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Registered Member #101
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:12PM
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 41
dont you just hate it when your meter/ oscilloscope craps out on you and you cant do ANYTHING. well that just happened to me, see for yourself:
i was testing a transformer, thinking that it put out about 30-40 volts, plugged it in and PZZZZT!! multimeter = fried. so would it be worth it to have it fixed (about 5 years-old) or just buy a new one? uggg this sux sooo much
Registered Member #134
Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 10:44PM
Location: Belgium
Posts: 86
Hmmz looks quite nasty
How much did the meter cost? If it's cheap enough, I'd say: check if the fried components are easily replaceable / cheap and check if not only some PCB trace is damaged or something. If you can't fix it after trying half an hour or less, I'd suggest you to buy a new one
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
unless it was a very expensive meter, just throw it away, or scavenge the parts.
You can never tell by looking at it the extent of the damage, you may have blown some proprietary pic in there, and by the looks of things you blew a few traces...
Registered Member #58
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:40AM
Location: Tri-Cities, Washington, US
Posts: 317
Yah, if this had lots of very useful features, I'd keep it, but if it's one of those 10$ a pop meters, toss it, it isn't worth it for a mess like that on the board.
Registered Member #101
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:12PM
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 41
im sure it was a fairly expensive one. it has auto ranging, freq, cap tester, continuity/diode tester, 20 amp current meter, bar graph, temp. all the bells and whistles. the contacts right under the selector are coming off the board. even if i could find the components, i doubt i could solder that precise.
Registered Member #15
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068
Have you determined what the cause was yet??? Seems strange it would blow up from just reading 30-40v from a transformer?? Did you have it on the wrong setting?
Registered Member #101
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:12PM
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 41
i thought it put out 30-40 volts, but when i plugged it in it arched inside the meter and blew the fuse in my power strip. so either i plugged in the wrong side, or it was some high voltage transformer (looks like a normal trans.)
Registered Member #69
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 07:42AM
Location:
Posts: 116
Or you had it on the current setting? One solution is to get a couple of meters, one 'nice' one and a couple 'popcorn' meters that you won't feel bad when they blow for general use. HarborFreight.com is selling some of the latter for 2.99(!).
Registered Member #14
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:04PM
Location: Prato/italy
Posts: 383
It is impossible to blow a meter with a voltage setting (unless you put more than 1000VDC or 700VAC). Also the range is automatic so no wrong range setting. Probably you have used the Volt reading holes with a capacitance , or continuity or resistance test (they often are on V+ and COM) and this caused the death of the meter electronics.
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A part of me just died...
