[Noisebridge-discuss] New Multimeter needed....

John E neurofog at gmail.com
Mon Jan 24 19:17:02 UTC 2011


Jim,

I was under the impression borrowing any equipment, books etc. from
noisebridge was considered unexcellent, especially when people are "sloppy"
about returning it.

Perhaps we should consider having a lockable "crate" with the expensive test
equipment and dev boards, so that random people can't walk off with it.

Regards,
John


On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 11:06 AM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:

>
>
>    Holy Moly! Thanks for the link to the $6 MPJA meter!
>
>    For me, el cheapos work great, but i do power supply
> and audio work where most of the measurements are
> discovering catastrophic failures and continuity.
>    I'd love to know detailed criteria for assessing a
> multimeter. One approach might be to point to the specs
> of a good model (fluke 17{5,7,9}, which i looked up).
>    But it'd be really helpful to understand the why of
> each criterion: in measuring capacitance, what are the
> use cases and acceptable tolerances? For me, if the RC
> figure allows, I can look to see if the "needle" moves
> to know if it's working (can't do that with pfs, of
> course); cap tolerances for me are +-50%, give or take....
>    Is there a need for a does-all meter or is it
> acceptably useful to have a reasonably good VOA meter
> along with separate cap and L measurement tools (maybe
> a frequency generator and scope...)?
>
>    As to "Why We Can't Have Nice Things at Noisebridge",
> that issue makes me furious!
>    It's horribly inconsiderate to take things away: I'm
> guessing mainly it's a sloppy, selfish mentality to the
> effect that "I'll just use it and bring it back after
> I'm done", which very often fails to "I'll just use it
> and let it sit around unused and forgotten somewhere at
> my house forever more after I'm done."
>    Possible approaches include
> * We Can't Have Anything Nice at Noisebridge
> * People can bring in their personal nice things and
>  label them and put them in their member shelves and
>  loan them out when/if they see fit.
> * Have a checkout system for some things--probably a
>  signout sheet: probably a fair number of people will
>  sign stuff out before they take things home and leave
>  them there, and when asked, they'll probably be able
>  to find the things and bring them back.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 2011-01-24 at 09:11 -0800, Jonathan Foote wrote:
> > Hey Zach, thanks for noticing! But I'm with  Dr. J. here.
> >
> > I wouldn't get a Fluke, it will just walk like the last one. (Another
> > demonstration of Why We Can't Have Nice Things at Noisebridge.) Sounds
> > like you could use one for yourself, though!
> >
> > I have a spare El Cheapo I can donate. I'll bring it tonight and slap
> > some stickers on it.
> > For the price of a Fluke we can get a few of these $6 ones which will
> > work great for 99% of anything we want to do at NB.
> > (How many people not doing power engineering really need accurate
> > capacitances > 400 uF?)
> >
> >
> http://www.mpja.com/Category/Test_Equipment/Digital_Multi_Meters/LARGE_CHARACTER__LCD_MULTIMETER_17191_TE.asp
> >
> > As Dr. J mentioned we can loan ya an expensive one should you need it.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 10:52 PM, Dr. Jesus <j at hug.gs> wrote:
> > >
> > > I've noticed that the people who need a trustworthy DVM just bring
> their own.  I have a pretty nice one you can borrow if that will help get
> some of the LCDs working.
> > > On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 10:46 PM, Zach . <organic_unity at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Hey folks,
> > >>
> > >>    Zach here and this is my first attempt at posting to the email
> list.  I'm writing this because I believe we desperately need a new
> multimeter to work with and am not sure how to go about the process of
> noisebridge getting one.  But allow me to explain first...
> > >>
> > >> noisebridge used to have a very nice Fluke multimeter that went
> missing some months ago.  I have looked all over for it but it has yet to
> turn up.  I am in the process of repairing some LCDs for noisebridge (got
> one working already) and could be saved a great deal of time and effort with
> a better multimeter.  The best one we have now is a "Vichy" brand.  I
> personally find it incredibly low quality and a very large pain to use.  And
> its capacitance readout maxes out under 400uf...which is a joke.
> > >>
> > >> I recommend we collect donations for this very important electrical
> tool for the benefit of noisebridge and everyone else at the space.  Great
> Fluke meters are inexpensive these days and a quick ebay search pulls up one
> at a good price:
> > >>
> > >>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/FLUKE175-TRUE-RMS-MULTIMETER-EXC-CONDITION-CASE-/190484916097?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c59c92781
> > >>
> > >> the Fluke 175 is a superb meter measuring capacitance to 10,000uf or
> TWENTY TIMES higher than our current best meter.  This will make repairs far
> easier.  It also has RMS frequency reading, high voltage (600v), and is far
> more accurate.  It also reads more than twice as fast.
> > >>
> > >> so....what do people think?  sorry I don't know how this process is
> supposed to work, people just told me to post to the list so here I am...
> > >>
> > >> best,
> > >> Zach
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > >> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > >> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/attachments/20110124/fa3643cf/attachment.html>


More information about the Noisebridge-discuss mailing list