Having my FLuke 1652 die on me i needed a replacement and bought the KT65, i feel i must respond to the negative comments here as i feel they are a little harsh. My comments are in BLUE
The insulation resistance tests (even on new circuits) often take forever to settle and will slowly ramp up from half a Mega Ohm until finally reaching >1999 after about 30+ secs, other times it just displays immediately.
Having used the fluke which always seemed to take forever i find the insulation tests are comparable if not quicker than the fluke.
The psc and pfc are not auto selective, you have to push a button to tell it if the earth and Neutral are on the same point or not and if you dont - you get an error message.
This is the first meter i have used which allows a two probe test. I find no disadvantage of telling the instrument what test you need, it simply becomes part of the test procedure that ensures i have set the test selector correctly etc before i press the button.
In combination with the above the loop figure is not displayed on the same screen as the PSC/PFC tests so you have to do the test three times to get the psc, pfc and earth loop impedance figures needed and thats if you remember to push the earth / neutral changeover button thing.
OK i do agree this is a little frustrating, the Fluke did all three and displayed them at once.
Also the memory is not automatic and you have to remember to push mem after each test and then enter 'site'/ 'db no' / 'circuit no' or confirm the same settings as the last test then push it again to actually save the test. This doesn't actually save any time especially as you can't print certs from the software anyway but I`ve covered that below.
Again never had a machine with memory before, but i found it quite easy to operate. It remembers what site, DB, and circuit you last tested, so you just need to move circuit and press save.
The test button has a turn and lock button for repetative tests which is usefull but the button does need to be held in for over a second to get it to just do one test, a quick podge just cancels the test leaving you waiting for the test to complete. The FLuke was the same as this on all 'Dead' tests the button needs to be kept depressed for a reading, so i am used to this.
There is a 'noise' warning if the electrical current is a bit messy and you are meant to redo the test without the ATT (rcd proof testing) turned on but most of the time it's too sensitive and says noise for a couple of seconds then gives you the expected figure... if you haven't already turned it off to go and bypass the rcd.
I encountered this problem and it drove me crazy. Then i found out the main problem was actually the connection of the croc clips or probes on the terminals. Once i sorted out my clips and probes and made sure of the connections i have had no problems since.
Turnign of ATT is a waste of time, it just trips out the RCD unless its one of the old mechanical ones.
The biggest disappointment is the rubbish Kewreport software, which is not Win 7 compatible (I googled the programme number and found a chinese website (the programmers) to download a patch but as the site is mainly in chinese and they write software for lots of products it takes a while to figure it out).
Once you get the installer to work on your PC you need to figure out what `com port` your usb connection is on and select it from a drop down menu with 16 options (i think but a lot) then it analyses the port for about 5 minutes before saying nope it's the wrong port so you select the next one and try again.(It took me over half an hour because win 7 just calls it a generic usb port in the hardware manager and doesnt show you a number). I did later find a procedure for interrogating the computer to find the com port number but it was on one of the additional help sections after the main help file andf not in the install help section where I looked initially). BTW there is also a link to get the Win 7 patch but it is after all the help files on the `about` text file and its on pretty much the last page and not within the FAQ or common problems etc.
Having read this review i thought that the CD supplied with the tester would be useless so i went on to the manufacturers website to see about downloading the newest version of the software. the Kyoritsu (Kewtech manufacturer) website had a windows 7 version of the software which was the same as the one in the box. So i installed from the CD using the instructions supplied with the CD and all was good. While the installation was not as simple as some software (you need to install two extra drivers, but they are on the DC supplied)the instructions were clear and simple to follow and it worked first time.
If you actually get this far without giving up in discust the program will not actually generate certificates, it will not even talk to any other software to generate them either.
When you eventually get the PC to talk to the tester it just gives you a table with the results in the memory so you still have to enter everything into a certificate programme manually. I`ve been onto Kewtech technical and they helpfully informed me that they were working on a certificate programme but it's not due anytime soon but that some users have been able to save the info as a csv file and written their own certificate template in Excel and linked the data to display on their own template. Well good for them!
Unfortunately I`m not a computer programmer and whilst I use excel a fair bit but this is far too advanced for me to have confidence in the fact that the correct entries were being produced time after time, it would probably need macros and it would take absolutely ages.
I also agree that the software is very basic, however it does allow you to export the data as a .csv file which can be opened in Excel or any spreadsheet program. I then sorted the columns into order of site, fuseboard and circuit. All the circuit readings are then together and i can then type the info into my certification program.
No programming required, it took me less than 5 minutes to get the data for two 16 way fuseboards, transferred.
Maybe it's just me, but when you buy a tester that downloads to your PC into a custom programme called Kew Report then you would expect it to provide a report that can be used for the printing of certificates.
I know of no certification program that allows you to import the data from another scource, and even if the KEW report program did make certificates you would still have to insert circuit descriptions, protection devices wiring types etc,etc. So i personally do not see the issue of just typing all the data in at once.
What it does save time on is writing all the readings down, and carrying around paper and pens and the test gear! For me i see it as a time saver, although i am unsure how well it will work on a large board like a 16 way 3phase board. i will let you know in a couple of weeks if anyone is interested?
Is this Kewtechs best attempt to follow the excellent work done by the 'onsite' software developers??
A very poor knee jerk reaction to losing a foothold on the market, bordering on false advertising if you ask me.
Is there a tester with a memory that creates certificates?
Apart from the above the KT65 is a well made bit of kit small and easy to use but not as good as others I`ve tried.
comes with an oversizes padded bag and the actual instument case is nice tough abs type plastic with rubber feet so should survive the occasional drop though I haven't tested it (.....yet!).
My advice is buy something else.
It sounds like you had a nightmare and its always frustrating to spend this amount of money to find dissapointment after dissapointment, however i have found it quite the opposite. I have never used Martindale kit, so cannot comment on it of its ease of usein comparison, however i can say it is far superior to the FLuke i had.
The bag is probably too big, but it will carry all the leads and other bits and bobs you need for testing.
I would thoroughly recommend it as a multifunction.
