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Vintage threads from the first ten years

multimeter

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5/16/1998 5:22 PM

Hello I am looking into buying a better multimeter. I am not too familiar with good brands and all that. As I am really only interested in music related electronics what would be a good multimeter to buy? Would one that messures capacitance be overkill, or could it come in handy??? I am open to everyones suggestions and brand biased oppinions as they are all I will have at this point!!!

nic

5/16/1998 6:25 PM
Roy	I like Fluke stuff. The have a model 12 that is competent and relatively inexpensive.

5/16/1998 11:02 PM

Adam Frankowski

I won a Fluke 12B for doing some electronic contest thingy.. I really like it. It has a continuity beeper, min/max function, autoranging, diode check, and capacitance.

The only thing it is missing is the ability to measure current, which may not be that big a deal.

I was using a pretty decent Micronota meter that I picked up from RadioShack for like 100.00 canadian. It is not autoranging but big deal.. It can measure current, resistance, capacitance, voltage, and also as a bonus, bipolar transistor gains (hfe).

5/17/1998 9:35 PM
Charles	For audio work, I've been liking the WaveTek DM27xt. It has the normal volts/ohms/amps but also will measure farads and henries (capacitance and inductance). Also has a freq counter, which is nice, but I usually don't use that particular feature. Sells for about $100-$120 (US)

5/19/1998 12:01 AM

Charles:

Just wanted to second your nomination for WaveTek as being a more affordable alternative to Fluke with a lot more features. For my job as an HVAC service tech I've been using a $60 WaveTek meter for the past few years and it's held up very well. (Need to look into the DM27xt you mentioned- farads and henries and a frequency counter...) I also use the Fieldpiece yellow stick meter all of the time, with a clamp-on ammeter attachment that slips over the top of it- great for quick measurements and it does have a farad scale. But that meter is better for HVAC or other repair trades out in the field more than for bench-testing audio electronics.

Steve Ahola

5/19/1998 8:47 AM

My venerable old Volt Ohmist went sour a few months ago and I like the idea of have 2 or 3 meters on the bench at all times so I looked for an inexpensive replacement DVM to add to my bench.
I looked at all of them too and decided, for the money, the Wav Tek was pretty cool.
I bought a Wav Tek 27XT a few months ago but, I have had to take it back twice now for an exchange. That was a simple swap and no serious questions asked too. The meter was about $120 and works great when it is working.
I have had a couple of the company's meters before and never had a problem but for some reason I am on the third device of this model now!
The first one would not read MV after about a couple weeks. It would read 10's of volts when set for MV and then eventually it would not read any MV scale.
The second meter kept telling me the battery was low and then the display went dim and finally blank when set to read capacitance or inductance.
So far the third one has been OK but I have only been using it for about 2 or 3 weeks.
Of course I was told that no one but me has had any trouble with the meters.
It could have been a bad batch.

Bruce

5/19/1998 5:35 PM
Charles	Sorry to hear about your trouble with the WaveTek. I've got two of these 27xt's and both run fine. The older one does not have the comonent test points on the front, the newer one does, but both run great at about a year and a year and a half old each. Maybe I got the good batch!

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