Better buy a new multimeter then a new battery!

Gee, you rich guys waste money like no tomorrow. Is it USD $6 to $7? We buy them for $1.99 at Harbour Freight Tools, limit 8 per customer. I am still debating whether to waste the gas to drive the 10 miles there.

Five (!) Euros? Sounds like a rip-off. 9V batteries are always expensive which is why I never design for those, But at large club stores we can usually get them between $1.50-$2.00, good brands like Duracell.

It's this one, on sale right now:

I'd go for it but I've already got six of those. A client also bought lots of them. They are remarkably accurate and yes, battery included. My only gripe is that the color of the enclosure is plain yucky. They should have kept it yellow.

I like the red(dish) color better than the old yellow, but in general Harbor Freight seems to choose really unattractive colors for their cases... particularly with their power tools, where orange really makes the tools look rather nasty:

On a sunny day (Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:32:09 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

Yes, that is the one, exactly the same, except mine is labelled: 'Stalo', and is black. I have an older one (10 years maybe), also exactly the same, but yellow, no make I can find on it. The older one was extensively used in the car, and the labelling has become unreadable (seems oil dissolves it). So now I can make a picture of the new one, process it, and make a new front for the old one ;-) Maybe too much work for 5 Euro.

Yep.

Red may scare away Thompson though. For leftists weenies it is no problem, was probably made in China :-).

On a sunny day (Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:12:57 -0800 (PST)) it happened linnix wrote in :

OK, that hardware store here needs to make a living too. Indeed it does not pay for the travel from Europe to the US, to pick one up, or shipping cost. Maybe you can re-sell those for 5$?

They mail us coupon all the time. I got one expiring Dec 26 and one expiring Jan 13. I can load up 16 of them for gifts. I got one from them for $2.99 before and a black one in China (retail) for same price. They are identical inside. For $1.99, Harbour Freight must be selling them at cost. From China, red is not surprising. Joerg might have to pay extra to get his yellow one.

I wish to mount it permanently in my cars, just to check the car battery. So, I was trying to remove the internal 9V battery, or at least make it rechargeable. But grounding the black lead to the internal battery does not work. Any idea to make it rechargeable?

On a sunny day (Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:19:18 -0800 (PST)) it happened linnix wrote in :

Yes, those chips need an isolated supply. I am facing the same thing just now with a thing I am designing. This little voltage converter circuit, that uses a very small potcore, has saved me several times in the past: ftp://panteltje.com/pub/voltage_converter.jpg The base loop back winding is half a turn, for a 12 V battery you need 12 turns... etc. For 9 V secondary 9 turns. It runs at a few kHZ, makes a sinewave, has little harmonics, causes no RFI. That one is from some other project (eighties). The secret is 1 turn per volt, so if you have 6 meters, then you need to wind 6 x 9 turns, use 6 diodes, and 6 electrolytics, to power the meters. I'v run out of potcores (the very small ones), maybe I will now try one with a ringcore. Wire diameter can be hair thin, hardly any current.

Red is the conservative color over here, blue is for the left. And we just determined in another thread that electrons must be blue.

Almost everything is made there until a less expensive place with enough of a skill set is found.

On a sunny day (Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:19:32 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

Oops! Blue electrons. I stand corrected. Now are electrons male and protons female, or the other way around? And what do they think?

Actually, the holes would be female. Although, in California that's being debated right now since some judges and politicians do not seem to be interested in what voters decided ...

Anyone taken one apart and can post a photo of the inside? Curious to see if it's a kitchen table assembly job...

The included battery with products this low in price is usually of horrific quality. China have figured out they can get rid of their toxic waste for free by including it in battery electrolyte - a rather clever scheme!

Dave.

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$7?

LCD and PCB are pressed together with a conductive rubber piece. The controller chip is die-bonded directly, no need for packaging.

Yeap, I do it all the time. Plenty of junks on my desk too.

Yup, typical kitchen table job!

Dave.

Indeed! Low cost stuff can often be more interesting to take apart than a $50K bit of Agilent gear.

Dave.

I can just hear the PCB layout guy complaining about how having to draw those arcs on the main switch is time consuming and annoying and asking why we can't just buy an off-the-shelf part instead...

Of course, when your volumes are in the 5 or 6 digits, the cost argument starts to have a lot of weight...

That Fuke photo is interesting in that it has both SMT and through-hole parts, and the option for a wire-bonded of packaged IC. Neat...

That's so they can choose whatever part the OneHungLow factory has in stock this week.

Dave.

Right, but it clearly has a footprint for a packaged part.

"Packaging costs too much. Why do it twice?"

Presumably because the part is available in both packaged and dice forms, and the manufacturer might occaisonally find a deal where the packaged part is cheaper than the bar die?

"Pads are free."

Or for making nice pretty samples that have a proper chip in whenever they are negotiating with a new customer.

They could even get away with a dummy part that's hollow underneath and just goes over the COB gunk when they want a pretty one. I'm sure someone in China has fake chips available off the shelf, printed with whatever artwork you want while you wait ;-)

"Joel Koltner" wrote in news:SvX3l.3181$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-08.dc.easynews.com:

or are the pads for automated testing and calibration?