Cheap digital calipers are notriously quirky and its hard to trust them. So I've been looking for something thats good to recommend where a Mitutoyo is out of budget I landed on this "Shane" brand and did some tests tldr; its good, worth the 20$ More details below s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_EzbLWvs - ThreadSky

timonsku.zip • 34 days ago

Cheap digital calipers are notriously quirky and its hard to trust them.
So I've been looking for something thats good to recommend where a Mitutoyo is out of budget

I landed on this "Shane" brand and did some tests
tldr; its good, worth the 20$
More details below

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_EzbLWvs

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Comments

timonsku.zip•34 days ago

Pushing the jaws of my Mitutoyo I got the same results within 0.01-0.02mm across the whole range. Repeatability was +/- 0.02mm.

It does not give wrong values when reaching low battery voltage (very common quirk) and has a visual battery low warning.

timonsku.zip•34 days ago

Only big downside is that it is always on, the ON/OFF button just turns the digits off, power consumption stays the same.
It uses 0.518uW which yields a battery life of pretty much exactly 6 months on a good CR2032 irrespective of use.
A Mitutoyo will last you almost a decade on an SR44.

timonsku.zip•34 days ago

*0.0518mW damnit
Well you can see the results in the screenshot.
Actually battery life is probably better, the CR2032 figure I read first seems very low. A lot actually state around 240mAh which would get you 1.6 years.

bikerglen.bsky.social•34 days ago

Got my Mitutoyo's in June 2014. Replaced the battery for the first time last month.

realtime.crt.video•34 days ago

i don't know how they do it, but the cheap ones from harbor freight will do a couple years on an lr44

titmou.se•34 days ago

yeah i always take the battery out of the cheap ones after use because of this

titmou.se•34 days ago

also fun fact they almost universally have a data export port on the top right of the case, some cases even have a lil tab you can slide off, others just have pins

but you can read em out digitally that way. wonderful for cheap linear encoders :p

timonsku.zip•34 days ago

yea this one has mini USB but somewhat was reporting it may not be actually USB but some cursed RS232 over USB connector thing

titmou.se•34 days ago

it might be yeah. I've made a force test bench out of one bolted to a bench vise before that way lol

ave.zone•23 days ago

thanks for all the cool gear tips lately

been meaning to upgrade from the cheap plastic ones (which are surprisingly ok tbh) for a while but didn't want to go for something really good + expensive, but got reasonably overwhelmed while trying to find a good option at aliexpress

ave.zone•23 days ago

p happy with the fact that it's a CR2032 btw, the plastic ones use some less-common ones and it's annoying to keep fresh ones around

piotr-elektronik.bsky.social•34 days ago

I also like Shahe calipers and other measuring tools. In the less used calipers I installed the little switch to turn them completely off. And I just accepted that I have to change the battery more often in the one I use regularly.

diebesbeute.bsky.social•34 days ago

Do they have to be new? Kleinanzeigen is a great source for used, but good. Avoid the knockoff Mitutoyos be searching for Sylvac, Tesa, Mahr, Atorn, etc.

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