Multimeter

[st13phil]

I had to buy a 'Robertson' Screwdriver to gain access. I had never heard of one before!

Nope, me neither

 

[Mattns]

I consider myself reasonably technically literate in things automotive and electrical, but three seems to have been a gap in my education which came to light whilst working on a Canadian amplifier.
I had to buy a 'Robertson' Screwdriver to gain access. I had never heard of one before!
Is it just me? It seems very few escaped from North America

robertson-screwdriver-history

New to me also! at 62 I thought I had all bases covered after my apprenticeship when it comes to screwdrivers however I now have a gap and hence the family will be happy that they can buy me something desirable for my birthday that may come in handy in the next 40 years

 

[BTB 500]

Back on the multimeter theme ... one of the things I look for is a decent (fused!) DC current range as this can be very useful when looking for parasitic drain etc.

As already mentioned, the extra cost of certified accuracy isn't really necessary for DIY use IMHO.

 

[Railwayman]

As already mentioned calibration is not really necessary for home use, in most cases knowing a voltage is there is good enough. In my job I used moving iron/coil analogue meters and then more recently fluke mulitimeters which I still have many years later. Digital meters do not in most cases put a "load" on to the circuit being tested and so are prone to spurious readings, a 150K Ohm wire wound resistor across the leads (Voltage readings ONLY) negates this effect.

 

[AntMB]

AVO model 8, no back light but could also double as an axel stand

Yep, got a few Avo 8's too.

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
Being an Electrical Engineer and having a potential current drain on my CLS55, I decided to buy a clamp meter with a DC range that could measure DC mA, so I could monitor/check for parasitic drains so I bought myself a UNI-T UT210E,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00O1Q2HOQ/?tag=amazon0e9db-21
Really impressed with the quality and it has all the functionality of a multi-meter. I also have one of their cheap multi-meters which I am also suitably impressed with though unlike the clamp meter it didn't come with a case.

 

[BTB 500]

Hi,
Being an Electrical Engineer and having a potential current drain on my CLS55, I decided to buy a clamp meter with a DC range that could measure DC mA, so I could monitor/check for parasitic drains so I bought myself a UNI-T UT210E,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00O1Q2HOQ/?tag=amazon0e9db-21
Really impressed with the quality and it has all the functionality of a multi-meter. I also have one of their cheap multi-meters which I am also suitably impressed with though unlike the clamp meter it didn't come with a case.

Funnily enough the multimeter I have is a UNI-T UT50A (probably superseded by now?). It's well-made, perfect for my automotive and r/c modelling use and wasn't particularly expensive (came from Maplin). Important features for me:

20A DC range
Audio tone for continuity
Backlight
Sensible battery (9V PP3)

I have a separate 200A DC clamp ammeter.

 

[AntMB]

Hi,
Being an Electrical Engineer and having a potential current drain on my CLS55, I decided to buy a clamp meter with a DC range that could measure DC mA, so I could monitor/check for parasitic drains so I bought myself a UNI-T UT210E,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00O1Q2HOQ/?tag=amazon0e9db-21
Really impressed with the quality and it has all the functionality of a multi-meter. I also have one of their cheap multi-meters which I am also suitably impressed with though unlike the clamp meter it didn't come with a case.

Very useful a clamp meter is. Used one at home to do something similar on a motorbike. I read on another forum someone bought one of the ones you did to trace current drain on a boat.

 

[m80]

Hi,
Being an Electrical Engineer and having a potential current drain on my CLS55, I decided to buy a clamp meter with a DC range that could measure DC mA, so I could monitor/check for parasitic drains so I bought myself a UNI-T UT210E,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00O1Q2HOQ/?tag=amazon0e9db-21
Really impressed with the quality and it has all the functionality of a multi-meter. I also have one of their cheap multi-meters which I am also suitably impressed with though unlike the clamp meter it didn't come with a case.

Do you find the sensitivity of the DC clamp to be a bit suspect at low currents?
I've also found mine will read differently depending which way round it's clamped.
Different to yours but a handy piece of kit though.

 

[andy27168]

Funnily enough the multimeter I have is a UNI-T UT50A (probably superseded by now?). It's well-made, perfect for my automotive and r/c modelling use and wasn't particularly expensive (came from Maplin). Important features for me:

20A DC range
Audio tone for continuity
Backlight
Sensible battery (9V PP3)

I have a separate 200A DC clamp ammeter.

My UNI-T Multi-meter was only a cheap one but has been faultless and as I said is good quality much better quality than the price would suggest.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Electric...ie=UTF8&qid=1546983070&sr=8-18&keywords=uni-t

 

[BTB 500]

Do you find the sensitivity of the DC clamp to be a bit suspect at low currents?

Probably ... I wouldn't expect great accuracy at the bottom end of the scale. That's where a multimeter would be better if you need an accurate figure, but obviously inserting it into the circuit is more of an issue. My clamp meter is a pretty old one that has to be zeroed manually with a wheel and only shows 1 decimal place anyway



Having said that, I use much more modern 150A telemetry sensors on some of my r/c models and those seem pretty decent below 1A (idle current, before launch).

 

[andy27168]

Do you find the sensitivity of the DC clamp to be a bit suspect at low currents?
I've also found mine will read differently depending which way round it's clamped.
Different to yours but a handy piece of kit though.

Hi,
To be honest yes the DC reading seems to take a second or two to stabilise when clamped around the cable, I did notice this stabilisation process seems to be slightly different if the clamp is placed in circuit the other way round, but would generally read the same.

 

[andy27168]

BTB, I am intrigued regarding you're telemetry sensor.
How would this work?
Would their be a way of permanently wiring one of these units into a car to monitor the battery discharge? does it support data logging?

 

[BTB 500]

BTB, I am intrigued regarding you're telemetry sensor.
How would this work?
Would their be a way of permanently wiring one of these units into a car to monitor the battery discharge? does it support data logging?

Unfortunately it wouldn't be any use for cars. It's part of a radio control system - you have a range of optional sensors available to measure things like current, voltage, altitude, airspeed, position, rpm, temperature etc. ... these feed into a telemetry data stream that's sent back from the onboard radio receiver to the transmitter on the ground. That's where the logging is done (and you can use any realtime value to control logic ... at its simplest, something like triggering a warning when the flight battery voltage drops to a certain level).

 

[Greenthing]

I only get involved with vehicle electrics when I have to and I`m not going to try and claim to know a huge amount about them or multimeters. But I had to replace my old analogue last year, thought about going digital but decided to go with this, a `proskit mt-2017`(now mt-2018). Check out the reviews, it`s quite a decent bit of kit for the price. I`ve seen them for as little as £23 on ebay. I suppose if you`re a professional you`ld probably be embarressed to turn up at work with one but they seem to do everything you would want of a multimeter and are quite accurrate.

 

[survey]

Any views on this multimeter? https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-elec...ck/95426#product_additional_details_container

 

[BTB 500]

Any views on this multimeter? https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-elec...ck/95426#product_additional_details_container

Audible continuity test (where you get a tone if there's an electrical connection between the points where the two probes are) is very useful for general fault-finding ... hard to be sure, but doesn't look like that meter has this function.

 

[survey]

Audible continuity test (where you get a tone if there's an electrical connection between the points where the two probes are) is very useful for general fault-finding ... hard to be sure, but doesn't look like that meter has this function.

Hi, But could one use a resistance test at asy 200 Ohms and get the same functionality (just without the beep)?

 

[m80]

I can't expand the picture to see 'the meter' properly but it looks similar to this
Digital Multimeter AC DC Voltmeter Ammeter Ohmmeter Volt Tester Meter XL-830L | eBay

It'll do a basic job, but I had one for the boat and gave it away in favour of one of these
AN8002 Digital LCD Display Multimeter Ammeter Voltmeter Meter Green/Orange as07 | eBay

 

[grober]

Hi, But could one use a resistance test at asy 200 Ohms and get the same functionality (just without the beep)?

The value of the beep is its an audible warning meaning you can visually concentrate on getting the meter leads / probes in the correct position if checking continuity on a circuit board for example. As you say a low range ohms scale setting will do it but you might be surprised how useful the beep can be??