Multi meter ?

[george]

????

Are you saying the lower the impedance the better?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No. ;-) I just got it apex over posterior. Sorry.

[John Rumm]

Based on what you have, then for your primary purpose, one of the testers linked previously would seem ideal. I expect the only other thing you would likely use a MM for is continuity or resistance checks to perhaps test fuses, and lamps etc.

[The Other Mike]

That's meter where the bill of material cost is maybe ten quid where at least a quid has been spent on protection, other safety measures and genuine certification. A meter that is delivered from china for five quid leaves the factory for about 50p and no protection and no certification.

It all depends on how cheap you are. There are no second chances.

Many manufacturers, both long established western names with a reputation to maintain and new far eastern ones manufacture in China to a very high quality level, but there is an entry level, you can buy genuine quality from China and price is not always everything but WTF would you choose s**te when under 36 quid buys a meter with genuine quality from a manufacturer where reputation, established over the past 60 years is everything.

It's like buying a jigsaw, you either buy s**te or you buy a Bosch blue/Festool, the s**te will always be s**te. Whilst a cheap jigsaw is unlikely to kill you, a cheap multimeter can. I've a couple of 4.5 inch angle grinders in the shed, a thirty quid Bosch has significantly less vibration than a fifteen quid Lidl one, the Bosch one I could use on and off all day, the Lidl one I might drop on my leg or foot after 10 minutes through fatigue.

We're not talking a Fluke 87 V at 400 quid plus VAT from RS, just a cheap meter that will be safe. IMHO the sooner the no name lets make up the certification brands are banned the better.

I blame the games culture, press a restart button and all wil be reset to how it was 5 minutes ago.

[LumpHammer]

Yikes. Dave Jones at

gets very worked up over insufficient creepage distances in multimeters, now I understand why.

[john james]

I do use mine for a variety of other things like checking the polarity of plug packs that don't bother to label that, and to see which ones have died and stuff like that that your neon screwdriver and volt stick won't be much use for.

And the price, IMO you would be mad not to have one.

[meow2222]

With unsteady readings one seldom needs min or max, but rather is looking to see how it responds to whatever's going on. A digital meter has no ability to do that and communicate the reuslts effectively.

NT

[meow2222]

There were no shortage of other good meters around, at a fraction of the pr ice.

illogical

I daresay they were the best in the 1930s, but the world moved on.

NT

[meow2222]

Well, you might like to list their good qualities.

no they didnt

NT

[meow2222]

Even if all you ever do is check batteries, a £2.90 multimeter should pay its cost back. Having one opens up the ability to fault find, a single ins tance of which should benefit you by far more than 2.90.

NT

[whisky-dave]

yep but it does depend on what you'll be using it for too.

yuo're ordering from ebay and teh stuff comes from china.

Only if it did what I wanted. I wouldn't spend a quid on a meter that didn't do what I wanted. The last time I brought a meter I brought SIXTY of these.

19310 came out at around £20 each I think. I would have liked to buy flukes but the budget wasnt; high enough for that .

Our students aren't allowed to work on open mains or measure it and they mo stly stick to below 60V. But I've used one to measure mains voltages withou t a problem. And I believe that in the hands of soneone that knows what the y are doing they would be safe. I wouldn't use one to repair or mneasure th e national grid.

if teh OP has managed to used a simple neon screwdriver to test mains I thi nk they'd be OK with a cheapish meter.

I've a couple of 4.5 inch angle grinders in the shed, a

So user error.

Buying no name for anything can be risky.

[The Other Mike]

Also protection and blast shields. Shit happens and sometimes on mains it's entirely out of your control. If a meter fails internally and is trashed then I for one really couldn't give a toss. What I don't want is for it to burst into flames and start throwing parts of itself around the room at high velocity.

A video of a cheapy undergoing testing that it should meet without external disruption according to what is written on the case

Multimeter without fused leads explosion

EEVblog #66 - Death & Destruction of a Fluke Multimeter

EEVblog #84 - High Energy Multimeter Destruction

Yes his accent is irritating, he's Australian :)

[The Other Mike]

Analogue meters still have their uses, tweaking adjustable resistors, capacitors or inductors for a peak or trough in a low voltage analogue circuit, but for the rest of the time digital is IMHO way better, more robust, often more accurate, more stable, certainly easier to read and much lighter. If you buy a quality brand it also won't explode into bits of glass and metal if things go wrong. Approaching 100% of analogue meters will not meet *any* CAT ratings because they are from an era before the standard was created. The AVO 8 in it's very last incarnation only met 250v CAT III

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] brought next idea :

They were very well built, robust and accurate for their time. They were the standard in all of the workshops in the UK, as already said the BBC and special versions were built for military use.

Yes they did and its an habit I only recently got out of.

I was so used to using them, they were like an old pair of boots, but boy were they clumsy. I bought, or rather built my first digital in around 1970 - it wasn't that much less clumsy than the AVO.

For old times sake, a few years ago I decided to see if I could track one down, just for the pleasure of using one again. I bought one AVO8 and was given a second AVO8, to add to my Selectatest. The AVO 8 is a much better unit than the Selectatest, much more refined.

Digital, even with a bargraph doesn't come close to a moving pointer, for a varying value, so mine still get used occasionally.

[meow2222]

There is an issue but I think its being exaggerated. Using meters on 5-32A fused/mcb circuits is a very different ballgame to exploding them with 25,0

00A. Its when you're probing about inside a live CU that you really need th at CAT certification. Most diyers are never going to do that.

NT

[meow2222]

as are flukes

Yes. Time has moved on though, by about 80 years.

I'm sorry but claims like that are daft.

as is that

They're like early Ferrographs. Once the best but long since totally eclipsed.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Ferrographs were merely top end domestic/semi pro machines. For pro, you'd be talking about the EMI BTR2, or TR90.

AVO did cheaper meters than the Model 8 too.

[The Other Mike]

I disagree, a DIY'er could do exactly that.

Cheapo meters are fecking lethal anywhere near mains, shitty design, glass fuses, no blast shields, faked certification, crap probes. The non professional user won't even begin to understand that there could be a problem. The properly designed led testers and volts sticks are far safer than cheap and patently uncertifiable 'universal' test meters.

As for being protected by the installation, move away from the consumer unit and the wiring will help to some extent. But protective devices on the installation might not always come to your aid, i've had an MK RCD fail closed at home in the past couple of years (only discovered at a routine test, it could have been faulty for a year or more) and come across a handful of MCB's, even low voltage ones that have failed in various states including closed and incapable of opening either manually or under fault conditions, all from various reputable manufacturers.

[The Other Mike]

Not sure why I'd buy an AVO 8 that I'd never use regardless of if it was a bargain or not :)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Can be useful when fixing old gear where the service sheet gives measurements made with one. ;-)