Many tents at World Maker Faire were divided up into booths for companies and various projects. In one of these tents, we found the Voltset booth. [Tom, Ran, and Michael] were on hand to show off their device and answer any questions. Voltset is essentially a multimeter which uses your phone as a display. It connects to an Android phone via USB or an optional Bluetooth module.
Now we’d be a bit worried about the risk of damaging our phones with a voltmeter electrically connected via USB. However, many people have an old phone or retired tablet kicking around these days, which would be perfect for the Voltset. The Bluetooth module alleviates this problem, too – though it doesn’t fix the issue of what happens to the multimeter when someone decides to call.
Voltset isn’t new; both the Voltset team and the similarly specced Mooshimeter were also at World Maker Faire last year. In the interim, Voltset has had a very successful Kickstarter. The team is accepting pre-orders to be shipped after the Kickstarter backers are sent their rewards.
[Tom] told us that the team is currently redesigning their hardware. The next generation prototype board with more protection can be seen in the far right of the top photo. He also mentioned that they’re shooting for 5 digits of accuracy, placing them on par with many bench scopes. We’re skeptical to say the least about 5 digits, but the team is definitely putting their all into this product. We’ll wait until the Kickstarter backers start getting their final devices to see if Voltset is everything it’s cracked up to be.
“…though it doesn’t fix the issue of what happens to the multimeter when someone decides to call.”
I think this was solved a while ago. Most android custom roms allow you to set this behaviour. I use SlimKat on my S3 and whenever the phone is not idle and I am in an app, calls show up as notifications in the bar. To answer I have to drag down the notification bar. Then I can answer, reply with text or reject without leaving my app.
Not just custom roms either. Touchwiz has a similar functionality built in these days, and I bet Motorola has very similar thing too.
Honestly though, how often do you get called while using a normal multimeter?
All the friggin time during working hours.
Me too. that’s why there is airplane mode
4 years ago i put an atmega and a ($60) bluetooth module in somthing we had to monitor all the time with a half ass android program to monitor voltage and now they have extremely well protected multimeters with bluetooth for under $100? … amazing, but not somthing i would buy for everyday use
Im sorry, 150 bucks for a multimeter?
Ill just stick to my 20 bucks one thank you, it works without a phone, and i could also read it in the dark if i ever wanted too.
Dont see the added value of this using a phone, and dont see why the price is so ridicilous, people back anything on kickstarter these days.
Also, @onebiozz, not sure where you got the price of a 100 bucks, but just reading the pic makes me come to a total of 200 bucks for a bluetooth enabled one, and then you’ll still need a phone to use it.
Let me know when somebody integrates a multimeter into a phone, then i might be interested.
“Ill just stick to my 20 bucks one thank you”
Maybe you should look at what happens when those $20 multi meters explode in your hand? No, what you get for $20 isn’t on the same continent, much less the same ball park as my $110 Brymen BM257, or my Fluke 117.
I could use my multimeters in the dark, accidentally make contact with a tri-phase circuit while measuring resistance, and not have to worry about an explosion. You don’t have that luxury for $20.
The price isn’t ridiculous, you are ignorant on this subject and running your mouth, THAT is ridiculous.
Your last comment sorta proves my point. By not having the multi-meter integrated into the phone, if there is a failure while you are testing a high energy circuit, you don’t destroy your smart phone.
But please, stick to your $20 multi-meter, say hi to Darwin for me…
I find the price somewhat steep , when you can buy a multimeter with most features for under 50$, except for the data logging part
Logging is the only thing I can think of that merits the price.
Are decent LCD’s that hard to find, buy, use?
For a basic multimeter, wouldn’t a basic 2-line character LCD module be plenty? Adafruit sells them for about $10: http://www.adafruit.com/product/181
Bigger ones with a touch screen still cost less than $30: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1770
Phones are getting cheaper, but they’re still not THAT cheap. I think I prefer a self-contained multimeter, thank you.
oh nice, a multimeter for 200$ with all the bugs that a modern android phone have….why should i pay something ? oh…logging ?
what i pay for a rigol ??
price is ridiculous
$50 multimeter with data port + ~$50 for bluetooth-to-serial bridge gives you same thing + normal multimeter
Pre-Order ???? I’ll pass. Lets see if this over priced gadget actually ships anywhere close to the announced date of April 2015. I’m soooooooooooo very tired of being asked to fund someones hobby.(and by hobby I mean failed business model).
For a 5 digit DMM that can handle multi-kilovolts due to galvanic isolation (Bluetooth), $200 is dirt cheap.
Not sure where people are getting the idea that this is expensive for a multi-meter. I paid $120 for mine, and glad I did as I’ve never ran into problems with it. We’ve gone through too many 20-30$ meters here at work, mostly from quality control issues with the meters that just give up after a year (3 different manufacturers). You get what you pay for though I guess. I wonder how many would complain if Fluke’s wireless set was this cheap.
My impression talking with the team at makers faire was that these guys are making a meter that is is able to measure down to microamps and up to 1Mhz frequency, which is a pretty good quality meter. I liked that their emphasis was more on the software than on the hardware, which is where I see the most potential.
Since Voltset is still in design phase, they can say whatever they want.
http://www.keysight.com/en/pd-692679-pn-34411A/digital-multimeter-6-digit-enhanced-performance?cc=US&lc=eng
A $2200, benchtop Keysight 34411A Digital Multimeter has the following specs:
50,000 readings/sec. @ 4 1/2 digits to the PC
1M reading memory
Analog level and pre/post triggering
wow, that is quite a comparison up to a 2200 dollar meter..
I guess at the end of the day, it is to be judged by the product we will get in our hands.
Projects like these only have one real shot at getting it right, if they ship a crap product, they will be branded forever :)
I hope they will do their best, as I backed one for myself.