Do multimeters "wear out" after so many years? Fluke vs. Ideal, Wavetek??

Better DVMs have a linear bar display to show you roughly the same thing.

A typical needle type VOM has a resistance of 20,000 ohms/V. So, on the

Absolutely, or should I asy Relatively!

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I find those pretty useless, not the same as a real needle. :)

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Yup - that's common for a decent AVO on DC. But assuming no electronics,

But for measuring home mains, 1000 ohms/V is fine. Stops those silly readings caused by coupling of one sort or another.

I'd think more people would be using those LCD Oscopes that are about the size of a big meter these days.

Only if you're very rich, ;-)

Have you ever had to adjust the bias or drive on a TV transmitter with one of those? You would need new outputs before you ever got close to the proper settings.

That "feature" is a piece of crap in the real world when you need to see a dip or peak that's only a couple needle's widths apart.

you

lot

Mine has one of those, it's really not very useful though, an analog needle has *far* higher resolution and reacts more quickly.

I've used those a couple times and really don't like them much, they cost an arm and a leg and the performance is nowhere near that of a good analog scope.

As I've said, the solution would be to put a tiny analog meter inside the DVM, with only a relative scale on it, for this sort of thing.

Decades ago when I thought of building a DVM, I had planned to put in such an analog meter. And I'm pretty sure one manufacturer did include a meter like this way back.

I find the sluggishness of the LCD "analog scale" makes it completely useless.

Michael

value

thing.

needle

If they included an analog meter movment it'd probably be too small to be useful and add too much to the cost. Easier to just keep an analog meter around for the situations that need it. Digital is adaquate for most things.

Trouble is including an analogue meter would *vastly* increase battery consumption.

Agreed they're not as good.

I remember seeing one which had an LCD analogue meter complete with needle. But I don't know if it had the same ballistics as a 'real' one.

Butting in....

So what are you guys' favorite meters?

I mentioned my Beckman 223 died. I always liked the Fluke 77, and don't need special stuff like frequency counter, computer connectivity or the like.

I do need it to have a tilt base and be heavy enough that simply moving leads around won't jerk it around or knock it over.

I can pick up a good condition 77 on eBay any day for around 50.00 or so, but that's an almost 20 year old model.

Is the Fluke 77 mark 3 any good? The 87 seems a bit big for my purposes, though I suppose I could get used to it. What other models would you all recommend?

Mark Z.

I've got a 179, and am very pleased with it. Does have frequency counting though - and temperature.

Auto ranging and hold with min max.

Only think I dislike is the near rigid test leads. ;_)

The 73 looks pretty nice - and doesn't taper down towards the base like the

Mark Z.

Some more specialized measuring instruments like laser power meters do have both. The analog and digital displays share the same space as in Coherent's Fieldmaster:

That's been around in essentially the same form for at least 15 years.

I think they tried to do away with the delicate analog meter at one point in favor of a bargraph display but then went back to the analog meter.

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I've got a Fluke 87 and an 88, which is just an automotive oriented verson of the 87, and I like them both. With

JazzMan

the

I do like the 73, I really don't like that newer tapered design, still can't figure out why they did that, it's just not as comfortable in my hand.

I had a beckman at one place I worked and I remember it was great for battery life. Some other meters I was always replacing the 9v battery.