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How to spend $150 on a DMM...

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rich brenz

Jan 1, 1970
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I'm a home hobbyist and my old Radio Shack multimeter just isn't cutting
it for my needs. I'm looking to buy an autoranging digital multimeter
with the bells and whistles(Capacitance readings for instance) to do
most home repairs. Any suggestions on types?(Remember my budget!)

Rich
 
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Rich Webb

Jan 1, 1970
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I'm a home hobbyist and my old Radio Shack multimeter just isn't cutting
it for my needs. I'm looking to buy an autoranging digital multimeter
with the bells and whistles(Capacitance readings for instance) to do
most home repairs. Any suggestions on types?(Remember my budget!)

Well, there's a good, basic DMM (no cap but does do hfe) that you can
get for free from http://www.web-tronics.com/ with a minimum purchase.
Follow the instructions at the "free gift" link.

I've gotten a couple of these over the years and, while they're not
Flukes, they are OK general-purpose meters. It's the one I use at most
of the time at work, rather than drag out the $$$$ precision bench
meter.

It isn't auto-ranging but I'm OK with that -- if I don't know if a
particular trace is supposed to be 5 or 50 VDC then I've got other
problems...

They have some "real Flukes" that are in your price range and have the
bells and whistles http://www.web-tronics.com/fluk110serdi.html
 
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Robert Baer

Jan 1, 1970
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rich said:
I'm a home hobbyist and my old Radio Shack multimeter just isn't cutting
it for my needs. I'm looking to buy an autoranging digital multimeter
with the bells and whistles(Capacitance readings for instance) to do
most home repairs. Any suggestions on types?(Remember my budget!)

Rich
Check out the wide range of DMMs that Jameco has; they aer on the web.
 
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Jim Douglas

Jan 1, 1970
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I recently purchased the $2.99 DMM from Harbor Freight and love them. I went
back and bought (10) more to give as gifts. For $150.00 you can get a good
meter, check out the BKPrecision which I like.
 
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Andy P

Jan 1, 1970
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If it doesn't need to be autoranging...I got my meter for ~$50 from
allelectronics.com and it's got everything except inductance (I believe
they have one with inductance as well, but I dont know the price, but it
is over $50). I've got fequency to 20khz, capacitance, resistance,
diode, transistor (hfe), voltage and current for DC and AC, temperature
to 1000F audible continuity, and I think tha'ts it. It's the velleman
DVM890. Not too shabby for 50 bucks, no backlight though.

--Andy P
 
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Robert Baer

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jim said:
I recently purchased the $2.99 DMM from Harbor Freight and love them. I went
back and bought (10) more to give as gifts. For $150.00 you can get a good
meter, check out the BKPrecision which I like.
Jameco undoubtedly carries that one, and perhaps at a lower price.
 
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John Crighton

Jan 1, 1970
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I'm a home hobbyist and my old Radio Shack multimeter just isn't cutting
it for my needs. I'm looking to buy an autoranging digital multimeter
with the bells and whistles(Capacitance readings for instance) to do
most home repairs. Any suggestions on types?(Remember my budget!)

Rich


Hello Rich,
I am a hobbyist too and I have had a run of bad luck
with DMMs cheap and medium priced. I lost three
over the last ten years when measuring the 240V AC
mains. They just when phut. I was on the correct
range and function.
So I have learned not to measure high voltage AC with
my DMMs. OK, I will use the boss's DMM to check the
240 V mains supply but not my personal DMM. :)

I now keep my cheapie DMMs for low voltage stuff
and for chucking in the car glove box.

For mains 240V or higher I use my old analog
AVO model 8 or other analog multimeters.

For work on the bench I have taken a liking to
an old HP410C electronic mutimeter that was
given to me lately. The high ohms range showed
some slight leakage between windings in an RF
transformer that my old AVO 8 and cheapie DMM
didn't see. I was pleased about that. Saved me a
lot of frustration and head scratching when I was
working on an old valve signal generator.

I guess what I am leading up to tell you is as a
hobbyist I wouldn't bother spending all that money
on a DMM that can go PHUT when measuring
mains supply voltages or simply loose display
segments which is annoying.
Bloody annoying if you paid $150
Not so annoying if you paid $25.

For me as a hobbyist I can't see that spending
$150 on one DMM is good value. I prefer a selection
of meters. Old working cheap analogs and cheap
DMMs (since they don't last long).

If a bells and whistles DMM floats your boat,
go ahead and buy one. Enjoy yourself!
You only live once. :)

Regards
John Crighton
Sydney
 
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