jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Roersma) (01/11/90)
I am searching for a Digital Multi-Meter for general household usage and electronics projects. Does anyone have any recommendations or warnings for certain brand names and/or models? I am planning on spending anywhere up to $200, and desire as many features (i.e. Capactitance measurement, etc.) as possible. I have mainly been looking at the Fluke 7x series, has anyone had any experience with these in particular? +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ John Roersma jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu Dept.of Electrical & Computer Enginering jroersma@ucivmsa.bitnet University of California, Irvine >> this space available for rent << +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
whit@milton.acs.washington.edu (John Whitmore) (01/11/90)
In article <4114@orion.cf.uci.edu> jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Roersma) writes: > >I am searching for a Digital Multi-Meter for general household >usage and electronics projects. >....... >I have mainly been looking at the Fluke 7x series, has anyone had any >experience with these in particular? > I've used several DMMs, own three, and would recommend the Fluke 75's as a good general purpose DMM. There's a jumper underneath the display, marked as a 0 Ohm resistor (single black color band), which if soldered to the left makes the DMM a 75 model, and if soldered to the right makes the DMM a 77 model, about $40 pricier. A few of my friends have 75's whose jumpers somehow :-> got switched around, and they find the touch-hold feature quite useful. For low-precision work (how often do you need better than a couple of percent accuracy, anyhow?) Radio Shack has meters with good mix of features for $30 or so. Beckman and Metex brands are deluxe low-priced models, and a friend of mine has a $39 Beckman model that measures capacitors in addition to more ordinary features. Consider the low-priced models before you decide that you need a name brand. The only fault of many inexpensive meters is their INATTENTION TO FAULT CONDITIONS. A Fluke meter dialed to "Amps" and plugged into a wall socket will burn up a fuse. A low-priced clone meter will sometimes burn up. I use a couple of cheapos, but I'm careful with them; only my best meter can be safely loaned out ('cuz it can survive even MY friends...). Jameco (415) 592-8097 has Metex M3650 multimeter with frequency and capacitance measurement, transistor Hfe, audible $59.95 Kingdom auto-ranging shirt pocket DMM $27.95 and I assume other mail order suppliers have similar deals. I am known for my brilliance, John Whitmore by those who do not know me well.
cyamamot@aludra.usc.edu (Cliff Yamamoto) (01/11/90)
In article <1336@milton.acs.washington.edu> whit@milton.acs.washington.edu (John Whitmore) writes: > The only fault of many inexpensive meters is their INATTENTION >TO FAULT CONDITIONS. A Fluke meter dialed to "Amps" and plugged into >a wall socket will burn up a fuse. A low-priced clone meter will >sometimes burn up. I use a couple of cheapos, but I'm careful >with them; only my best meter can be safely loaned out ('cuz it can survive >even MY friends...). Now with the Fluke 80 series DMM's you also get what they call "Input Alert". This little feature can determine which meter inputs your probes are plugged into (probably just a little microswitch in each banana jack). For example, if you dial up Amps but you have the red probe in the Volts/Ohms jack, the meter will begin to beep at you until you remove the probe from the incorrect meter input. I wish my older Fluke had this. Would have saved me from blowing a bunch of fuses over the past years. Cliff
rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito) (01/11/90)
In article <1336@milton.acs.washington.edu> John Whitmore asks: > For low-precision work (how often do you need better than >a couple of percent accuracy, anyhow?) Radio Shack has meters with >good mix of features for $30 or so. All of the time! Anything less than 95+% accuracy is useless. Rich -- Hitting baseballs and writing software are two professions where you can become a millionare with a 75% performance failure rate. rsd@sei.cmu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------
jvz@cci632.UUCP (John V. Zambito) (01/12/90)
In article <4114@orion.cf.uci.edu> jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Roersma) writes: >I am searching for a Digital Multi-Meter for general household >usage and electronics projects. Does anyone have any recommendations >or warnings for certain brand names and/or models? I am planning on >spending anywhere up to $200, and desire as many features (i.e. >Capactitance measurement, etc.) as possible. I just bought a B & K PRECISION model 388-HD. It's called the TEST BENCH. It measures the standard volts, amps, and ohms, but also capacitance and frequency. It even measures the hFE (gain) of a npn or pnp transistor. It goes for about $125. B+K Precision 6470 W. Cortland Street Chicago, Illinois 60635 (312) 889-9087 My second choice is a FLUKE model 23.
rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito) (01/12/90)
In article <7332@chaph.usc.edu> Cliff Yamamoto writes: >Now with the Fluke 80 series DMM's you also get what they call "Input Alert". >This little feature can determine which meter inputs your probes are plugged >into (probably just a little microswitch in each banana jack). For example, >if you dial up Amps but you have the red probe in the Volts/Ohms jack, the >meter will begin to beep at you until you remove the probe from the incorrect >meter input. I wish my older Fluke had this. Would have saved me from >blowing a bunch of fuses over the past years. Back in the sixties when I was using Fluke's differential voltmeters (anybody remember those grey boxes with the row of black knobs?), I created a new advertising slogan for the company and offered it to them. However, they never got as excited over it as I did, and declined. It was: If it works, it's a Fluke!(c) Rich (c) 1969, Richard S. D'Ippolito -- Hitting baseballs and writing software are two professions where you can become a millionare with a 75% performance failure rate. rsd@sei.cmu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------
adams@swbatl.UUCP (745) (01/12/90)
In article <4114@orion.cf.uci.edu> jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Roersma) writes: >I am searching for a Digital Multi-Meter for general household >usage and electronics projects. Does anyone have any recommendations >or warnings for certain brand names and/or models? I am planning on >spending anywhere up to $200, and desire as many features (i.e. Capactitance measurement, etc.) as possible. B+K (3.5D) 388-HD .1nF - 20uF, 200mV-1000V AC/DC, 200mA - 20A, 200 - 200M Ohm, 20 Hz -200 kHz 139-B+K B+K (3.5D) 875A 200pf 2mF, 20 - 20 M Ohmsm 200 uH - 200 H ???-B+K Heathkit(3D-B) IT-2240 200pF-2000uF,200uH-2000H KIT 200-HTK Heathkit(A-B) IB-5281 10pF-10uF,10uH-10H,10 - 10M Ohms KIT 90-HTK Heathkit(3.5D) SM-2255 200pF-2000uF,200uH-200H,20 - 20M Ohms 90-HTK Elenco LC-1800 LCR .1 pF - 200uF, 1uH - 200H, .01-20M Ohms) 125-C&S Am Rel. (D) 460-D 200 pF - 20,00 uF,200uH - 2H, 200 - 20 M Ohms 170-AMR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C&S C&S sales Deerfield, IL 800-292-7711 (pp34 Jan90 Radio Electronics). Jen Jenson Tools 602-968-6231 Phoenix, AZ B+K B+K Precision 312-889-1448, Chicago, IL HTK Heathkit 800-253-0570 (616-982-3200) Benton Harbor,MI AMR American Reliance, 800-654-9838 Rosemead CA X-Z: Where X is N[.n]D and N[.n] is number of Digits in display, or A for Analog and Z is AR for Autoranging, B for Bridge, D for digital output available -- uunet!swbatl!adams or adams@swbatl.swbt.com | Tom Adams: 314-235-7459 mail lists: uunet!swbatl!antiques-request | BOOKS WANTED: pre-1930 radio, or uunet!swbatl!antique-radio-request | electrical & scientific topics
jans@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Jan Steinman) (01/12/90)
<<jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Roersma)>> <<I am searching for a Digital Multi-Meter for general household usage and electronics projects.>> <whit@milton.acs.washington.edu (John Whitmore)> <Beckman and Metex brands are deluxe low-priced models... Jameco (415) 592-8097 has Metex M3650 multimeter with frequency and capacitance measurement, transistor Hfe, audible $59.95> I purchased a Metex from Jameco, but not that model. Mine has all the stuff above, plus 4 1/2 digits. I think it was $89.95. No problems or gripes so far. In fact, I prefer it to my old Fluke simply because the extra digit allows me to just leave it on the 20V range, and still get a good look at junction voltages. Jan Steinman - N7JDB Tektronix Electronic Systems Laboratory Box 500, MS 50-370, Beaverton, OR 97077 (w)503/627-5881 (h)503/657-7703
davidc@vlsisj.VLSI.COM (David Chapman) (01/12/90)
In article <4114@orion.cf.uci.edu> jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Roersma) writes: >I am searching for a Digital Multi-Meter for general household >usage and electronics projects. Does anyone have any recommendations >or warnings for certain brand names and/or models? I am planning on >spending anywhere up to $200, and desire as many features (i.e. >Capactitance measurement, etc.) as possible. > >I have mainly been looking at the Fluke 7x series, has anyone had any >experience with these in particular? I have a 3-year-old Fluke 73 (3 1/2 digit) and am quite happy with it except that last time I tried to measure current with it (0.1 A) it only gave me 2 digits of resolution. Since the current was a bit less than 0.1 A the value kept changing between 0.09 and 0.1. Since I've been working almost exclusively in software for the last 5 years I don't know if it's my unreasonable expectations or just that the autoranging switched up prematurely. No capacitance measurement on mine, though. Just VOA and "diode", I think. -- David Chapman {known world}!decwrl!vlsisj!fndry!davidc vlsisj!fndry!davidc@decwrl.dec.com
chuck@mitlns.mit.edu (01/14/90)
-Message-Text-Follows- In article <33065@cci632.UUCP>, jvz@cci632.UUCP (John V. Zambito) writes... >In article <4114@orion.cf.uci.edu> jroersma@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Roersma) writes: >>I am searching for a Digital Multi-Meter for general household >>usage and electronics projects. Does anyone have any recommendations >>or warnings for certain brand names and/or models? I am planning on >>spending anywhere up to $200, and desire as many features (i.e. >>Capactitance measurement, etc.) as possible. The new Fluke model 80's are good meters. Though they list at the top of your price range. Lots of features (cap/hz/conductance). I havent needed it but if I read the brouchure right the conductance measurent can allow you to measure resistances to 2000 giga-ohms. In particular the bargraph feature works. The other meters (including the older flukes) just don't update fast/clearly enough to make it useful. The cheap meters, do work if you are careful, but from personal experience are much more fragle. In particluar we have a very low current hv supply we sometimes look at with a meter. It puts out up to 3500v but only about 3-400 into a 10meg load, and has 2 nf of filter caps. We plug our fluke in all the time to test them and it works fine (even when we used 20nf caps). The Metex? meter we got from blew out the first time it was tried this way. Of course 3kv is way above the specs for both meters but the fluke handles it, the other didn't. I want to get one of these flukes for home, does anybody know of a place that has a good discount on them? Chuck Parsons CHUCK@MITLNS.MIT.EDU