Automotive multimeter

[chimpboy]

Bought one of these... nothing special but it has a fair few useful functions.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Automotive-Digit ... 0356810858

The price has actually gone up nine bucks since I bought mine.

I got sick of my el cheapo multimeters not because they didn't work, but because the probes kept breaking and the cable used for them was all insulation, hardly any core therefor irreparable. Really annoying. The quality of the probes etc is actually not bad on the ebay one. And I can't quite justify a really pricey one because car stuff just doesn't need it.

[stuee]

Ya bastard. I've got the exact same one but brought from Altronics for about $60 extra.

I've found it great so far. Only ever used the rpm measurement for shits and giggles but the thing I like most is the great big screen on it. Temperature measurements also come in handy to check temp gauges, thermostats, etc are working properly.

Just dont leave it in the sun. I nearly shat myself due to the lcd screen crapping itself, luckily it sorted itself out after a few hours inside.

[Dooley]

Just dont leave it in the sun. I nearly shat myself due to the lcd screen crapping itself, luckily it sorted itself out after a few hours inside.

Same, I got a cheap auto ranging meter when I bought my good one.

Left it in the car one day and forgot about it, saw the screen had gone all black and was like... .


Anyway for anyone looking to get a high end multimeter on the cheap, Protek are nice. I got a nice unit from the states for something like $180 or so back when the exchange rate wasn't so bad. Autoranging, true rms, measures down to like 0.1% or 0.01% accuracy, serial out and pc control of the meter, temperature, can measure DC/AC/DC+AC, capacitance, frequency, period, duty cycle, pulse width. Has data logging, min/max/avg, high/low, reference/difference, trend graph plots in real time... some other stuff.

Only problems with it are the continuity buzzer is quiet and the biggest one for me is there is a bug in the data logging although I'm trying to get support about it.

Otherwise a really nice meter.

[chimpboy]

serial out and pc control of the meter

I really would have liked to have this but it was outside my price range.

[Dooley]

Well this is mine...

http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?a ... m&id=Q1200

That's a bit steep...

[r0ck_m0nkey]

Just dont leave it in the sun. I nearly shat myself due to the lcd screen crapping itself, luckily it sorted itself out after a few hours inside.

They all do that.

I left a $500 Fluke Multimeter sitting on top of a black tonneau cover all day during summer once. I think i actually did shit myself that day, luckily it sorted itself out to.

[macca81]

every lcd will go black if you leave it in direct sunlight to long. 99% of them will right themselves after a short amount of time