Analog Panel Meters Extremely Expensive? (Crazy?)

[corrado33]

I was debating including a few analog displays in a homebrew power supply I was thinking of making. (I like the look of them, plus they're really simple and don't require a driver.) But geeze! They're freaking expensive. If I wanted to include a voltage and current meter in my project I might as well just buy myself a not-so-cheap power supply!

For a simple DC voltage meter on mouser they're >$80. Per piece!!!

Why is this? Is it just because they're not used anymore? Am I looking in the wrong place? Sure, displays we have today are definitely a bit cheaper, but I didn't expect $80-$100 for old displays. Are the companies just taking advantage of people trying to repair old equipment?

EDIT: And I look on amazon and find one for $3 (apparently cheap Chinese crap that barely works)... why so expensive on mouser/digikey?

[Rerouter]

for the voltmeter style ones its partly due to them being inherently so long lasting, the only thing that can really fail in them is the bearing for the pointer, and those $80 ones tend to use a brass bearing that will happily out live you only having to handle a few grams of weight, whereas the chinese ones use a plastic bearing that will last long in a proper 15-25 degrees C min-max lab., but get to cold  and it will go brittle or too hot and they will suck up a few of the volatiles in the oil and fail within 5 years,

So if you want them to last in a warm climate for decades, get the cheapies, wash out the lubricant and use one that is plastic friendly long term, its common that if a product doesn't fail easily they either make it so or charge more to cover the decreased long term replacement sales,

[richard.cs]

The cheap Chinese ones on ebay in the £3-10 ($5-15 ?) range are quite usable but not always amazingly accurate*. Rather than buy the scale I want and wait for shipping I now tend to bulk-buy the 100uA meters and re-scale them any time I want a specific meter.


*Look up the meaning of the "accuracy class", I think it's maximum percentage deviation from a linear scale. So you zero it mechanically, calibrate it for say 10V FSD using external resistors, then at "accuracy class 2.5" it can be 2.5% out at other points, typically the centre of the scale.

[T3sl4co1l]

I remember there being $20 class meters up there.  Are they all gone, or are you looking for something much larger, more precise or sensitive?

Digging through past projects, they're still there:
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=F-MSQ-DAA-010virtualkey54100000virtualkey541-F-MSQ-DAA-010
Of course that's a current meter, but as I recall the series includes regular 1mA scale movements and such.

Tim

[Simon123]

I just buy meters on flea market and change scale.
I saw one good quality for 10$ in local shop(they have 70% off some things)
Its branded Iskra.