Multimeter Suggestion?

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

So many meters on the market its crazy. I saw a really good green one at radio shack that was 80 bucks on sale for $30!! I know someone with one and it works really well too.

[mgwhit]

Apologies for opening a zombie thread, but I thought it made sense to put this here instead of opening a new one.

I picked up this DMM today at Harbor Freight.  It's currently on sale for $19.99, and it has every single "extra" function I wanted:

1. Audible continuity test -- my last cheapie didn't
2. Capacitance from 2nF-20uF
3. NPN/PNP Hfe -- not mentioned in product decription; tested close to some I had measured by hand (sloppily)
4. Rated to 1000VDC/700VAC

My brother-in-law -- an engineer who has the ultimate set of tools -- recommended it.  He's got an old Fluke 77 at home, but has used one of these at work for several years.  Should do everything I would want for guitars, low-voltage pedals and high voltage amplifiers.  It's Harbor Freight, so it might bite me on the rear-end in three weeks (read the reviews), but my last Chinese cheapie lasted almost 10 years so I'm perfectly willing to give it a try for $20.

[Haberdasher]

I might as well chime in too and put in a good word for an autoranging unit I got on ebay.  it's the VC97 and has all the features i wanted.  about $28 shipped, very good price for feature packed autoranging dmm.  I understand it is comparable to the fluke 15b



Compared to my last 2 units this thing is like driving a cadillac!  very nice, i love it.  btw, you don't even have to order it from hong kong like i did, i recently noticed there is a guy re-selling them out of new mexico now- no affiliation to me of course.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Business-Industrial-/12576/i.html?_nkw=vc97&LH_PrefLoc=1

cheers

[Bret608]

My Centech for Harbor Freight has done me pretty well so far. But I'm liking the $20 one Matt just pointed out! It's the same brand but I see it does not only audible continuity, but also capaticance! That does seem to be a good deal.

[timbo_93631]

I use this guy:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-CDM250-Digital-Multimeter-CDM-250-Bench-Tester-FAST-SHIPPING-/170770238442?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c2b30bea
Free from my dad, and a LCR meter for everything else.  No Hfe testing capability without using the Geofex circuit, but I built one a few years back and have it on hand when I need to sort/QC transistors.
Geofex circuit:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/ffselect.htm

[calciferspit]

Source quality parts and take your time and you won't ever need one. Unless you don't trust your values (or simply can't ID them) or want to match trannies (i just buy them premeasured if I need certain hfe) I don't see the need for this device. 75+ pedals built and I've never had to troubleshoot any of them or use a DMM in any way. Waste of money until you actually need it, and if I ever made a dead pedal, I'd just start it over, probably for less money than the DMM to trouble shoot it. People are scared to bias by ear, but I believe the sound is more important than EXACTLY 4.5v on a tranny.

[pryde]

Source quality parts and take your time and you won't ever need one. Unless you don't trust your values (or simply can't ID them) or want to match trannies (i just buy them premeasured if I need certain hfe) I don't see the need for this device. 75+ pedals built and I've never had to troubleshoot any of them or use a DMM in any way. Waste of money until you actually need it, and if I ever made a dead pedal, I'd just start it over, probably for less money than the DMM to trouble shoot it. People are scared to bias by ear, but I believe the sound is more important than EXACTLY 4.5v on a tranny.

Gotta disagree. One can be very careful building and things can (and will) go wrong. A recent troubleshoot I had revealed a bad zenier diode in my circuit. The DMM found this quickly and I replaced the 25 cent part in 1 minute...good to go. A DMM will pay for itself the first time you use it to solve a simple power issue or any other problem. A must have IMO.

[TNblueshawk]

Source quality parts and take your time and you won't ever need one. Unless you don't trust your values (or simply can't ID them) or want to match trannies (i just buy them premeasured if I need certain hfe) I don't see the need for this device. 75+ pedals built and I've never had to troubleshoot any of them or use a DMM in any way. Waste of money until you actually need it, and if I ever made a dead pedal, I'd just start it over, probably for less money than the DMM to trouble shoot it. People are scared to bias by ear, but I believe the sound is more important than EXACTLY 4.5v on a tranny.

To all you noobs, don't go off this.

All I can say is dude, if you have built 75 pedals and they all worked that is f'in amazing and I congratulate you. For the rest of us the DMM is a very handy device. Price? Good grief you can get a cheapo for $4 or just go all out for $20. Most people that do this hobby piss away $20 every week or month on something dumb in life. If you go to Starbucks 4 times, which is a waste if we are talking money, you just bought a good DMM.

I know circuit designers who've build 200 pedals and they use a DMM and audio probe for that matter when needed.

[calciferspit]

Source quality parts and take your time and you won't ever need one. Unless you don't trust your values (or simply can't ID them) or want to match trannies (i just buy them premeasured if I need certain hfe) I don't see the need for this device. 75+ pedals built and I've never had to troubleshoot any of them or use a DMM in any way. Waste of money until you actually need it, and if I ever made a dead pedal, I'd just start it over, probably for less money than the DMM to trouble shoot it. People are scared to bias by ear, but I believe the sound is more important than EXACTLY 4.5v on a tranny.

To all you noobs, don't go off this.

All I can say is dude, if you have built 75 pedals and they all worked that is f'in amazing and I congratulate you. For the rest of us the DMM is a very handy device. Price? Good grief you can get a cheapo for $4 or just go all out for $20. Most people that do this hobby piss away $20 every week or month on something dumb in life. If you go to Starbucks 4 times, which is a waste if we are talking money, you just bought a good DMM.

I know circuit designers who've build 200 pedals and they use a DMM and audio probe for that matter when needed.

Cool Cool. I know it wouldn't be a popular opinion, but I stand by it. My point was that faulty components are extremely rare (even at a tolerance of 1 out of 10000 parts faulty, 1 out of 10 tvs wouldn't fire up out of the factory) My advice was to wait until you need one to get one, but you say that between $4-$20 is all anyone would ever need in a DMM so that's not a bank breaker. I posted this as a counter to the advice that "noobs" NEED all these things that the pros enjoy, and they don't. Source quality parts and take your time... ...have fun, and use SOCKETS. Oh, and a battery and an led make a fine continuity tester. C'mon, this is DIY!

[jkokura]

We appreciate your thoughts on this stuff. You're not wrong, it's just that your thoughts are a little outside the box, and sometimes we don't like being pushed that way!

Point is, if you want/need a cap tester there are lots of options. However, you can obviously get by without ever needing a DMM.

jacob

[TNblueshawk]

Cal, I totally get what you are saying and I wasn't trying to flame or anything but when it comes to noobs...or me  .. electronics is not something that is common knowledge. People jump in for the first time and prior to that if someone laid a capacitor and a resitor together and they were asked to pick which is which they could not. So the thought of DIY a continuity tester would be met with "what does continuity mean?" 

I guess I'm still a little sore in the hiney at my Current Lover not working and one of the things when I asked for help was to post your voltages which in my case actually pinpointed the problem. I couldn't take voltages without a DMM.

Anyway, I still stand by my statement of 75 builds and no troubleshooting has to be a record. I'm trying to line up 5 in a row that fire up 

[alanp]

DMM's are pure gold, even just for testing continuity to see which nets have been connected on the PCB by a solder bridge that should not be.

Put it this way --

It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it!!

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

I have the same meter Keefe posted. Great product for the price. I've had to change the batteries once to twice but besides that no other issues!

[jubal81]

I recently upgraded a lot of my tools and my workstation with some tax refund leftovers. This included a Fluke 83-V. It's the balls. I got it for $70 on eBay and they go for $300ish new. There are some good deals out there if you keep your eyes open.

Dave at the EEVblog has a LOT of multimeter shootout videos and reviews.

[pickdropper]

I recently upgraded a lot of my tools and my workstation with some tax refund leftovers. This included a Fluke 83-V. It's the balls. I got it for $70 on eBay and they go for $300ish new. There are some good deals out there if you keep your eyes open.

Dave at the EEVblog has a LOT of multimeter shootout videos and reviews.

This.  Flukes have been used for decades and there are a lot of used ones around if you look.  They are more expensive, but they are built to last for a long long time.  I have an 89 IV that I think is great.

I also don't think multimeters are there just for when things go wrong.  If you dig deep enough in this (or any electronics hobby), it is fun to make more measurements and have a clearer picture of what is going on.