A very interesting repair of an Agilent/Keysight U1273AX OLED display multimeter. It had two distinct unrelated faults.
Available for auction from 99cents: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/225767769508
Ian Scott Johnston on The Amp Hour: https://theamphour.com/643-calibration-repair-with-ian-johnston/
Thin film ceramic hybrid resistor networks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxy-VpSDPg4
Forum: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-1564-agilentkeysight-u1273ax-multimeter-repair/
00:00 - Faulty Agilent / Keysight U1273AX OLED display multimeter
01:36 - Battery leakage, OF COURSE!
04:26 - Bottom of PCB
05:47 - The OLED display
10:09 - Annoying voltage measurements
15:14 - At great expense to management, a new OLED
18:18 - Winner Winner Premature Dinner
20:19 - The Repair is over, right? RIGHT?
21:22 - Accuracy fault. Repair time again.
25:23 - Hybrid Thin Film Resistor Dividers
26:56 - Parallel contamination
29:44 - When in doubt, suck it off
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#ElectronicsCreators #Repair #Multimeter

Hi just a follow-up to the mixed box of multimeters and I mentioned that this u1273 ax um OLED uh Agilent multimeter. none of that keysight rubbish. um was a faulty. Now this is a basically I've never used it.

it was brand new in the box I do believe like it it worked at one point then it went back in the box and it just next time I took it out it just it was dead. So I'm going to actually um I've put new batteries in this thing and um we can like turn it on little little it it powers on. It's all got absolutely nothing on the screen at all. so the screen is dead.

so clearly the process is working because it's going through some 1980s boot up cycle which is absolutely ridiculous. Like whoever approved that who it bloody Agilent approved that. Come on. Seriously.

So let's get this bad boy apart. There's a serial number for those playing log at home as I said yeah this just like it was just sitting in the box. So I got no idea why this would have would have died I don't think it's ever been used in Anger uh why is this only got three screws? That's weird. three and then hooks up the top.

Is that it? really? no. There's another one under there. Oh by the way, this has had this. could have something to do with it but it's a long way from the screen.

This one did have there was battery leakage in it and attempt to stop the rot in there like it's not horrid right? but obviously something's gone wrong with this one here and that could have leaked in through there and gone onto the board. So first thing we're going to look for is for you know it's It's not a huge amount of damage, but it's actually corroded this screw here. So there we, no, that screw doesn't want to come out. Okay, yeah, this has got hooks on the top.

Is that a spudger thing else? Whoa. Yeah. okay. What Here we go.

and whoa. yeah. See that screw. Oh that screw.

Oh that's just cracked. That's just completely cracked. Not it. obviously.

Whoa it. Yeah. it does not like that at all. Wow.

so that's crusty as right. That's crusty Burger. Check that out. Wow.

But that's nowhere near the LCD right? So or maybe there's some oh yeah, it's it's all. okay. Well, that's all the crap that came out of it. All right, You know, Maybe right? If you've had battery leakage and you've got a faulty product, then well, you know.

obviously you suspect the battery leakage, but that really doesn't look that horrific does it I mean I'm not seeing a major issue with the board there in that that's your battery contact. so you know, clean up those stuff with the other pads. Fine, but yeah, so there's some spillage on there, but not a not a huge deal. so max 4611 there and there's not many traces going to it.

Analog switch: Okay, it just has nothing going to it. so um, well, there's not much there anyway. no worries. Um, let's keep looking first thing, just a visual.

so well, it doesn't mean there's nothing like on the other side of that board. but I don't know. Could be unlikely though. Oh, it looks pretty clean and as I said, the Uh processor is clearly working because it's still in the blue startup sound.
Almost certainly send in um stuff over to the LCD ad637 There you go. That's the Uh I know that one. That's the true RMS uh converter chip before start probing around in here. Maybe it's worth start? Maybe it's worth just flipping the board and stuff and having a look on the other side.

I Think that's worth it? Really? Was that only a single screw? Or is it no, it's just a no. it's just a plastic clip. There you go. Okay, well that was easy.

Jeez, no workers. All right, that's the bottom of the bottom of that down there. Once again. oh yeah, the post is.

uh, post is just completely gone. Really didn't like that. so it looks like the battery stuff just ate away the plastic. um as well.

and uh, like it's not going to be anything wrong with the contacts because the contacts work and that's not going to be an issue driving the LCD or whatnot. Why is that? Why do we have that serial number stuck there? Not sure what's doing there, Haven't I don't think I've torn down this meter before. It's not a problem. I'll check out the switch better.

It's it's hard to get it like under the microscope here. It's better if you just do it visually or under my uh, mantis or something like that. It's all about lighting. You've got to get all the light in at the right angle and whatnot.

But um, no, nothing's nothing's happened. You know, like, no, there's there's no way I don't think that battery stuff could have caused that I Think that's just a quinky dink. There's our OLED module. It's just a pin interface there.

I Wouldn't rule out just the OLED failing. So if the actual display itself is gone ski, then nothing under the rubbish rubber baby buggy bumpers there either. See, so you know that's clean as a whistle, right? The contaminant didn't get down further. Now of course the problem with Oleds is that.

uh, the A. They chew a lot of power. but they they look gorgeous of course. but they chew a lot of power.

Do they last as long as LCDs I Don't think so. Ah, there you go. It's three metal threaded inserts on there. Yeah, they're soldered in.

Everyone wants to see the processor show me the processor Dave 78f0547 So that's a Uh Renaissance Joby 595. So the win! Thank you very much for uh, expansion some cereal to parallel expansion there obviously boots and does its thing and it's the OLED that's dead. So there it is and flippity dooda voltage on here. Unfortunately, all the circuitry's under the bottom and um, it's hard to probe while the damn thing's powered up.

unfortunately. Bloody Murphy a 33063 there you go. 1.5 amp uh Peak boost Buck uh inverting switching regulator. So fortunately I can't measure that.
But down here we also have the Uh chip on Flex down here. this is the driver. So this is the actual driver chip. So I was just coming straight over here onto the driver chip.

Uh, that all looks good. That's not any of that hot bar rubbish. that's just proper solder. so that's yeah, they aren't uh, that's not your adhesive.

uh, conductive glue. um down there so that's all soldered in so that's all. Rock Solid I'd be measuring that power first. Unfortunately, to do that I really have to solder on some like wires and get it out unless there's a pin coming back once again, like I Don't have a schematic.

we we have a part number in there. We might be able to get something on that to see what voltages and stuff it requires. So I'll that's worth a shot. Well what do you know? it's in 108 US dollars.

Oh boy, it's it's just a chipset. Basically it's a uh funnel. Oh oh I Saw a keysight multimeter there. 2.4 inch mono color, mono color OLED Yeah, that's just the driver.

Yeah, the driver. I See is that Okay, so that's the common driver I See that's not the actual unit itself. There you go. you can buy the OLED Oh right, Yes, yeah.

Okay, so it's the same model that's used in the u1253. Uh, which? I've done a video on like way back like in the first? you know, 30 videos of mine or something like that fog. Price: 60 bucks a piece. Bro, that's Yankee bucks too.

You have to be a bit desperate and you've got to order minimum five pieces for the OLED just for the OLED Oh wow. if I can get the multimeter for 60 bucks, I'd be buying five of those. You can bet your bottom dollar I'd be reselling those on eBay for a huge profit. So okay, so that's the driver.

uh chip. Okay, so the bat. it needs 3.3 volts and it needs 2.7 Volts for the digital 190 microamps operating Current: 550 My cramps? that's pretty low. Oh no.

Here we go. Okay, normal mode: Current: 138 Milliamps You pay a hefty toll fee for your fancy whiz-bang OLED uh display there anyway. I'm just going to work. clean up that board a little bit, make sure that's all hunky-dory and then I'm just going to re-power this thing.

uh, back up because you never know. You know. Could just be like a bad contact on the OLED um on that uh board to board interconnect or something like that but nope. still dead ski.

Okay, so unfortunately it's just really annoying to troubleshoot this because as I said, I'm gonna have to solder some wires on there to actually measure it. and that other chip there is a CTP A51 It's obviously a linear reg there, so that's maybe for the local digital bloody black solder mask makes it hard to see the inter would be using. The internal switch is pin two or pin two is not connected to the inductor there, which is rather interesting and pins one and eight aren't connected either, so it's not in the usual Buck configuration. So yeah, the most annoying thing about troubleshooting this is that you have to put it back in the case in order to get the switch on there to get the power into the circuit and get it.
you know, fired up and doing the right thing and then you've got to put the top on. Unless you're solder like power wires onto there to power the thing and simulate the batteries. it's really annoying and hopefully like these were and these wires then have to go out through the uh blast wall over here which has deep penetrators in it. So like I Get trying to get these contacts onto here without damaging these.

What like Oh God yeah, that just wasn't gonna work putting the case on so just sold it. Uh. external power supply in here. Six volts, uh one amp 19, 25 milliamps, 20 milliamps so we got the right.

So it's doing its thing. And by the way, little uh Pro Tip: You can't see it here, but the cables that I've got running in here. uh, like this. Um, you can't just have them dangling off the edge of the bench because then like the weight of the cables will actually pull these wires like straight off.

like so yeah. So I've got a little weight here on the uh cables? just. or you can stick them down to the bench just to make sure that these don't. You know the weight of these leads just don't fly off the bench if you've got them.

Uh, like hanging off the bench or whatever. So anyway, so I've got a ground here and so this is the switch in converter. I Okay So we've got 7.7 volts on that cap so that's higher than the battery voltage. So that's a boost input.

I Think this is the input. Okay, 5.2 That sounds like an input voltage. Then this should be the output voltage of that regulator. You'd expect 3.3 3.5 Okay, that seems to be precisely 3.5 So okay, that seems fine.

So I'm going to rule out that linear voltage regulator there. There's no way it's going to fail. Like if it's a meant to be a 3.3 it's not going to fail to like precisely 3.5 Obviously, you know it's 99.9 Sure, it's set precisely to 3.5 volts. That's a 3.5 linear reg.

So 7.7 volts. Um, on that uh OLED on that boost uh converter there. That sounds a reasonable. So if we go over to the data sheet for the SSD 3303 once again, this is just the driver chip, not the whole board.

The whole board is a uh Agilent keysight uh designed board. but there you go. high Supply voltage VCC Um, 7 to 16 volts. So 7.7 should be working like I Don't know if that's what it was intended to be.

Maybe it was intended to be higher and maybe it's dropped a bit and it's a bit it should. It's within the operational range, right? And that logic Supply voltage there, uh, can be as high as 3.5 volts. Um, that's its operational range. So they've set it to 3.5 Okay, no worries.

they're within the voltage range and the connections as you saw to the OLED display looked fine because they're not like an adhesive Bond They're properly soldered down so it seems like um, it's an OLED foyer. Um, let me go check if there's any history of this. Sure enough, EV blog forums got everything right OLED Slowly going bad and there's replacement. uh, videos and Ian Scott Johnson has got a video down here.
um coincidentally. um this afternoon. uh or this evening. I'm actually doing an amp hour with um Ian Scott Johnson He's going to be on the amp hour, so check that out.

I'm actually recording that tonight. So what a coincidence. So yeah, he's done a video here I haven't Uh, haven't watched it. but um, yeah, it's I think he's had the OLED fire.

There's there's the oh, that's a different one. That's it. Okay, so the Oh, because this is the 1253. Okay, so they've updated it slightly, but physically, it looks physically it looks the same, but it looks like he's got a replacement one.

Or he's yeah, he's physically replacing the OLED um strip and there's another Uh video over here. Stuart Rogers It looks like another repair. Yeah, that's that's the board. There you go.

So this is a thing removing that. So yeah, it looks like you can buy the oh, it's stuck down too Ah That's annoying. You gotta heat it up to get it off. Um, anyway, it's done.

It's damaged anyway, so that's what it looks like. Uh, the problem is I'm not even gonna bother looking any further. In fact I probably didn't even have to measure these voltages. Ah, it was fun anyway.

So yeah, I'm just gonna leave it now. I'm gonna go order a new uh OLED screen see if I can get this uh back working. It looks like yeah, it's a thing. these things fail.

Um, let us know in the comments down below. if you've had one of these. um, keysight Agilent OLED multimeter fires. Um, it looks like a lot of people happen.

They've done repair videos on them. So there you go. Um I could have found that out I probably didn't even have to test it I could have just went dead OLED You know, 90 chance of it actually being the OLED screen I could have just ordered one without even opening this puppy up if I actually did some research beforehand and I'm back I've got a screen. got it delivered.

Hopefully it's the right one you 1273. So um, if it's not the right one, then apparently we'll get a bit shifted like a an inverse image because the bit is bits are shifted or something like that so you have to get the correct one. But ta-da there it is. And here's the original.

It's not a copy of it. It's a complete uh like reverse engineered job. So here's the original and here's the new one here. Look.

Oh, we've got a uh, got the programming header here. Yeah, it's got a micro in there. We'll have a look, but it uses a totally different look. This has got the chip on board over here.

They've got a micro here which is uh, programmed to like actually decode whatever you know bitstream that this requires for this to drive a a completely different OLED screen. So all right, let's go down in there and have a look and uh, there we go. Stm32 There you go. So all the STM somebody I mean this is such an issue, right? is that there's so many meters that have failed.
That's somebody. Um, it has gone to the effort presumably in China to actually reverse engineer this screen here. like to reverse engineer the protocol and everything and the chipset or whatever and drive well. the protocol um, used to, you know, map the stuff onto the screen and program a custom micro to drive whatever screen that is.

So there's the uh, there's the code for the new screen there. It is there for those playing along at home. Um, so I don't know I might overlay some data here for that one, but I won't check that now. But yeah, it's compatible.

and they've put in the programming header nice. And they've got of course, the uh, relevant uh, voltage drive. so um, fingers crossed. let's actually plug it in and see if it works because apparently, um, Ian Scott Johnson got his one.

um, he had one that was Back to Front apparently. So yeah, there we go. And since I've done the tear down, I've actually lost one of the screen, lost one of the screws. Oops.

Oh wait. I've taken the wires off. Everything's gone I'm sure there's a plastic cover on there. let me scrape that off.

That would have been embarrassing if I left that cover on and huh? come on, you can do it. There we go. Beautiful. Like I bought one.

Three screws will be enough. Um, because yeah, I don't I don't know. it's got to be on the benches somewhere or it might have fallen on the floor. it's probably on the carpet.

Can't forget how little speaker. so let's put that back on. No, that's not gonna pinch. No I ain't where we're gonna be good to go.

Will it work? Will it work? Ah I've not got all the batteries in. Is it not making up? Whoa. Oh, something's not making. Uh yeah.

Oh, it's not. It works. It works. It works.

Look at that. Oh, it's like a bought one. Um yeah. I've got to screw the case back together.

All right. So it is back together and look at that ah thing of beauty. Joy Forever we're getting some more Flickr on the uh screen here. but that's only on the screen I Don't see that in real life? That's just the uh camera frame rate there.

Oh, look at that. No worries. So that is one gorgeous looking screen if it's a bit of a power hog. but uh, there you go and I'm sure this thing works.

absolutely. uh, fine, because there's nothing. There was nothing wrong with it. It was brand new, basically brand new in the box and it never really used it.

but the screen just died. as most of them in this in in the both the u1250 series and the 1270 series. With the OLED screens, they all just die. So much so that there's a whole third-party Market of compatible screens.
It's unbelievable. Now this wasn't cheap. It's cost me like 80 US dollars to get this replacement uh screen module. You might be able to get a bit cheaper if you just get the Uh the actual you know you can.

If you're lucky, you can find one of the original uh oleds and replace it. but then you might end up with the same problem because the fire is inside the OLED whether or not it's inside the cob, or whether or not it's a physical manufacturing uh thing inside. You know all the Magic Smoke escapes from the uh OLED uh in there. And yeah, it, it completely comes the answer.

So yeah, I wouldn't recommend that I'd recommend the third party uh baller which presumably uses a completely different um OLED which is not. Well, it's probably hopefully not susceptible to failure, but there you go that is that is beautiful. You can of course get the LCD version the u1272a and these are. these are excellent meters.

They you know they're really good. I'm surprised they're not more are popular. Actually, they're really incredibly feature packed. Don't you know? Bang? Yeah, whatever.

But you know it's it's a pretty decent. um, they're really good meters. They're super fast. They're super accurate.

Well, I Thought this video was done and dusted unfortunately. I Discovered two uh problems with this one's minor. One's pretty major. The first one is uh, you know how I mentioned The uh, reverse back to front display.

Well watch. This works a treat. Turned it off. turn it back on Boom it's back to front if you turned it off too quickly.

it actually it looks like it doesn't reset properly now. I can leave it off for a few seconds. Hey, there you go. Yeah, yeah, we're good.

and if you go into the setup and the setup's just fine, right? It's got a comprehensive setup. You exit the setup, it resets itself. Uh, it's Kamagatsa, so there's obviously something to do with the reverse engineering of this particular, uh, new uh display in here that it's it's like some power on resets not working properly. Yeah, he's back to front.

Come on. it's hilarious. Anyway, yeah, it doesn't actually reverse itself. you just got to leave it off and then turn it on.

So yeah, oopsie. but Miner I guess you could live with that now. I Only realized this after I actually uh, shot and edited and almost ready to release this video I was bragging about how I was going to sell this um on eBay started at 99 Cents I was going to auction it off but anyway, I was praying in that this thing was obviously going to be within spec because it was brand new in the box and the only thing wrong with it was the LCD and the uh, contaminant battery contaminant hadn't gotten anywhere on there. so you know of course this thing's going to be bang on.

This is like a high spec meter right? I Can put up the specs here, but look point one percent out on DC volts. Are you kidding me? What the now? It turns out if you're on the low end of that um like the same range okay the same like a three Volt range because this is a 30 000 count full scale, then like it's pretty close and if you go to millivolts it's actually you know that's within spec. Okay, but why on Volts if I change that to one volt, look it's like come on no and a full scale there? look at 3.04 You've got to be kidding me. This is totally out.
So it looks like on both the three Volt range and the 30 Volt range it is out. but it's not out on the millivolt range. So now I've got a bloody calibration check this old stupid meter. Unbelievable bloody Murphy and on my Precision AC calibration standard I've got it set to uh one volt here and 1.01 so well like one point nominal 1.8 percent out.

And just to show you that that is bang on, this is a really Schmick um and you know a transfer uh standard AC volt? uh standard and you can see I got a 1272a here. it's bang on so this one is out now whether or not that, considering that it's both out by a similar amount on AC and DC volts shows that possibly the uh input voltage divider has drifted there. Now of course you don't need that divider when you're on the millivolt range. so the millivolt range is going to be bang on.

So I reckon if I go to millivolt range here. if I change that to 100 millivolts, it does take time to settle, but they are like where like, well within Spec 99.94 right? No worries. And this one here. Let's go to millivolts And yep, there you go.

that's within spec so that's fine. So it shows that possibly something's up with the voltage divider in this thing. Now of course we could go through the calibration procedure I have check. you can actually get the service manual for this thing but I I don't know.

like is it gonna like drift like with time? who knows. and once again on uh, 10 volts that is out by its 0.2 I'll go up to the 100 volt range and we'll try that because this thing can go up to a thousand volts. so it's pretty 1100 volts actually. Yep, it's so all of those voltage ranges are out so that indicates yeah, it's a like a divider thing I Can't believe like there's a calibration adjustment problem in this.

Meetup So we're back inside again having another squares and this is where you know your visuals. Um, didn't really pick it up last time, but you remember how of obviously the only leakage was around this part here and uh then. But now with hindsight right, this is, uh, this is the input AC coupling cap so let's not worry about that. But this pin here.

this is the top side of the resistor divider, right? This is the resistor divider here. Here's the the ceramic and you can see. it's um, it's shielded here so the ceramic. It's there, right? So we've got, you know, just like a shielding pad here.
um, which you can see that with hindsight, that has actually been a bit of corrosion on there, right? Check it out, you can see that there, but that doesn't explain why we're out. The only reason we'd be out is if like, there's extra load across this divider, there's some contamination under that. Max Perhaps that's causing some sort of issue. So because this is how you get the different ranges, you get the different ranges from this resistive divider and they put them on the ceramic.

I've done a video on that um showing the like they laser Trend because they're really stable and you can match them and then they thermally. They've got really great thermal properties and matching so all of your ranges uh, match so you're good quality. High Precision Measures are going to have a a hybrid, uh, ceramic resistor divider in them and this one does. so obviously I Reckon something has gone wrong like there's no other reason for this meter to drift like that.

Um, and did contamination get onto the onto the ceramic divider itself? I Don't know. I'm gonna have to desolder the shield to get in there and have a look. There we go. We've got that out there.

you go. It's a top quality caddock. Uh, no worries there. But like you can't get in there, it's like sealed like it doesn't have a surface on it like some of them have an external surface.

This one doesn't in quite a lot of them. You can actually see the like, the actual resistive elements actually patterned onto the carbon and then little laser trim marks and everything on there. But no, this is a fully sealed thing. so I don't see a problem I I Can't imagine a problem within there I'm guessing contamination somewhere else that's loading down the resistor divider and if you don't fix that sort of problem, then yeah, I can recalibrate this and I'm sure it'll work fine for now and then it could drift further.

Yeah. I Was looking to get in an ultrasonic bath and we'll throw it in an ultrasonic bath. It'll clean it. Yeah.

I don't have one yet. So well. I'm gonna give it a thorough shellacking with some ultrasolve, uh, cleaning solvent. Um, which you know, a bit better than isopropyl? I Don't know? Um, you know, can it penetrate under the chips and everything? Don't want to go like removing all the chips and everything else.

So after a thorough spanking, nope, it's still out. So I've come back the next day. lifted overnight and look, it's it's a bit closer. So I think we're getting there? I think maybe we might have to, uh, take a few things off the board or something.

Hmm, right. So back to here again. Now you've got to remember that. Uh, the impedances around here.

Your standard meter is like 10 mega ohms input impedance. So all the impedances around the top side of the voltage divider here. they're very high so it doesn't take much leakage at all on the top side of a resistor divider. Leakage due to contamination under a chip, you know.
PCB creepage and stuff to be an issue. So they've removed the solder mask around here for a reason, right? Because this is a high impedance. uh, part of the top side of the resistor divider here. Now we've got this big ass series cap here and that is the top part of your resistor divider here.

So um, I'm inclined to take that cap off because that's you know, like smack on where the contamination actually came through. So yeah, I'm going to take that cap out. It'll function fine without that cap. It's just like a you know, an AC bypass uh type thing.

So as far as DC is concerned, we can take that off and we should. If the leakage goes away, then we know. Aha, we've got it right. And then we can measure that cap out of circuit.

So even though this is in circuit, we should measure in the order of 10 Meg there. And sure enough, there it is right. 9.9 That might eventually go up to 10. so we might have another Meg here.

Um, and it might be like a total of 11 Meg input. Uh, impedance there. But yeah, so that's across that cap. So and it doesn't take much leakage at all for that to become a problem.

And of course, on the 200 millivolt range, it doesn't use a divide or a 300 millivolt range. It doesn't use a divider. It doesn't use that divider. It basically bypasses it.

So any contamination causing extra uh, parallel impedance there isn't going to cause a problem. at least in terms of accuracy. It's just going to slightly change your input impedance. and who cares? There we go now.

Of course, it's hard to tell, but you know there could be. It could be something there. Like you know, you can see some paths there. and the bottom side of that cap is.

Well, it's not terrific is it? Look at that? Huh? I Think I Think we might have a bit of a culprit here. Yeah, like you can see like there could be like a leakage path there. It's obviously had something. Well, we know what it's The alkaline from the Uh battery is is being trapped under there.

Yeah, you can just see it there, right? it's It's definitely leakage under that. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give that um clean again and then we'll just run the meter because as I said, um in DC volts that Cap's not going to matter now. as far as that caps concerned, we can attempt to measure that, but we're not gonna have any success. I suspect because any contamination like it was just dried out by the hot air that I removed this thing with can't remember the range of my National Insurance meter here is at 100 Meg So I'm going to clean up that uh cap and um, we can just actually put that back in.

So I don't think it's damaged the actual ceramic of the cab because you don't remember. The capacitance elements are um inside there so you know we should just be able to clean the outside. And yeah, it should be good to put back in. Aha, we haven't come back within spec yet, but well, it's on its way up.
Yep, Yep. I think we cracked it. Um yeah, we've had contamination there like I haven't dried out the board properly. uh yet.

But yeah, that has solved it. You can see how that's clearly moved. we were, you know, one percent over three volts, uh before and the theory pans out that you know that high impedance? um side of the input voltage divider? Um yeah, I think this thing is going to be absolutely fine once this uh thing just dries out and we've cleared all the contamination. Because once a contamination is clear, then we're back to where the original uh Factory calibration would have been.

So yeah, that's just slowly gonna eke up. Um, yeah, we've just just needs to dry out, that's all. But we've confirmed it. Solder, a freshly clean capacitor back on there, and I Do believe we can declare that a winner.

Winner chicken dinner that is within spec. Um, once again like it might try out a little Tad more. But yeah, anyway. Shields back in place, the capacitors back in place.

Uh that uh series resistor there? um in series with the cap. That was just a bead like in just an RF bead there and look, um, absolutely fantastic. So yeah, no worries. I'm sure the AC will be spot on as well.

and of course it is. there. You have it. Um, so yeah, it's basically bang on.

uh to its original Factory calibration. No issues whatsoever. So I'm gonna give that a thumbs up. and if you like that repair video, please give it a thumbs up as well.

And I don't even have to check the other ranges. It's just like okay. and there you go. Bang on at 100 volts as well because well, engineering works right? It's you're talking about resisted High impedance resistor divider ladders here.

and if one uh was out, then it's obviously that the other ranges that use that resistor divider would be out as well. And I've checked some resistors as well. spot check. It's absolutely, uh, fine.

So it was just that high end leakage on the high end of the resistor divider ladder there that did it. and whether or not, say, an ultrasonic clean would have got that out from under that cap I don't know. but anyway, um yeah, we just took it out. Give it a bit of a clean whack it back, no worries.

Bob's your uncle that is a repair video so if you like that, please give it a big a thumbs up. And as always discussed down below and I will actually put this on eBay starting at a 99 cent auction on the EV blog store. So go for it. Catch you next time! Oh.


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By YTB

23 thoughts on “Eevblog 1564 – agilent/keysight u1273ax multimeter repair”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars tubosolinas says:

    But imagine that you need to look at your multimeter from a mirror!Niiiice! 🤣

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Zoltán Kozma says:

    Agilent is mighty expensive. So disappointing that they use the crappiest plastic and do not even isolate the battery compartment well… they are coasting on past fame.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Marco Antonio Gatero says:

    Oled screen :S naaaaaah…. LCD are better

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RaySoft says:

    Isn't the startup sound a check for the speakers all frequencies? As a self-test.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tube Gaming says:

    Hi What the value the capacitor that you unsolder ( the white color capacitor) thanks.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars byteborg says:

    Re the OLED orientation: They call it "reverse engineering" for a reason, don't they? 🤣🤣🤣

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars HDXFH says:

    Cowinkydink lol

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars TheManLab7 says:

    This is why I ALWAYS using Energizer lithium's because they are lighter, have more power, voltage hardly drops AND they don't leak.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Edel SM says:

    comment about keysight quality:

    i have the model U1242C and the rubber casing becomes so VERY BRITTLE after some 2 or 3 years, and my nails can scrape them off. i contacted Keysight, explained and sent them a video, and I asked if i can buy a replacement casing but they rejected my request. what they want is to send my meter for for repair – BUT quoted me same amount as brandnew + TAX + SHIPPING. i declined, because if i want to, i can buy the same NEW meter for a lot less – tax included, and free shipping from where i bought it originally (RS-ONLINE PHILIPPINES).

    my meter is working OK til now (it is just the case is the issue) and i use Eneloop cells because i know alkaline can leak very badly if left unattended. this U1242C and my other DMM 34465A will be my last keysight branded meters. i am only a hobbyist, but i still find Fluke to be very customer friendly than what is keysight today. it feels like you're trash if your're only just a hobbyist and because of this i wish their downfall, to be honest.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Damen Sutherland says:

    Do you know how to calibrate extech clamp meter .I turned potentiometer and I think I need jumper wire to processor .It changes with the weather now with about 300 mv

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars OvalWingNut says:

    By chance I ran into someone I didn't know and we both agreed that this was 1st class infotainment. Just saying. Cheers!

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Joel Murphy says:

    Looks like a really hard bend on the OLED flex. Wouldn't be surprised.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Joel Murphy says:

    If it didn't make a doobly-doop 1980's bleep bloop start up sound, how would you know that it was the screen??

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Lakridsbat says:

    It would be nice if you could get a "USB MICROSCOPE" to record / capture images of the chips in your videos that you could overlay

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars elimenohpee182 says:

    The reverse image is a feature not a bug 😅

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Moh amed says:

    سلام عليكم.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Thushara Rathnayake says:

    Hi Dave, You still didn't respond to my request. Did you find a spare LCD panel for my BM235?

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars mohinder kaur says:

    stupid agilent cannot provide lithium rechargeable LIPO builtin for this price? wtf?

  19. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars searching4facts says:

    Just another reminder why Fluke meters are worth their cost

  20. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars for2utube says:

    I bought the 1253A, and that OLED is N/A. I then bought a newer meter refurbished from Agilent and it’s display was going out. Grrr. I bought an aftermarket display and I’m back in business. Those OLEDs last 10 years max, no matter the power-on hours.

  21. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Roger Onslow says:

    Agilent/Keysight have really tarnished their reputation with some of their new cheap crappy instruments.

  22. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars thekaduu says:

    The OLED must have let the magic firefly ass juice escape out of it… 🙂

  23. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Larry_Rawwr says:

    OLED displays are extremely sensitive to oxygen and moisture ingress, which is one of the reasons they are expensive– they must use a glass envelope with metal feedthroughs that is hermetically sealed. Can't recall the channel, but the owner actually did some of the R&D on the original displays, and he explained how that was a major hurdle when developing them, just how to create a perfect seal. Apparently it wasn't that difficult to get them emitting light, but without that seal they will very quickly fail.

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