SDG #317 ET12S 2 in 1 Thermal Camera and Multimeter Combo, Bside A2

Two budget test meters get put through their paces here, and they sit at opposite ends of the feature scale. The Bside A2 is a genuinely pocketable auto-ranging multimeter with non-contact voltage detection, aimed at people who want something small enough to live in a toolbag rather than a full bench instrument. The review looks at how it handles basic DC and AC voltage, resistance and continuity, how quickly the auto-ranging settles, and whether the NCV function is sensitive enough to be trusted for live mains checks or whether it is prone to false triggers from stray fields. Build quality, probe quality and lead sockets get attention too, since those are usually the first corners cut on a meter this cheap.

The ET12S is the more interesting proposition: a handheld multimeter with a low-resolution thermal imaging sensor built into the same body. The value question with combo devices like this is whether the IR camera is a usable diagnostic aid or just a novelty overlay. The review examines the sensor resolution and refresh behaviour, palette and temperature readout options, how well the thermal image resolves small SMD components and hot spots on a PCB, and how the imaging side compares with the dedicated thermal cameras many viewers will already have seen on the channel.

For anyone repairing electronics, the takeaway is about expectation setting. A cheap integrated thermal sensor can find a shorted part or an overheating regulator, but pixel count and thermal accuracy limits matter, and the meter half still needs to be trustworthy for the combo to make sense over buying two separate tools.