Electronics Multimeter Advice

Audiolab

Audiolab

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Inverclyde
I am working on a small cmoy amp and my 20 year old trusty analogue multimeter has died. I may fix it but could do with a new one. I see they are all fancy digital now although analogue still available. I don't need super accurate calibrated readings and am looking for something under £50, so that puts all of the Fluke range out.

I see a few Draper ones on Amazon which look OK and the bay is quite stuffed with cheap jap ones but a little research seems to say these "no name" meters are basically good for continuity testing and that's about it. The range at Maplin also looks OK but I am not nore if any one brand is that much better than the other at this price point.

Anyone got a suggestion for a decent multimeter for hobby electronics / debug work?

Cheers.
 
You're looking at fag-paper differences at the bottom end of the market, but building a CMOS amp isn't launching the next Ariane Rocket... - so long as the input impedance is at least 10MΩ you ought to be hot to trot for 99.9% of stuff you want to do.

Other things that you may find useful - peak hold (so it holds the highest value of voltage, current or resistance), continuity buzzer (typically it acts if the path resistance is 400Ω or less, 4 digit / 3½ (that is 0.000-9.999 or 0.000-1.999 display).

I personally would favour a Maplin one to a Draper, because as a one-time electronics component shop they ought to be selling tools fit for purpose. They also give the original manufacturer's details - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.uni-trend.com/product.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.uni-trend.com/product.html</a><!-- m -->

Or of course, keep your eye open for a military surplus Avo 8 Mk III or IV... proper meter, virtually indestructible :D
 
hunnymonster said:
You're looking at fag-paper differences at the bottom end of the market, but building a CMOS amp isn't launching the next Ariane Rocket... - so long as the input impedance is at least 10MΩ you ought to be hot to trot for 99.9% of stuff you want to do.

Other things that you may find useful - peak hold (so it holds the highest value of voltage, current or resistance), continuity buzzer (typically it acts if the path resistance is 400Ω or less, 4 digit / 3½ (that is 0.000-9.999 or 0.000-1.999 display).

I personally would favour a Maplin one to a Draper, because as a one-time electronics component shop they ought to be selling tools fit for purpose. They also give the original manufacturer's details - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.uni-trend.com/product.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.uni-trend.com/product.html</a><!-- m -->

Or of course, keep your eye open for a military surplus Avo 8 Mk III or IV... proper meter, virtually indestructible :D
Click to expand...

HM
You just beat me to it! :ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:

Take a fortnight off.

Regards
 
Thanks HM, I agree there is little or no difference at this price, just look for one that suits you feature wise and within budget. My current (now dead) meter was bought from Tandy and Maplin are of the same vein in usually selling decent value but fit for purpose kit.

It is a small headphone amp that fists inside a mint tin. I am not happy with the headphone socket out of the iPod. that signal goes through the iPods amp which is a bit pish. I am going to get a line out through a dock cable and feed that into a headphone amp shaped to my personal taste.

I am off tomorrow and dropping the car in for a service at Kyle Street so will maybe kill some time by nipping down to Maplin at St Enoch square and have a nosey.
 
Not sure Boab but it is buttons for the bits, small op amp, a few capacitors, resistors, battery, LED and potentiometer (volumer knob) and an LED, around a fiver for the bits and whatever you want to pay for an enclosure. I expect mine will come in at £6 but I already had a box, blank circuit board and all of the tools.

You can buy complete kits at around £12 on the bay or completed ones from £20 upwards depending on the complexity and quality of the finish. Of course mine has now cost more because I bought a new meter but I do use that regularly and to be honest you can build it blind without one, I just like to have one to hand to double check and if it doesn't work when you are done you can do sod all without a meter.

I got a loan of a headphone amplifier from one of the guys in the lab, a shop bought one which cost him quite a bit and have tried it, for me the improvement in quality is staggering but obviously this is at the expense of potability. I am to tight to buy one and decided I could build such a simple circuit myself, will see how well this thought hold true but it is a simple design that can be tweaked to suit your musical taste which is what appealed to me.

I am going back to work in the lab soon (been working form home for a few months) but I do find the noise in the lab is distracting, blade servers and high end servers produce a lot of noise and heat. It will all fit into a small bag I have and it is going to sit on my desk so I am not carrying it around. Initially I will wire it for a PP3 but there is a DC jack in the circuit design so I can plug it in to mains.

Got a meter today so I will assemble it time sometime this week.
 
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