Agilent U1241A mini-teardown - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: bigsky
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2015, 12:09:37 pm
content: The postman brought me a U1241A today - here are some internal pics.My overall conclusion (as you'd expect for an Agilent product) is that it's a first-rate DMM of similar quality to Fluke.

author: bigsky
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2015, 12:20:00 pm
content: Here are some photos of it with my voltage reference. My feeling is that it is reading slightly low but still within specification. The backlight is on low on the third pic and high on the fourth. It's much better than the picture - a gorgeous deep blue colour with almost perfectly uniform intensity.

author: bigsky
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2015, 12:35:17 pm
content: That's all for now. I've done a search on the forum and can't find anything on the U1241 / A / B, so I don't think it has been featured here before. I might be persuaded to do a more detailed teardown / review if enough people ask nicely!

author: Robomeds
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2015, 02:09:50 pm
content: I used one of those meters for a while. It was generally a nice bit of hardware though it had a few issues that were small yet big deals to me. First, the continuity beep was really quiet. I can see why some might want that but perhaps a two volume level beeper or something. With just about any level of background noise I couldn't here the thing.Second, the screen readability could be better. The digits could be a bit larger given the size of the screen but the bigger deal to me was the way the screen was really deep in the meter. This created shadows on the LCD from the surrounding bezel. I almost felt like you needed the backlight on to just read the screen without all the shadowing. While blue looks cool, I've found it's a backlight color I don't like. Something about it and LCD screens seems to be hard on my eyes. I first noticed this with VW radios in the 1998 Passats. BTW, while I like somewhat larger digits, I think it's important to still have good space between the digits and not make the numbers too tall. I've noticed some makers going for tall and closely bunched digits (Extech 430 in particular). Those aren't easier to read vs the smaller digits on say a Fluke 87-3/5 because the Flukes seem to have the right balance between digit height, spacing and segment thickness. This Agilent is generally good in this area but I would like a somewhat larger digit. I think the digits were small because they wanted the icons around them to be large so they won't get lost in the shadows of the bezel.One final thing, I have no doubt this meter is durable enough for most uses but I really prefer a removable protective boot over the overmold stuff. The overmold just doesn't provide the same level of protection and to be honest, I would be just as happy if they didn't use it at all given how dirty it gets (sorry, I don't want my things on my bench to look dirty if I can help it).Still, given the prices these go for on ebay I would have trouble wanting a Fluke 83, 11x, or 17x over one of these. I guess it just depends on your needs and use of course.

author: Maxlor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2015, 03:31:23 pm
content: I have the U1241B at work. My impressions are mixed, I probably wouldn't buy it again.On the positive side:- quick display update rate- accuracy- does AVG too in MIN/MAX mode.- touch hold- main dial feels nice, and nearly all functions have their own position on the dial, so you rarely need to hit the select button.- you can change the frequency of the beep. There's a low frequency of 300Hz which I use, because it's quiet and less noticeable than the beeps on other meters, so it doesn't annoy my coworkers as much.- you can change many settings, such as whether it defaults to AC or DC.- blanks the display during range switching, so you don't get spurious numbers or overshoots.- bail has two positions... but the way it's implemented seems unnecessarily complex to me.On the negative side:- continuity beeper is so slow I usually go find another meter when I need to check continuity.- construction quality: the bail doesn't want to sit flush when folded in: the left notch that's supposed to hold it can't grab onto it, because the two notches on opposite sides of the bail are spaced slightly too far apart. This also means you hear creaking every time you pick it up.- construction quality: the dial doesn't sit rigid in the case, but can be pushed in and angled slightly.- Maybe related to the above: a couple of months ago I had this issue where the meter would only read 0, unless you put slight pressure on the dial. Cleaning the dial contacts with IPA fixed it... but the meter has only ever seen my clean office and EE lab, this shouldn't have happened.- construction quality: when closing the case, the two parts leave a gap of maybe 0.2mm. The edges of the rubber parts are quite sharp (untapered), so it feels unpleasant to place your finger on the gap.- While the meter supports the standard U1177A bluetooth module, they didn't put the plastic notches it holds onto the meter's case, so you need to buy this stupid adapter. And the adapter blocks the probe holders.- Rotating the buttons for no good reason? Yeah, just dumb.So basically, it works mostly well (after cleaning the contacts), but several mechanical aspects cause annoyance for me, particularly because there are easy fixes for all of them, they just didn't bother. Since it's also not exactly cheap...

author: Robomeds
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2015, 01:59:11 am
content: The styling was likely to make it look less like the Escort meters that it was based on.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-56-agilent-u1253a-oled-multimeter-review/30/