[Noisebridge-discuss] New Multimeter needed....
jim
jim at well.com
Mon Jan 24 19:25:59 UTC 2011
On Mon, 2011-01-24 at 11:17 -0800, John E wrote:
> 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.
>
JS: i'm very glad to know you, too, have heard that
it's unexcellent behavior.
* locked crate with the really good stuff in it, but
who has a key and how to get at 'em? this is kind
of the problem with having rules: it's not that
people have objected to having noisebridge police
so much as that no one wants to sign up to be an
enforcer.
>
> 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
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >> 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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