Goodbye to an old Friend(my Radio Shack Multimeter!!)

[seavote]

Been a long while since I've posted or put together a major electronics project. I've been putting together guitars and playing out an awful lot. Just today my trusty Radio Shack Multimeter has stopped working so Im looking for recommendations for a modestly priced reliable multimeter. What are you guys using?

 

[JohnRoberts]

I used a cheap rat shack meter successfully for years (decades) involving a few repairs. Look for a possible internal fuse in series with the probes, one of my failures. That said I retired mine when it became too boogey...

I have a handful of decent meters and like the man with two watches I never know with absolute precision but I trust the general results.

JR

 

[Rusan]

I used a cheap rat shack meter successfully for years (decades) involving a few repairs. Look for a possible internal fuse in series with the probes, one of my failures. That said I retired mine when it became too boogey...

I have a handful of decent meters and like the man with two watches I never know with absolute precision but I trust the general results.

JR

I once had what was at the time the top-of-the-line rat shack meter, that I bought dirt cheap on eBay. It was "guaranteed not DOA." When it arrived, one of the internal series fuses was blown. The display functioned, so it was indeed "not DOA." Thankfully, it worked fine after I replaced the fuse.

About that time, just before the local store owner sold it to Radio Shack Corporation, he sold me that same model meter out of the display case for half-price. I absolutely loved those meters and used them both for several years. Alas, they both met the same fate...

Note to self: make sure it's set to DC volts and not still on ohms when you test the B+ in a 100 watt tube amp.

 

[pucho812]

Assuming it’s dead and never coming back from the dead, give it a Viking funeral and then buy a fluke. I have had the same fluke for over 25 years now and the only issue I had was to fix some solder joints that broke with abuse and change the batteries

 

[JohnRoberts]

I have a Fluke 107 on my bench as my primary VOM and a cheap off brand VOM I keep in my battery charger box for sundry auto troubleshooting.

JR

 

[CJ]

Richmeter 102
20 bucks
So you can buy 10 for the price of a designer label meter.

Leads go out after a while, so a new meter means new leads.

And you can still buy a Radio Shack meter on evilbay,

I gots a Micronta 22-167, liked it so much I bought a spare

 

[PermO]

Nothing wrong with a cheap multimeter, but they usually come with shitty probes, get some decent silicone wire probes and the meter itself won't matter much.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Over the decades I have encountered a few that were too cheap to work right.They can't all be Simpson 260s but even the cheap Rat Shack was usable.

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Keep a look out at garage and yard sales. I picked up a Fluke 8024B for $10 a few years back. All it needed was a battery and probes. I still use my 1988 Fluke 77 that my late grandfather gave me when I graduated with a BS. Have a couple of old Micronta analog meters too, but rarely use them.

 

[fallout]

Still use my Fluke 8060a that my dad gave me when I was a young pup in the early 90's. I bought a spare at some point that I need to find in my boxes of junk.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

If you don't need portability, the small benchtop Flukes from the 80s are nice and cheap. The 8050A is a good choice because even if the LCD dies it can be modded to use 7seg LED displays (search and ye shall find).

 

[CJ]

Don't get the Fluke 8010A, it is a real pile.

Unless you like getting a different reading everyday and a 1 hour warm up,

And the expensive Flukes will drift on the milli amp readings for a few hours so you need to keep hitting the offset button.

My old boss genius type was all like "I gotta write this Fluke guy and tell him about this offset problem. He sure made a lot of money off that name,'" He wanted everything to run perfect, took his pickup back to the dealer ten times because it had a slight miss in the idle. Turned out to be a batch of bad ball bearings that would pit and rust, they were part of the fuel system.

We were using the Fluke to calibrate 4 to 20 ma current sensors. He wanted the 4 mil to read 4.000 and the 20 to read 20.000 before it went out the door. Had to buy an expensive shunt to get that type of accuracy. Once they were set they were solid as a rock with the PMI OP90 opamp and the 2.500 precision voltage regulator. He started a small business at age 63 and retired 8 years later with 12 million in the bank and a Winery in Healdsburg.

The Textronics handheld is no longer but the 4 digit is as good as a fluke bench meter if you can find one but they eat batteries. The 15 dollar China meters go for a year on a set of aa's.

 

[Dylan W]

I have a Fluke 80 series that I bought second-hand, can’t remember if it’s an 83 or 85. It looks like you should be able to get an 83 for around $100 on Ebay. Not sure if that’s within your price range, but they’re built like tanks and a pleasure to use, well worth the money IMO.

 

[Matador]

I have been super happy with my Greenlee DM-510A's: I bought a pair about three years ago and they are super solid, accurate, and go about a year between battery changes. They are rated to 1000V: use one to monitor B+ in tube amps, and another measuring tube bias current (in mA). The resistance measurement is pretty accurate as well.

You can find the same thing under different names: it is OEM'd by Bryman (the BM-257S) and is the same OEM that supplies EEVBlog with his meters as well (the BM-235).

He wanted the 4 mil to read 4.000 and the 20 to read 20.000 before it went out the door.

But who calibrates the calibrators?

 

[volker]

But who calibrates the calibrators?

The greybeards in Paris of course. Where do you guys keep your favorite furlong?

 

[CJ]

We had to go to the calibration lab at Southern California Edison once a year and get our screw drivers calibrated by a rep from Landis and Gyr.

The current shunts were interesting, rated at 500 Amps with 0.01 percent accuracy. I wondered how the calibration was done, then I saw some divots along the edge where they would grind a tiny bit of steel off to get it dialed.

We would run 200 amps thru the 500 amp shunt so it did not heat up, but the steel was especially formulated to he love near with temp changes.

 

[CJ]

For the lower amperage current sensors we used a Pearson precision CT, it handled a wide range or frequencies and spit out the right voltage even with the waveform a bit off, but we did use an auto variac and a sine generator to keep things stable during calibration. About 600 bucks for one of these bad boys,

https://tmetrix.com/product/pearson-electronics/

 

[cyrano]

For cases where the voltage fluctuates, I still use a Philips PM2404 I acquired a few years ago. It's so much easier keeping an eye on a needle. The alternative would be a scope, but I don't want to drag a real scope around. Numbers oscillating about are no use at all.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_electronic_vaohm_meter_pm.html

I also use a Mooshi meter. Mainly for stuff in cars. It's two channels and remotely accessible via BT. Nothing beats that when goin for a test ride. And if BT doesn't work, you have a terrible RFI problem in the car.

https://moosh.im/mooshimeter-testimonials/

 

[Rusan]

Assuming it’s dead and never coming back from the dead, give it a Viking funeral and then buy a fluke. I have had the same fluke for over 25 years now and the only issue I had was to fix some solder joints that broke with abuse and change the batteries

Yep, they were double dead, for sure. I'd definitely love to have a Fluke, but cheapskated out and replaced them with some cheap meters instead. I also still have my trusty old BK Precision bench DMM that's served me well for 20 years, and my Simpson 260 7M when I'm in the mood to use it for certain things.

PermO mentioned how good leads/probes can make cheap meters much more pleasant to use. About 10 years ago, I ran across Probe Master when searching for reverse banana leads for the Simpson. The quality is unbelievable, the price is much cheaper than Fluke or Pomona, and they'll custom make anything you want. The only issue was that they're literally so good, after that first set I had to replace ALL my leads with them. I'm sure several here own them or are at least familiar with the name, but if you aren't, I can recommend them without reservation as the best leads you'll ever use.

 

[sahib]

Although I have not used it for years my old friend is still with me since 1980 and still works. I have put in a new battery only today to take the picture.