Uni-T UT211B AC/DC Clamp Meter - 12v Solar Shed
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- Опубліковано 31 жов 2016
- It's not always convenient to place a meter in line with your project to see how much current is being drawn. Or it may well be that you are drawing a large amount of current which exceeds the rating of your standard DVM. I've come across these issues a couple of times recently as the solar shed has grown - not in size, but in power!
In this video I look at the Uni-Trend UT211B clamp meter which I decided to buy to help with these issues.
Items used in this video:
❗️These links are affiliated and I may earn a small commission if you purchase❗️
Uni-T UT211B: goo.gl/7I9orm
AD584Kh Voltage Reference: goo.gl/jOwmFg
PortaPow Premium USB Power Monitor: amzn.to/2eWIOrK
Thanks for watching - It'd be great to hear your comments.
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If you need more accuracy for low dc current, roll the wire around the clamp multiple times ( eg 2 or 5 ) then divide the reading by that number
An excellent tip - yes, should have thought about that. Thanks
Great video!
I'm impressed with the accuracy!
I think a DC current reading clamp meter is an ESSENTIAL piece of kit for working with solar setups. So many uses, obviously checking performance & tracing faults. However they are also very useful for weeding weak batteries out of parallel battery banks. Not to mention they save having an excess of ammeters hooked up all over the place..!
Great review. I recently bought an Ac clamp meter and discovered it doesn't do DC. I had a little play with it, tried an Ac cable and nothing. So popped it back in it's bag, the reason as you clearly stated, one must separate the the cables. DUH 🙄
Once again you have taught me something new👍
Cheers
+Dean Greenhough Glad to have been of assistance. Yes both cables should cancel each other out, if they don't then some current must be leaking - it's how RCDs work. I only learned that recently from Big Clive! :-)
Thanks once again for a good review. I will be buying one in a few days. I noticed a few measurement mistakes but others have pointed them out.
+Jon Heckendorf I do make some mistakes - makes me human! :-)
I am glad you are human too :)
I enjoy your detailed videos.
Keep up the good work.
i watched chris dier and you , mine works just like yours. it is my go to first meter. i can read my panels amps well
Excellent. I use mine almost every day...really happy with it. The only thing I don't like is that the backlight turns off too fast.
Thanks Chris. If you press and hold the hold button it stays on doesn't it?
old time engineer needs this one. every body should have this at a less expensive price
+George Gardinier I've been talking to him about that!
I also have an Uni-T unit and found it very good, its not worth spending more with just diy and the band seams to stack up well with price/value
+Mikes DIY Tesla Powerwall Happy with it so far. Thanks Mike.
top review!
for aussie peeps, supercheap have the uni-t ut210e meter (slightly different ranges, but still does decent dc current) for $82aud
+Joel Moe Yeah the UT210E is a great alternative.
Nice review. Thanks.
I’ve got a 210E it’s a very good meter, got to use your head when measuring dc mA it’s Hall effect, zero close to the conductor you are measuring.
Nice review. I bought the same one from Amazon but just couldn't get the clamp part of it to work at all. I guess I just got unlucky with the one I bought. I might replace it after seeing this vid.
That's a shame - mine seems to work very well. Thanks for the feedback.
Make sure you are not clamping both positive & negative at the same time, I have the same unit & it works really well. Particularly the DC camp meter.
Does it time out after a time of not use? I forget to turn them off sometimes and when I go to use it the batteries are dead.. I never said I was really smart!
Muchas gracias por compartir. Muchas bendiciones
I wish this model had inrush current measurement. It would be perfect for my needs.
UT216C does all this thing does, except for 600mA range. And it does have inrush.
I have a campervan and want to test the amps being drawn when various things are turned on. Both the positive and negative battery terminals have multiple (about 6) wires going to them. To see the total current being drawn, can I simply put all 6 cables in the clamp at the same time? Also, would it show amps going in as well (I have a solar panel). I.e. if the lights were drawing 1 amp, but the solar was putting in 1.5 amps, would the meter show positive 0.5 amps. Two questions in one there!
I think the answers are yes and yes
Can I use that ncv to cock for wires in concrete wall ?
the 210 is half the price Icant see the advantage this on has over the 210, am I missing something?
This one is 6000 count. I agree that 2x price difference does not justify it. Unless you absolutely need 600mA range.
Thanks for the video, I've been eyeing one of those for a while now but were wondering how accurate they are! UNI-T get a bad rap but I really like my 61E multimeter for low-voltage stuff.
BTW AvE did a video on the more expensive OLED UNI-T clamp meter and found it quite lacking (search "BOLTR: UNI-T Clamp-On Multimeter" here on UA-cam)
I wouldn't trust the CAT voltage rating on it though...
Robin Kok mine is very accurate.
Adam, would you be against enabling CC/Subtitle contributions? I'd like to contribute some.
+Francis Mortanian Not at all. If you are willing to contribute I'd be very grateful. I'll just need to find the button... :-)
I think I've managed to turn it on. Let me know if you are still having trouble. Thanks again.
Was just looking at the MASTECH MS2108A this morning. Seems cheaper and also has nice reviews.
Did you get it how do you like it if so
@@james10739 Nope, got an Aneng ST209. Not bad for the price at all. I did find some comments that some meters didn't measure AC current, might be a bad batch, but mine is spot on measuring DC current what I use it for. You need to take into account that measuring current below 1 Amp is not that precise which is inherit by the way these meters work.
@@Luke-san ok thanks ya I have meters that can read under 10A which ya for low current stuff it being inline seems like if would be more precise but it looks like the uni-t is only $10 more so that's probably what I'll go with
@@james10739 If you don't have any issues with the $10 then go for it. In Europe we have the 22 euro, about $24 import limit, which can make stuff expensive if you go over that amount. I have another Uni-T meter and so far it has not let me down for a second.
@@Luke-san that sucks I'm not sure if it's the same thing but I have heard of the value added tax, the balls on these people what value did you add by taking more of my money
What about the 210E, which looks to be half the price? Any idea what's the difference?
The 210E has a DC clamp current range of 20 & 200A. Far too high for my usage and you loose the resolution too.
Hi, I have the 210E and it's excellent but isn't 200A, it have 2A-20A-100A AC/DC ranges, it's awesome, on 2A range has 1mA precision, it's true rms but only 2000 counts. Check this video: /watch?v=cFsBGUMSYmE (isn't mine). And cost me about 35usd on aliexpress.
Adam Welch I'm using UT210E and you missing something, it has one more range and that is 2A AC/DC
+.rpv Now that's really interesting. Clicking on the technical specification tab on this page ( www.uni-trend.com/productsdetail.aspx?ProductsID=1190&ProductsCateId=915&CateId=915 ) it says 20/200A but the photo seems to suggest what you say. How odd.
Yes, on the downloadable manual they have right the 2-20-100A specification, it's just the webpage that have wrong data (what a huge mistake).
Maybe I have a problem with remanence when measuring Ampere DC and changing polarity. Is it the same with your device?
It will showing a sign of " - "
can please you explain 1) how to measure dc resistance 2) dc wire continuity 3) current in a wire like an iphone charger (obviously reads 0 due to neg and pos encapsulated into one wire
10:00 Dude, you are measuring in AC mode.
+MrJohhhnnnyyy Blooming 'eck. You're right! Whoops.
***** It happens to me too when I get carried away by something :) I just saw the reading and it didn't look right for a 40W on the output, I looked closer and saw that the thing is in AC mode. What you measured can very well be the ripple current from your inverter. If you have a scope, you can prove that by checking the waveform across a low-value resistor in series with 12V to the inverter.
+MrJohhhnnnyyy Now I did think it was low because from my maths many months ago I expected about an amp for every ten watts on my inverter. I've just double checked and got just over four amps on the same lamp once I turned it back on to DC mode. I can imagine this won't be the last time I make that mistake. Thanks for pointing it out and watching so closely!
You beat me to it. I saw the true RMS symbol :)
Well spotted.
The meter defaults to AC
I have seen many OVERPRICED INSTRUMENTS (Tektronix logic analysers + digital oscilloscopes) MADE_IN_CHINA.