Digitech SMT tweezers = Extech SMT tweezers?? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: David Aurora
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2012, 11:16:36 am
content: So I scored an old Fluke (a 12, in case you were interested) off my Dad today. I was testing something at his office with it, which is the only time it gets used, and realised that even though it's old as shit it's still a pleasure to use and much more trustworthy than any of my recently purchased pieces of shit. I offered him money or a trade because I knew it barely gets used, and he told me just to take it, which was cool.So when I got home I thought I'd test the 4 meters I currently have and see how far off each other they were. And here's where things got interesting. My cheapy Jaycar SMT tweezer multimeter thingys (Digitech QM1496) were showing a 9 volt battery (with just under 7 volts in it) as 15 volts!I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. Turned it off, turned it back on, rinse, repeat. Scratched my head for a minute, and after a few more checks I noticed that although the probes clip was in, there was a tiny gap left. So I forced it that extra bit (it already felt secure, which is why I didn't notice) and sure enough it read the battery as 6.92 volts.Fast forward until 15 minutes ago when I was googling for a manual for it (I could have sworn on the package it mentioned a data hold feature, which I've never found). Dave's "Near Death Multimeter Experience" vid comes up. I thought to myself "I think the Extech is like twice the price of the Digitech one, I wonder what features you get for the extra bucks" and I chucked it on. And suddenly things started to sound very familiar. I was even thinking to myself "Wow, they really got a very similar look with the casing".Curiosity got the better of me, so I popped mine open, and lo and behold, it looks absolutely identical to the guts of the Extech shown in the video. I've attached a picture.Now I know things get rebadged all the time, but this one surprised me. Am I missing something here? Are the components likely to be slightly inferior, or is there likely to be a difference in the software side of things? Or is the Extech just the same piece of shit at twice the price?

author: David Aurora
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2012, 11:20:29 am
content: P.S. Yes, the switch is the same by the way. The solder joints that holds the switch/input jacks broke when I was pulling it apart

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2012, 11:36:18 am
content: We had that discussion before. A lot of Extech stuff is just rebadged.

author: David Aurora
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2012, 11:41:34 am
content: Ahh OK. I had gotten the impression they were a bit more reputable than this for some reason.I tried searching the model number on here before and didn't see anything, but I just googled "Extech rebadge" and found a thread here straight away haha

author: mobbarley
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2012, 05:05:58 pm
content: a lot of digitech stuff is rebranded mastech - not sure about the tweezers.