decent, cheap multimeter

[vafan13]

Heyo,

Finally getting around to building my crack (and then the speedball) and have everything ready except the multimeter.  Two questions: 1) will the Etekcity MSR-P600 ($20 on amazon) cover everything I'll need to test and 2) is there a better choice around this price range (preferably cheaper)?  Thanks in advance.

 

[Nathan]

How much cheaper are you going to get?

 

[Paul Birkeland]

I'm rather fond of the DVM that Harbor Freight tools sells.  I would consider it adequate for constructing our kits, and it's currently available for $6.

 

[Doc B]

A crappy but very reliable old Micronta meter has been in Bottlehead's lab since I can remember. It's funny, everyone hates it at first but it kinda grows on you. I figured PB would want to use my much nicer HP DMM or buy a new new whiz bang model, but he ends up using that same old RS meter that I used for so long. I have a well worn fluke at home that is an utter POS.  Flaky battery wiring, flaky display connections, just all around flaky to use.

For our kits a meter just needs to be able to measure up to around 500VDC. A very inexpensive meter will be plenty accurate enough. If on a limited budget I would spend more on a solder station and less on a meter in a heartbeat.

 

[mcandmar]

A crappy but very reliable old Micronta meter has been in Bottlehead's lab since I can remember.

And now forever immortalized in your Measuring Resistance video. I did wonder why you used such a crusty old thing...

 

[Nathan]

Ironic- I have a 30 plus year old Micronta and a newer fancier auto ranging meter as well.

I like using the Micronta better-

 

[amioutaline?]

I'm rather fond of the DVM that Harbor Freight tools sells.  I would consider it adequate for constructing our kits, and it's currently available for $6.

Those are also "Shirtless" George Anderson approved!

I have 2  Mastech MAS 830, about $20 "at fine stores everywhere" with Grabber probes, about $5 extra for each. They are not auto ranging but perfect for safely attaching to B+ or other power test points (2 channel, right?)  before powering up.

Then I use an auto-ranging Klein MM200, about $40 with banana probes for checking filament voltages and parts specs. I've thought about getting more Mastechs to grabfilament voltages but its no more unsafe to move bananas than grabbers from 2 and 7, say on tetrodes to 5 and 9 on 9 pins which is the case for most circuit testing. Of course, you could use 5 DMMS with grabbers to do it all on an SE circuit but need another banquet table to place them in sight!

I could easily live with just the Mastechs but Auto-ranging is really convenient for parts testing and the Klein is really fast.

 

[Doc B]

I had a stack of 3 or 4 rack mount Fluke Nixie tube voltmeters for a while, with the idea of making multiple measurements as you suggest. Looked cool, didn't get used that much, and those big rack mount cabs took up a lot of space. Sometimes we use two small DMMs at once, but that's really about as complex as the measurements get.

 

[mcandmar]

I love my Fluke 175, cant think of anything to fault with it.  I also have an old ISO-Tech unit which works great too.

Recently i bought one of those cheap $30 Vici meters from ebay, in theory it can do everything the other meters can do, but its infuriatingly slow.  Resistance tests especially as it takes a good 5 seconds to figure out the value of a 10k resistor, its a complete joke. The continuity test is useless too as it takes just as long to think about it before sounding the buzzer.  Maybe i'm just spoilt from the instant response of the Fluke.  Don't buy a Vici whatever you do..

 

[craigtone]

I use my trusty (and ugly) Fluke 8024B from the late 80's and it has never let me down!  I think I have only changed the batteries 3 times as well ... 

 

[Doc B]

OK, Flukeboys, I get it. Mine was obviously rode hard and put away wet. So take care of your meters.