Uni-T UT181A Review

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Күн бұрын

This is a review of the Uni-T UT181A multimeter for use in hobby electronics projects primarily related to amateur radio.
A pdf document of this review: github.com/TomWilkinson/Multi...
This review was produced to help you decide if the Uni-T UT181A multimeter will fit your purpose and budget. This is part of a series of multimeters reviews.
A good multimeter for hobby electronic projects should be able to measure millivolts, volts, microamps, milliamps, amps, ohms, nanofarads and microfarads.
If you want to measure picofarads, nanohenry, microhenry or reactance you will need a LCR meters. I cover the two LCR meters I own in another review.
I am not a professional, I am a hobbyist. This review is not sponsored; I bought this multimeter with my own money. I only used and tested this multimeter in CAT I and CAT II environments. I do not have a way to review or test the safety of this meter. I leave the CAT III and CAT IV environments to trained and licensed professionals. It may seem like I am a Fluke fan boy, but I recognize their flaws along with their advantages. There may be unintended mistakes and/or errors in this review.

Пікірлер: 41

@VikonTechnologies Күн бұрын

I recently purchased a Multicomp Pro MP730657 DMM from Newark Electronics and it is a rebranded Uni-T UT181A in a green enclosure. Multicomp Pro and Tenma are Newark's house brands , several of their meter models are made by Uni-T. The MP730657 as of this date is on sale at Newark and it has a lower price than the Uni-T UT181A .It did come with a US adapter plus all the same accessories and the carry case. Only had it two weeks but the meter is performing well. I also have a Tenma 72-7730A ( rebranded Uni-T UT71B) meter . I have used the Tenma for several years and it is still working very well. I hope the UT181A / MP730657 performs as well over the next several years. Newark shipped from a US warehouse.

@cncdavenz 10 ай бұрын

Thanks Tom. I have the same meter and love it.

@lmwlmw4468 10 ай бұрын

Great video.

@Metalloys 10 ай бұрын

"I AM GOING TO KEEP THIS METER AND SELL THE FLUKE" Whoaaaaaaaa......

@phaedrus2633 10 ай бұрын

I thought I saw a HZ setting for frequency. I"d like a multimeter that could do that as well. What I'd also like to see, is an oscilloscope review. I'll have to check your channel to see if you've done one yet. This fall, I scrapped a lot of my hobbies and want to get in to Arduino programming.

@jwong19 10 ай бұрын

Hi...this Uni-t 181 is also a 60,000 count meter.

@jerry_f1298 11 ай бұрын

Hi, this was a very interesting review, in your opinion, which Fluke multimeter compare in performance vs this Uni-T, and which of the two would you recommend to buy? cheers

@Sui778 Ай бұрын

Very similar to my UNI-T UT8804N, which is basically the benchtop version of this handheld meter.

@mrpetit2 11 ай бұрын

They probably used this means of charging because if they have a charging method while the meter is in use they probably can't get the safety rating. What I don't like about this meter is the proprietary battery. A meter in this priceclass is ment to be used for decades, not a few years. Li-ion batteries dont have eternal life. What about the availability of this batterypack with specific connector in 5 or 10 or 15 years?

@guateque1718 10 ай бұрын

This is exactly why I dont like this meter,. Its great otherwise.

@mrpetit2 10 ай бұрын

@@guateque1718If they just used 2 18650 cells, the availabilityproblem would have been solved (I assume that the 18650 cell is here to stay)

@CripSkillz 10 ай бұрын

DEFF I GOT BOUT 20 18650S , flashlights vapes, rc controler, even a drone flies like 12 min on 1 cell😂

@mawshie1337 4 ай бұрын

Does this have an Auto Hold function?

@oetken007 10 ай бұрын

Is this a fluke 289 in a different dress? 😮

@FileFixer007 8 ай бұрын

Fluke as always have terrible LCD display with ghosting on it. Also Fluke 289 is too slow in graph mode, UT 181A is way ahead in graphics speed at any measurements.

@roseelectronics4582 9 ай бұрын

This one is the Fluke 289 killer!

@dmitry975 5 ай бұрын

i guess fluke is still best solution for productions

@Daemorien 9 ай бұрын

Great review! Just nitpicking here, but would be great to see how it does with the included leads.

@N8FDY 9 ай бұрын

Sorry, I don't have the leads any more. Once I decided I was keeping this meter I bought a set of Probmaster leads and sold the original leads at a local hamfest. I think that a high accuracy meter at this price point is best used with gold plated leads.

@Joseluis-tf4in 2 ай бұрын

How long does a battery charge last in hours or so? and how long does it take to charge it afterwards?

@stankostankovic9008 Ай бұрын

Hello to everyone, I bought this multimeter and I have a question for UT181A owners when it is fully charged what message do you have on the display? It happens to me that I have a message charging 80% then 85% then 100% and it flashes like that. When I take out the charging adapter, the charging indicator icon seems to be not completely white. Does the same thing happen to you?

@firasgh871 10 ай бұрын

شكرا على الفيديو هل من الممكن مقارنة(Prova TES 903 vs Keysight u1282a vs Chauvin mtx3293 vs hioki dt4282) وشكرا

@N8FDY 10 ай бұрын

Sorry, I don't have any of the four meters you mentioned and I am done buying meters for now.

@engr.salaheldin 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for review is this meter in diode test forward give alitile beeps?

@N8FDY 6 ай бұрын

No, this meter does not beep on good diode forward voltage.

@JanioRibeiroSilva 5 ай бұрын

Yes, it emits in diode mode, goes to the alarm menu, I tested it with mine and it works fine 👍

@kkendall99 10 ай бұрын

How long does the battery charge last?

@SERGEY7903 10 ай бұрын

До пів року ще тримає заряд а потім є проблеми з зарядкою і акумулятором!

@JasonLeaman 11 ай бұрын

Where is the link to this meter ?

@N8FDY 10 ай бұрын

I am having trouble with GitHub links so I am trying OneDrive shared links. Try this OneDrive link: 1drv.ms/b/s!ArY0uP2JPdTZhpompKCr1-6_HvBwSg?e=Luq3gQ

@mc_cpu 10 ай бұрын

Could probably mod it to add a separate charging port?

@matthiash.4670 10 ай бұрын

It is made of a reason this way. It guarentees you cannot plug meassure leads on charging. The reason is, if you put the probe leads in and try to measure voltage on your outlet, it might zipp you our of your shoes. Because of this the shown data cable is optical coupled. Without all this it won't hit his CAT rating. So it is potentially very risky to made such a modification.

@mc_cpu 10 ай бұрын

@@matthiash.4670 good point. Add a qi wireless charging coil then 😀

@mrpetit2 10 ай бұрын

@@mc_cpu applying a very very strong EMR field to a precision measuring instrument while in use might not be that sensible....it'll for sure affect some of the readings.

@siderov777 7 күн бұрын

Hi Tom. Does it still worth buying UT 181A in 2024 please? I watched your video 4-5 times, but still not sure and confused

@N8FDY 7 күн бұрын

That is a difficult question. The price has come down to $359.99 on the Uni-T Direct store on Amazon. The major con is you can't use the meter while recharging. If you need a graphing meter there is only one other choice I know of and it cost a few hundred dollars more. If you can give up graphing on the meter you have many more lower cost options. If you are in the US, Uni-T has opens a local seller uni-trendus.com, but they charge shipping for order under $400. Good luck on you choice.

@siderov777 7 күн бұрын

@@N8FDY Thank you Tom. I found UT 181A for 289 euro in Amazaon Netherlands, and I am going to buy it. I don't mind for the charging time I have another multimeter UT 61E+ and Benning MM2 which is old, but reliable. By the time UT 181 get charged, I can use one of those multimeters. Thak you so much for the quick answer!

@ChargedPulsar 4 ай бұрын

The battery life on mine started acting weird after few months. It was draining fast, despite the device was off. When I took the battery out, it wasn’t draining. So there was something using the battery to finish it off in one day. No selection of mode or resetting the device changed the battery drain for when the device was turned off. I ended up creating a manual switch to the battery with the help of dremel. Such an expensive device and unreliable power scheme with a weird rechargeable battery solution. I ended up not trusting the device anymore.