Hi just a quick update video on these Briman multimeters I got Uh, you've if you've been following me on the Forum or on Twitter seen I've posted a few photos of these I got the BM 257 which I got for a new $100 shootout but that could take some time to get around to so I'll have a brief look at that. I've also got the BM 857a as well and I've got their top of the range BM 869 Awesome! Um, once again, this is for a higher end SHO out or for a higher end review which I'll eventually get around to but just wanted to do a quick update style blog. So at least you get a quick look at these meters out of the box and I wanted to do it because one of them has a really badly designed backlight. Awful folks.

let's take a look now. we haven't had Uh Briman Meters on the blog before and if you haven't heard of Briman before, well, you're not alone. There are Marketing in various countries. Isn't that great? Great, but uh, they're also the Um OEM the original equipment manufacturer for many different brands you may have heard of like Xtec for example.

Xtech have this exact same meter as the Uh Mm 570 Multi Master so you know and various other companies sell rebadged uh Bryman Meters. but Briman uh Taiwanese company fairly reputable uh manufacturer of reasonable uh quality uh quite welld designed, uh multimedia and test GE I Used to own a Briman Multimer many years ago. I was quite happy with it. It was quite a well-designed and uh, functional unit.

for the price they're not. You know, they're not up in the fluke category of meters, but uh, they're certainly not down in the one hung low category. So uh, let's just take these out of the box. have a quick look.

First up, we've got the BM 257. Now this is just over 100 bucks, 110, 120 or something like that. um Australian or us depending on where you get it from. uh, various dealers eBay or whoever I'm sure.

uh. people will post links for it and it's a really compact little rugged unit I Like it. Beautiful little size and form factor. and if you compare it to a fluke 87 here, you can just see how tiny it is and how large the display is on this thing.

Really neat unit. It's uh, thicker, a bit thicker of course with the holster, but really feels like a rugged bit of Kit Actually, this thing's so small that the right angle test Leads Here look a bit unwieldy on there actually when you swing them out like that. Weird. and what we've got here is a real basic uh meter 6,000 count uh 2% basic DC volts plus uh 3 counts.

Not going to set the world on fire, but um functionality Wise It's got uh temperature it's got 60 MTS uh DC range microamps of course. uh Crest mode which is mid Max they just call it something different built-in um EF Uh uh detector as well so you can detect the electric Fields power points, live wires, things like that. Really quite neat. Nice backlight on it I Rather like it and it's got a low impedance ghost measurement mode as well.

So great for um, sort of. you know more Electrical uh applications. Even though it is an Electronics meter, it's got uh temperature as well. comes with a little uh cheap pass uh type K thermac couple it is um Cat 4 300 volts rated 600 vol Cat 3 UL listed.

that's uh, very important. It means it has been independently, uh certified to meet its Cat Cat ratings by the Underwriters Laboratory And yes, it does have uh coms capability as well. although that doesn't come in the box so you need to buy that separately and there's not a bad little uh rubber holster with it. bit crusty, uh tilting bile, but uh, good angle and it seems to work well.

And it's got single uh threaded metal insert screw here. lift it up and you've got access to the two AAA batteries and the two HRC fuses. Huge one here for the 8 Amp range. this one's not uh rated to 10 amps.

actually it's only rated to 8 amps. There you go, go figure. but they're both uh HRC fuses nice and even without the holster, feels pretty solid. and it's only got 10 Paa farads resolution on uh capacitance.

but eh, it does a reasonable job. and uh, also on the molts. As I said, it'll go down to 60 m Vol range. so you actually get 10 microv volts resolution.

Brilliant! And let's try the auto range in here. it's reasonable. It's probably average on par it does. Sadly, it doesn't have a 60 Ohm range, but hey, you know I wouldn't expect at least you get in a 60 Molt range.

And continuity wise, let's try the buzzer out. It is certainly a latching type. It's pretty quick, not quite as quick as the fluke. it misses the odd one, but jeez, yeah, that's a good continuity tester and it's got input jack alert as well.

Pretty darn handy feature for a meter in this price category and we'll have a quick peep inside. And I really like what? I see? it's H quite unusual. It's got a second Riser board here, which uh, soldered directly onto the back of the terminals as you can see the Jacks there as you can see and it's got all the protection circuitry in there. There's a little Uh 1 in header going down there and a couple of very nice, nicely little uh insulated and crimped wires joining those down to the Uh fuses down there.

There's the current shut, beautiful, separated. It's got a couple of little uh isolation slots on there. It's got isolation slots all around the board. the Uh wiring on here, very neat and tidy look.

It's crimped off properly there. I Really like it. The Uh speaker or the screws in here are self tappers, but they're at least uh, captive so you don't, uh, lose the damn things and fall out. There's no wiring for the speaker, go straight onto the terminals and if you lift the board up slightly, they got O-rings around the bottom of the jacks down in there.

and if you have a look at a couple of the power resistors and well, they'd be your current shunts and your Ms down there. They're nicely heat shrunk and everything is welld designed. And check out that thick film 10 Meg high voltage resistor there jumping over the isolation slot. Beautifully welld designed.

I Like it for a you know, a $100 class instrument. Big thumb up and you're adding the battery contact Springs there and the Uh insulated shielding under there separating the Um High volage protection components from the rest of the board. and this is a really wellth thought out meter. and if you look at the infrared side of things, there's only a Um IR lead there.

There's no IR receiver over here, so even though it has the port for it, it's only transmitting and they've integrated the case as well with an extra shield there going down slotting down there through the PCB Nice work and and uh, quite High ridges on the side of the case for blast protection and the probes are adequate for the price. I guess they are 1 KT cat 410 Out rated and I'm sure they do meet that as part of the UL uh spe the UL testing on that. they do have the insulated sleeve on them which I don't uh personally like but they do feel a little bit plasticky but Briman did also Supply me with these leaves which labeled BTC and they're Cat 4 one kilovolt as well and they feel like really good quality uh flexible silicone rubber in there and they come with very nice goldplated uh tips uh which you don't normally get on uh regular probes and these are better for like low EMF uh connections and uh, you know other stuff where the goldplated contact is much more advantageous and nice little uh cap which goes over that as well which uh insulates that all the way to the probe tip I don't know how much these cost, they are optional and next up we have the BM 85 57a and this has actually been around for uh, quite a long time. and its main Uh claim to fame: I Think it's had various revisions by the way.

Um, this was almost certainly the latest one. this is the 857a model, but its main claim to fame is that it's 500,000 count. Look at that magic button. 500,000 count there folks that's in Molt mode.

And yes, one microvolt resolution. Can you believe it? Now this is rebadged as you know the Xtec, Mm 570 Multimaster multimeter. and uh, there's probably three other companies which also sell the same thing and it's quite an old style holster. It's not in Bryman's new style so you know I don't know how long? uh, they're going to offer this cuz as you'll see the um next one we're going to look at is what basically um is pretty much replaces this one and this one goes for like 110 or something like that.

uh do the uh conversion to Uh US currency now? um yeah, it is an an older model. It's got like a belt clip thing on the back. It's got a tilting Bale it's not. You know it's not too bad I don't mind the form factor of course.

In fact I do like the rubber boot. You know it really is a good rubber boot. Um, it's just not in the modern uh, Briman style. that's all.

But check this out folks. this is quite possibly the worst designed backlight in history. Are you ready for it? Yeah, and that's it. Look at that.

Can you believe it? What a steaming pile of turd it's And check it out, You compare it with the other two here. No contest. Look, it's just got four LEDs behind there, no diffuser. nothing.

Ah, let me turn off the lights and show you. Yes folks, it is that. it's Pitch Black in here. Look at it.

Unbelievable. It's got to win the EV Log Design of the Week award. Crap. So you can see like four, like five 5 mm green.

LEDs probably just start standing up from the bottom of the baseboard in this thing through the back of it. I mean it's just garbage and that's probably not a bad example of what it actually looks like in the dark on its own. but um, the camera here does seem to be brighter bit bit brighter than in real life. but uh I've turned the exposure down as much as I can.

But oh how that designed backlight got through any design review meeting let alone Corridor you know, uh, demo let alone actually shipped to customers is beyond me. Unbelievable. Anyway, apart from that, it is a 0.02% uh class instrument and it does have that that 500,000 count mode 50,000 count uh by default. but if you need that extra resolution I mean fantastic.

You know, practically unbeatable for the uh price I think and it is quite a sturdy uh unit. This is without the rubber holster on it and uh yeah, you know. I'm sure it's well made inside as well, so let's check it out. but of course there's no uh, fuse access on the back here.

you've actually, you know and it's just got a a crusty uh 9volt battery snap. you know, very uh, fluke 87 like so not that great. And here's inside and it is a Cat 4 uh rated meter by the way. uh 600 volts Cat 4 So as you'd expect, yeah, lots of blood Shields Lots of isolation slots.

We've got all the M stuff happening around here. You can see all the isolation slots down in there nicely heat shrunk again. check out the power resistors down in there. it's all working quite well.

Big HRC Fuses big blast Shields right around here. Isolation: Shields Very nice. I like it and they've actually got O-rings on all the captive screws they got O-rings around the uh input Jacks there and uh, nice big rubber surround around the outside so it should be quite uh, moisture and dust proof. Not bad at all.

and like uh, most of the Briman meters, this one is also you well listed um after the fact which is why they put a sticker on here and they're all made in Taiwan cuz they're a Taiwanese company. Check out the auto ranging on this thing. Yeah, not too bad at all. Um, once again, doesn't have a 60 ohm mode or something like that, but you know, and the 500,000 count by the way, doesn't uh, work on all the ranges like the resist and the capacitance.

For example, where the lowest range is once again, um, you've only got 10 Paa farads resolution and the cotton tester semil latched extremely extremely quick. Doesn't miss anything but oh yeah, pretty good. So although this is an older design, um, it still represents pretty good. bang per buck in terms of uh, accuracy.

and of course, the 500,000 count resolution. And it's you know, fun. Functionality wise, it's fully equipped. It does PC data login as well, which is entirely optional.

You got to buy the kit for that, but yeah, I Don't know if you're really struggling for Cach and need the accuracy and resolution. It's uh, definitely worth a look. Otherwise, get this new Bman. So this one is the BM 869 and it is a big beast.

You can see it compared to the Uh 257 we looked at before, and if you want to compare sizes with the 850 series, there we go. It is, uh, substantially bigger, substantially. uh, thicker than all of these other meters. Really is quite a beast.

But it's their top of the range meter. and if you compare it with the fluke 875, it's not a huge amount. uh, taller, really. But it is, uh, thicker than the fluke 875, quite, uh, substantially.

and it, uh, is probably wider. I'm not sure, maybe a smidgeon, but it just seems wider because it's it's. got this sort of form factor. You know, this sexy curving form factor which goes up and this looks like it's just got a really big head on it.

And just like the 857, this has got a 500,000 count display. Beautiful. but that is only applicable in uh, single display mode. If you turn on dual display mode like that, it uh, drops back down to oh gosh darn it only 50,000 counts now.

I'll try out the auto ranging on it. Yeah, that's not too bad. Uh, once again, no 50 oh mode only 500 Ohm mode. but you do get uh 10 uh mli Ohms resolution on that thing.

and the continuity tester once again, almost identical. extremely quick. um not 100% latched. little bit scratchy there.

But yeah, that's excellent. And this thing also has uh, dual temperature mode as well. unfortunately. um, it only comes with one temperature probe in the box, but you can hook up two temperature probes to this thing and get a differential.

Excellent and capacitance once again only Uh 10 Paa Farads resolution on the thing. um, kind of expected more for their top. The range meter would have been nice if they had one pea farad resolution, but uh, once again, you know it is. um, a th000 volt Cat 4 Folks, that is as good as it gets.

Protection wise, you can't get any better than that. HRC fused of course and um UL listed and this thing's about 80 EUR or there about so quite substantially. uh, more expensive than uh, the 857 here. But you do get, uh, you know, quite a bit more meter for your money and just like its little brother.

uh, here. it really is built like the proverbial brick. Dunny, folks. feels really solid.

I Like it. but like the 857 a huge disadvantage. The silly 9V battery snap again like that and no fuse access. for either of the fuses, you got to undo the case.

Ah, fail. And if we have a quick poke around inside, uh, very similar to the Um 857. uh, we got a duel uh Riser board thing here. There's our two HRC fuses both massive ones.

There's our 10 amp current shunt o-ring seals around the Uh DC Jacks Nice rubber sealed around the outside of the case. huge blast walls on there. huge blast protection inside here. Isolation: Got the high voltage slots.

we got all the MS happening. We've got the P TCS We've got the power resistors heat shrunk nicely. Very welld designed. Briman really know how to put meters together I'm really impressed.

There's no bodges in these and yeah they just look like very wellth thought out. Very well engineered meters and this one of course is 1,000v Cat 4 rated incredible and this one, uh, similar spec to the 857. We're talking 0.02% plus two counts. so you know, really a high speec unit.

Interestingly, they've got a little uh trimmer in there. It's near a point which is marked three volts. don't know what that is but uh I can see some shielding down inside there I'm not going to uh, take that top Riser board off and it does other stuff like uh, Dbm and uh, you know, dual display AC plus DC true RMS and all that of course even this uh little uh baby is a true RMS by the way, for your 100 bucks. but yeah, this is you know, in the order of like a you know, a $250 uh meter and the optional Uh serial interface as well I Don't know how good the Uh software is on these things, but uh, not a bad meter at all.

All of these Briman very well built. Quite disappointed that these don't have fuse access though. I mean it's pretty inexcusable these days. This little BM 257 I Really.

uh like this little pocket rocket. It really is a quite rugged, well-built unit for 100 bucks and it's going to be a really good Contender for any new $100 shootout. But uh yeah, if you're in the market for a really you know, a $250 class, uh, sub $300 class meter, these are well worth a look. Briman are a major player in the multimeter market and these are very well built and they are UL tested as well.

You don't get too many meters on the market that are UL tested, especially down in, you know, the $100 art class like this one. Beautiful. Um, you know, shame they don't come with like a cow certificate or something like that. especially these high-end ones.

just make them a bit more professional. You know you just get the Crusty little you know, paper manual garbage. So thanks to Uh Briman for sending me these and uh, you'll no doubt see uh, more detailed videos in the future. $100 shootout for this one? Um, I'm not sure where this is going to fit in, but I'll certainly, uh do a full review of this.

maybe in comparison to another similar uh uh, price class instrument? So I hope you enjoyed that little quick look by all means. Uh, check out Briman me. they are very welld designed and built as they have been uh since you know I had one like 15 years ago which was pretty, uh, well designed and built. I Like them.

definitely check them out. Uh, they need to work on their marketing a bit. Uh, they're not always available under the Briman name. You can get them under uh, different names if you look around.

uh, go discuss it on the Forum. Everyone's um, been talking about these things on the Forum and well, who they're rebadged under and uh, stuff like that. So if you can't find them as a Rman branded meter, definitely. uh, go look for the equivalent ones.

H So I'm not sure how long that video actually went for, but uh oh jeez. I Hope it was a relatively quick one. If you enjoyed it, please give it a big thumbs up. If you want to discuss it, Eev blog forum is the place to be.

Catch you next time.