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DMM advice?

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Louis LaCour

DMM advice?

Hello all...

Have been lurking here for a while soaking up some wisdom in anticipation of
receipt of my K2. As I lost all of my tools etc. in Katrina, I'm in the
process of "re-stocking," including a new digital multimeter. I've poked
around on the net some, but the choices are truly bewildering. If anyone
could offer a suggestion for a unit with a good price-performance ratio, I'd
certainly appreciate it.

Best regards,

Louis
KE5GIU
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Joe-aa4nn

Re: DMM advice?

Check out the BK 2707A which has exceptional
features/capabilities; too many to mention here,
for around $80USD. Used here for 3+ years.
de Joe, aa4nn
-------------------------------------------------
Have been lurking here for a while soaking up some wisdom in anticipation of
receipt of my K2. As I lost all of my tools etc. in Katrina, I'm in the
process of "re-stocking," including a new digital multimeter. I've poked
around on the net some, but the choices are truly bewildering. If anyone
could offer a suggestion for a unit with a good price-performance ratio, I'd
certainly appreciate it.

Best regards,

Louis
KE5GIU

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Jim Wiley-2

Re: DMM advice?

In reply to this post by Louis LaCour

Louis -

The Velleman 890L is a versatile instrument at a reasonable price. It
has all the usual functions plus capacitance measurement, transistor
hFE, temperature (includes probe), frequency to 20 KHz, current ranges
to 20 amperes, and auto-shutoff so you don't run the battery down.
Price is typically about $35.00 to $ 45.00 depending on where you
order. There are probably better units out there if cost is no object,
but the combination of features and price will be hard to beat.

Here is a link:

http://www.ba-electronics.com/dvm890.htm

The usual disclaimers apply. Good luck.

- Jim, KL7CC

Louis LaCour wrote:

>Hello all...
>
>Have been lurking here for a while soaking up some wisdom in anticipation of
>receipt of my K2. As I lost all of my tools etc. in Katrina, I'm in the
>process of "re-stocking," including a new digital multimeter. I've poked
>around on the net some, but the choices are truly bewildering. If anyone
>could offer a suggestion for a unit with a good price-performance ratio, I'd
>certainly appreciate it.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Louis
>KE5GIU
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Post to: [hidden email]
>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>
>
>
>

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Ron D'Eau Claire-2

RE: DMM advice?

In reply to this post by Louis LaCour

Louis, KE5GIU asked:

Have been lurking here for a while soaking up some wisdom in anticipation of
receipt of my K2. As I lost all of my tools etc. in Katrina, I'm in the
process of "re-stocking," including a new digital multimeter. I've poked
around on the net some, but the choices are truly bewildering. If anyone
could offer a suggestion for a unit with a good price-performance ratio, I'd
certainly appreciate it.

--------------------------------------------

I've used a Fluke for years. Good and relatively expensive, and rugged. But
there are good alternatives.

A few years ago my Fluke suffered a minor mechanical failure. While waiting
for a replacement part I happened to notice a Radio Shack DMM for about $80.
Not only did it do the standard volts, ohms, amps thing, it had a
capacitance meter and temperature probe. I bought it on impulse.

After getting the Fluke back into working condition, I ran a bunch of tests.
The two meters are within 2% of each other; less than 1% on most ranges and
measurements.

That's not too surprising. The chips that run those things are
mass-produced, as are the voltage divider networks for the various ranges.
Modern manufacturing offers a precision for pennies that we couldn't buy at
any price not too many years ago.

The difference that I noticed was in the speed. The Fluke is virtually
instantaneous. The RS meter takes a few seconds to display the value. That
seems to be one of the big differences in meters. The faster I.C.s cost
significantly more than the slow ones, so they go in the more expensive
meters.

By the way, the capacitance test in the RS meter is amazing. Although it has
about 100 pF "parasitic" capacitance - that is, it reads about 100 pF with
nothing connected, it is accurate to within a couple of percent all the way
down to 10 or 20 pF by simply subtracting the parasitic value. Of course, it
goes way up into the many microfarads to check electrolytics at the other
extreme. That makes it ideal for sorting out caps of all values though.

Another difference between cheap and expensive meters is in the number of
digits they display. Many cheaper meters have 3 or 3-1/2 digit displays.
That's good enough for many things, but you'll sometimes want to see more
resolution than that. A full four digit display is a good investment.

Related to the number of digits and speed is the ability of the meter to
follow a change in voltage or current as you adjust a circuit. Although the
RS meter takes a few seconds to update the digital display, it has a
bar-graph that moves quickly to show when a null or peak in an adjustment is
reached. Smaller, cheaper meters often omit this feature, making them
virtually useless for such peaking or nulling adjustments unless one has a
lot of patience! (Personally, I hate all those displays. I still keep an
old-fashioned VOM with a wiggly-needle meter in it that I use when I can for
such adjusting. But sometimes the high input impedance of the DMM is
essential.)

Finally, there's mechanical ruggedness. Meters like the Flukes are designed
to take a beating, especially if you buy the protective boots that are
available. I'm not so sure the cheaper ones would survive as well. So far
I've managed to avoid dropping either one of them, so I can't offer any
personal experience there.

Ron AC7AC

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Don Wilhelm-3

RE: DMM advice?

In reply to this post by Louis LaCour

Louis,

I picked up an ESCORT EDM-163 at Dayton several years ago (new) at a good
price (about $65) for the features it offered - Handheld, Auto power off,
auto-ranging with manual override, bargraph display as well as digital,
current measurement to 10 Amps and down to 200 uA, diode forward voltage
test, etc. This 3 1/2 digit meter has served me well. The settling time
for the readings is not as fast as some more expensive meters but is
adequate for me for general use. At my workbench I have a Kiethley
instruments DMM that is faster, and when I get around to repairing it, I
have a Fluke 8800 that is really fast and shows a lot more digits, but I
can't carry those around just anywhere.

You will find most DMMs are adequately accurate for ham use - even the $4.99
ones at Harbor Freight Tools, but they are rather slow about settling down
to the real reading and they are manual range switched. The big difference
in DMM performance is in the speed of response - make your own compromises
on that issue after deciding which feaures you want and need - the price you
pay will depend on your choices.

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> Have been lurking here for a while soaking up some wisdom in
> anticipation of
> receipt of my K2. As I lost all of my tools etc. in Katrina, I'm in the
> process of "re-stocking," including a new digital multimeter. I've poked
> around on the net some, but the choices are truly bewildering. If anyone
> could offer a suggestion for a unit with a good price-performance
> ratio, I'd
> certainly appreciate it.
>
>

Hisashi T Fujinaka

RE: DMM advice?

Just a quick note here. I got a real cheap DMM for "free" wih my
soldering iron with way too few digits to be of use. However, I bought a
"mini" dmm when I was in Japan that is still my favorite when I can find
it. Most of my measurements (and repairs, I've found) are things like,
"Is there power?" or, "Is there continuity?"

I bought a Metex on sale off of Radio Shack's web site for $20 that I
really like. It's one that is rebadged for Radio Shack and is sold for
$70 or so usually. Unfortunately, Radio Shack's web site doesn't seem to
have as much neat stuff as it used to.

Oh, and I have a Fluke as well. Turns out that most of my recent fooling
around doesn't require something as nice.

Just remember: a cheap DMM is so much nicer than having no DMM.

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006, Don Wilhelm wrote:

> Louis,
>
> I picked up an ESCORT EDM-163 at Dayton several years ago (new) at a good
> price (about $65) for the features it offered - Handheld, Auto power off,
> auto-ranging with manual override, bargraph display as well as digital,
> current measurement to 10 Amps and down to 200 uA, diode forward voltage
> test, etc. This 3 1/2 digit meter has served me well. The settling time
> for the readings is not as fast as some more expensive meters but is
> adequate for me for general use. At my workbench I have a Kiethley
> instruments DMM that is faster, and when I get around to repairing it, I
> have a Fluke 8800 that is really fast and shows a lot more digits, but I
> can't carry those around just anywhere.
>
> You will find most DMMs are adequately accurate for ham use - even the $4.99
> ones at Harbor Freight Tools, but they are rather slow about settling down
> to the real reading and they are manual range switched. The big difference
> in DMM performance is in the speed of response - make your own compromises
> on that issue after deciding which feaures you want and need - the price you
> pay will depend on your choices.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>
>> Have been lurking here for a while soaking up some wisdom in
>> anticipation of
>> receipt of my K2. As I lost all of my tools etc. in Katrina, I'm in the
>> process of "re-stocking," including a new digital multimeter. I've poked
>> around on the net some, but the choices are truly bewildering. If anyone
>> could offer a suggestion for a unit with a good price-performance
>> ratio, I'd
>> certainly appreciate it.
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
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>
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>

--
Hisashi T Fujinaka - [hidden email]
BSEE(6/86) + BSChem(3/95) + BAEnglish(8/95) + MSCS(8/03) + $2.50 = latte
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Stephanie Maks

Re: DMM advice?

>
> Just remember: a cheap DMM is so much nicer than having no DMM.

I'm not sure I agree with this statement. During alignment & test II
of my K2, my cheap DMM went wonky on me. Looking for VCO voltages on
R30, and no matter what I tried, I only got a few dozen millivolts.
So I checked for +6 volts on one of the pins of one of the ICs and
found 20 volts! Then I checked at the power jack and saw over 30
volts! I shut off the K2 and pulled the power out, thinking for sure
that my power supply had just gone wild and fried everything in the
K2. I got my backup power supply out and checked that. It was
reading over 30 volts as well!

Of course, it was the cheap DMM. Anything under about 3 or 4 volts
read as close to 0 volts, and anything over that read as 20 to 30
volts. It still seems to work for measuring resistance but I won't
use it any more, it's lost my trust.

I was doing some comparisons online and the B&K models look really
good to me. I tried to find a local shop to buy the 2706 model but
nobody seems to carry them here. DigiKey has them but I was too
impatient to wait for delivery.

So I have another (different) cheap DMM for now. Oh wait, ok I
guess I do agree with that statement! :-)

73 de Stephanie
va3uxb
K2#5311 - K1#2132

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