Support Head-Fi.org by
starting all of your
Amazon.com shopping by
clicking here.
____________________________________________________________________
Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
____________________________________________________________________
Please help
support Head-Fi by becoming a Contributing Member
CLICK
HERE -- Contributing Members, thank you
for your generous support! --
With a bit of discipline, it is worth saving up for a Fluke meter. You will thank yourself later.
+1
I have used Fluke's since I was in college (more than 20 yr ago) and still use Fluke's today (I have a very old Model 87 and a newer model 189). Definitely worth the extra money, but remember that you don't have to buy them new - Ebay could be your friend (that is how I scored the 189 relatively cheap!).
OK, one more time....
By trade , I'm an electronics metrologist. Also a EE. I have calibrated thousands of multimeters. I am here to tell you, Cen-Tech meters, if filled with lead, make a DANDY rowboat anchor.
You ppl that love 'em so much..... open one up. Look at the soldering job. Heck, look at the PCB!
What matters the most in a DMM is repeatability. IOW, the ability to display the same measurement for the same stimulus. Every, and I mean EVERY, Cen-tech meter I have ever tested, has failed to repeat within any reasonable amount, little less within specification.
No, I don't work for Fluke, as someone in another thread charged. Meterman makes halfway decent meters. Extech even makes decent stuff.
Just go buy a Fluke off Ebay. A true RMS one. Leave the Cen-Techs for the rowboats.
I read a bunch, and ended up ponying up for a Fluke 179. I couldn't quite stomach the near $400ish for the 289. According to the math in Tangent's article, you can't match resistors to .1% with the 179 until you get to fairly high values in each range, but according to my math, you CAN match to within 0.167% down to 60 ohms. Not that I think it matters all that much to do so... I bet one can get a heck of a lot of 0.1% resistors for the cost difference between the 179 and say a 11x. That said, it is a really nice meter, and It'll probably outlast me.
Contributor Headphoneus Supremus: Top Mall-Fi poster. The "T" in META42. Member of the Trade
Originally Posted by jsmithepa
Maybe a DIYer don't need a super-accurate DMM?
It depends on what you're trying to do.
Say you have a linear power supply. A p.o.s. meter can tell you whether the regulator's shorted -- you see high levels of AC on its output -- or not, and whether it seems to be adjusted correctly. A good meter can tell you whether it's actually regulating decently, because you can measure single-digit millivolts with some reasonable assurance. And a good meter plus some kind of measurement amplifier can let you tell two linear regulators apart just based differences in ripple well below a millivolt.
I know what I want to do.
__________________
"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he knows what tackle to buy."
I bought a Craftsman DMM at Sears on sale for ~$13. It's perfect for my limited needs. I've used it to test and troubleshoot CMoys, and to check continuity from one connector to the other on cable builds, and it's been very helpful in both instances.
If you're in a collegiate setting or close to one, befriending the laboratory manager may come in very handy for loans of nicer multimeters like bench Agilents. I scored an 87 after the ECE Dept decided to upgrade their dmms.
Go Fluke at minimum. I've had horrible times with cheap dmm's dying on me after being reading voltage for over 10 continuous minutes (I should've unplugged, I know...)
Linear Mode
