Clamp Meter Teardown (Voltcraft VC-330 = UNI-T UT210E) & creating my Patreon account
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- Today I talked about my Patreon account I've just created ( / diodegonewild ) and then I made a teardown of my new Voltcraft VC-330 clamp meter. It turned out to be UNI-T UT210E with just a different brand name on it and a different color! I reverse engineered the schematic of the input section of it with the protections. It seems to be a nice clamp meter, but it probably doesn't matter whether you buy Voltcraft VC-330 or UNI-T UT210E. You always get the same internals. Voltcraft VC-330 contains PCB boards marked UT210E.
Previous video - the test of this clamp meter:
• VC-330 Clamp Meter Tes...
You can support me on Patreon:
/ diodegonewild
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #30 ДВА В ОДНОМ [Один человек]• Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nrXy15orKhY/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you for not begging. It's really annoying when people do that. I appreciate that you make these videos because you simply want to. It is one of the main reasons that I subscribe to you.
Do it because you like it. That's always the best.
1:04 - you get 100 thumbs up from me for your comments about "UA-cam Begging". I hate that so much - every single one of them who asks me to "like" at the start of the video gets an instant "Dislike" from me, then I leave. Thanks very much for your videos and your awesome attitude.
tech has gone better after 3 years
sponsorblock exist and block all sponsor/self advertising/intro/outro
no worries now
That is the 1106EN chip meaning you can flash the eeprom to 9999 counts, make DC before AC on all ranges, and increase clamp measurements to 600A. I have the UT210E and have done these mods. It's such a a good clamp meter for $35
I love your english language style....
great job with the teardown and closeups, better than eevblog ! This design rocks as a general purpose troubleshooting disposable meter, the Adc with 1mA sensitivity is most useful for a lot of modern DC electronics. thank you for your work ...
Great job, I love your accent!
Yes, almost all Voltcraft multimeters are made by Uni-Trend. But they aren't always the same as you'd buy if you were buying Uni-T, because Uni-T devices shipped to different regions aren't always the same - often what you buy on Amazon and eBay are grey market imports. They would generally share the same PCB and enclosure, but can sometimes have as many components removed as humanly possible, which means foremost the input protection. Some multimeters are completely customised for Voltcraft, like reusing existing enclosure and components bin, but using a custom PCB and different feature set not present in any Uni-T branded device.
That was so interesting mostly when you found the unit name on the hall sensor area.. Your channel rocks..thank you for taking your time to tear down and explain everything and at that price compared to the unit its a buy...
Thanks :). If I knew that this 55 USD meter contains the same guts as the 33 USD one on Ebay, I'd probably buy the Ebay one :).
Glad to see the pillow detector assembled back! Nice video and good luck with your new Patreon account!
Busted! It is UNI-T. :)
Thank you for this video, I wanted to tear down my UT-210E for quite a long time but never did it for fear of breaking it :)
I also fully support your stance on the youtube beggars. I'm probably going to donate a few euros to you because I hate ads and I enjoy EVERY video you put out. Not to mention all the circuits I've replicated from your goldmine (danyk.cz :))!
Big thanks to you ;). I also feared breaking it, but my curiosity is always stronger :D.
No need to thank me, I appreciate honest people that produce fine content, and especially people that start off small and grow purely based on their skills and high quality videos and not begging! :)
By the way I really liked your insights into switching power supplies, those videos were very well made! I am now in the process of converting the UC3843 based 12V power supply you showed a few weeks ago into a 12V battery charger (yes, using the schematic from your website!). So far it's working reasonably well, though I have problems with the transformer making hissing noises. I had to adjust the current sense resistor because with the stock one it just shut down as soon as you connected it to the battery. I have put three 1ohm resistors in parallel as the current resistor. Is there any chance you know if the hissing is normal or not?
The mosfet doesn't get hot at all, only the diode does, but only when the load is high so I assume it's not saturating the transformer otherwise the mosfet would heat and/or explode?
Thank you again :)
hi OpenGL,
did you make the transformer yourself? There is always a chance they give a summing sound due to the wires and core not totally fixed. Even the professionaly made transformers give a sound but you dont hear it at frequencies well beyond 20 kHz. You perfectly hear it on 50Hz mains. If the diode gets hot, give it a bigger heatsink :-)
The transformer is the original one in the power supply, I just rewired the circuit from a ready made power supply.
The diode wasn't getting very hot... but now I did some tests and for some reason the current limiting kicks in very early at only 2A (I can get 6A only if I short the output and it falls very rapidly, it can't maintain 6A) but putting a fourth 1 ohm resitor in parallel the psu shuts down.
I am thinking the switching frequency is too low...
What PSU is it exactly and what is the nominal wattage / output voltage and current? When it is meant to deliver 6 A it can be at the limit so the protection just kicks in. When it was a cheap one from china it could be it is not able to deliver what they print on it. In most cases the specs are exaggerated quite a bit and up to many times! I have an S-60-12 (60W / 12V / 5 A) which i modified successfully and it is able to deliver just what it claims. But in many cases its not. If you need real power the best and reliable source is to get an old server PSU! I modified a 6 kW supply, that now can deliver 36 - 52 V at 170 amps!
I'm under , 18, when i'll be, you will be one of the first people to which i will donate something. I literally love your channel and your pronunciations :)
Thanks :) It seems that people split into two groups: The ones that hate my English and the ones that like it :).
Forget the haters... WE ALL LIKE IT !! It's too cute 😍
@@DiodeGoneWild I´m brazilian and I understand 90% of you speak. :) Great!
You convinced me! I couldn't find the Voltcraft unit for sale, but I found the Uni-T on eBay for $44 (USD) plus $4 shipping. That was from a USA vendor. It would have been cheaper if I wanted to wait to get it from China. But, some China vendors are not predicting delivery for 2 to 3 months. From the USA vendor it will be here next week.
I always subscribe based on content not begging. So its no surprise that i have been subscribed to you from the time I found your videos. I love your videos. Keep it up. :)
Very nice explanation.
You're great man 😁 . Thanks alot for great videos massively informative
Hello, interesting video. Do you have an idea which of the 3 pots is responsible for the DC voltage adjustment. My UT210E shows a bit too much DC voltage right from the start. I have a volt reference. I just do not know which poti is responsible. greeting...
Nice review, thinking about buying one now.
4:14 - Me: "Why not four?"
4:19 - DiodeGoneWild: "Why not four?"
"No begging" - go for you DGW!
Great video! I was just wondering if my 210e has decent input protection for mains measuring and I am glad it seems to be ok.
Finally that one person who did not begin his videos with "MaKe SuRe To LiFf A lIkE cAmEnT SaBsCrAiB aNd WiZiT My SnApChAtInStAgRaM FaCeBoOk :DdDdD"
Very good I congratulate you on your successful reassembly!
good video, useful , thank you . Planing to order Uni-T version and now I am sure in what to do .
Very nice vedio as always.. You have great knowledge and understanding of electronics.. You explained everything so easily that I got amazed by it and Your sense of humour is miles ahead... Great Job Again...
You can keep turn on backlit display by holding backlit button when turn on the clamp meter (there no this information on manual), and offcourse you can turn off sleep timer (there in manual) and do the booth
Another great video👍 keep them coming.
Perfect video as always. My meter is on the way.
I respect you man good job
I just have bought the same clamp meter. I like the way it looks. Gray color is way better than red of the UT210E. However, I wish it also had yellow-black-blue rubber push buttons.
Excellent, subscribed.
its guts are identical with UT210E. the only difference is given by price. oh and the green wire, same as UT210E is the antenna for NCV tester.
may you use it in good health!
Thanks man..! This video has something I need and which is not in any other videos
"and to my great surprise it work!" (09:49) it also takes a little luck in addition to knowledge!
It is not the first time I see cases of this kind, sometimes I saw items that had the same arrangement of external components: buttons, switches, displays etc. etc. and the case was slightly different but the electronic boards were the same!
Some companies ask other factories to build something with their name to be able to enter the market: I saw a documentary about a factory in China that had 17,000 employees about distributed on assembly lines of 25-35 employees each .... do you know how many different items they produced? Think that during the documentary I saw hair dryers and coffee machines that I saw here in Italy with Italian or famous brands; while they produced products from other companies were studying products invented by them, probably now in China there is a new brand :-)
Nice video Jack! (or John, it's the same! ) (it's Danik your name? i've readed it on some post below plased to know you i'm Leo)
Great stuff! (as usual..) :)
Why again are there more contacts on display rubber and less on PCB? Maybe a universal rubber contact?
A D
Yes, all rubber contacts for displays look like this. The black section is basically a bunch of isolated parallel conductors. It is designed so that the pro EE just needs to align the display contacts directly above the trace contacts on the PCB. The spacing between the contacts built into the display are separated by enough space so that the conductive rubber strip has several lines of parallel conductors that don't align with anything on the display or PCB sides. The alignment precision is handled by the mechanical alignment of the display mounting. The rubber strips would cost a fortune to have custom made for each display design. Instead, the design simply requires the engineer to place the traces and align the screen accordingly.
-Jake
Long story short, they over engineer the number of conductive (black) and non-conductive (white) stripes so alignment isn't too critical and allows for a mass produced (and cheaper) product that can be used for multiple devices.
www.elitesales.com/custom-elastomeric-connectors.html
(minimum order is 2,500...)
You can change some values in the eeprom and get more counts and make it default to DC and such nice things. :) Thread on eevblog. Worked nicely on my ut210e
I remember when he mod the cheap digital meter to do that, with a few resistors.
Clamp meter do not measure AC voltage and current and NFC. The indicator shows [OL]. What is this fault?
pěkný den :)
Take my money! :P
I have adblock disabled. But i turn it on when someone doing something like this what you said.
Your totally right specially about that "like and subscribe" before video, if you don't even know what will be in video and don't know what is main channel content. Thats really annoying.
You don't even have many adds and for sure you don't have annoying ads so theres no reason to use adblock for just one click "X" to close ad baner. If one click can help you adding new videos isn't such a big deal.
Even the "like and subscribe" at the end of the video is quite sticky. If one is excited about the video, he does click like or subscribe without being asked for it. But begging for it before the video even starts just takes it to a completely new level :D.
Don't forget about 30seconds of intros reminding you many times to like the video, subscribe to the channel, share the video on your favourite social media, and while you're at it put a like on the facebook page, follow the instagram profile etc. :)
Job well done on the video, Thanks for the information.
Are the rotary switch contacts gold plated? Course that would be awesome for the price. I thought about buying one of those but I bought a aneng an8009 instead. It is a very nice multimeter considering the price.
Difficult to say what kind of plating it is before it's used up, it could be ENIG, which is almost useless, or it could be hard gold. It is indeed super likely to be hard gold, and it's not at all uncommon in these kinds of multimeters, but probably not a lot of it.
Hi again, i consider also buying this clampmeter but i am specially interested in the low current area. Could you make an accuracy test in the 2 A range, esp. with current in the mA region, please? Maybe you can crosscheck with a few very precise ampmeters or as many in series as available :-)
Would be great - thank you!
Thanks to you my girlfriend got me one of these UNI T, for my dangeroouuus works !
Nice !!
my joule theif not working. i used an inductor transformer and took out its core and removed tge origianal winding and then did the same . its not working.
Well said.
Nicely explained!
Nice video. Pity you did not cover the principle of operation of the clamp metering itself and did not go into details on the sensor construction.
Best of all 😊
9:10 Did I heard "Idiot Proof" ??!!! Wonderful !
Ooow it has one of those chips that store the calibration data in a 24c02, nice :-D.
And they have given you the i2c connections to update it, and hacking.. oops :-D.
I've seen that sort of dmm chip in the Anang an8008 and similar, they are quite accurate.
The pcb looks decent, it's better than i expected.
A basic schematic of that kind of chip is
here: www.linkedin.com/pulse/uni-t-ut210e-carlos-abido
There's calibration in EEPROM but also 3 potentiometers at the same time. There's probably never enough of calibration :D. Maybe the EEPROM also contains some settings. It may also lock some functions that are available only in the more expensive models.
If im right, you don't need precise ref resistors with that chip, just stable ones, the error can be offset in eeprom :-D.
Hackers Delight :)
Awesome video as usual. TU..talking about dodgy labeling.
Please review the VC903 clamp meter. Thanks :-)
i hope you make list for who new in electronic like my
and thanks for all you done and you will do it
Great reviews
Well said!
Nice content DiodeGoneWild ! Of course cat help very much.
"LCD elastomeric connector" or "LCD zebra connector" if you want to Google for generic replacement.
Oooh i might one. Or more than one. Thank you!
You deserved many like
Can you connect this to multimeter like amp probe
Bro in this meter u can measure Dc current without select the Dc option. I mean at Ac dial also. U can check it. Is this a fault??
My one doesn't measure DC current when set to AC range. It shows zero. Just during transients (when the DC current starts or stops), it briefly shows some value, but then it settles back to zero. So it does show the changes in the DC current, but not the steady DC current.
DiodeGoneWild i have ut210e and it shows like that. It means meter is not good?
I watch for the electronics and your cat.
[Chorus x2]
oh my god, oh my god, please give me a Dacia
I recommend you use ceramic screwdriver so you don’t destroy the sensitive chips.
Very nice
Excellent video as always apart from missing cat, perhaps the pillow detector might detect cats too. I suspect that there are two hall effect sensors so that they can be used in a bridge configuration that allows the temperature coefficients to cancel out and the voltages produced by the magnetic field to add. There is a full circuit diagram here . . . .
www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/a-look-at-the-uni-t-ut210e/?action=dlattach;attach=489989
I think this could be a fake Voltcraft VC-330. The ribbon on the inside shows UT210E, but This Voltcraft model was released much much earlier to my knowledge.
The original Voltcraft models are sold by Conrad and there, this VC-330 costs around 80 euros (86 USD)
[EDIT]
No, I was wrong .. I opened up my VC-330 and the PCB shown "UT210E Rev.1" 🙂
Ááá, very najs český accent 😂
Do you guys really speak with such intonations in Chech Republic? Many phrases just sound like questions while they are not.
@@IliyaOsnovikov not all of us. only the elite..
vidíš, zmenia obal a pýtaju o 20éčok viac .... pekná práca
2:40 DD3 is not transistor probably, but same case. sot23-3 or like this.
I think uni -t is original and Conrad just re-brands it,has the licence orders it may be different housing color the printings on it also different color.Logo sticker.
👍👍👍 I'll buy one..😁
awesome
Thanks
Recently I’ve got 2 similar Clamp-Meters (UA220D from UYIGAO and a Mustool X1 6000) which generally are okay but both show just horrible nonsense-values in clamp-modus below 300mA DC (accuracy there is around 15% and worse) and, even much worse in AC below 500mA (up to 40-50% inaccuracy) ..the digits there change randomly from one fantasy value to another.
so, as I can see you are much luckier with your tool with current-measuring but from my side it’s quite disappointing in lower current-ranges. For quick, uncomplicated measurements over 0.5 A DC/AC it’s fine and tolerable, of course ...however I’ll never trust in clamp-mode’s accuracy
I wonder again and again, with what indifference you disassemble your devices (and how much confidence you have in reassembling them) ...brave man ,)
You are very productive! :-) Great review - like always! How can i contact you? Maybe you answer my email...?
I feel a little pitty when destroying things - esp. when they are valuable... Happy you could put it togehter without problems and working :-)
The knowledge is usully more valuable then the device, unless it is a very rare antique. Occasionally, I don't manage to put something together, but at least I learn something or salvage some parts :).
👏👏👏
You are so original, but I urge you to mention your patreon page at the end of your video so people can contribute money that will allow you to buy more devices to be reverse engineered.
I'm not the begging type of person :). I just say thanks to my patrons, this may inspire other people to become my patrons as well :).
dobrý video kámo!
Díky :)
With the UA-cam adpocalypse I can sympathize with the Patreon and other revenue shilling. It's a necessary evil now.
Bro where do you live?
papua old guinea
He lives in the Czech Republic.
thanks from graz
9:49 - You not the only one! ( Just kidding! ) 😉
indeed!
it's ridonculous 😁
like, awesome video
You are great sir From pakistan
I wonder if you can hack it like the UNI-T .Take a Look at the EEVforum.
Their seem alot of hacks for it ,like change it from 2000 counts to 99999 and a couple of other things.
link : www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/a-look-at-the-uni-t-ut210e/75/
Maybe try some on this meter if you have the skills and equipment.
You’re spot on there mate, you should make videos coz it’s what you like doing and if you make a few quid along the way then all the better. There’s nothing more cringe worthy than someone begging for subscribers and likes
*Everyone*
If you don't like the ad at the beginning. Just close the video and open it again. This takes 1-2 seconds. In 1-3 attempts you will get an ad that is less than 15 seconds. This doesn't hurt the content creator or effect the viewer metrics for the video as nothing under 30 seconds is counted. For those of us without much money, it's the least you can do.
Ad blockers are tools for thieves to take advantage of the person that created content and uploaded in good faith that it would generate a return on their investment of time.
This coming from someone who knows how much it takes to create content, is not monotized, and doesn't plan to be. If someone chooses to monotize content, it is for sale, the price is a small amount of your time watching an ad. If you take something from them without paying it is exactly the same as taking anything else without paying. If you don't see an issue with this, then you need to check your morals. Your motivation for right and wrong as a person is based upon your perception of being caught, and not upon the quality of your character. You can always get UA-cam Red to remove the ads.
-Jake
Upcycle Electronics I love his videos but the ads is a NO-NO
Adblockers are not only for thieves (I'm not talking about youtube only, but the web as a whole). They are an essential tool on the modern internet because personally I am tired of having video ads that waste the bandwidth I pay for, flash ads that consume my CPU cycles, popups that distract me and/or play sounds at a high volume, interstitials that you have to wait in order to access the content (While in the background javascript is running like crazy), having to think at least four times and waste 2 minutes just to find the real download button amidst at least 10 fake ones etc.
It's not the fault of adblockers, it's the fault of greedy people who thought forcing you to watch invasive ads was a good idea. If all the ads were the kind that isn't flash-based, isn't 100MB in size, doesn't eat all your CPU and actually ADVERTISES something useful (not just another clean-my-registry program or similar) I'm sure that most people wouldn't resort to ad blocking.
It's really sad to see that using an adblock reduces your monthly data usage by 2GB or more.
Rant over.
Thanks Danyk for setting up the patreon so those who hate ads can still support you. :)
I agree. I also use noscript. The amount of unnecessary JavaScript is ridiculous. The main content loads instantly without all the stupid ads and extra bits. I have NEVER ever bought anything online just because I saw it advertised. I bought it because I needed/wanted it anyway.
I dont know much about the ads on YT, but aren't they choosen and positioned by YT itself, not the author of video? In generell i think there is too much annoying ads around the net content and i hate it. I used noScript and other Adblockers but all of them have backsides too. Anyway, i also like the videos of Dan - alway a great plesure - not only in learning aspects but also for entertainmen. "More salt! " :-)
OK then I say mine on advertising and adblocker: I'm tired of wasting time avoiding advertising sometimes pornographic too (if I want to see pornography I look for it and I know where to find it) and then i use AD blocker.
the programmers should make sure that ad blocker and the other similar "antispam programs" take away the advertising to us users but they will continue the counts equally, we would be calm and they would earn the advertisements, I do not know who it is that puts the advertising Yuo tube or the maker to earn some money and I understand that these programs can change the returns of money but we also have to protect the pupils .. and other things round a little lower!
Hi everyone
Leo
1:20 *LIFE OF BORIS JUST MADE A VIDEO ABOUT IT.*
Cool..
Ur really cool person
In China “voltcraft” is cheaper than the "UNI-T" , but no Warranty....
*never going to mention my patreon again*
I love it when people beg 😋
"even more salt !"
dangerouuuuus :D
The whole room is vibrating now
Make a Video on 5v 8w Usb Soldering Iron
I have one bought it on ebay for 6 USD, and after 1.5 year it works great
Ma P can you give link
www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Portable-USB5V8W-Electric-Power-Soldering-Iron-Pen-Tip-Touch-Switch-kit-T7/142666624372?epid=839885068&hash=item213797ed74:g:ODsAAOSwImRYU176
Here, it is now 5 usd
Ma P thanks mate
Dec redikulús!