lostmymanual
Well-known member
Love or hate em', the miniature volt meter has sparked my interest again.
Mostly because I'm tired of toting my bricks up 11 flights of stairs daily. I wear FR coveralls and can't wear a belt as company policy these days.
I used to have an Amprobe PM55A, which on first look was brilliant. It was Cat3 rated so I could check for magic pixies at the 440V mark and it did fine for that.
Unfortunately, it cost me several hours of barking up the wrong tree one day when it decided to show me that a good 1.7kOhm loop monitoring resistor on one of many PLC inputs was open. I grabbed my trusty fluke and found that it was actually a good resistor after I chased it down and replaced it. As it turned out, the little Amprobe wasn't so good at anything but open or short.
The leads were subsequently cut off and the meter was flung into the trash bin. I digress....
So... I kinda miss a few things about it. Mostly the fact that; for the few days I was in love with it before it had to die, it fit in my pockets. It was good for normal fuse checks and the basic voltage and continuity checks that make up the majority of what I do on a daily basis. Very rarely do I have to go to the component level on something.
I was thinking to myself: "Self, that new forum you joined has some fellow electronicals, maybe they've found a sweetheart meter that fits the bill".
I'd like to know what some of you have. Note that we all know that a $2K scopemeter is fantastic. I also have several normal meters that are about brick size of various MFG. My personal meters at home range from Fluke 177 to a Simpson Analog (forget model) another Fluke clamp meter (can't remember model) to a Tektronics O-smelloscope that I haven't seriously used at home since I helped a Ham operator resolve a transceiver problem.
Rocket ship rated meters for NASA are all well and good but KISS. IMO: Not everything has to have 6 channels and spit out full power quality analysis.
My wish list is:
Price: As cheap or expensive as you wish. I haven't had great luck with cheap-o-meters but there's always a first time to be had out there in the yonder.
Cat 3 rated with fused protection is the top priority though. I generally test for on/off and open/closed and occasionally for resistance to evaluate things like relay and solenoid coils to make sure they're ball-park. Following that at a distant 3rd place would be DC current loops. Before I buy another Amprobe pocket meter and handle it with kid gloves, I'd like to hear what you folks have had good luck with.
PS: Please don't make this a "you're stupid if you trust anything but (insert)". Yeah, it's known that pocket meters aren't the best at everything. We all know, or should know to test a known good hot source before calling something dead. Whether or not we do this consistently is up to us.
Mostly because I'm tired of toting my bricks up 11 flights of stairs daily. I wear FR coveralls and can't wear a belt as company policy these days.
I used to have an Amprobe PM55A, which on first look was brilliant. It was Cat3 rated so I could check for magic pixies at the 440V mark and it did fine for that.
Unfortunately, it cost me several hours of barking up the wrong tree one day when it decided to show me that a good 1.7kOhm loop monitoring resistor on one of many PLC inputs was open. I grabbed my trusty fluke and found that it was actually a good resistor after I chased it down and replaced it. As it turned out, the little Amprobe wasn't so good at anything but open or short.
The leads were subsequently cut off and the meter was flung into the trash bin. I digress....
So... I kinda miss a few things about it. Mostly the fact that; for the few days I was in love with it before it had to die, it fit in my pockets. It was good for normal fuse checks and the basic voltage and continuity checks that make up the majority of what I do on a daily basis. Very rarely do I have to go to the component level on something.
I was thinking to myself: "Self, that new forum you joined has some fellow electronicals, maybe they've found a sweetheart meter that fits the bill".
I'd like to know what some of you have. Note that we all know that a $2K scopemeter is fantastic. I also have several normal meters that are about brick size of various MFG. My personal meters at home range from Fluke 177 to a Simpson Analog (forget model) another Fluke clamp meter (can't remember model) to a Tektronics O-smelloscope that I haven't seriously used at home since I helped a Ham operator resolve a transceiver problem.
Rocket ship rated meters for NASA are all well and good but KISS. IMO: Not everything has to have 6 channels and spit out full power quality analysis.
My wish list is:
- Cat3 rated and fuse protected
- +/- 10% accuracy would be okay.
- Fit in a shirt pocket (that's the point of this)
- Preferably replaceable probes (not fixed like the Amprobe PM55 was)
- Auto ranging. I'd break out an analog if I didn't want auto ranging.
- Ammeter capability would be great
- DC Ammeter for monitoring mA level current loops would be fantastic!
- I wouldn't hate a nice, blocky back-lit display
Price: As cheap or expensive as you wish. I haven't had great luck with cheap-o-meters but there's always a first time to be had out there in the yonder.
Cat 3 rated with fused protection is the top priority though. I generally test for on/off and open/closed and occasionally for resistance to evaluate things like relay and solenoid coils to make sure they're ball-park. Following that at a distant 3rd place would be DC current loops. Before I buy another Amprobe pocket meter and handle it with kid gloves, I'd like to hear what you folks have had good luck with.
PS: Please don't make this a "you're stupid if you trust anything but (insert)". Yeah, it's known that pocket meters aren't the best at everything. We all know, or should know to test a known good hot source before calling something dead. Whether or not we do this consistently is up to us.
