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Joined: Jun 2013
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Hi all,

Anyone have any recommendations on a Multimeter?
There are so many available i'd appreciate any suggestions of meters you have found to be good.

There are a couple of Fluke devices I've looked at which have a remote screen which would be good for C-arm use, that could be useful.

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I've always gone for Maplin's myself! smile

As well as eBay, of course. "Never buy new" being one of the mottoes that has served me well enough over the years.

I learned long ago that you can be "done" for £ thousands just as easily (even more so in fact) as for £ tens.

Less to cry over when stuff gets "borrowed" as well. frown

My other tip would be to have at least two (you can never have too many):- a digital, and an analogue.

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Thanks Geoff, good advice. Will add an analogue to the list.

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In my student days I had a Saturday job at Maplins in Bristol. People used to ask why they should spend £125 on a Fluke 77 when they could buy a copy for £35. In answer I used to throw our demo 77 against the nearest wall then pick it up and test a battery or such like. It never failed to produce a sale and I never had to try it with the £35 model!
A model 77/79 or the modern equivalent has always served me well, none of the fancy temperature or transistor testing stuff, hfe and the like but a good fused current range, clear display and most of all a good quality set of probes.
As Geoff correctly says, a good analogue meter is a must for those slow variations that you just can see with a DMM and my favourite is the AVO8, built like the preverbial outhouse and a 20K ohms per volt meter so nice and sensitive without affecting what you are trying to measure.
Ebay would be my choice for good used units in both camps and get the DMM calibrated and use it to check the AVO.
Regards
Ed

Last edited by Ed SWM; 14/08/13 10:18 PM.
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... or better still (and if only for the experience, practice, exercise, learning, confidence building ... whatever) calibrate it yourself!

In general, I would say that as long as you "trust your meter" (that is, have confidence in it, and are reasonably adept at getting the most out of it), it doesn't really matter too much which "modern" DMM you have.

@Richard: as Ed mentions, "eBay is your friend"; there are a couple of AVO-8's on there at the moment ... but both look a bit rough.

The Simpson 260 is a nice little analogue meter. Again, they are often to be found on eBay ... but usually in the U.S.

Other recommendations for general purpose test equipment:-

1) A decent oscilloscope*
2) Bench DC power supply
3) Function (signal) generator
4) Capacitor (electrolytics) ESR meter

* Although I admit that PC Oscilloscopes are probably the "way forward" these days.

Recommendations? At the "budget" (but practical, versatile and highly functional) end of the test equipment scale, I have always admired Peak and Velleman. Both supply extremely handy and neat little devices. smile

I have always wanted a spectrum analyzer myself (but have never even had a go with one)! frown

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Perhaps I should add that (as well as eBay and Google) "YouTube is your friend", as well.

There are many excellent and informative "how to ... " videos on there about testing components, comparisons of techniques, test equipment reviews etc., etc.

Here is but one example! smile

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Absolutely brilliant advice, just what I was looking for - really appreciate that.

Thanks Geoff and Ed.

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If you liked that ... you might be interested in this one. I just hope that Dave's style doesn't grate too much! whistle

Meanwhile, what's best avoided is this!


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