CHEEEEP! HAR! HAR! HAR!

I've been using the Sears one above a LOT, the last 24 hours, testing a '100 amp' charging source( 75 amps only, BOOOOOO).

It reads very closely with my Shunted Ammeter.
It is not accurate when powered with 2 aaa Nimh
It is accurate when powered by aaa Duracell.

BUt I do not have a supremely accurate meter to compare it to, all I can say is good enough for what I need one for.

and I got it for 55$ delivered.

RoyB wrote:
...would let me keep one in the truck tool box.

Yep. Having a cheap but good enough tool WITH YOU when you need it trumps, "I have one at home," any day!

If it serves its purpose twice a year, or saves one camping trip per year then self-destructs...SCORE!

A meter is a requirement for camping, IMHO. Almost as important as spare skivies ;)

More important
If camping you can wash the skivies
Can be hard to get a meter, when off the beaten trail

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Or buy expensive and get threaded. Tools like critical screwdrivers I insist on WiHa. But for risky work (like salt water) it is absurd to believe a Fluke can tolerate it any better than a Magnificent Golden Dragon. I Did drop the Fluke six years ago. It went to the Fluke hospital for three weeks and a hundred twenty dollars. Some things are worth the premium. It's a matter of VALUE not cost. Some folks get the two words confused.

Laff-Top. A local offered me his "beee UUU tee full HP laptop". Starts right up when it's plugged-in. Never tried Windows VISTA before. Special deal only 350 dollars. Computers are stupidly expensive down here. Yes this was written on Niner's Fartsmone.

Hey, that was a gift, it's your smartphone now.... don't break it. And don't be afraid to speak / dictate to it and then post. Much faster than all thumbs. lower left has a "microphone" icon key, press it and dictate.


BTW, yes I too bought that 203 version ammeter, and I'v no way to verify how accurate it is, but it's close enough for the government type of work I've been doing on the TT. Yes, it stays in the TT, good to have it and not need it, versus need it and not have it.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

smkettner wrote:
It has been said a man with several watches will never know what time it is.

And a broken clock is right twice a day. I have several cheap meters and they work fine for everyday issues, but I sure wouldn't rely on them if accuracy is critical, which it never is in the RV park business. But I sure wouldn't want an engineer at Boeing using one to calibrate a critical component to an aircraft. That brand of meter may be totally accurate, unit after unit or the OP maybe just got lucky. My guess, test a few hundred and the accuracy will vary much more than the accuracy of a Fluke or similar make.

Everybody knows that but he's a popular comedian here. I laugh too.

Yeah but I don't tug at my collar and step forward and backward as I write...

I still carry the two Flukes that I used in my industrial electrician days. They reside in the truck tool box ready for when I need them.

My fluke 77, is about 25 yrs old, been dropped too many times too count,
An no I can't verify the accuracy, I no longer have access to those services, but with it's rubber shock case, it sure is one rugged piece of equipment, I've worn out five or six sets of test leads
But it does bring back a rather sharp memory of an incident in my working career
One morning, I was doing my normal walk thru observing equipment operation in the restricted area of the plant doing DOD munitions...yeah bombs, just the internal casings of this particular weapon
One of the plasma welders abruptly stopped, no lights nothing total power loss
I went over the the 480v disconnect, pulled the switch, pulled out 600v digital probe and started checking the fuses, bad
Put the probe across the incoming power feed and it blew up in hand...ouch
I grabbed the fluke the incoming 480 was over 700v
I yelled at the production supervisor shut it all down
And started throwing disconnects on all the equipment
Called my supervisor plant machinery, and told him we had an unknown voltage on at least one of the incoming high tension lines to our substation,
In minutes the whole plant was shut down except for some lighting and ventilation
The whole place was down for about 45 minutes before we got the all clear from dwp to start backup, I went directly to the company nurses office
My hand was swollen, very slight burn, it was the concussion shock of the probe blowing up, I don't remember exactly what it cost, less than my fluke, it was just easier to use, for 90% of what I needed,
they bought me a new one
The fluke came out when I needed to make vdc measurements on control boards and signals
This was the height of the gulf war, and we were working around the clock 7 days week...We averted damaged to millions of dollars worth of machinery, got very lucky on that one

I have one of these for use in the RV. Covers just about everything I need it for. Small, lightweight and accurate to at least 10% which is all I really need. If it get stepped on or lost, cheap enough to replace.

cheapie meter.

MEX wrote:
Laff-Top. A local offered me his "beee UUU tee full HP laptop". Starts right up when it's plugged-in. Never tried Windows VISTA before. Special deal only 350 dollars. Computers are stupidly expensive down here. Yes this was written on Niner's Fartsmone.

Good luck with Vista!!!

That's all I've had on my high-end HP laptop for years, and boy ... does Vista develop/cause problems over time. Microsoft and all the software applications companies are REALLY trying to get us off Vista and onto at least Windows 7 ... or preferably Windows 8 ... and then onto their next big (money making) thing.

Here's the 800 lb. gotcha in the room ... it's so complicated changing over to a new operating system that most folks buy a whole brand new computer with a later operating system on it in order to get rid of the problems with an "older" operating system. I wonder how many computers have wound up on the world's scrap piles still with perfectly good hardware in them - including even fast (enough) processors, large (enough) memory banks, and large (enough) hard drives? What a waste of the world's resources.

I've spent hundreds of hours over the years keeping Vista - and the applications running on it - performing reliably day after day the way I want them to on my laptop. By "running", I mean the way I want them running instead of the way Microsoft and/or the applications-creator-geeks think we should want them running.

Here's two small tips - don't try to mess-with/change/improve Vista's "Users" configurations or Vista's "Networking" configurations. If you do, we'll cease seeing posts from you here, again, for long periods. :(

Ooooh ... I almost forgot: Be very careful with what virus protection software you try to use with Vista ... it can be very finicky.