old trusty DVM just died. Recommendations for a replacement?

Look into the Tenma line.

"Off brand" == not Fluke? ;-)

I've been pretty happy with a Wavetek 37XR

(Tequipment is only one source, albeit one I've used several times with good results. Just a happy customer, etc.)

Not terribly pricy and includes additional ranges that don't replace a dedicated LCR meter or logic probe but can be handy to have.

Note that the description on the referenced page states that an optical PC interface is included; that's for the (otherwise similar)

I just got this in my email from Tequipment.NET.%10 off Instek this one looks pretty good.$86.40

Now that I've been looking there the function generator looks nice to.

All I need is $1440.00, accepting donations.

Well, if his first choice was a Fluke, that tells me that he want quality and accuracy.

I would get on E-bay and buy a used HP bench meter, which at 6.5 digits they can't be beat when one gets a $1500 meter for around $150.

You have perhaps had better luck than most who buy used test equipment on ebay. I'd advise caution.

BK has some prtty decent ones for the money, $40 to $60 at Digikey would probably get you what you were looking for.

steve

A company I worked for bought twelve of the same meter on E-bay from different sources, and they were all had for less than $150 and they were all $1500 HP 3478A units. I also bought one, they all calibrate to the EXACT same figure, and they all work just fine.

to date, I've have no problems buying equipment from Ebay, I have gotten everything in the exact shape it was posted as.. I even got an extra unit from one bid for parts and ended up repairing that one also as an extra! :) That was an old HP R.F. voltage meter good to 1 Ghz.

If you're not specifically looking for name brand meters, I recommend the model M-1750 at

Cheers!!!!

I have been out of the game for about 5 years now, but the old beckman meters used to be good. Are they still available?

Anybody know how to do a websearch for something clever like "beckman multimeter?"

I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re. their cases. Bit when I wanted something with more functions for the bench, I didn't need something quite so stout.

I bought an Extech EX330:

It's got capacitance and frequency measurement as well as temperature measurement. (Mine came with a bead-type probe but I see some EX330 meters that are not bundled with a probe. Look closely.) I think I paid about $50.

Jameco has a good selection:

I still think there's nothing like a Fluke but the competition is closing in on them very quickly.

(I cross-posted to the s.e.repair group. I think these guys n' gals would be able to give some good experiences re. meters.)

Good luck,

I'd second the Meterman (Wavetek) 37XR I bought a bunch of these for work recently and I have been fairly impressed. Not as expensive as Fluke but the quality is good, it's accurate, and has plenty of nice features like inductance and cap.

No wonder Fluke bought Meterman, they were decent competition.

Dave.

I got an old HP3466A DVM from Ebay for $10. Service manual can be downloaded from Agilent. I like it because it doesn't require batteries and can be read from almost any angle since it has an LED display.

The biggest drawback I've found to the Extech meters is that they are very slow to auto range (in every mode) compared to a Fluke. Also, while hunting for the right range they display bogus values in the other ranges. My Fluke 10 takes about 0.5s to go from Megaohms down to ohms and displays dashes while it's doing that. My EX470 takes 4+ seconds and displays some intermediate values. After it reaches ohms it takes another second or so to settle.

Not just the cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.

I agree on Fluke robustness. Pretty much the same story with my 8520A bench meter.

I wanted to make my own high voltage probe. At a flea market I had aquired some glass encapsulated resistors that were multi-megohm. I thought they would be perfect for my probe divider, so I built one in a plastic tube. Tried it at some hundreds of volts and it seemed to be working as expected. I applied it to something like 1700 V. The tube was clear plastic, and to my horror the resistor lit up with plasma and ugly clicking noises came out of the meter. Looking at the meter, the fluke display had switched to Klingon or something. Expecting disaster, I power cycled the Fluke. It came back to life and was fine.

That resistor still baffles me. As I said it was in a glass tube and was at least an inch long. It looked perfect for HV. My guess is that it was filled with some gas to deliberatly short itself at some voltage in the low KV range.

I don't have one of those, but have used it in the past. My recollection is the impedance (i.e. burden) is pretty high.

Did you clean all body oil and other contamanints from the resistor before you used it? A single fingerprint on a one inch glass HV resistor could cause arc over, and for it to self destruct.