Show your Multimeter!

[echen1024]

Are the old Tek handheld DMMs any good?

[99tito99]

Are they in any way usefull?

For low voltage measurements that don't need high accuracy, sure IMHO. Could be useful in a car glove box to check for voltage on the side of the road for example.

Could also be useful as V & A meters on a DIY PSU that's not high voltage or current as well (say 30V, 5A max). Particularly if they were free.   

You are absolutely right echen1024.  I was being a bit glib.  I have built a couple of battery charges and used the LCD and associated innards for the volt and amp displays.


      

   

[DL8RI]

Mine is working and it's usable. What do you mean with 'any good' in particular?

[99tito99]

Those Hickok 209A's are a sight to see. I love the large meter.  I prefer the looks of the black face one over the silver one.  Rebuilt one a couple of years ago but did not have room for it on the bench. Most likely will pick up another at a swap meet at some point.

Hi Steve:

Yes they are very cool.  I just went to and am in the process of looking at your website http://www.stevenjohnson.com, and just saw a photo of a 'Cooper Hewitt Rectifier'.  Do you have this in your collection?  If so, very neat.

Hey Folks, if you're interested in vintage electronic technology go to Steve's website.

Cheers, Mark

[SLJ]

Hi Steve:
Yes they are very cool.  I just went to and am in the process of looking at your website http://www.stevenjohnson.com, and just saw a photo of a 'Cooper Hewitt Rectifier'.  Do you have this in your collection?  If so, very neat.

Hey Folks, if you're interested in vintage electronic technology go to Steve's website.

Cheers, Mark

Yes,  It's in the collection.   I got at an estate sale with a bunch of other tubes I purchased. Since it's full of mercury there's not really much I can do with it.  Can't really ship it easily and items containing mercury are not usually allowed at swap meets so I guess it stays.  It's pretty large.  One of my winter projects is to build a stable display stand for it so the cats can't knock it over.

[SLJ]

Hi Steve:
Yes they are very cool.  I just went to and am in the process of looking at your website http://www.stevenjohnson.com, and just saw a photo of a 'Cooper Hewitt Rectifier'.  Do you have this in your collection?  If so, very neat.

Hey Folks, if you're interested in vintage electronic technology go to Steve's website.

Cheers, Mark

Yes,  It's in the collection.   I got it at an estate sale with a bunch of other tubes I purchased. Since it's full of mercury there's not really much I can do with it.  Can't really ship it easily and items containing mercury are not usually allowed at swap meets so I guess it stays.  It's pretty large.  One of my winter projects is to build a stable display stand for it so the cats can't knock it over.

[kizzap]

Time to show the shame (THE SHAME) in the multimeters that I own. 

The analogue meter is a digitech cheapy from jaycar, which I got roughly a year ago, after a University course demanded an analogue meter.  Not too bad for $20.

The DMM is also a cheapy, however it originates from Dick Smith Electronics, back when they actually used to sell electronics parts in the store (probably around 8 yrs old at least). Ironically it is not branded at all (who would on such a piece of crap). As you can see, it is a little  worse for wear, the centre plastic support has completely broken off, and the common terminal will not be far behind. As to the meter's accuracy, who gives a damn, I am sure it is no-where near accurate.

And holy crap, just pulled the thing open, and found a model number, apparantly it is a UNI-T UT30B. Not sure how I feel about the UNI-T brand now... If anyone wants to see the horror pictures from inside I'll open it up and get some pics for you.

Here's to hoping I win one of the multimeters in the contest, short of that I'll be heading out to replace these meters with something more respectable. 

As a bonus you can also see the 100% quality test leads that I am using with the meters.

-kizzap

[Hydrawerk]

Here is my test gear.

[Hydrawerk]

Next photo. I also have two vintage multimeters. See this. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-482-retro-iskra-multimeter-teardown/msg246778/#msg246778

[ixfd64]

Mine's really old. Analog FTW.

[Hydrawerk]

 

[sync]

My "new" multi-function meter.
A HP 3450A build 1970. Peltier stabilized reference and thermotransfer True-RMS converter. O0

The front panel was soaked in WD40 or something like that. I had to disassemble it in pieces and clean them. Lucky nothing of that evil stuff penetrated into the electronics.

It has a fault measuring positive voltages. They are unstable and a bit low. Should be fixable. Negative voltages are spot on.

[elex_enthusiast]

My small family

well not quite small..those babies are quite irresistible...

[elex_enthusiast]

Here's mine

First my main multimeter used for bench, Fluke 867B Graphical Multimeter that i can't live without, esp its Component Terst function for "power off" troubleshooting:

how old is your fluke 876b? is this the grandpa of fluke 280 series or not?

[Vgkid]

My "new" multi-function meter.
A HP 3450A build 1970. Peltier stabilized reference and thermotransfer True-RMS converter. O0

The front panel was soaked in WD40 or something like that. I had to disassemble it in pieces and clean them. Lucky nothing of that evil stuff penetrated into the electronics.

It has a fault measuring positive voltages. They are unstable and a bit low. Should be fixable. Negative voltages are spot on.

Can you tell me more about this meter, google is not helping.

[sync]

Can you tell me more about this meter, google is not helping.

You can download the operating and service manual for the 3450B from Aglient: http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/03450-90007.pdf. It should similar to the 3450A.

Specs (3450B):
5½ digits (120000 counts) nixie display
VDC: 100mV .. 1000V ranges, 1uV resolution, 80ppm + 40ppm FS accuracy (90 days)
VAC: 1V .. 1000V ranges, 10uV resolution, 400ppm + 100pm FS accuracy (90 days)
Ohm: 100 ohm .. 10M ohm ranges, 1m ohm resolution, 100ppm + 40ppm FS accuracy (90 days)
Up to 15 readings/s
Autoranging
Autozeroing
Ratio mode for VDC:VDC, VAC:VAC and ohm:ohm
Limit test (LO, GO, HI)
Digital output (BCD encoded)
Remote control
Rear input

On of the first HP DMMs with a dual slope ADC. It uses tons of diode-transistor-logic (DTL) ICs. A predecessor of TTL. The highest integration once are 4 bit BCD counters. The reference zener and the first stage dual jfets of three amplifiers are thermal stabilizer by a peltier element. It uses a thermotransfer True-RMS converter. This works with a heater-thermocouple combination and adjusting a DC voltage until it has the same heating as the AC voltage.

A very sophisticated instrument for it's time.

[elex_enthusiast]

Great!  Can you check please, is that Sanwa model really made in Japan, not Taiwan, Malaysia or China?

Hello.

I bought a cheap DSO few months ago and got a Sanwa PC5000a DMM for almost free in some special offer. I would really recommend this DMM. Solid, fast and precise. Extreme difference after switching from some cheap Chinese crap ;-).

Sanwa is a japanees brand and most of their products were manufactured in japan....

[Vgkid]

Sync, do you have internal pics of your 5340A ?

[sullyRD]

My collection of Multimeters


The YellowCaltek Unopened Analog Multimeter was to replace the one lying down because the contacts snapped inside it and was unrepairable, The Rapid Electronics Analog meter i got for £2 brand new unopened off Ebay it is such good quality i bought another one off the same seller as a spare, it is unopened in the Box beneath it.
The Two Draper meters are both faulty.

My Main Three Most trusted meters Two 87Vs and my 1987 Fluke 23.

[JuiceKing]

Two high-impedance meters...

[JuiceKing]

One more... A nice old Keithley 179A.

[GreyWoolfe]

Not much, but works for me.
Fluke 8840A
Protek B-845
Velleman DVM890F

[alm]

Two high-impedance meters...

Nice, we haven't seen too many electrometers on here yet. I'm surprised Dave hasn't acquired one yet given his interest in low currents. Electrometers are more versatile and capable than the Keithley 480 picoammeter that he 'repaired' a whille ago. I think this one goes down to 10 fA full scale? Eventually Dave will do an episode on one and everyone and their dog will suddenly buy one, just like the rubidium frequency references .

[JuiceKing]

Two high-impedance meters...

Nice, we haven't seen too many electrometers on here yet. I'm surprised Dave hasn't acquired one yet given his interest in low currents. Electrometers are more versatile and capable than the Keithley 480 picoammeter that he 'repaired' a whille ago. I think this one goes down to 10 fA full scale? Eventually Dave will do an episode on one and everyone and their dog will suddenly buy one, just like the rubidium frequency references .

This one mostly came from eBay--priced right because the meter glass was broken. I had another one (a quite dead rack mount version with glass intact) and was able to swap meter faces. It worked! It was easy to bring into calibration but I've not yet plumbed the extremes. The lowest full scale ammeter reads 10 pA, but with the 0.001 multiplier, yes, it goes down to 10 fA full scale. That's 100 aA resolution, in theory anyway.

There's a lot of interesting theory wrapped up in these old instruments, so I do hope that Dave gets his hands on some and does a "Teardown Tuesday/Fundamental Friday" on it when he's worked through his current repair backlog!

[JustinHV32]

This is my lot of meters. L->R is a QM1566 from jaycar bought about 3 years ago. Accuracy is OK, but the great thing is it can measure lots of DC current. Next is an Agilent U1252A, bought from TrioSmartcal on special about a year ago. Next is an Agilent U1241A also from Trio and on special (notice a pattern forming here, I'm a regular tight a$$) Above them is a rigol DM3068 bench meter (i dont use as much as I should). and finally a 10+ year old peice of crap from Jaycar QM1320( I have 2), the price was right at the time and served their purpose, but glad I haven't measured anything higher than 240VAC with them. They've pretty much been retired now. I mostly use the U1241A but switching to measure voltage is annoying when it's defaulting to measure ACV.