Uni-T 171 A and B - thoughts? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: dreaquil
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2015, 03:25:39 pm
content: Hi,I'm looking at getting a high accuracy meter for about 180eur-230eur. I was originally looking at a second hand Fluke but at that price I won't get anything with decent resolution/accuracy. So I started looking at the UT171B mostly. I just wanted to hear from people about this meter in particular and the A variant. It looks pretty decent and is UL listed. Might I mention I am by no means a Uni-T fanboy.. I have a UT58C and I despise it but this looks good.EDIT:I checked to make sure that these were actually ETL tested and they are:http://etlwhidirectory.etlsemko.com//WebClients/ITS/DLP/products.nsf/vwSearch?SearchView&Query=FIELD%20ListHead%20Contains%20ut171b%20or%20FIELD%20CatCode%20Contains%20ut171b%20or%20FIELD%20Title%20Contains%20ut171b%20or%20FIELD%20ProductInformation%20Contains%20ut171b%20or%20FIELD%20ProductInfo%20Contains%20ut171b&SearchOrder=1&SearchMax=1000&SearchWV=FALSE&SearchThesaurus=FALSE&SearchFuzzy=FALSE

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2015, 04:07:29 pm
content: This is within your price range and is well respected around here:http://www.tme.eu/en/details/bm869/portable-digital-multimeters/brymen/bm869s/Reviews:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/brymen-bm869-short-review/

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 24, 2015, 12:56:10 am
content: I have a UT171A here, and have been trying to get to doing videos. I will review it very soon. The short story, very short, it is a pretty good meter but mine came a bit out of spec.

author: Maxlor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2015, 01:17:04 am
content: You've probably seen my comments on the UT171B I've posted early this year on this forum. If not, search for the post. After almost a year I can add this:Positives:- I've been checking the meter every so often against my voltage reference. So far, they've drifted one count apart.- I really like how quick it is in autoranging, and providing a stable reading. It usually gets to its final, stable reading half a second (2 or 3 readings), which is faster than my other multimeters. You appreciate this when testing several components in a row.- I like the screen for its low-light performance.- It reads AC frequencies correctly even if there's DC offset. Not an important feature, but occasionally nice.Negatives:- the Ohms range switch setting is really overloaded, it takes plenty of button pressing to get to the mode you want. I wish they had spread out the functions a bit more on the main selector switch.- The 4-20mA mode simply reads hi/lo for anything under 4mA or over 20mA. I wish they'd just extended the displayed range to -25%-125% like it's done on other meters.- The display is merely ok in bright light, and scratches show up prominently against the black background. I'd still get that display again though.- I wish it'd show min/max/avg on the full 5 digit display, instead of only on the 4-digit secondary one. So you don't get full precision there, which limits you when you want to, say, analyze drift of some component over an hour or so.I'd still recommend you buy the BM869s though. For the price I paid ($170), the UT171B is pretty sweet, but it doesn't seem to be available at reputable western sellers, and for some reason the price has gone up again as well. Better buy the meter you can get from a place where you're confident they'll handle the warranty properly in case of issues.

author: dreaquil
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2015, 07:49:18 am
content: Thanks for your replies guys. I have been swayed toward the BM869. I read you teardown/review thread and it was really interesting so thanks for doing that. I really liked the display on the UT171B but the Brymen is clearly the better choice (500000 Counts sounds great). Its just above my budget from TME at 244eur but its worth going that bit extra. I can get the datalogging later on. Saw the mjlorton video comparing to the Fluke and it's truly impressive.

author: crispy_tofu
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2015, 10:27:25 am
content: Here's a first impressions thread on the UT171A:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/uni-t-ut171a-pictures-and-first-impressions/Quote from: Lightages on October 24, 2015, 12:56:10 amYes please.