To be clear then, you would like to test them to the 4.4.2.101?
To be clear, I don't want them tested to ANY standard. You, more than anybody, should get what I'm saying.
When you started this whole thread, you wanted to determine how "robust" under $50 meters were. To determine this you decided to see how well they could handle high voltage surges. You referenced the surges required to meet CAT ratings, and built a generator loosely based off this standard. You were not testing that they met the IEC standards, or trying to prove if any did not meet standards, you just wanted to see which meters held up to these surges the best, and that would determine which was more robust.
I also would like to see how robust meters are, but with another type of test. Instead of how robust they are in surges, I would like to see how robust they are in handling a voltage on a position that is not expecting a voltage (like resistance, or capacitance). I don't want to test them to a standard, but section 101.3 of 61010-2-033 (attached at the end) would serve as a decent test to base the testing off of. This section talks of putting the highest voltage the meter can test on the mains, on putting that on every jack, and every switch position. It does not require the meter to survive, just not become a hazard. So, for a robustness test, it would be interesting to see which meters can survive the highest voltages on these various switch positions. None of the meters should go much beyond the voltage they measure to. I would expect that the PTC's and MOV's are set to clamp just above that level. Once you get above that, it is just a matter of how long before those protection devices can't handle that voltage. I'm not trying to prove if any meter meet the attached standard, I'm just curious which ones could survive the longest. I'm also not interested in testing this for the current jacks, just the functions that would work off the same jack as the voltage, but in the wrong switch position.
What voltage would meters see on these positions, and what is reasonable?? I don't know, and I don't care. It's not about how high of a voltage is reasonable on that jack, just how you kept taking the surge as high as you could, until you could get a failure. But, I do know a lot of inexperienced people put meters on high voltages without knowing it. I had a friend that damaged a cheap meter because he tried to measure the voltage coming out of a dog shock collar, and that was on the voltage position.
I would expect a unit like the Fluke 101 to be able to take the full 600V on all levels. I don't know how far beyond 600V it would go, but I'll bet it would go farther than any of the units you tested for the surge. I would bet the Mastech unit would fail not too far past 300V. Look at the link for the spec sheet of the Mastech 8261 you tested. It lists the maximum voltage on the mV position as 250V, and protection on other positions like resistance as 380V. This would not be a "more robust" meter.
http://www.p-mastech.com/images/Manual/ms8261%20english%20manual.pdfI'm also not asking YOU to test this. I was saying this wold be something I would like to see. If nobody else does testing like this, I just may have to do it myself. I'm sure that I can get enough power out of my transformer to damage the meter, and determine how robust it is for handling the voltage. What I may not be able to determine id "how bad" the damage "could have" been. Once a meter fails due to high voltage on the wrong input, it could become shorted inside, draw lot of current, and fail violently. My transformer would not be able to show that.