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

Taylor Alexander tlalexander at gmail.com
Mon Jan 24 19:53:39 UTC 2011


Here's a Fluke 79 III on craigslist for $50 in San Francisco

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/tls/2172851330.html

<http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/tls/2172851330.html>capacitance up to
9999uf.

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 11:44 AM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:

>
>    wow again! super response! My comments interspersed below
> (note question re used bench meters):
>
>
> On Mon, 2011-01-24 at 11:22 -0800, Tymm Twillman wrote:
> > On Jan 24, 2011, at 11:06 AM, jim wrote:
> > >    Holy Moly! Thanks for the link to the $6 MPJA meter!
> ...blah, blah...
> > >    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...)?
> > >
> > you know, depends.  it's nice to be able to quickly test out
> > common ranges quickly without digging out another tool, but
> > I find that a) a cap meter on a good multimeter is asking
> > for someone new to hook up a charged cap & knock out the
> > whole meter and b) most of them in multimeters are pretty
> > limited
> JS: not necessarily someone "new"; that's something anyone
> can inadvertently do.
> >
> > with caps, ESR measurements will often give a better idea
> > of the cap's state  (which requires another special kind
> > of meter, or a frequency generator + meter / scope + sk1llz,
> > etc)... and for real testing, you'll want to be able to
> > apply some real voltage.
> JS: maybe a good project for a noisebridge homebrew rig.
> >
> > there are a few things that set apart good general purpose
> > meters though, like:
> > - high precision (how many digits)
> > - good accuracy (how close a reading is to the actual value of what's
> being measured)
> > - good safety & general build quality
> > - forgiveness (e.g. hooking up meter to voltage while it's on the
> continuity setting)
> > - low drift (cheapies can get out of spec pretty fast)
> > - fast readings (slow ones can be painful to watch)
> > - low voltages for testing continuity / resistance (less chance of
> damaging something, or of activating semiconductors in in-circuit tests)
> JS: i occasionally like a peak-hold function
> >
> > eevblog had a good run of videos on DMM testing that are worth watching,
> btw...
> JS: thanks. i wish the internet moving image media was something
> other than or in addition to flash, which i refuse to install on
> my boxes.
> >
> > (personally i'm a fan of old bench meters for this kind of stuff;
> > the handheld units are great but they walk very easily and without
> > much thought... with some effort / scanning on ebay, $100-$125
> > will buy a damn nice HP bench meter from the 90's)
> JS: SUPER IDEA!
>    I did a quick search for "bench meter" and got a
> blowout (tons of unrelated responses).
>    I did a quick search for "fluke" and got a lot of
> good hits.
>    Can you or any other noisebridger recommend good
> bench meter manufacturer names I can use to try to
> find a quality used bench meter?
>
> >
> > >    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
> > >>>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> _______________________________________________
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> > >>>
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> > >>
> > >
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> >
>
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