Multimeter to measure resistance and continuity simutaneously?

[Mortymore]

Fluke 83 and 87 do it. 85 should do it too.

When the continuity mode is selected, the meter jumps to a manual scale 400Ohm, but if RANGE (auto range) is pressed after that, the multimeter works as an autorange ohmmeter, beeping if resistance is lower than 400 Ohm (there's some hysteresis).

That's an intelligent feature, is this even documented? I've been checking the user manuals for the 87V and don't find mention of this.

I didn't read the manuals (not now, I mean).
When I went home, made a test on some meters that might work accordingly to your request. So I tested a Fluke 83 and 87 (1st series) and 87III. I don't have any of the series V.

EDIT: About the hysteresis, what I mean is that the "beep" is enable until some 250 Ohm, if the resistance is rising. But if it come from high Ohm, to low, it only beeps when lower below 100 Ohm or so.

[rsjsouza]

Most (if not all) the meters I have do fixed range ohms measurements (typically up to its maximum number of counts) while in continuity mode: Keysight U1282A, U1273A, Samwa PM300 (Dave sells it in his store), Uni-T UT136C/UT61E/UT139C, Brymen BM857, etc. This is done without loss of the beep speed, but obviously the actual measurement is a bit slower. Also, the beep threshold varies a lot, with some limiting this to 20Ω and others to 50Ω.

[Fungus]

Very interesting, what a deal! I'm a sucker for that EBTN screen display. Free shipping to Canada as well! 250v fuses but I never measure current. I'll research it a bit.

Now that I look closer, I'm not sure the one with the weird display has a fully "auto" range. The other two do.

[Valver]

Most (if not all) the meters I have do fixed range ohms measurements (typically up to its maximum number of counts) while in continuity mode: Keysight U1282A, U1273A, Samwa PM300 (Dave sells it in his store), Uni-T UT136C/UT61E/UT139C, Brymen BM857, etc. This is done without loss of the beep speed, but obviously the actual measurement is a bit slower. Also, the beep threshold varies a lot, with some limiting this to 20Ω and others to 50Ω.

I've tried unsuccessfully to do this with my UT61E, UT139S, and Brymen 235. How did you achieve this?

[Valver]

Very interesting, what a deal! I'm a sucker for that EBTN screen display. Free shipping to Canada as well! 250v fuses but I never measure current. I'll research it a bit.

Now that I look closer, I'm not sure the one with the weird display has a fully "auto" range. The other two do.

Ok, so I bought the one with the weird display (Anang V8). Arrived yesterday from Banggood. No, doesn't have a full Auto feature, but i bought it for the display.

Amazing looking display, much better than the UNI-T 139S which also has a reverse screen display. Runs on three batteries so the contrast is excellent. Fast update speed, feels really peppy. Good fast continuity range with a loud beeper and a light light that flashes also. Makes my other meters look obsolete.

I'm having an RF interference issue with it however. I'm in an extremely strong RF zone and have to deal with it all the time. Moving test leads (good ones) around while measuring a voltage can cause an appreciable fluctuation in (DC) voltage reading. I suspect that this may simply be because of the meter's 20 Meg bandwidth. My other meters have no RF issues and all have very limited bandwidth. Too soon to reach any conclusions.

[Fungus]

Amazing looking display, much better than the UNI-T 139S which also has a reverse screen display. Runs on three batteries so the contrast is excellent. Fast update speed, feels really peppy. Good fast continuity range with a loud beeper and a light light that flashes also. Makes my other meters look obsolete.

Is the display evenly lit now?

Be sure to find out how the display does with decreasing battery voltage. The ANENG Q1 has a similar display that does really badly, see Dave's video at 8:45:



nb. If yours has three batteries then it might be solved.

[frozenfrogz]

Fluke 8060A has that feature. You can switch on continuity via soft-button in every range.

[Valver]

Is the display evenly lit now?

Be sure to find out how the display does with decreasing battery voltage. The ANENG Q1 has a similar display that does really badly, see Dave's video at 8:45:



nb. If yours has three batteries then it might be solved.

Display is sublime! No comparison with these others, really good contrast. Viewing angle is very good from below and sides but is limited from above. Battery life? Well, probably not so good. 

[Fungus]

Display is sublime! No comparison with these others, really good contrast. Viewing angle is very good from below and sides but is limited from above. Battery life? Well, probably not so good.

Photos?

Is it evenly lit or can you see where the individual LEDs are? Do you have a power supply so you can do a similar test to Dave?

(It's much faster with a power supply than waiting for the battery to die)

Power consumption?

I imagine having 4.5V instead of 3V makes all the difference, but we like to measure....

[Valver]

OK, I checked it out some more. Current consumption is 25ma, pretty much what I expected. Display is uniform, no unevenly lit areas, has one single completely dead angle only when viewed from the top. Plastic screen seems to scratch simply by looking at it.

I removed one of the three (alkaline) batteries in order to operate the meter at 3V. Display was dimmer but still bright enough in regular daylight (not direct sunlight). In fact it was brighter than the UNI-T 139S which has a similar display. All very acceptable. In real usage I would imagine that batteries would need to be replaced when they are at 1.25V, 1.2V if you're lucky.

[rsjsouza]

OK, I checked it out some more. Current consumption is 25ma, pretty much what I expected.

Wow, that is pretty close to the U1273A (OLED display).

Joe and I listed some power consumption measurements at:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/msg2084320/#msg2084320
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/msg2100013/#msg2100013

[Fungus]

I removed one of the three (alkaline) batteries in order to operate the meter at 3V. Display was dimmer

No boost converter then. Bummer.

In real usage I would imagine that batteries would need to be replaced when they are at 1.25V, 1.2V if you're lucky.

That's still only ~50% of the usable capacity of a battery.

Current consumption is 25ma, pretty much what I expected.

By my math your average alkalines should last about 40-50 hours. That's not great. Heavy users should definitely be looking at rechargeables.

(...you could probably get double that with Batteroo!)