Purchasing a new high end multimeter

If you don't need handheld, you can pick up used HP 3456a, 3457a, and the occasional 3458a multimeter on eBay. The 57 and 58 have more self-check and self-cal in them, but on any of them, if they turn on and say that they're okay, they're okay! 4-wire ohms, programmable, IEEE-1488 interface. The manuals are available for free on the web.

I'd also look at IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. If the boss is paying, what the hell. If you are paying, look for a deal.

Ah - I've used those before. Good meters, though for me I'd really like them to be handheld. I just don't want to give up that much bench space!

-Mike

I'm not paying. A good deal would be nice, of course. But quality is more important than price.

-Mike

I've had an Extech scopemeter for years now and I love it. It has sample-and-hold, offset, logging, good accuracy, etc. and are reasonably priced. You can get a really nice Extech meter for under $500.

HTH, Shawn Holland

Some random thoughts on the 189:

Autoranging is a bit slow. I don't have figures, but my recollection is that previous generation Flukes did better. You can end up in a situation where a signal is changing at just the right speed that it spends almost all its time ranging back and forth and you don't get to see a reading unless you range it manually. I know Fluke is capable of getting this right, and has done in their other products, so it's disappointing that they dropped the ball on the 189.

There's just one setting for beep, and it's deep in a setup menu. I end up turning it on when I want continuity testing and off otherwise. It's a bit frustrating that the continuity beep isn't selectable separately from the button-press beep or more easily toggled.

For temperature, realize it's going to be a few degrees off, because its internal cold junction compensation thermistor is inside the box, and the actual junction is outside. It's not a precision temperature instrument.

It does draw more power than other meters - less runtime on 4 AAs than they get on 9Vs, as I recall. I use rechargeables and that works fine.

It does not offer four-wire resistance measurement, which bench meters generally do, but I am not aware of any competing handhelds which offer it either.

Logging is well implemented and they clearly put a lot of work into it (heuristics to break periods into smaller onces when rapid changes are detected, etc). Nonetheless the applications of a one channel data logger are limited, at least in my work.

The min/max/avg setting is very useful for me in applications such as measuring power consumption of a circuit; I just used it this afternoon, in fact. I was measuring across a high-side shunt resistor so a floating meter like the Fluke is easier than the scope. The duty cycle measurement is another of the more esoteric features which I often actually use (for checking PWM outputs).

I haven't abused it much as yet so I cannot comment on how well it holds up, either electrically or mechanically.

Other than the few issues mentioned above it's worked well for me overall. I think I paid about $350 for it mail order without any extra accessories. It's not perfect but I think it was a reasonable value. If you do want the cable/software, buy it up front - you can get a package deal for less than the combined cost of buying the meter then buying the software later.

I am so with John on this one!!! Coming from former USSR where nobody gave a s...t about anybody's else's interests but his/her own, I am surprised to see same attitude in the US. It's so simple: I (as an employee) save a buck for the company (providing my paycheck), the company is more likely to prosper, I am less likely to get a pink slip. How come so few people understand it?! Why be wasteful??? I have made quite a few ebay purchases for work (working for big companies).

All those years of seeing him on TV and I never once thought that might be where Springfield was, but lookie here:

;-)

It's not to hard for some of us to have that attitude when our CEO's are making 1000 times what we are, it's a different type of corruption (board of directors collusion) vs the USSR corruption, but corruption none-the-less....

Over here, we call it "enlightened self-interest". The facts are, anyone who claims to be altrustic is a liar. Nobody does _anything_ without a payoff of some kind.

In the Free Market system, this works perfectly every time - I have skills and no money, my client has money but no skills, so I exchange him some of my skills for some of his money, and we BOTH come out better off! It's a win-win.

The thing that inevitably fucks this up is Government.

Thanks! Rich

What is it to you (employee) what anyone else in the corporation makes. CEO salary is entirely up to the owners (stockholders) of the company. If you're also a stockholder, sell if you're so insulted.

Why do you think EE times and other magazines perform annual salary surveys? People want to think they're getting paid "what they're worth," and a -- very -- large part of what people think they're worth is how they rate the difficulty of their own job vs. all the other employees relative to how much the other employees get paid.

When you have a CEO making 100 times what the highest paid engineer does, since it's obvious the engineers won't be getting pay raises to match, it instead just breeds resentment amongst the rank and file.

I would grant you there are scenarios where the CEO is easily worth 100x the average employee, but there are also scenarios where the average employee could run the company better than the CEO does!

A committee of employees couldn't have done worse than the Enron bunch.

CEO salary is entirely up to the owners? What country are you living in? It's the board of directors in the US that decides CEO salary, regardless of the objections of the owners. Fund managers and pension groups have been pushing companies to give shareholders a voice in setting pay, but, for now at least, they have been powerless. All the board members are CEO's themselves, of other corporations, it's the law of reciprocation that prevails. They are all giving each other someone else's money.

The 189 is a horrible meter for general use IMHO, as far as Fluke's go anyway. It chews batteries, it has stupid menus, and it beeps at everything you do. A nice 80 series would be a much better choice for general use if you don't need the data logging feature.

Recently there has been almost zero competition for the high end Fluke's (Tek's were nice, but then Fluke bought them out), but a few are coming on the market like this Agilent one:

Dave :)

Looks very nice, thanks for the tip. I almost bought a 189 about a year ago, but backed out because I just couldn't justify it to myself for hobby use. Glad I didn't buy it now. I have an old Micronta 22-167 that I've had for many years. Even if it is radio shat, it still works well. Batteries last forever. It's just like this one:

There is a difference between knowing how you are paid in relation to everyone else and knowing what an individual is paid.

No, it isn't obvious at all. The CEO may indeed be worth 100x more than the engineer, at least to the stockholders. There are a *lot* of engineers.

Conclusion given without supporting evidence.