Multimeter Advice

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BrianP

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Reply # 738680 30-Dec-2012 19:15

http://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/online-store/products/SCA-Multimeter-Digital-Palm-Size.aspx?pid=156453#Description

This appears to be the one you purchased.
It should have come with one black and one red test lead. Haven't ever seen a meter with two probes supplied the same colour. If you don't want to complain to SCA then you will have to identify one of the leads as black or red by colouring the appropriate lead with insulation tape or whatever. Com is black, amp or volt/ ohm socket is red. Amps is used only very occasionally. To cover metal probe so only tip is showing involves getting a piece of spare electrical wire, removing its plastic covering from the internal metal wire and then sliding it onto the metal probe. Think of it as a plastic tube. At worst you could use Sellotape to achieve the same result. Or you may not bother and just make sure your hands are steady when taking measurements.

networkn

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Reply # 738681 30-Dec-2012 19:17

Oops sorry I wasn't clear enough. I have different coloured probes, just the connector on the MM isn't colour coded.

networkn

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Reply # 739407 2-Jan-2013 15:58

Wow talk about a run of bad luck! Now my soldering iron died on me. No indication, just won't work this morning. Odd.

Is anything 40W of bigger going to do the job? I see Mitre 10 has some for $18.

Technofreak

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Reply # 739426 2-Jan-2013 17:19

networkn: Wow talk about a run of bad luck! Now my soldering iron died on me. No indication, just won't work this morning. Odd.

Is anything 40W of bigger going to do the job? I see Mitre 10 has some for $18.

What do you use it for? You don't need a lot of grunt for electronic work and a fine tip is generally better than a coarse tip for this work.

It it's this one http://www.mitre10mega.co.nz/shop/handtools/soldering/fuller_soldering_iron_40w_112491/ then I'd say it'd be quite OK for electronic work. 40 watt should be plenty. Not much good for soldering flashings or spouting though.

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mattwnz

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Reply # 739440 2-Jan-2013 17:44

Technofreak: Not much good for soldering flashings or spouting though.

Roofers don't actually solder them anyway these days onsite. The just rivot then and use silicon. Seen so many leaking metal gutters as a result, as it fails pretty quickly.

gzt

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Reply # 739442 2-Jan-2013 17:50

40W is ok. Quality of the iron and tip make a huge difference.

Technofreak

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Reply # 739451 2-Jan-2013 18:09

mattwnz:
Technofreak: Not much good for soldering flashings or spouting though.

Roofers don't actually solder them anyway these days onsite. The just rivot then and use silicon. Seen so many leaking metal gutters as a result, as it fails pretty quickly.

Yeah I know, silicon is seen as the answer to everything these days, with some very poor weathering as a consequence. It was a tongue in cheek comment to some extent. More to make the point of getting the right iron for the job in hand.

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Niel

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Reply # 740130 4-Jan-2013 12:42

Jaycar has a mini pocket multimeter for $6.50 stock code QM1502. Rated to 250V (but read on).

I've worked with a number of DMM's over the past 30 years, the last 17 as a electronic design engineer (started off with military products, now agricultural technology). The best purchase I've ever made was a Fluke DMM, it is still running after 25+ years and I think it is now on the second or third battery. The number 1 issue with cheap ones is safety/reliability, and I refuse to use them anything higher than 100V. Anything over 100V starts becoming dangerous and I do not risk my life with a cheap toy.

You can never have enough Volvos!

networkn

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Reply # 741322 7-Jan-2013 22:28

Hmm well it stood up to Voltage and Resistance checks without any issues, decent spend of $40 I think.

Now I have to find out why two terminals which are supposed to be reading 0v are reading 90v and the other moving constantly between 40-60v.
Both are connected to a headphone jack which has a resistors connected to them.

networkn

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Reply # 742113 9-Jan-2013 11:03

Anyone know where I can source :

http://newzealand.rs-online.com/web/p/panel-mount-led-indicators/2509647318/?searchTerm=2509647318&relevancy-data=636F3D3126696E3D4931384E525353746F636B4E756D6265724D504E266C753D656E266D6D3D6D61746368616C6C26706D3D5E5C647B367D247C5E5C647B377D247C5E5C647B31307D2426706F3D313426736E3D592673743D52535F53544F434B5F4E554D424552267573743D323530393634373331382677633D4E4F4E4526

Locally?

hangon

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Reply # 743215 11-Jan-2013 11:17

I was looking at this last week
http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=QM1524&keywords=multimeter&form=KEYWORD

Wonder how well the auto-ranging works on it, or am I asking for trouble?

sleemanj

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Reply # 743356 11-Jan-2013 15:28

@hangon

I have one of those meters (amongst others), it works just fine for my purposes.

You can also manually range it with the button. A nice simple multimeter to do the job if you ask me.

NB: I mostly only do DC low voltage (0-50v DC) low current (0-5A) tinkering, where I really don't care too much about accuracy as long as it's "in the ballpark".

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

hangon

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Reply # 743368 11-Jan-2013 15:40

Thanks sleemanj sounds it would work for me just fine as well (mostly batteries n USB gadgets).

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