Continuing the effort to cut down on excess and unused equipment, I’ve tested and photographed all multimeters in the red bin. I’ve broken them down into ones that work and busted ones.
Working Multimeters
Broken Multimeters
Triplett 2030-C pocket (requires LR44 battery)
UNI-T UT20B pocket (requires A23 battery)
Excel DT9205A (physical damage to common terminal)
UTL UTL30
Sanwa PD-470C pen tester
Hinki analog current clamp (no movement in needle)
Micronta analog multimeter
Please chime in with your opinion on what to keep and what to toss. I’m thinking we keep the Mastercraft, RadioShack, Victor, the 4 cheapies, one pocket multimeter (either the Uni-T or Tripplett) and try to fix the Fluke current clamp.
3 Likes
TyIsI
February 19, 2018, 5:52am
2
Let’s at least keep the working ones.
wander
February 19, 2018, 5:56am
3
At a minimum, I’d suggest getting rid of everything that doesn’t have tester cables associated with it.
Fluke meters are generally high quality.
Frankly, it’s hard to imagine us needing more that about 3-4?
Thanks for looking into this @Variable
Majicj
February 19, 2018, 6:39am
4
Flukes are good quality. Check the fuses for this one.
2 Likes
There should be at least as multimeter’s as soldering irons. Needed for
testing and trouble shooting work. And everyone who gets soldering training
should see there work results.
I think we should purchase more good meters.
3 Likes
Jarrett
February 19, 2018, 4:33pm
6
I agree. We should do a crowdfund at some point and buy a few in the $50-100 range. We’re also missing proper leads for our two good ones.
2 Likes
Should we choose to get rid of this one, I’d actually love to take it and repurpose it for my own nefarious needs.
To get a reading from a clamp meter you need to clamp just one pole not both otherwise they cancel each other and the sum is zero. From the image it looks like you’re checking a whole power cord not just one pole.
7 Likes
jon
February 19, 2018, 6:54pm
9
I forgot to do a christmas tool donation back in December, and good multimeters are worth having around.
I’ve ordered two new ones to donate to VHS, shipped to @Jarrett to bring down to VHS.
Hopefully that encourages tossing some of the older crap ones
Merry Belated-Christmas, and Happy Hacking.
13 Likes
Jarrett
February 19, 2018, 7:08pm
10
That’s awesome. Solves two birds with one stone. Thanks, @jon !
Did not know that. I’ll try to retest them on Tuesday. Thanks for the advice.
Janet
February 19, 2018, 8:03pm
13
@jon you are so kind. Thanks dude! Hope to see you sometime soon in Vancouver.
I say we keep the Micronta analog multimeter, just because it’s cool
1 Like
Jarrett
February 20, 2018, 1:04am
15
Damn. We live in the future.
Thanks again, @jon !
5 Likes
wander
February 20, 2018, 1:16am
16
Thanks @Jon , that was really nice!
Also, please VHS brand them with permanent marker ASAP
4 Likes
xquared
February 20, 2018, 5:43pm
17
ok that analog meter should probably be kept for “historical” values. it’s small, it works as far as i know and it looks like a tricorder.
1 Like
(1) Keep all the Current Clamps
(2) Keep all the working multimeters (repair if blown fuse/out of battery is the only work)
system
Closed
March 5, 2019, 2:36am
20
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