate the 3.5mm plug?
There are also multimeters that test transistors :)
It's a good idea. Better than trying to read that stupidity small writing on the sm components. You just need to know if you have picked up the correct value. It's still useful as yes that's the 33k ohm resistor that's the 1k before soldering in . I for one would still find them useful 👍
Random secondary measurements, spontaneous reboots, out of spec measurements and a ridiculous charging cable? No reason to consider this.
The good thing with miniware products is they're open source. Hopefully someone writes new firmware to fix the issues, if it is a software issue
And yes, that cable is very silly. A real shame seeing as the ts80 uses usb C
Hopefully they can fix stuff in firmware. Unfortunately there is nothing else close to this price point.
@@ciarfah I don't like the idea of supporting a company that makes people work for free for them. Nothing against open source, but make something decent first.
EEVblog they say the are open sourcing the firmware. I anticipate there will be alternative firmwares as for the ts100
I literally have no reason to buy them, but I really want the tweezers
I would have a bluetooth link to your phone instead of the tiny display.
I don't know why you so hate signal generation feature on every DMM you review (maybe not on all but all I can remember :)), I personally like having it. Use it maybe twice a year but when I need it is there. And cost almost nothing to implement.
On device like this I see it can be annoying to skip, like S.O.S function on cheap Chinese flashlights but still I'll rather have it than not.