New Multimeter Purchase

[Dave Plowman (News)]

For a bench unit I far prefer a LED or plasma display. LCD is too
directional. And of course one which is mains powered, at least as an
option.

--
*Taxation WITH representation ain't much fun, either.

Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:07:17 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
<dave@davenoise.co.uk> wrote:

For a bench unit I far prefer a LED or plasma display. LCD is too
directional.

Easy. I can buy a case of LCD cheapo Extech type DVM's for the price
of a proper 5.5 digit bench multimeter. If you can't see the LCD
display from the other end of the bench, just buy a 2nd cheapo meter
and attach one to each end of the bench. Maybe one in the middle if
necessary. They're cheap enough. Extra credit for running them in
parallel.

I hate to admit it, but I mostly use my various DVM's for continuity
testing and measuring the charge state on batteries. I could probably
do as well with a buzzer and a light bulb, but a DVM gives the
impression that I know what I'm doing. It's probably all those
buttons and switch settings that I never use.

For a status symbol, I would show off with my tiny Tek 213
oscilloscope with a built in DVM. It scribbles 7 segment digits on
the CRT screen. Battery powered and really cute. I would use it
today but the batteries died and I keep forgetting to get some NiCd D
cells with tabs.
<http://www.teknetelectronics.com/Search.asp?p_ID=16843>

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

 

[Jim Yanik]

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in
news:1dfro5ls0okjnjel0upb3i5k0g4qvidmqu@4ax.com:

For a status symbol, I would show off with my tiny Tek 213
oscilloscope with a built in DVM. It scribbles 7 segment digits on
the CRT screen. Battery powered and really cute. I would use it
today but the batteries died and I keep forgetting to get some NiCd D
cells with tabs.
http://www.teknetelectronics.com/Search.asp?p_ID=16843

It's amazing you have a 213 that's still operational.

One thing to watch out for with them is that the circuit boards are all
held in place by 4 little plastic pins in the case halves.
Under the treatment field service people would give the 213,those pins
sheared off or came out out of the case halves,and then the PCBs shift and
spread open the female connectors on the PCB edges,and little metal spring
leafs fall out and short out circuits.
sometimes with catastrophic results,like internal fires and/or melted case.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:03:03 -0600, Jim Yanik <jyanik@abuse.gov>
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in
news:1dfro5ls0okjnjel0upb3i5k0g4qvidmqu@4ax.com:
For a status symbol, I would show off with my tiny Tek 213
oscilloscope with a built in DVM. It scribbles 7 segment digits on
the CRT screen. Battery powered and really cute. I would use it
today but the batteries died and I keep forgetting to get some NiCd D
cells with tabs.
http://www.teknetelectronics.com/Search.asp?p_ID=16843

It's amazing you have a 213 that's still operational.

Well, I've taken fairly good care of it.
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/tek213.html> (400KB)
Having the DVM in the scope was rather handy as it was yet another
piece of junk I didn't have to drag around. At the time, the
fashionable (analog) meter was a Simpson 260 which about the same size
as the scope. The only problem was seeing the CRT when outdoors,
which I solved with a cardboard or black towel hood. When I graduated
to a service monitor, the scope became redundant. These daze, I use
my laptop as a scope with either sound card based software for audio:
<http://www.sillanumsoft.org/prod01.htm> (Free)
or a USB scope:
<http://www.syscompdesign.com/CGR101.html> ($190)

One thing to watch out for with them is that the circuit boards are all
held in place by 4 little plastic pins in the case halves.
Under the treatment field service people would give the 213, those pins
sheared off or came out out of the case halves,and then the PCBs shift and
spread open the female connectors on the PCB edges,and little metal spring
leafs fall out and short out circuits.
sometimes with catastrophic results,like internal fires and/or melted case.

Thanks for the warning but I don't recall seeing any broken plastic
pins or spring things floating around inside. However, I will be a
bit more careful now. I'll be going inside shortly to replace the
batteries.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558