Went to get a DMM today. Too many options. What functions are necessary for this kind of work? Any benefits to buying a name brand instead of the cheapest one I can find? What does true RMS mean and why should I want it?

Jason A.

Where's the love?

But don't worry. I moved ahead without you guys. Nothing's coming between me and my StudioForums Tech Degree.

I just bought a Protek B-845 Benchtop DMM for $9.99 on E-bay. It don't think it does capacitance but I think I should be OK.

Now if only my soldering station would get here. I need to make some cables.

Jason A.

I have a Fluke 77, and I have no damn clue why I spent so much on it. It is hefty, rugged, accurate, pretty, and has a BIG display. I also spent a shitload on a Weller soldering station. The only thing I have done so far is make a snake (Which saved me enough money to pay for the soldering station and the multimeter). So all is good I really want to get into this stuff. I am going to purchase the reports from davisound.com which are supposevly top knotch to understand audio circuits. And I read the "freebie" info and its pretty well layed out and easy to understand. The price sucks though.
Thats all I want to say, so by now

-Dusty

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Originally posted by dusty:
I am going to purchase the reports from davisound.com which are supposevly top knotch to understand audio circuits. And I read the "freebie" info and its pretty well layed out and easy to understand.

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I just checked out that site and they sound pretty good, let us know how good they are.

quote:

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The price sucks though.

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No kidding! $100 for 110 pages???
They had better be fantastic!

-tkr

______________________________
'Cause I don't wanna read the book, I'll watch the movie.

I have a Fluke 88 that is ten years old. Right after I left broadcasting, I was doing electronic engine control work and diagnostics, and the 88 has some neat automotive functions.

$9.99 is a good price for a beginning meter. The only real considerations are autoranging and a high input impedance. Autoranging helps the beginner get good info on the screen without knowing what range of values to expect, and high input inpedances are now common. At one time, the common meter impedance was 20,000 ohms/volt, which could really load down a circuit. Now, almost all meters have an FET input stage with impedances of 10 to 20 megohms, which is an almost imperceptible load to most circuits.

Nice extras are the ability to measure capacitance or inductance, or DC and AC current, usually up to about 10 amps. You pay more, MUCH more for those features.

A ten dolar DVM. Nice going!

"Wait a minute. Tom flys Britney Spears and I'm flying Madelaine Albright?"

Here's what I bought if you are interested. New they sell for around $275 so I think I did OK


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2555345701&category=25412&rd=1

Jason A.

I got a Fluke 112 here, no complains. However, I do use it in my daytime job mainly for checking AC voltage

Nice purchase, Jason. Leads are widely available. Looks like your unit will take "bananna plug" ends.

The power cord looks identical to a typical computer power cord. I'm not going to unplug right now to check it, though!

"Wait a minute. Tom flys Britney Spears and I'm flying Madelaine Albright?"

ya I was looking into getting one of these so I could retube and bias my amp...this is what you got your multimeter for correct? I went to Eurotubes.com and followed his link to one of the guys who sells them but I couldnt figure out what kit I would need to just be able to retube my amp and bias it correctly again. I got lost with the banana plugs and such. Does anyone have a link that they could direct me to so as to clear this up for someone who doesn't mind reading up on it since I don't want to have to go to a tech everytime I want to mess with tubes on my amp(s)?