The OWON Multimeter BLE4.0 bluetooth Android app and its problems - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: LvdK
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 02, 2021, 08:52:50 pm
content: I just bought an OWON 18B digital multimeter.It has good reviews and indeed you get a very good multimeter for a very low price !It has data logging capabilities and for me this was is the main reason to buy this nice multimeter.I like the meter very much but I can’t feel the same about the accompanying Android app needed for Bluetooth data logging, called OWON Multimeter BLE4.0For me the app has some drawbacks, with some of them seriously limiting the usefulness.I would like to discuss this issues and maybe I am doing things wrong or I don’t see it.I used the app both on an Android Phone Samsung A40 and on a tablet Samsung Tabs S2 8” and on both devices I discovered the same issues:1. The first comment I have is about the app version that you need. The Google Play Store has the app available but it has NOT the latest version.It is version 1.5.8.0 and in my case this version did’nt work well. You have to get the latest app version by scanning the QR label in the manual and then you will get version 1.6.0.0. This version worked for me.But why has Google play store no latest version ? No support anymore ?2. I hope OWON will keep supporting this app and will improve it. But I don’t know how to get future version updates because the Upgrade button in the app does not work.It only shows a pop up saying “Get server update information failure” !Together with the Google Play Store outdated version issue as described above it makes me feel uncomfortable about how seriously OWON will support this app.3. I think it is annoying that the app always will start up with a user interface meant for TWO multimeters.I think most people will use it with only ONE multimeter connected, so why is this?Of course this is only a minor problem but still annoying.4. My main problem :The graph possibilities in the app are rather disappointing.When it starts, everything looks OK. You see a graph in the middle of the graph window with the new values updating at the right side of the graph line. But if you want to zoom for analyzing the graph things get bad:I am not able to zoom in on the Y axis (value) without ALSO zooming in on the horizontal time axis at the same time! I am not able to zoom in on one axis alone, it looks like the zoom feature is always acting on both axis at the same time.This is not according to the manual, zooming should be possible on both axis individually.After trying to zoom I am not able to return back to the startup situation. There is no scrolling anymore :The graph line is still growing to the right with new values but when it reaches the right side of the window it doesn’t show the new values anymore because it will disappear under the table window so you will not see the graph updating anymore.It has stopped scrolling and this is quite annoying because from now on you have to scroll the graph window horizontally with your fingers to see new updates of the graph line.This is not the way a graph feature should be built.In this way I think the zooming and scroll capabilities are very primitive and almost unworkable.5. I didn’t try data logging on a Windows laptop because I have no special Bluetooth dongle for doing this. So no comments on this.I think it is a pity that we need to buy a special dongle for doing this, because most laptops already have Bluetooth options. Or do I miss something here ?Maybe someone can tell me about the quality of this Windows data logging because I am curious.I am also curious if the Apple app has the same issues.So for me the graph issues in the app are the main problem.For now I will log all data into csv files and will analyze them later with Exel. This actually works well.In my opinion it is very regrettable that OWON made such a poor app accompanying their pretty good multimeters.I did not contact OWON yet. But maybe OWON engineers will also join this forum topic and come up with solutions.I am looking forward to receive feedback !