I'm not sure exactly how I stumbled across the Chinese vendor "Fande" (also seen as Fandeii) who makes(?) and sells digital pressure gauges - thought it was on here somewhere, but darn if I can find the thread now to reference.
I recently got my Haskel set up, and and in testing I noticed that the analog pressure gauge that was already on one of the whips I use was reading differently from what the output gauge on the Haskel was reading, so figured that replacing it (or at least getting another gauge to find out which one was wrong) was in order.
Fande is selling their "DR3730" 80mm digital gauge in a variety of ranges and connection sizes for about $35 shipped to the US. For that price I figured I'd give it a shot. I ordered the 0-40MPa range with a 1/4NPT fitting. The ordering process is where the first snafu occurred. They seem to support payment either direct bank transfer, or PayPal, and being American and not used to doing bank transfers, I tried PayPal. Apparently though something was messed up with their site and they were pointing to their sandbox account, which doesn't actually take payments. After a few days I got an email from them asking about the order. I mentioned the issue and they provided an address for Paypal that I was then able to use to send payment.
Hadn't heard anything in about a week after sending payment (no change in status in their online portal) so I emailed back - got a quick response that they had shipped the order, and a tracking number was supplied for a carrier I was not familiar with "Speedx". I was able to see it progress thru the system...
This is when snafu #2 happened. About a week after they shipped, their last-mile carrier delivered it - to my USPS (rural route) mailbox. Not being the USPS this is of course a big no-no. They sent great pics though of my mailbox, so I knew it was there! Wouldn't have been a problem except this was the day after we left town to do some diving in Florida, and although we had a mail hold in effect, the carrier delievered the accumulated mail on the day we returned home and apparently confiscated the package to return to sender. (I went in to our local post office that day and they checked the back, but it was apparently already gone.). This is apparently a common problem with this Speedx carrier.
So, emailed JIang again at Fande (Fandeii?) with the issue. We agreed to give it a couple of days to see if it turned up somewhere, and after about a week I let them know that it was not turning up. Generously, Jiang was quick to dispatch (at no cost to me) another guage, via a different carrier. This time the last-mile was handled by the USPS, and it arrived about 2 weeks after.
My initial impressions are that the gauge that I ordered is not intended for high-wear usage - it has a plastic case, which the back removes with a 1/8 turn to allow batteries to be installed. The back batch is o-ringed though so hopefully at last has some dust resistance. I have no way of telling how well the front face is sealed. The manual included with the gauge claims IP65 enclosure protection. Buttons are a membrane-style. Zero/Peak-hold, Units, and On/Off/Light. Units supported are kPA (which for some reason shows up in a red backlight), MPa, PSI, Bar, and kgf/cm2. Supposedly the gauge can be zeroed to whatever the existing pressure is, which might be useful like a tare function if you're adding multiple stages?
I replaced the suspect analog gauge and tied it into my fill panel which let me compare to the $400?+ Omega gauge that's on my fill manifold. (As I write this now I'm not sure why I didn't do that before to see how it compared to the suspect analog gauge but hey, it gave me an excuse to buy a new piece for my fill station). Pressures were basically identical, or within +-1PSI, so I'll call it good enough. The display is a little hard to read off-axis. I think I need to re-clock it on the fill whip to enable me to better position it for viewing when attached to a cylinder sitting on the floor.
The web site claims it's suitable for O2. I have no way to confirm this and as far as I know there's no real way to O2 clean these electronic sensors. A completely unscientific and unsuitable test of "wipe with a clean paper towel and smell the sensor threads" did not indicate an presence of oil residue.
Front face:
The guts:
Back panel:
The Omega gauge I was comparing to:
Haven't tried it with the Haskel yet, just with banked air.
I recently got my Haskel set up, and and in testing I noticed that the analog pressure gauge that was already on one of the whips I use was reading differently from what the output gauge on the Haskel was reading, so figured that replacing it (or at least getting another gauge to find out which one was wrong) was in order.
Fande is selling their "DR3730" 80mm digital gauge in a variety of ranges and connection sizes for about $35 shipped to the US. For that price I figured I'd give it a shot. I ordered the 0-40MPa range with a 1/4NPT fitting. The ordering process is where the first snafu occurred. They seem to support payment either direct bank transfer, or PayPal, and being American and not used to doing bank transfers, I tried PayPal. Apparently though something was messed up with their site and they were pointing to their sandbox account, which doesn't actually take payments. After a few days I got an email from them asking about the order. I mentioned the issue and they provided an address for Paypal that I was then able to use to send payment.
Hadn't heard anything in about a week after sending payment (no change in status in their online portal) so I emailed back - got a quick response that they had shipped the order, and a tracking number was supplied for a carrier I was not familiar with "Speedx". I was able to see it progress thru the system...
This is when snafu #2 happened. About a week after they shipped, their last-mile carrier delivered it - to my USPS (rural route) mailbox. Not being the USPS this is of course a big no-no. They sent great pics though of my mailbox, so I knew it was there! Wouldn't have been a problem except this was the day after we left town to do some diving in Florida, and although we had a mail hold in effect, the carrier delievered the accumulated mail on the day we returned home and apparently confiscated the package to return to sender. (I went in to our local post office that day and they checked the back, but it was apparently already gone.). This is apparently a common problem with this Speedx carrier.
So, emailed JIang again at Fande (Fandeii?) with the issue. We agreed to give it a couple of days to see if it turned up somewhere, and after about a week I let them know that it was not turning up. Generously, Jiang was quick to dispatch (at no cost to me) another guage, via a different carrier. This time the last-mile was handled by the USPS, and it arrived about 2 weeks after.
My initial impressions are that the gauge that I ordered is not intended for high-wear usage - it has a plastic case, which the back removes with a 1/8 turn to allow batteries to be installed. The back batch is o-ringed though so hopefully at last has some dust resistance. I have no way of telling how well the front face is sealed. The manual included with the gauge claims IP65 enclosure protection. Buttons are a membrane-style. Zero/Peak-hold, Units, and On/Off/Light. Units supported are kPA (which for some reason shows up in a red backlight), MPa, PSI, Bar, and kgf/cm2. Supposedly the gauge can be zeroed to whatever the existing pressure is, which might be useful like a tare function if you're adding multiple stages?
I replaced the suspect analog gauge and tied it into my fill panel which let me compare to the $400?+ Omega gauge that's on my fill manifold. (As I write this now I'm not sure why I didn't do that before to see how it compared to the suspect analog gauge but hey, it gave me an excuse to buy a new piece for my fill station). Pressures were basically identical, or within +-1PSI, so I'll call it good enough. The display is a little hard to read off-axis. I think I need to re-clock it on the fill whip to enable me to better position it for viewing when attached to a cylinder sitting on the floor.
The web site claims it's suitable for O2. I have no way to confirm this and as far as I know there's no real way to O2 clean these electronic sensors. A completely unscientific and unsuitable test of "wipe with a clean paper towel and smell the sensor threads" did not indicate an presence of oil residue.
Front face:
The guts:
Back panel:
The Omega gauge I was comparing to:
Haven't tried it with the Haskel yet, just with banked air.
