My humble guess is that only a very few of you are legally allowed to touch anything that will require a multimeter with a CAT-rating.
My humble guess is that only a very few of you are legally allowed to touch anything that will require a multimeter with a CAT-rating.
Well:
a) A 1.5V battery has a CAT rating.
b) Nobody needs a license to open up a power supply or anything else that plugs into a mains socket. That's CAT II (or even CAT III) right there.
Appreciate your input joe, all read!Big fan of your robustness testing videos.
Yet more suggestions for meters to test in the future: Chauvin Arnoux MTX 32xx or any of the clamshell style ones (another major European manufacturer akin to Gossen)
I think someone else asked me about one of these some time ago. Maybe that was you. I looked for a distributor. There is very little info on them. A little advice, invoking the Gossen brand as a comparison is not a good way to sell me on a product. It will take some time to get the bad taste out of my mouth over that ordeal. Who knows, maybe they are actually doing something on their end.
Why do you call it a clamshell? I would assume it folds up based on this. Looking over their products, I think if I were to buy one, it would be the OX 5042. Of course when I go to the following and select the Technical document, I get 404Not Found. Giving me lots of confidence in them from the start.
http://www.handscope.chauvin-arnoux.com/en/documents/publications.aspx
Well it is another cheapy crappy multimeter which doesn t meet the safety regulations and labelled with the wrong CAT rating . It s built down to the price with shitty input jacks , tiny little fuses and no input protection . It s not worth the money because it will not lasting a long time , it is dangerous to use because the uA range shares the same jack with voltage ranges . Don t buy this shit , it s a waste of money .
It s not worth the money because it will not lasting a long time.
Just look at the input jacks . They are not fitted properly and if you put in a plug you will push in the input jack and stress the solder joint of it on the board and it will break soon . The second problem is the lack of input protection . If a little static discharge goes into the multimeter or you accidently took the wrong function the ic will blow up
Just look at the input jacks . They are not fitted properly and if you put in a plug you will push in the input jack and stress the solder joint of it on the board and it will break soon .
The second problem is the lack of input protection . If a little static discharge goes into the multimeter or you accidently took the wrong function the ic will blow up
I think Everybody here knows that these meters aren't good for working with 230V AC. There are plenty of warnings in the video. For working with 5V, 12V, Arduinos, etc., they're fine.
Videos from Fluke and Joe and others can be helpful to see some of the dangers with some meters (e.g. Fluke exploding the DT830). Although, I have yet to learn how many of it applies to using the meter on proper range (voltage range)
I would love to see someone replicate Fluke's demonstration, 750 VAC high-current capable supply with the meter in 200 ohms range.
I would love to see someone replicate Fluke's demonstration, 750 VAC high-current capable supply with the meter in 200 ohms range.There's also a few different PCBs with different DT830 models. I'd be interested if those variations make things more or less spectacular.
On the other hand, I doubt someone would recreate such a supply just to test some DT's.![]()
People make a lot of noise about false CAT-ratings. Why don't the same people make a lot of noise about what really matters when it comes to electrical safety?
Most countries around the world have a lot of legal regulations about education and long-time experience specifying what kind of work you are allowed to do on almost ANY kind of electrical equipment or wiring.
My humble guess is that only a very few of you are legally allowed to touch anything that will require a multimeter with a CAT-rating.
This is rather beside the point and this argument is without merit, but I am going to respond because it is also completely wrong.
That certainly isn't true in the US, and I don't believe it is true most places in the world. I don't know about Norway -- maybe all the stories about the excessive regulations are true, but your description isn't true in most of the rest of Europe either. In the US you can't operate as a professional electrician without a license, but you can do almost anything in your own house that doesn't require a building permit. I know this isn't true everywhere, but I don't believe most places are nearly as strict as you suggest. In most of the US that means that you can pull new circuits from the main breaker panel. Even if you can't, you can repair existing wiring, and you can certainly measure it with a voltmeter even if you don't change anything (for instance to diagnose a problem for which you might hire an electrician to fix.
And pretty much all of the regulation that does exist stops at the wall outlet. There is basically zero restriction on who can work on a mains powered electrical appliance. Anyone can (legally) replace a worn power cord or troubleshoot a line operated power supply. Of course in the CAT rating system that is only a CAT-II environment, but it is still a situation where you want a meter that is not adding any danger -- and meters with deceptive labeling are definitely something worth being upset about, even if they are totally functional for low voltage applications.
Likewise, there is no restriction (in the US) on who can work on high voltages that are not part of the power distribution system. I have in the past worked on high voltage power supplies capable of generating from hundreds to thousands of volts. They don't have the same power behind them as a main distribution panel, but you can still have quite a bit of energy stored in a capacitor. There is zero certifications, regulations, or licenses for who can do that in the US. Other countries do have mandatory engineering licenses to be a professional electronics engineer, but in most places that is only required if you are doing so professionally. And again, it doesn't exist in the US. There is absolutely reasons for hobbyists to have safely designed meters, even if they are not doing the specific things that the cat rating is designed for (i.e., working on power distribution networks).
I do sort of agree that many people make too big of a deal about it, as if there is no value to a meter without CAT-4 600V ratings. There are plenty of uses for multimeters that are never anywhere near a high power / high voltage circuit. The majority of electronics hobbyists would be well served by a safety-low voltage meter, or at most one that honestly meets CATII-300V, and the features this little $25 meter has that make it attractive: high resolution and low ranges are specifically things that don't require high voltage surge capability.
I won't bother replying to your rather emotional response. I will let it stand by itself.
Edit:
If anyone can show me where I call people names, or attack people personally instead of the ideas presented, I will apologize immediately.
Since you can't manage to read your own text, I will paste it here "More idiotic reasoning."
Is that reasoning I am attacking, or the person? You are applying idiotic reasoning. I will not apologize for attacking poor reasoning. I am responding only because I respect the opinions of others and assume that idiotic reasoning can be corrected. I also correct my own idiotic reasoning regularly.
If I assume that idiotic reasoning cannot be corrected because the other person is beyond help, I don't bother trying.
Well it is another cheapy crappy multimeter which doesn t meet the safety regulations and labelled with the wrong CAT rating . It s built down to the price with shitty input jacks , tiny little fuses and no input protection . It s not worth the money because it will not lasting a long time , it is dangerous to use because the uA range shares the same jack with voltage ranges . Don t buy this shit , it s a waste of money .
You may not want to buy it, but please refrain from telling me what to do.
I own a very nice set of jeweler's screwdrivers. They are very precise and handy to use. And, believe it or not, I do not use them to work on mains outlets, although those screwdrivers do not even bear a warning label cautioning me against that use. -- Horses for courses, and that is how I intend to use the AN8008 and my other meters as well.
By the way, for even more credibility, I recommend to cut back on the use of swear words and to omit the spaces before punctuation marks.
FYI, a sparky uses something like a Duspol for mains, and not a DMM. I think it's amazing how much value you get with the AN8008. The missing delta function and the lack of mA ranges is disappointing, but acceptable for that price. And regarding the poor input protection, I've had much more expensive DMMs with worse input protection.
Of course when I go to the following and select the Technical document, I get 404Not Found. Giving me lots of confidence in them from the start.
I did find this: (in French, though)
http://www.handscope.chauvin-arnoux.com/Portals/0/pdf/DT_Handscope_Ed01_FR.pdf
Appreciate your input joe, all read!Big fan of your robustness testing videos.
Yet more suggestions for meters to test in the future: Chauvin Arnoux MTX 32xx or any of the clamshell style ones (another major European manufacturer akin to Gossen)
I think someone else asked me about one of these some time ago. Maybe that was you. I looked for a distributor. There is very little info on them. A little advice, invoking the Gossen brand as a comparison is not a good way to sell me on a product. It will take some time to get the bad taste out of my mouth over that ordeal. Who knows, maybe they are actually doing something on their end.
Why do you call it a clamshell? I would assume it folds up based on this. Looking over their products, I think if I were to buy one, it would be the OX 5042. Of course when I go to the following and select the Technical document, I get 404Not Found. Giving me lots of confidence in them from the start.
http://www.handscope.chauvin-arnoux.com/en/documents/publications.aspx
Looks like I'm too late, the clamshell style meters (attached below) are listed as discontinued most places. Always been curious how the input protection looks like in those (and performs). Now replaced with MTX 3290.
Compared with Gossen because I suspect a similar ordeal, but isn't that just fun?
EDIT: In the US it seems to go by the model AEMC 2125.75, still sold by AEMC on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/AEMC-2125-75-Multimeters-000-count-Graphical/dp/B00A8P6GOG
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(OK, that's an AN8002 but it will be the same)The second problem is the lack of input protection . If a little static discharge goes into the multimeter or you accidently took the wrong function the ic will blow up
(OK, that's an AN8002 but it will be the same)
Nope. These have been tested with joe's sparker and survived perfectly.
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That one didn't fail until 3000V.
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