2018 LIDL multimeter, part 2 - Questions and answers

A followup to the LIDL multimeter video to answer some questions.

[grahambutcher]

It just goes to show that it is possible to make savings during the manufacturing stages to reduce cost without compromising the electrical safety / connectivity and robustness as the modelling paste on the input jacks proved that it is not always a must to have solid input jacks like those found in a Fluke 27 provided other means of support are in place. In this case the jacks meet up with a moulded in back bumper prevent the jacks from going anywhere and the tubes even though they are of split design, are contained within plastic tube so they cannot open up any further thus retaining sufficient contact pressure to meet the standards required. Well done Lidl to show that a cheap meter can still be regarded as a quality item through very clever engineering.

[KeepOnTesting]

Thanks for clarification. I suspected China but wasn't 100%
The putty test for the probe input springs was very clever. Well done!

[hackinblack]

it was quite surprising to see no smoke when you put 230v through the ohms range; that has been known to kill some expensive AVO meters, just like the one i bought on a car boot sale..cough..mutter! and 0.5% accuracy is actually better than some meters on sale costing over 70E it goes to show how over-priced they are.
i have just given up trying to repair my capacitance meter after one of LIDL's damn alkaline PP3 batteries leaked inside it; looks like it's killed the LCD panel...now paranoia rules; all my meters get stored EMPTY; or at least with the battery compartment facing down between use...that'll learn me!.
i just pulled apart a LIDL car battery tester which is 3.99Euro here in france, and to my surprise instead of just a comparator, there is a microcontroller and an eeprom! i suspect its a PIC 12F part; maybe a 12F675, as its has the test voltage going to what would be the GP0/AN0 pin, power to pin1 and ground to pin8. it would be interesting to see if it could be re-programmed to change the voltage trigger points, to use at voltages that aren't 12v.(though it could probably be done by changing the resistors around the chip) i have a strong suspicion that it is the same PCB as the 'Sealey' branded voltage probe; the LEDS are in exactly the same order and spacing...the pcb has space for an unused switch.also being super cheap there's no tinning on the PCB pads, the surface mount components are soldered straight to bare copper! can't see this lasting long sat in damp garages...

[samdeur]

trying to find out which multimeter in the all-sun collection this one looks like just for fun..
but it's hard to find hahaha..

looked for EM3701 and 161228 CKH also no luck
I did find the EM370 and EM371 on the all-sun page.. but they look radically different..
probably to big of a noob to tell the diff..hahah
would be nice to buy sum of those masterProbe probes and connect them to this affordable meter.
but alas no one sells these here in The Netherlands only one i could find in stores were the cheap Chinese ones sold like they were something they were not..Even amazon DE and UK has none