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