Hi, check this out! I Stumbled across the most remarkable bargain on Aliexpress I Was just wasn't like searching I was just on there. Well it popped up with what looks like a multimeter and just at first casual glance and then I realized no, that's not a multimeter, it's a multi-function process calibrator and if you don't know the difference, hey, it does work like a normal multimeter, but it actually outputs precision voltage and current. It actually sources voltage and current designed for like 4 to 20 milliamp, current, loop testing, other process control testing, and stuff like that. and this is a point O 2% class instrument, not the actual multimeter but the source part of it.

the voltage and current source into you know 20 odd volts and you know 20-something odd milliamps and it can do that with point O 2 percent plus 4 digits there. The specs I'll show them up here now. It's a cheap no-name It literally is a no-name process calibrator. It's got no model number, no nothing.

But the remarkable thing about this was it was eight dollars and seventy something cents. Yankee dollars Delivered delivered from Aliexpress in China I Thought this has to be a mistake. There's no way you can build and sell 0.02% class source or measure unit like a multimeter for eight bucks. I mean we're familiar with two-dollar multimeters, the Harbor Freight ones and the sub $10 multimeters and all that.

That's fine and that's a multimeter, but this this requires precision components to get nought point. Oh two percent. I'm absolutely flabbergasted. so I ordered one and I got it.

So eight dollars seventy, US delivered. You can actually choose for like DHL delivery which is a lot more so I Thought this store that's Aliexpress stores on has to have gotten this wrong. Now Sure enough, since then, I found like a dozen different only Express stores that sell it for sub $10 but this is Zach's a meter under its actual brand name which is a Mo Mo meter. but the model number for this is actually the Iamp X1 and you can buy this on eBay for like, well over 200 US dollars.

And that's the kind of price you'd expect for a like a 1 hung over and no namer precision process calibrator. This if you go by a fluke or something there you know, bordering on $1,000 or whatever. Now you'll see that under the bezel here. it looks like they've actually scraped off the model number there and possibly down on this bottom part of the window too.

And all of the sellers that are selling this literally no-name unit. How it looks like that, they've just scraped off the Mo brand and the model number. So I really don't know if this is some sort of like bulk buy that fell off the back of a truck or whatever it is. So why a whole bunch of sellers have this meter for under 10 US dollars? I don't know.

and then we'll tear it down to see if it actually has real brand name precision parts in it to get the naught point. o2 % + - 4 digit spec. By the way, the multimeter on this is just it's very ordinary. The specs for that are just mere.

you know, half a percent class. but it's nothing special so you wouldn't buy this for the multimeter. You're buying this because it can source precision, current and precision, voltage, and this sort of price you just order to so that you can compare them against each other and use it as like a little voltage and current. standard.

Houston I Found the first problem the range. It's locked up. Wah-wah-wah so let's turn it off. And it does some weird thing when you turn it off and measure to there's some display thing anyway.

Look, it works so it's not the greatest quality anyway. feeding in one volt. it's okay. But as I said, the specs are ordinary for a multimeter.

See, you wouldn't buy it as a meter, but it seems to be within spec so it's okay. and that's one milliamp. Good enough restore. Oh, it's a little bit low there, but you know it's it is what it is.

Yeah, that's 10k me 1k me. By the way, if you want to see the jacks down in there, they're just your typical split. It's an 8 buck meter. Anyway, we're going to test out the source.

This is what we're really interested in. Doesn't use the black jack. It actually uses the positive Jack as the negative and the he positive milliamps terminal as the positive. Oh, by the way, this 24 volts puts 23.

That's just like a power source so you just use it for powering stuff. Could be ICP vibration sensors or anything like that. You know right? this is actually reading voltage. This will actually get a higher precision actually.

let me try that first. Well again, this certain dodgy. Yes. C input input turned off there and Sutton So hello, McFly Rain switches a bit dodgy brothers.

There we go. Bang on. We get greater precision on measurement. not on the regular multimeter part of it down here, but on the actual process calibrator side of things.

Because can read and source, they would go 10 volts, 100 milli it only. It's only got a fixed range. So and the current is bang-on 10 million slew of that one least significant digit in it. It's not quibble over that.

Yeah, it looks like 24. It'll measure 25. Note: So there you go. Tops out there.

Yeah, yeah, the spec isn't too shabby there at all. You know what we want to do is switch this to output and instead of reading the input, it will now output a voltage on those terminals so we can just jump up like that. Bingo up to what did? No! where's my voltage Hello McFly Okay, I just just wiggling the leads. Their contact problems can hear an internal relay switch output.

Anyway, check it out. It's bang on. That's not too bad at all. Wow, that's that.

Looks like it's well within spec 0.02% because 1 volt times 0.02 percent. We'd expect there that to be maximum plus minus 200 microvolts not including the 4 counts as part of the spec, so that is well within spec. Pretty impressed by this. Yeah, that's not too shabby at all.

It's a bit of noise on there. We might actually scope the output later. So as you can see Wow remember, this is 8 US dollars Nine US dollars delivered. This is insane.

So our maximum is 10 volts there. That is bang-on Unbelievable. Oh by the way, yeah, that's the maximum current there. 23.

We put on that 24 volt sauce here. 27 milliamps is the maximum source current there. Let's test the current now. change it to output.

Yeah, micro amps? That's fine. Well, 1 milliamp there. We gotta slow this thing down, right? So one milliamp there. the spec is Oh 2 percent for both voltage and current.

but for current it's plus 2 or 4 digits for voltage. It's plus two digits. for our reading. it averages out to within spec, but there's a it's a little bit noisy there so I have to watch.

Check that later. but it's basically you know you can say that's pretty much bang on that they don't give you when you know any serious specs over the range and linearity and all that. sort of jazz, right? but pretty darn close to spot-on Of course. there's a bit of discrepancy between my 2 7 half digit meters here because currents not as good as accuracy? Well, you could argue for you 200 U.s.

dollars? it's me. But how can they make this thing and sell it for under 10 US dollars? You've got to have Precision Parts. Is there a new source for some no-name Asian source voltage reference plus precision resistors and stuff like that? maybe? I don't know. Let's take it apart in a way before we do that.

It is quite a large unit. 121 GW So you know it's quite a large physical unit, but that's are similar to other process calibrators the market. That's just what they look like. There's a Tooting bail that's okay, it's like whatever and it's got like a real mechanical clunking power switch on the thing and a battery compartment with some fuses and it's got USB port on the top.

Yeah, how does it meet compliance safety compliance with external USB that would have to be isolated powered from our six triple-a batteries which you do not get does not come with any batteries at all and to 3ag fuses here in in their own compartments and a ceramic job is not that glass rubbish. And curiously, there's a little trimmer pot down in there I'm not sure what that. I've never seen a trimmer pot accessible within there before. I Have no idea what that does.

Obviously the manuals hopeless. It doesn't tell you anything and Flo's playing along at home. These are the leads we get with it. Man, whatever.

but you get some big croc clips with it. There you get a USB leaf no less than four spare ceramic fuses. nice. And that's 2 10 amp jobs and 2 half amp jobs.

Alright, let's open this thing up and have a squiz hello and we're in like Flynn That looks neat and tidy, doesn't it? Wow Ok, I'll get a shielding up here I Like that the battery contacts are just going down to the pad. Z and oh, hang on, that's the USB Bua Bua what's supposed to have USB interface Because it does come. Sorry, It does come with a USB stick which contains the manuals and some Windows software as well. We've only got two wires.

Well, there you go. That didn't make sense with just the two wires. Look at this. a complete USB isolation bore, a little lead driver.

That's what this said. It'll be the big cutout in there. Look at this. they've done that right.

I Don't know what that part is there. that'll just be a serial job II wouldn't I can't read that on my camcorder. That is great. Anyway, the front end down here.

We've got a little glass fueled fuse job' down there. That's a bit weird. anyway. a couple of PTC's little piece weak ones.

A couple of diodes are here over here. no mobs thing else. nothing special. These would be your relays down here.

We can't see those who have to take the board model number the A MPX 1 2015 grow. Anyway, let me take a high-res photo and we'll go through this thing. Hold on to your hat inside this thing as our contacts. Pretty par for the course.

And the relays there. Yeah mother, Matt's a shooters there, They they're Japanese relays. Wow Anyway, little piddly contacts down there on our range switch. It is what it is and not much else.

Is there anything under that? No. It looks like there's nothing of note on the bottom side. Alright, let's take a look at the PCB. There's two things would want to know about.

this one is what voltage reference does it actually use. Is it someone hung low brand? Is it a proper No.1 brand? If it is. Oh, and the other parts on it? how are they doing it for this sort of cost? 0.02% class instrument source and measure the input side here. As I said, like nothing particularly stared out.

E Chipset right off the bat. Looks like a genuine microchip part doesn't look like a ripoff pic16f877a. They have it in stock. These are like Asian II prices You even in 12,000 quantity.

It's still that's a dollar. 26 just for the processor. See us 77 21 We can't seem to find a datasheet. a TV blog forum always turns up on the Eevblog forum Anyway, used in multimeters.

Looks like it's found in other multimeters. No surprise there whatsoever, because there's got to have a generic cheap. Yep. Price: Zero.

Yeah, that's what we need. anyway. it's just a multimeter chipset man. And then we've got a whole tech.

LCD Driver: HT 1621. That'll that'll cost about 50. Cent's off. That's cheap as chips.

25 cents in 12,000 quantity. but still. you know it's all starting that up in typical Asian manufacturing. LCD Driver: We use one in the new micro supply.

Part of this would be a 24 volt voltage generation up here. So this looks like a genuine Maxim Max 6 to 9. that's gonna cost a penny. Whoa! Dc-to-dc converter.

Step up. $10 Wow Yep, right there. That chip alone if you buy from the regular sources that cost more than this entire meter. So obviously they're getting those surplus from the Shenzhen marker store.

What the Shenzhen market? They're getting reels and reels of that. But and that looks like a genuine Maxim Yeah, I Mean it could be a fakie, but they wouldn't be paying. You know, five or ten bucks a chip. finding.

there's a TI part over here. What does this do? Bingo! There's our analog to digital converter. That's it. Looks like a 24-bit ADC which is doing our measurement for the source measure well and not the source.

But for the measure part of it I'm at once again this is LCS see price. This is a buck 66. This looks like a genuine TI part. Not sure what this part here is next door that was like an Analogue devices job' Analog Devices Opie 2976 You're gonna pay for that TI pass another TI part down here like I thought.

My original Spidey sense was they can't design and build a source/measure unit of this precision for under 10 bucks It you just can't do it. There's there's something else going on here. Oh, and I checked out this part here. It's actually the same as down here.

It's an Opie 2976 so they've reused that of a general. Like a real expensive general purpose. and but yeah, these are these all look genuine and and this is the kind of stuff you'd expect to find in a precision source/measure unit like this. a TLC 22 V - that's just a jewel I parent.

Nothing special going on there. They use another one down there as well. Linear tech, right? Linear tech don't make cheap parts of 1446. these.

These are our taxes. This makes sense. Jewel 12 bit riled around micro power DAC so that makes sense. This is our source unit.

It's got to generate the voltage right? so that's not capable of external voltage reference. You can see the internals enter in there and you can't override that. So that's our voltage reference and our DAC So then they'd just be buffering that to go to the output. Yeah, but right there.

how much does that cost? Tell us the price. Um, look at this. It's it's a $10 plus part. Just this part alone cost more than this instrument.

There's something going on here. They are not making a profit on this. These are like often, the back of a truck that there's surplus there abandoned. The company went out of business.

Somebody bought them up for pennies on the dollar pallets and pallets worth. And it doesn't explain why so many different vendors are carrying this thing though. 46 I Thought you can get it in different grade variants depending upon spec of the thing, so it's not the absolute accuracy of that. They'd be trimming that baby.

It's the PPM's oh okay. point one least significant bit per degree. C Okay, they're not going to give it to you in PPM's are they no. But anyway, that's a pretty schmick part, and that's where it gets his schmack performance.

To get this for under 10 bucks delivered is remarkable just for that. just for that chip and that duck. Okay, down in this corner. lm317 Nothing happened in there.

Seven Double Six over. That's just a voltage inverter. Of course it is. You can tell by the two caps there.

One Double oh nine. Sorry, that's an eye on the end. not a one that's a linear tech. One Double Oh nine Voltage reference.

There it is. I Have done videos on this. It's not the absolute accuracy 0.2 percent. Its how what's the temp code that would be for the analog to digital converter for the measure part of it because we've already seen the one that's used inside the DAC So once again, this would be available in different ratings.

Ppm. We're talking 15 ppm, you know? I'm not gonna write home to my mom about it, but GZ this is a class instrument, you know for his price. Fantastic. A couple of Yankee bucks.

so depending on the grade. Yeah. so I think we've looked at all the major parts on there and you add up those not including all that, the case in the LCD and all the all the rest of it, all the other parts on here. This is a 30 $40 bomb.

Something like that. The the resistors by the way melts. you know. I'm a male fan, Boy, there you go.

So where they've got for them from? We don't know. So they're obviously part of the precision measurement part of this. It's only got a fixed ten volt range. That's it.

It makes it easy. you don't need all multiple ranges, so you don't really need those precision. You know, ceramic divider networks or anything like that. You don't need anything fancy pantsy there.

That's just a fixed input scale there. so they're using probably some you know, 10 ppm resistors in there. Yeah, why? They've got the reference over here like this and that looks like it's it's four I can't see what else had it before. Well, you could use it for your multimeter.

part of it being hypothermia meters. just neck. So it's obviously they're using that for the analog to digital converter up here. so that's a layout thing.

But anyway, you add up the cost of all this, the multimeter chipsets and the LCD chipsets. The you know, but there's a dollar there. You know, you add all these that you can't possibly make this thing, let alone sell it for under ten US dollars. Let alone sell it and ship it.

And there's half a dozen shippers out there. So here's all the different stores: I Bought mine from my cozy life store here 151 sold I'll link these in down below if you go through my link down below doesn't cost you anything, but I Do get a commission on Aliexpress commission. It's actually really quite decent. So yeah, I'd really buy two of these just so that you can keep like compare them at $8 70 including shipping 182 US dollars.

But other ones in Nine Ninety Five Ten Ninety five Ten bucks Nine bucks Ten bucks Behind bucks Ten bucks. All got different stock. This one's got a hundred and thirty two pieces available. This one's got 332.

This one's got 800 pieces which these will be going down and down this stock as people watch this video because everyone's going to be buying one of these and you can get two of them for the free shipping options. Once you go above two, it's generally you will pay for shipping two butts. This There's no reason why you shouldn't just buy two of these. You get a precision voltage and current source.

If I'm not going to test it over, you know, in the thermal chamber tested over performance. Maybe if you want to see a second video, give it a thumbs up. and I and I let me know in the comments down below and I might you know and do some more with this. I've only got the one made up.

it's the same and then they're all the same no-name one. but if you search for the Am P x1 $219 273 so this is this is the genuine one. Look it's got the model up there. the A MPX one is that be rubbed out down there as well.

it's touchy as anyway 219 US dollars you go buy this on eBay it's it's the same price on ebay like 220 US dollars and people are buying these things not knowing well you can buy them for 1/10 no.1 xx on Aliexpress There's no reason not to get one of these. Get them before they sell out. This has got to just be a one-off thing. Old stock they didn't sell the company I know I am Omid are still in business I Got no idea.

Anyway, that is just remarkable. No, they haven't cut costs in the manufacture of this I mean sure, this is not like a fluke 725 multifunction process calibrator, right? It's not in the same class, but 0.02% plus 2 or + 4 digits and it seems to meet that spec. Yeah, the thing seems a bit flaky I've had issue of the firmware I've had issues the digits didn't weren't displaying correctly at one point, didn't get that on camera and it seems a little bit dodgy. So and it seems to date from 2015 and yet 29th Week 2015.

So it looks like all of this stock could date to that 2015 there. so that would make sense. Maybe they just you know they made a hundred thousand of these things and they just didn't sell at you know, the two hundred plus US dollar price point and they've just been dribbling a mountain. Maybe a whole bunch of they just wider went under or they just clear them out and said here they are.

Maybe they had pallets of them at the Shenzhen market and all these little stores came along and we're not. Yeah, we'll buy those for you know, two bucks each and we'll sell them for 10 bucks or eight bucks or whatever. I it's remarkable. Anyway, it's worth picking one up just for shits and giggles.

Really Yeah. as I said, get two of them so that you can use to compare each other and you can make sure they're still within specs so you don't really need like calibration equipment like me. If you get two of these and you hook them up to each other, one in source, in one measuring and vice versa and they both measure the same then you can be pretty confident that that's going to be bang on and then you can then over time you can compare them again. Make sure they don't and you can see if it rifts or not.

You can be pretty confident that this is a nice little voltage and current limited voltage and current source and the multimeter is like me or whatever that's the emo meter Iamp x1 That is the biggest bargain I've ever seen. Grab em cuz I'm sure. yeah, sorry. By the time you watch this video they could all be sold out.

Anyway, if anyone does know the story of this thing and what went on with this doesn't look like a clone of the Amo. Meetup Why that numbers been rubbed off and stuck? Look that this one here doesn't even have the process calibrate a thing at the top. It doesn't look to be using fake parts in this thing. It looks like these parts are.

you know, pretty expensive inside this thing. It's okay, it's not the best design and build quality in the world, but it's an order of magnitude under what this thing should cost that That two hundred US dollars. A hundred to two hundred US dollars is easily what this thing should be selling for. So check it out anyway.

I Feel like that video. Please give it a big thumbs up. As always discuss in the YouTube comments or on the over on the EEV blog forum. the place for test and measurement gear.

Anyway watching this video and this meters are already gone and but it was just watched it. It's because my patrons over on Patreon and my E Forum supporters they got to see this video first and they got first dibs. So yeah, sorry should be a supporter I guess Anyway, catch you next time you.