Hawk
Well-known member
Can Tire has 75% off multimeters. Useful to check bike voltage output, batteries and more. Sale starts Aug 31 to Sept 6. Ride safe.
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Digital Multimeter sale
- Thread starter Hawk
- Start date
TheDirty
Well-known member
Other than my regular one, I have a couple of these for just leaving in the garage or putting in a pack if I need it. They work well for the very basics.
http://dx.com/p/auto-range-digital-multimeter-9636
http://dx.com/p/auto-range-digital-multimeter-9636
Red_Liner740
Well-known member
They're crap, not accurate but better than nothing.
or u could get a phaser
I have one of those "Canadian Tire" meters in my garage. As OP said, they are pretty much only good for to check battery voltage and such. A couple of days ago I wanted to check impedance of the freshly repaired speakers (which is supposed to be around 4 Ohms) and CT meter happily reported 0 Ohms on both speakers. Had to go and grab my trusty Fluke.
TheDirty
Well-known member
What's crap? The ones I linked too have decent voltage accuracy. They are nice because they have a continuity mode which many cheap ones don't have.
Again, this is good for simple work, checking voltage levels, wiring checks, a lot of regular work on a motorcycle electrical system. The current measurement is so low that it's not very useful, though. 0.8% accuracy is what it claims for DC Voltage and I've had three and all have had good accuracy.
I used one to check my battery voltage and got 18 volts. My Fluke said 12 as did a couple of other meters I had kicking around. Using that ratio a battery could be at 8 volts and you would think there was nothing wrong with the battery because the meter said it was at full charge. At least check it to see how far it's off before you do something dumb.
Why are you replying to my post? LOL. I have a Fluke for pretty much everything being an electrical engineer, and obviously I know how far my CT meter is off from 'normal'.
I was agreeing and pointing out how bad some cheapies are for diagnostics. For higher voltages the cheapies can kill you.
Red_Liner740
Well-known member
I was specifically talking to the little $20 CT volt meter, i have no experience with DealExteme one....stuff from there can be hit and miss so i didnt comment on it. I have one of the cheapo CT's at home....a month in the screen stopped working, only if you press the corner of the multimeter firmly does it show numbers....kinda hard to work on something when both your hands are on the multimeter. I have a Fluke i use at work and carry with me.
I have one of these units although it's a Mac branded unit. The Mac guy was giving them out one year as xmas gifts. It's alot more accurate then I thought it would be. My only complaint is that it has non replaceable fairly short leads.
Too much hate here for cheap multimeters. I've had a cheapo multimeter from Canadian Tire for probably 4-5 years now, think I paid $20 for it. Does the job just fine for the basics that I and most people need them for. I've used it for voltage, continuity, current draw, resistance. Has always been been accurate enough that the values show approximately what I expect them to.
Obviously wouldn't use one as a replacement for something like a Fluke in a professional environment, though I do know many excellent mechanics that use the same or similar cheap multimeter.
Obviously wouldn't use one as a replacement for something like a Fluke in a professional environment, though I do know many excellent mechanics that use the same or similar cheap multimeter.
dmartins
Well-known member
lol.. How can they even market this as a multimeter ? It may as well be sold as a magic eight ball with wires.
Jokes aside, I have a couple of cheap meters from CT that have always reported within one to two tenths of lab equipment (20 V scale) when the batteries weren't too run down.
In my opinion a decent meter from CT will do the job around the house just fine. I would not buy the cheapest one they sell but that goes for pretty much everything.
To to OP: Thanks for the tip on the sale!
Greenlee? they don't make their own meters, I believe they are rebadged www.brymen.com meters. Greenlee is primarily a tool maker, not really into the digital electronics stuff.
I'd stay with Fluke. Top notch stuff.
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At work today my co-worker was reading 135 volts from his digital mastercrap meter and didn't seem right. I pulled out my trusty Fluke and the actual reading was 117 volts. Kind of a big difference :dontknow: The magic 8 ball with wires seems like a good analogy dmartins.
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