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Registered Member #99
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637
Hello, I am thinking about replacing my old radioshack DMM...It was one of their best, but from what I hear, is still a POS...WHat is a good one to get? I dont want to spend more than $100.00, but still want it to measure capacitance and whatnot. I hear that the more functions a DMM has, the less the quality. Suggestions? Matt
Registered Member #1225
Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253
Well you can check on ebay. I recently got a dmm for about 20-30 bucks in all that did capacitance,acv,dcv,ac amps, dc amps, capacitance, resistance with a buzzer for continuity, hFE and diode tester. It was 30 range, has a backlight hold and on/off button and the max values are 200mohm, 750vac, 1000vdc, 10adc, 10amps ac, and 20uf. It has been around a sstc and has tested the input power of a vttc while running and it still works perfectly. It has an auto power off and a stand on the back so it will stand up straight for hands free operation.
Its name on ebay was 30-Range Digital Multimeter Capacitance Meter MS8261 just in case they have another up for sale.
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
I have good luck with my protek 506. It doesn't do inductance and the capacitance has a limited range (10nf resolution, max 100uf), but otherwise it is a very nice meter that takes a lot of abuse Just please don't hook >1kv into the input, it has a spark gap on the board but it can only do so much before you start to vaporise traces... It does frequency measurement (extremely useful with playing with sstcs), temperature (also useful), continuity, relative measurements, etc, etc, and also has a rs-232 port on it so you can use it is as nice 14 bit a/d with really nice signal conditioning with your computer.
Unfortunately it is about $150 new, although you could probably find a deal on it somewhere...
BTW, the more measurements that it has doesn't mean lower quality, the cheaper the meter means the lower the quality (for most purposes). I have a really nice meter that does everything the protek does and more to 6 digits +/-1count accuracy, but it is a good german meter that probably costs upward of $500. But those 17 function meters that I picked up at harbor freight today for $2.99 are quite the piece of crap. I have killed 4 of those things now. You can see a little square bubble on the chip inside where the die used to be
Registered Member #99
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637
... wrote ...
I have good luck with my protek 506. It doesn't do inductance and the capacitance has a limited range (10nf resolution, max 100uf), but otherwise it is a very nice meter that takes a lot of abuse Just please don't hook >1kv into the input, it has a spark gap on the board but it can only do so much before you start to vaporise traces... It does frequency measurement (extremely useful with playing with sstcs), temperature (also useful), continuity, relative measurements, etc, etc, and also has a rs-232 port on it so you can use it is as nice 14 bit a/d with really nice signal conditioning with your computer.
Unfortunately it is about $150 new, although you could probably find a deal on it somewhere...
BTW, the more measurements that it has doesn't mean lower quality, the cheaper the meter means the lower the quality (for most purposes). I have a really nice meter that does everything the protek does and more to 6 digits +/-1count accuracy, but it is a good german meter that probably costs upward of $500. But those 17 function meters that I picked up at harbor freight today for $2.99 are quite the piece of crap. I have killed 4 of those things now. You can see a little square bubble on the chip inside where the die used to be
OUCH about those meters...I have a harbor freight close to me here! I need to go check them out some time... So protek is a good name to look for, as is Fluke...Any other good names? Matt
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
I wouldn't say protek is a good name, but it certinly beats the crap out of cen-tech (the harbor frieght ones). Fluke, agilent, tektronix, bk precision, etc should all make decent meters. One good way to tell how good a meter is is to look a is precision/accuracy, the cheep ones will give you 3.5 digits (0-1999), accurate to +/- .1%, a better one will do 3.75 digits (ie 0-3999) with .05% accuracy, and some ofthe nice meters will do up to 4, 5, 6, even 7 digits sometimes
BTW my harbor frieght was having a sale this week, you could get the 3.99 non-backlit meter for $2.99, or the $4.99 backlit one for $3.99 :) I would assume you are familiar with the technique that you never hook you $150 meter up to anything dangerous, you use the cheep ones for that so that when you blow them up you are only out $3
Registered Member #1497
Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801
I have a cheap $2 DMM for the dangerous stuff that could spike or short, and a slightly better $60 one for general usage. As for the other stuff I have a separate LCR meter which never goes towards anything live or connected to anything.
Kreso and ... are right, similar to their line of thought I have several PSU's, a general low power salvaged DVD player PSU for logic/breadboarding, a higher power 30v/5A benchtop power supply for bigger stuff, and a few various collected wall warts/bricks. The biggest insane bit is a salvaged UPS transformer for 14v/100A (or at least that what was read before the leads caught fire :D). I would never use the wrong PSU for the wrong thing, and would never hook up my better meter to the output of a flyback.
Registered Member #99
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637
So I won a fluke 179 on ebay... Hows that look? Looks to be in great condition, and much lower price than new! Im a little worried that it sold for under 100$...Should I be? Matt
Registered Member #1262
Joined: Fri Jan 25 2008, 05:22AM
Location: Maryland, USA
Posts: 451
I really like the DT9977 sold by Edmund's Scientific. It's got the same specs as the Protek 506, except it's only around $60, great battery life and VERY sturdy. Microcenter sells a DMM by veleman for $7 now, I've used it a bit and it's pretty good. Nothing fancy, but resistance to 200kOhm, voltage to 600VDC/AC and current to 10A.
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WHats a good DMM?
Just please don't hook >1kv into the input, it has a spark gap on the board but it can only do so much before you start to vaporise traces... It does frequency measurement (extremely useful with playing with sstcs), temperature (also useful), continuity, relative measurements, etc, etc, and also has a rs-232 port on it so you can use it is as nice 14 bit a/d with really nice signal conditioning with your computer.
