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https://github.com/philpagel/ut8803e

Talking to a UNI-T UT8803 / UT8803E bench multimeter
https://github.com/philpagel/ut8803e

data-logging multimeter

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Talking to a UNI-T UT8803 / UT8803E bench multimeter

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README 

          
# Talking to a UNI-T UT8803E bench multimeter 



This is an implementation of the data protocol used by the UNI-T UT8803E

(or UT8803) bench multimeter.



# Status 



The software provides all functionality of the original vendor software (but

without a GUI) plus a few things that are not available in the windows program.

However, there are still a few status flags that seem to exist but I haven't

figured out their meaning, yet.



It has been tested successfully with a UT8803E on LINUX (Debian 12).



I think it should also work on MacOS or Windows, but that is untested.  If you

have successfully tested it on those systems, please let me know and I'll update

this statement.



# In a nutshell



Start logging data



    ut8803e log



Log to file

    

    ut8803e log > mydata.csv



Log for 30 seconds in JSON format



    ut8803e -f json -p 0:0:30 log



Log for 1.5 hours



    ut8803e -p 1:30:00 log



Get device-ID



    ut8803e get_ID



Toggle `hold`



    ut8803e hold



Change display brightness 



    ut8803e brightness



# Installation



From the latest release file, download an installable file (`ut8803e*.tar.gz` or 

`ut8803e*.whl`) and install it with `pip` or `pipx`.



## Prerequisites



First, you need to install the `hidapi` library. On a Debian system it is provided by two

different libraries, so you can do:



    apt install libhidapi-hidraw0

    

or



    apt install libhidapi-libusb0



If you are on Windows, you need to download the zip file from the latest

release on the [hidapi repository](https://github.com/libusb/hidapi) on github

and the following permission discussion does not apply. For MacOS, I have no

clue. Please let me know if you do.



When plugging in the device, it will show up as `/dev/usbhidraw*`, be 

owned by root and not accessible to regular users:



    $ ls -la /dev/hid*

    crw------- 1 root root 241, 0 Okt 12 17:15 /dev/hidraw0



So running the program as a regular user will fail. For initial testing, you can

run as root:



    sudo ut8803e



But it is not recommended to do that for productive use. Instead, you need to install 

a `udev` rule file that makes the device user accessible. Create a file 

[`/etc/udev/rules.d/50-CP2110-hid.rules`](50-CP2110-hid.rules) and put this into it:



    # Make CP2110 usb hid devices user read/writeable

    KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="10c4", ATTRS{idProduct}=="ea80", MODE="0666“



Or just copy the file provided in this repository.



After re-plugging the multimeter, it should appear like this:



    $ ls -la /dev/hid*

    crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 241, 0 Okt 12 17:15 /dev/hidraw0



So now, regular users can read from and write to it.



## Install using `pipx` (recommended)



The recommended way of installing is `pipx`. If you don't already have that,

you need to install it, too:



    apt install pipx



Now, you can run

    

    pipx install ut8803e-*.tar.gz 



or

    

    pipx install ut8803e-*.whl 



## Install using `pip` and `venv` (more involved)



If you use `pip`, instead, you will most likely need to create a venv, first:



    python3 -m venv .venv

    source .venv/bin/activate

    python3 -m pip install ut8803e-*.tar.gz 



You will need to repeat the `source` part to activate the venv whenever you 

coma back and want to run the program.



# Usage



This is a simple command line tool that takes exactly on argument and supports a

few options:



    Usage: ut8803e [OPTIONS] CMD



      Commands:



          log             start logging data



          get_ID          get instrument id



          brightness      change display brightness (3 steps)



          select          press `select` button



          range_manual    switch to next manual range



          range_auto      set auto range



          minmax          set/toggle min/max mode



          exitminmax      exit min/max mode



          rel             set relative mode



          d_val           capacitor D value



          q_val           inductance Q value



          r_val           inductance/capacitor resistance



          exit_dqr        exit DQR mode



    Options:

      -p, --period TEXT       Length of logging period [HH:MM:SS]. Max period: 23:59:59

      -i, --interval INTEGER  Logging interval [s]

      -f, --format TEXT       Logging data format (csv/json/reversing)

      --full                  show value even if ERR or OL app



Most commands act the exact same way as pressing the respective button

on the instrument. 



Logging data is printed in to `STDOUT` in `csv` format, by default.  You can

also get JSON records with `--format json`. Finally, there is `--format

reversing` which will log binary and hex data of the status record. This is

intended for reverse engineering additional features or adding support for other

models.



and can be

redirected to a file using the facilities of your operation system or shell.

E.g. `ut8803e/py log > data.csv` on LINUX.



Warnings and Debugging information are printed to `STDERR`.



# Protocol reverse engineering



If you are interested in how I went about figuring out the communication

protocol, have a look at my [blog

post](https://techbotch.org/blog/ut8803e-bench-meter/index.html#ut8803e-bench-meter)

covering that. Sorry – only in German right now.



# Contributing



If you are interested to contribute, please open an issue that clearly

describes the change, feature or bugfix that you would like to suggest. Please do not

submit pull requests without discussing the issue first.



The UNI-T programming manual suggests that there are at least two more status flags that

haven't been implemented, yet and that I do not understand:



* Series/Parallel (SER/PAL) in capacity and inductance mode. There are

  corresponding indicators on the LCD but I have no idea what that means.

* Over/underflow – again not sure what exactly that is supposed to be.

  

So if you know anything about that – get in touch.



The UNI-T documentation suggests that, with some modifications, this *may* work

with other models, too:



* UT8802/UT8802N

* UT632/UT632N

* UT803/UT803N

* UT804/UT804N



Unfortunately, I do not have access to any of those models so I may be wrong.

If you have one of them and are willing to help, please get in touch.