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CHEEEEP! HAR! HAR! HAR!

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
Remember the ridiculously cheap eBay multimeter and D.C. / A.C. inductive meter I said I was about to purchase? I did. They arrived and I ran calibration and accuracy tests on them yesterday and today.

The digital multimeter agrees with my Fluke until it gets to around 30 megohms. Voltage at 20.00 D.C. is .04 different.

The digital ammeter is more correct than the Sears or Triplett EVER was as checked against a four hundred dollar N.I.S.T. lab Manganin shunt

Sorry. This fartsmone won't let me find my original post hence no links. I paid around half the amount total for both than I did for just the Triplett meter alone. Yeah both are a mere fraction of the price of a "Crapsman Sears" meter.

Wotta Hoot!

Many years ago I stumbled across a 100.004 ohm 10 watt ceramic resistor as measred with a four terminal Kelvin Bridge. I dipped the wire leads in 24kt molten gold. This has been my gold standard for checking ohm meters.
30 REPLIES 30

NinerBikes
Explorer
Explorer
Hope you are charging for your services, such that you can afford a new laptop or a HP chromebook, or a Google XE500c21 Chromebook.

HP Chromebook 14

Battery for your phone. Extended life battery for galaxy ATT S2 I777

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
It has a 40.00 amp setting I love. Least significant digit error + - 3.

Being able to perceive the stability of a load has been useful. Today I discovered a hard to acces equipment servo (electromagnetic coil) that was acting squirrely. The mechanic tore out a hydraulic reservoir tank, removed the servo and -boing- the windings were toast. Was still functioning but was perhaps hours from flatlining. New servo coils coming from Tijuana. Juan with his Fluke is amazed. Tomorrow comes low amperage hocus-pocus to convert an OSHA safety switched control circuit into something that actually works. Imagine large srore in a tiny burg having a box compactor. Recycling 200 lb bales of compressed cardboard boxes and bales of compacted plastic bottles.

Harvey51
Explorer
Explorer
I bought the Uni-T 204A DC clampmeter on ebay a couple of years ago and am very happy with it. Ordered another for a friend yesterday. The auto shutoff works well. The DC current measurement works down to about 20 mA where it becomes quite inaccurate. How nice to not need to unhook wires to measure current and never need to worry about burning out a current range because this meter can handle hundreds of amps. Doesn't come with a manual from ebay but it can be found with a Web search.

The 203 model looks just as good but beware the 202 does not work for DC current measurement.
2004 E350 Adventurer (Canadian) 20 footer - Alberta, Canada
No TV + 100W solar = no generator needed

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
The only "Chrome" down here unfortunately, is pitted with rust. But thank you for your suggestion!

hawkeye-08
Explorer III
Explorer III
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
350 bucks for an old laptop with a bad battery NO WAY, HOSER!

I might have a band-aid substitute in the works. If it will support a monitor and wireless keyboard with track ball then that'll have 2 dew.

Gotta remember the original craptop was 1-GHz dual core with 2-gigs of RAM. It ran about as fast as I can. A shuffling walk. "That computer was so slow.....

"How slow was it? Tell us! Tell us!"

"It was so slow when new the battery would last 5:50 on the internet. Even at six-hours the battery had 18%." A genuine nine-watt processor it must have been.


Some old computers work well with Chrome based OS (turns into Chromebook sort of). Linux based and runs much faster than windows on the old hardware.

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
Yellow-black-yellow-black-yellow-black...

Just as discouraging is to be skipping out to a sailboat on the hook in a dinghy and take a swell on the beam. Watch a bag of instruments catapult over the side. Or have a three-hundred dollar prized device stp working. Open it up and have the circuit-board look like Carlsbad Caverns.

The 350-piece multimeter beats them all I guess...

red31
Explorer
Explorer
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Ever see a Fluke disappear into whirling fan blades?


no.

mlts22
Explorer
Explorer
Last cheapie meter I bought lasted two weeks and called it quits. Not worth paying the shipping to return.

It is quite tempting to buy a Fluke, and at least know that when I pull the multimeter out of a drawer, it should work.

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
350 bucks for an old laptop with a bad battery NO WAY, HOSER!

I might have a band-aid substitute in the works. If it will support a monitor and wireless keyboard with track ball then that'll have 2 dew.

Gotta remember the original craptop was 1-GHz dual core with 2-gigs of RAM. It ran about as fast as I can. A shuffling walk. "That computer was so slow.....

"How slow was it? Tell us! Tell us!"

"It was so slow when new the battery would last 5:50 on the internet. Even at six-hours the battery had 18%." A genuine nine-watt processor it must have been.

Johno02
Explorer
Explorer
Finally got tired of messing around with VISTA on my older desk-top. Kept getting slower and slower, More and more blue screens and hang-ups. Redid entire system, added memory to max, stripped hard drive and installed Win7 pro, plus USB3 ports. Totally new computer! With 30mb internet and wifi, it really smokes now! TV tuner board is useless now, lvideo cable has gone full encrypted, but Hulu works great. Old lap-top has Win XP, works OK, but entire system is very slow because of hardware.
Noel and Betty Johnson (and Harry)

2005 GulfStream Ultra Supreme, 1 Old grouch, 1 wonderful wife, and two silly poodles.

pnichols
Explorer II
Explorer II
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. ๐Ÿ˜ž

Ooooh ... I almost forgot: Be very careful with what virus protection software you try to use with Vista ... it can be very finicky.
2005 E450 Itasca 24V Class C

Johno02
Explorer
Explorer
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.

Noel and Betty Johnson (and Harry)

2005 GulfStream Ultra Supreme, 1 Old grouch, 1 wonderful wife, and two silly poodles.

MrWizard
Moderator
Moderator
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 can explain it to you.
But I Can Not understand it for you !

....

Connected using T-Mobile Home internet and Visible Phone service
1997 F53 Bounder 36s

john_bet
Explorer II
Explorer II
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.
2018 Ram 3500 SRW CC LB 6.7L Cummins Auto 3.42 gears
2018 Grand Design 337RLS