Do not buy the Keithley 2100 DVM

[Neil Kalo]

I just saw another post about this meter, from some poor sod who had
bought one. I cannot post a reply as the thread it too old.

DO NOT BUY THE KEITHLEY 21000

It is the most disappointing device I have ever bought. It promises so
much, and delivers so little.

I was moved to write a few notes about it, but my review doesn't show
up in Google so people are still buying this cheap meter. It may be
half the cost of a fluke, but it is worth only 10%.

You can see my comments here:

http://neilkalo.googlepages.com/keithley2100

 

[Martin Griffith]

I just saw another post about this meter, from some poor sod who had
bought one. I cannot post a reply as the thread it too old.

DO NOT BUY THE KEITHLEY 21000

It is the most disappointing device I have ever bought. It promises so
much, and delivers so little.

I was moved to write a few notes about it, but my review doesn't show
up in Google so people are still buying this cheap meter. It may be
half the cost of a fluke, but it is worth only 10%.

You can see my comments here:

http://neilkalo.googlepages.com/keithley2100

It must have been programmed in PL/M


martin

 

[[email protected]]

I just saw another post about this meter, from some poor sod who had
bought one. I cannot post a reply as the thread it too old.

DO NOT BUY THE KEITHLEY 21000

It is the most disappointing device I have ever bought. It promises so
much, and delivers so little.

I was moved to write a few notes about it, but my review doesn't show
up in Google so people are still buying this cheap meter. It may be
half the cost of a fluke, but it is worth only 10%.

You can see my comments here:

http://neilkalo.googlepages.com/keithley2100

And yet my Keithley 177, (cost a fiver two years ago!) is the best
DVM I've ever used.
Probably 'cos it's uses those big, bright, red LED thingies to display
numbers and numbers only and it's got a whole row of those clickey,
interlocked, mechanical, selector switch do-dahs and it can be zeroed
using a mechanical device called a pot' and it does real microvolts
and (even better ) I never had to read one of those damned "operating
manual" things.

 

[Neil Kalo]

OK, I won't buy one.

Sorry to shout, but I was furious!

 

[Neil Kalo]

It's a Chinese rebrand. The hardware seems good, but the firmware is
absolutely brain-damaged, and the engineers at Keithley are powerless
to fix it.

I have 4 of them. No Keithley, ever again.

John

The original instrument seems to be here:

http://www.array.com.cn/M3500A.htm

But it has more features (including themocouple temperature and GPIB).

It's so sad that the hardware seems great, but the firmware is a
disaster. This must be tarnishing the Keithley brand. I will never buy
anything from them again.

 

[Scott Newell]

It's a Chinese rebrand. The hardware seems good, but the firmware is
absolutely brain-damaged, and the engineers at Keithley are powerless
to fix it.

I have 4 of them. No Keithley, ever again.

Do you know which micro it uses? I'm wondering if it would
be possible to reprogram with custom firmware. Of course, if
Keithley can't fix it...

 

[[email protected]]

http://neilkalo.googlepages.com/keithley2100

It's a Chinese rebrand. The hardware seems good, but the firmware is
absolutely brain-damaged, and the engineers at Keithley are powerless
to fix it.

I have 4 of them. No Keithley, ever again.

With nothing to loose maybe one could make shoot at trying some own
firmware?
If it becomes bricked it can be used a doorstop

 

[JosephKK]

With nothing to loose maybe one could make shoot at trying some own
firmware?
If it becomes bricked it can be used a doorstop

I like that line of thought, but the reverse engineering cost is going
to atrocious. I could buy many Chinese made Flukes or other
copy/knock-offs for that amount of money.

 

[Glen Walpert]

I'd rather try to embarass Keithley into fixing their own hideous user
interface.

If they had any sense, they would send every 2100 owner a 2 Gig USB
memory stick. On it would be the necessary firmware upgrades to make
the damned thing usable. The instructions would say...

1. Plug stick into the 2100's USB slot

2. Power up the 2100

3. Keep the memory stick, with our apologies for your inconvenience.

Of course, they won't do anything like that, partially because they
don't know how, partially because they don't care.

It seems they have figured out what to do with them; extracted from an
email advertisement:
-----------
Keithley’s Model 2100 6½-Digit USB DMM. Every lab could use one. But
sometimes you want to set voltage and/or current when making
resistance measurements. You could turn to either:

* Keithley’s Model 2400 SourceMeter Instrument, or
* Model 6517 Electrometer/High Resistance Meter

Can’t afford a DMM and one of these instruments? Yes, you can!

From now through September 30, 2008, purchase one of these
instruments and get a Model 2100 6½-Digit USB DMM at no extra cost!*

But hurry! This offer ends September 30, 2008. Order now for fastest
delivery!
----------------

 

[Ben Bradley]

I just saw another post about this meter, from some poor sod who had
bought one. I cannot post a reply as the thread it too old.

You cannot reply because you're using Google Groups to interface to
Usenet, and Google Groups finally fixed that problem of Thread
Necro-whatever.

Read up on Usenet newsgroups (even google.com indexes webpages on
it) and how they are not the same as "Google Groups." Newsgroups are a
lot easier and faster to read and write with a news reader.

DO NOT BUY THE KEITHLEY 21000

It is the most disappointing device I have ever bought. It promises so
much, and delivers so little.

I was moved to write a few notes about it, but my review doesn't show
up in Google so people are still buying this cheap meter.

And even if it did, not everyone checks Google before buying
something...geez.

 

[JW]

I turned mine on this morning and all it does is beep continuously and
show this:

ftp://66.117.156.8/Stupid_2100.JPG

I'm actually relieved... I can finally dumpster the piece-o-crap.

Really? I'll take it off your hands - The VFD may be good for repairing
some of their other models. What do you want for it?

 

[Jim Yanik]

Yep. But that's like old Tektronix stuff versus the new crap :-(

...Jim Thompson

What really bugs me,a 21+ yr. TEK employee(ex-TEK now...),is their
eliminating component-level circuit schematics from their "service"
manuals.

DAMN those TEK beancounters/upper management!

you can't believe how much "well,H-P doesn't do that" crap from management.

I wonder if Danaher will turn them around? Doubtful.

 

[AnimalMagic]

I solved the problem:

ftp://66.117.156.8/KeithleyFix.jpg

ftp://66.117.156.8/MadeInUSA.JPG

John

Big mistake, John.

You are giving access to the entire directory.

 

[JosephKK]

ftp://66.117.156.8/Stupid_2100.JPG

Send it to me please. I want to "crawl" through it and see what
oddball tricks they used.