Awesome meter. At work I have a $3500 meter I use. It’s handheld and geared towards the automotive industry. But it does have a 2 channel lab scope on it along with guided component test for 49 car manufacturers with over 12 million guided procedures on it. Tells you where the component is and gives you the schematic and has guided test for all the different modules and sensors. I use it all the time at home for my good meter when I build Arduino projects and have countless hand held meters from Fluke to Harbor Freight. Even have a couple of radio shack ones. My very first meter was when I was 7 it was an analog meter for voltage and resistance had a continuity function also. But you couldn’t test anything that was voltage sensitivity because it sent straight battery current for the continuity test. I learned really quick I needed something different since that meter was frying components. Got my first DVOM and haven’t looked back always trying to get the next thing. I wonder if a octopus box will work with my 2ch meter? Gonna build one and try it out.
Great video thanks for the review. I was thinking about buying one of these but now I think I will. Great features. Keep up the great work on the site.
On my 34401A i use the option to turn the display off for long automated measurements so the VFD wont wear out so quick. The security code for most Agilent stuff is simply the model number with sometimes AT in front of it. (AT as in Agilent Technologies) In Europe the comma is used for the decimal point and the period for the separator. Wikipedia even has a world map on what is used where.
Thanks Dave, another in depth review. I agree that some of the control functions leave a lot to be desired. All in all looks like a nice piece of kit. I'll have to start saving my pennies.
Great review. I am from Switzerland and we are indeed using a decimal comma instead of a decimal point. But I can understand it looks pretty unusual for most people.
Comma in calculations is very common in Europe. We don't have decimal points and that's sad because it's just better. But it's good review and keep up your work. :) Fan from Estonia.
It was a great meter but mine sadly died after 4 years. The rotten CE front panel failed excess load on the 3v3 rail. Had a look on the keysight spares site there have been three newer versions of PCA. Apparently the only way to fix it is to trade it in. Love the service and reliability Keysight - I bet it's world beating
I think the battery voltage going down at around 00:30 is because the battery is getting hotter from your finger holding it, not voltage going down due to 10Mohm load from the DMM. I have a HP3478, and playing around with a duracell 1.5 AAA battery, I noted the voltage goes does as temperature rises, something I really did not expected.
Great review. Great meter. AFAICT the number of samples is on the histogram view labelled Total on the left. Overnight there was a total of 145.5k samples (about 2.5/sec). [Thought experiment: the "Clear readings" button could have been implemented as two adjacent buttons pressed together to prevent accidental misery (there seemed to be space to do it and still have a gap to the other functions). Meh... who cares!]
I believe the reason why the amplitude output value from the RIGOL DG4 is different than both the AGILENT scope and the AGILENT DMM is due to the mismatch impedance settings between the devices. If one device is set @ 50 ohm out and another is not set @ 50 ohms in then maybe that is the reason. David Lee... just a thought
Hehehe in Spain we use decimal comas and i've never known why ... =) The point is used for the thounsand, million and so... 1.300,5 will be 1300.5 (1.300'5 is also commun) ^^
Nice review; what sort of added resistance does the plug-in probe accessory setup add? I would think for this sort of meter, it would be preferable to have probes which go directly to the meter, rather than plug in to the probes. I don't use a desktop meter, so perhaps there's a reason why this is not a concern.
Dave, I tried teespring website to purchase the Op Amp T-shirt, but they are not offering it any longer. Could you please let me know if you have any extras which can be shipped to California?... Thank you for your help.
I like what I see in this multimeter. I hope that now that it is Keysight Technologies nothing changed. The software looks to be better then the software that is available for other brands of meters.
Hi Dave, Great video, a REAL shame they have not included dual measurement with sooo many features in there including the huge screen. I wouldn't buy it only because of that. Cheers!
@11:10 Dave - a 'coma' is what some folk might fall into whilst watching a multimeter review video, though it's hard to understand how that could happen. A comma is what separates one's hundreds from one's thousands, or one's phrases. The double consonant is the clue. :-) It makes the preceding vowel sound short, e.g. the 'i' sounds in written vs writing, or the 'o' sounds in comma vs coma. :-D However, the real question is, will this meter (or the 34465A) help me diagnose my faulty equipment and should I buy one?
Thanks for the review! This has really helped me with the bench equipment purchase I've been discussing on the forum. Now I hope you have a review of the Rigol since those are the two meters I'm considering. Capacity testing is important to me, but I love the big screen on the Agilent. It is going to be about $335.95 more than the quote I got for the Rigol though. Hmmm... what to do.
Wire resistance is probably around 10-20 milliohms or less for that length of wire. Thats in the noise when measuring a 1k standard. If it was a 1 ohm standard you you would want 4 wire.
Hi I think I saw a Keythley 2015 THD in the Background. Is it for sale? I am looking for one of the Instruments. For RoHS resons they are not available in Europe. Greets from Austria to Australia
lol... this is a tool for some serious engineers developers, not for finding a short on a circuit board. I have no idea why he is even reviewing this thing, nobody would spend that money for just a shop bench multi-meter
@@mikem4432 Serious engineers watch TH-cam videos, too. Besides, even if they didn't, some people like fancy test gear-even if they don't really need it. If you've got the money and enjoy your hobby a whole lot, it's not hard to splurge on something like this. It's no different than people spending extra on a big, fancy TV, an overpowered gaming PC, a higher-end car or the like.
get rid of that black bar and I'll buy it. I get that its part of the menu and I get that it could be a nuisance to have the menu pop over the display, but I see them resize the display for other things. Why not for the pop out menus?
I have the new dark theme version of this and let me tell you, @KeysightLabs has not fixed any of these problems in the last 10 years. The terrible file management, the barely usable screenshot feature, no timestamps when you export readings to CSV, the bar graph starting from the left edge of the screen instead of the 0 position, the Java based VXI tools (granted they have added a rudimentary virtual front panel that works in modern browsers), using MTP for file transfer, it's all still there in 2024. Maybe the entire software team quit due to having to work with Windows embedded CE and they can't find anyone willing to take a look. That would be understandable.
Hey Dave, I want to make a request. Can you do a teardown of a Siemens PLC? Preferably the S7-300 or similar. After what I have heard, they are the most popular industrial PLCs out there. They are used a lot by the company which I work at this summer, but by another department. I try to suck up as much information as I can, but I haven't got the chance to work with them. Pretty please? ;)
Just because it's WinCE doesn't mean it's virus immune. Any OS can potentially contain vulnerabilities, this is quite well exemplified by network printers being taken over. It's not what OS it runs, just a function of complexity and budget for security. If you want something to be highly secure you have to dedicate most of your effort to security (like OpenBSD.)
At 10:30 the display setup provides setting Decimal Pt and Separator. Unfortunately these indicate "Period" and "Space" - the current setting. Since we can already see what the current setting is, this seems redundant and a bit confusing since you don't know what pressing the button will give you. Looks like a compromise was made for consistency in the U/I expectations. As for the boot time, welcome to Windows. If this meter were running Linux, it would be able to boot up in far less time. I have an embedded linux with a full Debian build that boots in 10 seconds. You say that CE is different than standard windows. In some respects, but it uses a registry, has the same basic kernel, and is subject to poor performance and horrendous development and debug complexity.
1:10 I'd like to think that this is at least partially thanks to your endless rants Dave. You are starting to drive the narrative. Next time let's get the names of these people before the brand, or even better let's get them talking about their design. You have done that last one and it was brilliant.
How to unmount the USB stick after writing a screen capture? On a PC you have to do this to avoid the risk of bricking your USB stick. Can you save in Excel or text data as well? Screenshot as such seems more valuable for a scope, but not for a DMM.
The top "10" at 1:04:11 should obviously be 10.000 1. I'm guessing a small bug in the display loop. Call 'em, and see what they say. Yeah, my comment is 6 months late. Sorry.
TBH, I am not impressed, Agilent should be thinking of everything being so long in the game, maybe its because competition is thin relative to other markets.
I see you testing all these multi meters and there so good that it actualy makes me quite jealos. mainly because im using a handykit mk601 look it up its garbage
"I'll wrap it up as quickly as possible." --> Goes on for 20 more minutes.
Gotta love this guy. :D
Licenses (at the moment) are for LAN on 34460A and NISPOM erase on both models
The more I see this video the more I want one of those 34461A. Thanks Dave!
David Lee
Awesome meter. At work I have a $3500 meter I use. It’s handheld and geared towards the automotive industry. But it does have a 2 channel lab scope on it along with guided component test for 49 car manufacturers with over 12 million guided procedures on it. Tells you where the component is and gives you the schematic and has guided test for all the different modules and sensors. I use it all the time at home for my good meter when I build Arduino projects and have countless hand held meters from Fluke to Harbor Freight. Even have a couple of radio shack ones. My very first meter was when I was 7 it was an analog meter for voltage and resistance had a continuity function also. But you couldn’t test anything that was voltage sensitivity because it sent straight battery current for the continuity test. I learned really quick I needed something different since that meter was frying components. Got my first DVOM and haven’t looked back always trying to get the next thing. I wonder if a octopus box will work with my 2ch meter? Gonna build one and try it out.
Was time upgrade my current 6.5 digit meter. Just ordered this meter today. Excellent review without me having to do the work ;) Thanks Dave.
Great video thanks for the review. I was thinking about buying one of these but now I think I will. Great features.
Keep up the great work on the site.
This is absurd... every time I'm about to go to bed, you post a video. Now I'm at the point that there isn't even a point of going to bed. Thanks.
Humans are not ready for that information yet Dave
What a big difference in the review when you read the instructions. What a difference!
On my 34401A i use the option to turn the display off for long automated measurements so the VFD wont wear out so quick.
The security code for most Agilent stuff is simply the model number with sometimes AT in front of it. (AT as in Agilent Technologies)
In Europe the comma is used for the decimal point and the period for the separator. Wikipedia even has a world map on what is used where.
Maybe huge range for limits is for when you use external attenuators & maths mode?
Thanks Dave, another in depth review.
I agree that some of the control functions leave a lot to be desired.
All in all looks like a nice piece of kit.
I'll have to start saving my pennies.
Awesome Dave. As usual I feel that I should be paying you for these videos.
My goodness I want to watch all the videos right now!
Great review. I am from Switzerland and we are indeed using a decimal comma instead of a decimal point. But I can understand it looks pretty unusual for most people.
Comma in calculations is very common in Europe. We don't have decimal points and that's sad because it's just better.
But it's good review and keep up your work. :)
Fan from Estonia.
It was a great meter but mine sadly died after 4 years.
The rotten CE front panel failed excess load on the 3v3 rail. Had a look on the keysight spares site there have been three newer versions of PCA. Apparently the only way to fix it is to trade it in. Love the service and reliability Keysight - I bet it's world beating
Awesome video, just enough to get my eevblog fix for the day :)
cant wait for more eevblog.
Thanks for the review.
I think the license is for
"Enable NISPOM and File Security for Truevolt Series DMMs"
I think the battery voltage going down at around 00:30 is because the battery is getting hotter from your finger holding it, not voltage going down due to 10Mohm load from the DMM.
I have a HP3478, and playing around with a duracell 1.5 AAA battery, I noted the voltage goes does as temperature rises, something I really did not expected.
Auto mode probably just hides the intermediate readings and waits for a full integration cycle before displaying.
Don't be sorry it is so long. Awesome video! :D
Also doesn't work for my website blog post of course.
Great review. Great meter.
AFAICT the number of samples is on the histogram view labelled Total on the left. Overnight there was a total of 145.5k samples (about 2.5/sec).
[Thought experiment: the "Clear readings" button could have been implemented as two adjacent buttons pressed together to prevent accidental misery (there seemed to be space to do it and still have a gap to the other functions). Meh... who cares!]
It will be a Keysight Technologies 34461A from now on :)
Can someone explain the uncertainty of this multimeter right now? Please. I don´t understand the specifications (only for Voltage and current)
I believe the reason why the amplitude output value from the RIGOL DG4 is different than both the AGILENT scope and the AGILENT DMM is due to the mismatch impedance settings between the devices. If one device is set @ 50 ohm out and another is not set @ 50 ohms in then maybe that is the reason. David Lee... just a thought
Anyone know if the 34470 has that touch hold feature? Looks super handy.
I agree. If there is nothing there, expand the window.
windows ce "total different beast" total different errors?
Hmm now I want one, I have a Agilent DMM (U1241A) but it's a pretty slow meter especially on continuity checking
:->
The intention was to leave out the software stuff for another video.
They will both take some time to learn, but KiCAD doesn't have any limitations like the free version of Eagle.
Hehehe in Spain we use decimal comas and i've never known why ... =)
The point is used for the thounsand, million and so...
1.300,5 will be 1300.5 (1.300'5 is also commun)
^^
Nice review; what sort of added resistance does the plug-in probe accessory setup add? I would think for this sort of meter, it would be preferable to have probes which go directly to the meter, rather than plug in to the probes. I don't use a desktop meter, so perhaps there's a reason why this is not a concern.
Rigol DM3068 With the "any sensor" function option, on my shopping list.
Dave, I tried
teespring website to purchase the Op Amp T-shirt, but they are not offering it any longer. Could you please let me know if you have any extras which can be shipped to California?... Thank you for your help.
Didn't the 34410A (the "ten") replace the '01?
I like what I see in this multimeter. I hope that now that it is Keysight Technologies nothing changed. The software looks to be better then the software that is available for other brands of meters.
Ah, didn't know that, thanks.
Hi Dave,
Great video, a REAL shame they have not included dual measurement with sooo many features in there including the huge screen. I wouldn't buy it only because of that. Cheers!
Can you make a video comparing UNI-T UT8805E with Siglent SDM3055 with Keysight Agilentkeysight 34461a ?
That's a sweet "beet'a'keet" as Dave would say
@11:10 Dave - a 'coma' is what some folk might fall into whilst watching a multimeter review video, though it's hard to understand how that could happen. A comma is what separates one's hundreds from one's thousands, or one's phrases. The double consonant is the clue. :-) It makes the preceding vowel sound short, e.g. the 'i' sounds in written vs writing, or the 'o' sounds in comma vs coma. :-D However, the real question is, will this meter (or the 34465A) help me diagnose my faulty equipment and should I buy one?
To complete the comparison it needs Dave to wrestle to the floor an angry multimeter. :D
What's the point of the quick test if the full test completes in 2 seconds? lol
Someone did the calc once, but I can't remember
Thanks for the review! This has really helped me with the bench equipment purchase I've been discussing on the forum. Now I hope you have a review of the Rigol since those are the two meters I'm considering. Capacity testing is important to me, but I love the big screen on the Agilent. It is going to be about $335.95 more than the quote I got for the Rigol though. Hmmm... what to do.
is the battery discharging? or is the oven warming up? it takes from 1hr to 2hrs to get it ready
50:40 High precision resistance reference without 4 wire setup ? Dave, are you sure ?
Wire resistance is probably around 10-20 milliohms or less for that length of wire. Thats in the noise when measuring a 1k standard. If it was a 1 ohm standard you you would want 4 wire.
"Get medieval on its ass.." Awesome! A phrase that needs to be used more often in electrical engineering.
The hold feature dose it work with other massager mode like diod mode ?
That 200 some odd count was power on cycles I'm fairly sure
Nice review, thanks.
Hi
I think I saw a Keythley 2015 THD in the Background.
Is it for sale?
I am looking for one of the Instruments.
For RoHS resons they are not available in Europe.
Greets from Austria to Australia
can someone give me schematics for lab power supply but not with lt3080 since i cant find it in my country
Nice review!....lol, everytime you say "3 double 4 6 1 a", I think of "6 double 5 3 2 1" (how's that for a movie reference?)
This looks strangely similar to a Siglent SDM3055. Greetings from Arizona.
Ha, about the same here! I think these are 'bench multimeters', which are supposed to be more accurate and provide more functions, I think.
Does seem a little bit of overkill using such a pricy high precision instrument to measure a 9v battery.
+rpavlik1 -- duh. yes.
lol... this is a tool for some serious engineers developers, not for finding a short on a circuit board. I have no idea why he is even reviewing this thing, nobody would spend that money for just a shop bench multi-meter
@@mikem4432 you'd easily use this in production, to check for... shorts on PCBs, in an automated way
@@mikem4432 Serious engineers watch TH-cam videos, too. Besides, even if they didn't, some people like fancy test gear-even if they don't really need it. If you've got the money and enjoy your hobby a whole lot, it's not hard to splurge on something like this. It's no different than people spending extra on a big, fancy TV, an overpowered gaming PC, a higher-end car or the like.
no analog scale? like most handheld multimeters?
get rid of that black bar and I'll buy it. I get that its part of the menu and I get that it could be a nuisance to have the menu pop over the display, but I see them resize the display for other things. Why not for the pop out menus?
KiCAD is good if you want open source. Eagle is also free for personal use.
Love the movie message
I have the new dark theme version of this and let me tell you, @KeysightLabs has not fixed any of these problems in the last 10 years. The terrible file management, the barely usable screenshot feature, no timestamps when you export readings to CSV, the bar graph starting from the left edge of the screen instead of the 0 position, the Java based VXI tools (granted they have added a rudimentary virtual front panel that works in modern browsers), using MTP for file transfer, it's all still there in 2024.
Maybe the entire software team quit due to having to work with Windows embedded CE and they can't find anyone willing to take a look. That would be understandable.
Would this (cat II) work for testing tube amps? Thanks
Hey Dave, I want to make a request. Can you do a teardown of a Siemens PLC? Preferably the S7-300 or similar. After what I have heard, they are the most popular industrial PLCs out there. They are used a lot by the company which I work at this summer, but by another department. I try to suck up as much information as I can, but I haven't got the chance to work with them. Pretty please? ;)
Yeah, I like the two button push idea. Way too easy to push this by mistake and kill a weeks worth of logging.
That USB thing is almost a deal-breaker
was that my pic on your pc wallpaper?
Just because it's WinCE doesn't mean it's virus immune. Any OS can potentially contain vulnerabilities, this is quite well exemplified by network printers being taken over. It's not what OS it runs, just a function of complexity and budget for security. If you want something to be highly secure you have to dedicate most of your effort to security (like OpenBSD.)
What would bee today's replacement - newer - bench meter? 7.5 digits? Thanks for so much details you tell us!
The 34470A is in the same family but 7.5 digits. Retail = $4370.
Thumbs up for the extra long video!
I don't need a 6 1/2 digit meter (yet) but I get that craving after watching this video. Gah!
Same here mate!
At 10:30 the display setup provides setting Decimal Pt and Separator. Unfortunately these indicate "Period" and "Space" - the current setting. Since we can already see what the current setting is, this seems redundant and a bit confusing since you don't know what pressing the button will give you. Looks like a compromise was made for consistency in the U/I expectations.
As for the boot time, welcome to Windows.
If this meter were running Linux, it would be able to boot up in far less time. I have an embedded linux with a full Debian build that boots in 10 seconds.
You say that CE is different than standard windows. In some respects, but it uses a registry, has the same basic kernel, and is subject to poor performance and horrendous development and debug complexity.
No, I took the photo.
1:10
I'd like to think that this is at least partially thanks to your endless rants Dave. You are starting to drive the narrative. Next time let's get the names of these people before the brand, or even better let's get them talking about their design. You have done that last one and it was brilliant.
I believe the "," is a comma and not a coma....
Turns out that doesn't work for the logged in video owner, only for viewers. But that's ok.
I thought it was an oscilloscope until 40 minutes in lol
How to unmount the USB stick after writing a screen capture? On a PC you have to do this to avoid the risk of bricking your USB stick. Can you save in Excel or text data as well? Screenshot as such seems more valuable for a scope, but not for a DMM.
I have to save my pennies, because, wait for it !!
I can't do that YET Dave.
p.s. I know, enough corn to feed an army.
Oh man this should be good.
The top "10" at 1:04:11 should obviously be 10.000 1. I'm guessing a small bug in the display loop. Call 'em, and see what they say. Yeah, my comment is 6 months late. Sorry.
Boot up time on my brand new 34461A: 28 seconds.
oh, it's got one but it doesn't work (see 54:00) - "hopeless"
Yeah I've used that its good.
DaveCAD
the 33465 has the capacitance measurements
As of ~2015, so did the 33461A (it was a firmware update, oddly enough)
Oh i see what you did there. XD
11:30 In Germany, you would have the comma there. (Edit: Never mind)
I got a 6.5 digit keithley for $300 on ebay; check out Shariar's collection on thesignalpath -- he repairs most of his gear I think.
Thumbs up if you liked the -1K Ohm on a bar graph at 53:32 :)
Guilty ... from Denmark, the notation is:
123.456.789,1 ... so comma
at first I thought this was an osciloscope took me 3 minutes to realize it was a multimeter whoops
IN the US, we call it the 34461A-- we don't use the "double "thing.
I don’t need it but I want one ;)
TBH, I am not impressed, Agilent should be thinking of everything being so long in the game, maybe its because competition is thin relative to other markets.
I see you testing all these multi meters and there so good that it actualy makes me quite jealos. mainly because im using a handykit mk601 look it up its garbage