Keysight U1461A insulation tester OLED dead display? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: peteb2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2023, 04:32:03 am
content: So classic Sunday Arvo experience. I do not use the meter that much, well hardly ever. Go to give it a task just now & hello no display... Did the obvious, reloaded with fresh batteries, still no luck. Even pressing the Setup/brightness button = nothing.. other than lots of beeps & carry on! This thing is for all purposes still brandnew looking so am i right in thinking the OLED is toast? I also own a Keysight OLED U1253B which has been well used, bought at the same time as the U1461A & its fine... the disply is still perfectly bright & nicely readable at the bench where it lives & is my goto because its great for this old fart's eyes.So what chance it's replacement time for the hardly used U1461A & are the displays for them essentially unobtainium? I've seen the YouTubes on repairing the U1253B which it seems many folks have had to do but not so much the U1461A. I don't really want to have to deal with Keysight yet and looking at Dave's teardown for the U1461A there's a lot in the meter so surely worthy of repair or is it just the recycle bin for something hardly used (& a lesson to me for buying Keysight stuff)...

author: J-R
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2023, 05:37:34 am
content: No good news, from what I'm aware of. I don't think I've seen any replacement screen options possibly because the U1461A is not quite as common as the yellow OLED DMMs.My experience has been similar: I purchased one a few years ago from Keysight's eBay store and also purchased warranty coverage ($60/year). It started out nice and bright but after maybe 18 months the display was extremely dim and the DMM was replaced under warranty. About another 18 months after that and the display is noticeably less bright, but probably not bad enough to convince them to replace it. At this rate I'm expecting to have to ring them up in another year or so to discuss the situation.I'm for sure very interested to see what they do, since they've discontinued all their handheld insulation testers as of last year.

author: peteb2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2023, 07:46:00 am
content: Certainly does not appear promising after further Googling & somewhat disappointing since i am not a business & such test equipment was a high personal cost to me as a hobbyist. I guess it puts into context why i simply must never trust such One-Hung-Low manufacturers from that part of the World with the crap they make.I'll put it with another hunk of rubbish i stupidly bought, the Hantek 1832C colored LCD Digital LCR Meter that lasted all of a day & completely failed. The STM32 inside was plainly not a genuine part along with the rest of semiconductors even to me looked FAKE going by the fact they had been re-coated with a black compound & re-labeled by laser yet chipped off easily to reveal a ground off surface of the ic below. Any emails i made to Hantek about some kind of warranty or if they could do anything were ignored once i'd sent them a requested video of the thing being dead as a dead thing!The U1461A can also keep the Tecsun PL-880 SW radio receiver company. The thing went deaf on AM about a 10 months after purchase but as a tech i did the research & found some schematics & fixed the fault after discovering the PLL stage chip is a completely obsolete device. Apologies for my rant!

author: J-R
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2023, 08:19:15 am
content: Maybe try contacting this eBay seller:https://www.ebay.com/usr/atomicfrenzySeems to be the only current US-based seller of OLED boards and parts for the other Keysight DMMs and the listing descriptions at least seem to be written by a smart person.Another thing that could keep the U1461A on the bench would be to use some software like TestController or Keysight's own software along with either an IR-USB or IR-Bluetooth module. I don't think you'll be able to see any menus, but at least it could still offer measurement functionality.

author: peteb2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2023, 03:38:49 pm
content: Yes! Thought of that as i have the IR interface USB accessories and the SW which i did wade through & get familiar with not long after i bought the kit. Of all things i did the insulation tests for an ancient single phase 230V motor that was going to be put back into service (a shearing machine of all things) & the owner needed 100% assurance the thing was reliable....I'll also reachout to the ebay seller. I guess there are others who have this meter who will sooner or later discover it's effectively junked itself. It's not like you use such a tester all day everyday unless all you do is insulation tests....

author: Hxhusn
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 15, 2024, 03:55:24 pm
content: Thank you very much for the link.I tried buying one and soldering it to my multimeter and it did fix it.The color is obviously not white, but as long as it can display normally again, so what?

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2024, 04:02:09 pm
content: Maybe related:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/8-bit-78k0-d78f0547-help-with-firmware-modification/

author: Hxhusn
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 20, 2024, 09:41:32 am
content: Add a picture of the machine I replaced, the color is green.Attached is the URL of my purchase for reference.https://aliexpress.com/item/3256806017571338.html?