{"id":131,"date":"2016-03-10T13:22:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T21:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleytest.com\/?p=131"},"modified":"2021-05-26T16:44:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T23:44:28","slug":"u1282a-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleytest.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/10\/u1282a-features\/","title":{"rendered":"Interesting Features of the Keysight U1282A Multimeter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Keysight U1282A has generated a number of reviews (eg here<\/a>) but I thought it would be helpful to take a deep dive into the operators manual and clear up a few misconceptions. This meter has a remarkable number of features which once set up allow the meter to adapt to a wide variety of test environments and operator styles. The downside is that a careful reading of the manual is warranted but once that’s done the effort will be well rewarded.<\/p>\n

Activating Setup
\nSetup is activated by depressing the Esc-Shift key while turning the rotary switch from off to any other position. The resulting menu and options are elaborate but the settings are non-volatile so unless your needs\/preferences are frequently changing, one trip through the menu should last you a while. Each of the menu items is described below just to give you an idea of the functionality. \u00a0Actual setup instructions are best obtained from the manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Autohold and Smooth\u00a0Variation Count
\nThis value sets the band inside of which the U1282A considers the reading stable. \u00a0When a reading exceeds this value the autohold feature will be ready to trigger again and the smooth feature will start to count down to the next refresh.<\/p>\n

Enable Smooth Mode
\nThis setting actually enables smoothing and allows you to set the time period between reads to obtain a stable reading from a noisy signal.<\/p>\n

Auto Power-Off and keypad backlight timeout period
\nAs the name implies allows you to set these timeouts from disabled to 15 minutes for the timeout and disabled to 15 seconds for the display. Also interesting to note is that the auto power-off feature is automatically disabled during logging.<\/p>\n

Select Data Logging Option
\nThere are 3 logging modes that can be set here: manual log (triggered by a button press or the optional Remote Switch Probes), interval log (fixed interval from 1 to 99999 seconds), or event log (triggers when hold is pressed, when the input signal changes by more than the deviation count, when a new minimum or maximum is recorded, or when a new peak value is recorded). Interval and event logging can go on simultaneously however they use the same 10,000 point memory.<\/p>\n

Some other less significant setup options<\/p>\n