For High Schoolers   ...... go to Harbor Freight      http://www.harborfreight.com/
I have about qty of their DMMs , that I paid an average of $2.50 US  
[ on sale ]
I have never had to reach for an expensive DMM  .... at least not for  
what I do.
Gus


On Dec 28, 2009, at 7:51 AM, PICdude wrote:

Quoting Philip Pemberton <piclist@philpem.me.uk>:

> PICdude wrote:
>
> You need to revise your price range requirement up a little if you  
> want
> quality... $100 or so will get you "decent", $200 will get you "very
> very nice". <$50 will get you floor scrapings and "what's cheapest  
> this
> week" specials.

I was basing that price on being able to find "decent" handhelds for
$40-ish -- IIRC "RSR" (which I've had before), "BK Precision", and
hoping that I can get the same thing in just a different form factor.
The radio shack DMM has been working decently for some time now, but
has no stand to hold it up.

I use a Radio-Shack DMM for my generic purposes, and a Fluke 8060A
(awesome) for my accurate needs.  What I need now are some cheapos for
my part-time high-schoolers to do sanity checks -- "is this a 5V
signal or 12V signal".  What is this resistor value (when the can't
remember the color code).  When they press one of a few calibration
tests on a test device, I need them to verify the reference is
working, and check whether it's a 2.5V reference or a 5V reference for
example.  Etc, etc.

I need two for simultaneous use, but nowadays I like to have a spare
in case one goes bad or we have to question the operation of any of
them.

> ...
> I've stopped skimping on multimeters. Those pound-shop specials are
> never even remotely close to calibrated. I once had one read +1.1V  
> when
> connected to a 2.54V 0.1% reference IC -- my Fluke came up within 1  
> unit
> of the least significant digit if memory serves. That's not mentioning
> the one that read 0V on a live AC circuit (think of the safety
> implications of THAT!)

Ha ha -- these actually work okay for me for some uses.  A few years
ago, I bought a half-dozen of the harbor freight $3-on-sale DMMs,
spent 3 minutes testing the various modes on each, and dumped two.
Didn't even bother returning them.  Of those four, they've served me
well for these "ballpark" uses.  And when the battery dies, I dump
them cause it hurts to put a $4 battery in a $3 meter :)  Last week
one of my high-school students couldn't get glue (cyanoacrylate) out
of the tube, squeezed it like crazy (don't get me started), and it
burst over various things, including one DMM.  Good think it wasn't my
8060A.  Still, I want to get out of the $2.99 meters and get something
a bit more reliable.

Cheers,
-Neil.



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