EEVblog #94 - Near Death Multimeter Experience

Dave was looking forward to reviewing the new Extech RC200 SMD Tweezer Multimeter, until the damn thing tried to kill him. Now he's, well, kinda mad!...

[RichardT]

Even years later this is still a highly entertaining rant :)

[businjay]

Ha ha, this video is great, I worked at a place with 100 480v air handlers, they wanted one fixed and handed me a cheap "1 Hung Lo" volt meter and I laughed so damn hard, I went and got my fluke, makes me laugh how much people dont respect electricity, Nothing to be scared of but dont piss it off either. Nice video. 

[smallenginedude]

so its basically a bomb detonator with the bomb built into the detonator.

[Youtube_deleted_my_favourites]

My annual visit to this review never fails to to entertain me.

[Novous]

7:30 holy crap, you're 100% right. It's literally the definition of "fail safe" covered by ANY college of engineering of worth. If something is going to fail (and everything CAN), it should fail _safely_. That switch mechanism should absolutely default normally to the safest mode, so if it fails, it fails into the safest setting. Their design is equivalent to having a guard on a saw, table saw, mower, default to full open unless you latch it down. So if the latch failed, the guard would fly off and your hand would be eaten up by the blades. NOBODY DOES THAT.

[ciphernemo]

I think they forgot to include in the manual that one of the Modes is "self destruct". Very important mode for secret agents.

[spartanworria]

I nearly spat my tea all over the place when he said "I was just starting to like this thing, Until it tried to kill me" fucking hell hahahahahahaha

[WilliamMcCormickJr]

Most individuals were never taught how to hold, and handle a meter. As you know air capacitors are a real thing. When you get internal white ARC inside your meter, you have a potential of 30, 000 volts, on one side of a plastic dielectric, against a good surface area of your hand. Friends of mine have been badly shocked holding a multi-meter, and accidentally touching an electronic gas igniter output.

Years ago I was taught how to hold a meter by my father. He said you put the meter down on something, hang it, whatever, never hold it. Then you pick up one lead and connect that lead to something preferably with an alligator clamp,  and do not touch it. Then you take the second lead, in one hand standing on dry ground, and test. I will be honest I thought it was a bit overkill. Then one day all the little no, no's we do in life combined in one serious accident.

There was a power outage, in our industrial building. My boss asked me to check out what it was. So I go down into the now darkened, little room that housed the incoming power. The power was fused through 250 amp fuses. It is a little damp down in the basement, I only have an electronic multi-meter with push buttons. In the dark, I cannot really see the buttons,  I figure I better do this right. I do everything text book. But in my mind I am thinking there is a fuse in the meter anyway right,  what a big sissy. I almost did not follow procedure.

I put the meter down, I connect one lead to a grounded panel,  I touch the incoming power line with the other. Instantly I see what looks like two four foot long snake shaped T-12 fluorescent light bulbs where my test leads were.  I get pushed back, I feel the heat. And now I cannot see anything. Open panels live wires all around me.

I am thinking what happened. I come upstairs kind of in a fog, with my meter and test leads dangling and bouncing with no copper inside of them. If I had a video of this I could laugh till the day I die every time I watched it.

What happened, well two years before we were using this electronics meter to fix a battery operated device. It was not a great meter kind of a do whatever meter. We shorted the meter while we were measuring amperage. We were only working on battery powered equipment we had no new fuse at that location, so we cut a piece of bronze rod and put it where the fuse should have gone. Reminded ourselves that we had to put a fuse in it before we used it. Yea right. After fixing the battery operated device we were patting ourselves on the back mighty proudly. We laid the meter on the bench and the rest is history.

The accident went like this, one day a month before the accident my regular meter fell and broke. So I just grabbed that electronics meter I had no other at the time. Thank God I never shorted it before then. Well the Friday before the power outage I was testing the draw of some Allen Bradley oil tight panel lights, with the meter set for amps. I never use the meter for testing amps especially on AC. I cannot say I was holding the meter in my hand but I suspect it. I hardly ever used those meters for amperage on AC it was just a fluke test I needed to do, so I really had no reason to suspect I left it in the amperage position. Monday morning I come to work and there is no power in the building. I grab my meter and off I go, Boom. There are probably a lot of morals and lessons here, just pick them all and follow them.

[AishaDracoGryph]

From review to teardown in a "flash". Also I really appreciate that you call out the good design aspects with the bad.

[BTom]

Dave is beautiful when he's agitated.

[repairfreak]

Just found this video, glad you weren’t hurt Dave. Great to see the company take care of the design flaw. For those of us that can’t always afford a Fluke, I have been very satisfied with my Extech clamp meter combo multimeter. I love the fact it can measure low dc current with its clamp around current probe. I great tool for the price in my opinion.

[Neverforget]

7:45 I am almost willing to bet some engineer knew about this issue, told his manager and was ignored. Happens more than you might think.

[niceguy]

I was actually starting to like this thing, UNTIL IT TRIED TO KILL ME. Lol Dave.

[keeganharmon]

5:37 to 5:41 LOL I cant with this dude! My entire computer's memory is littered with screenshots of the RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME GOLD THIS MAN CREATES.

[EEVblog]

@thegamer589 Yes, immediate response. The found the exact problem I described and have redesigned the meter to fit it. No product recall though.

[JimFortune]

So it's been six years plus a bit. Did they get back to you?

[jon]

Just wanted to let you all know, I checked Amazon and apparently Extech fixed the design flaw, though it's still marketed under the same model number.

[RadarRon]

Dave your quality control work is superb! You have done the company a huge favor (although Extech may not see it that way). Thanks

[RobbieFPV]

You are on top of my top #3 favorite aussies.

Cheers mate!

[keep]

Got my beer. (It is a BBQ.) Put my feet up. Gonna watch Dave on a good rant.
They did redesign this as I recall.