Hi,
Sorry for hijacking this thread, but I believe here are persons that know both the dm858 and Agilent 34401a. I am looking into buying a bench top multimeter and initially I was hunting for an Agilent 34401a. I am repairing iPhone boards and I use a multimeter in diode mode for about 90% of the time. I don’t need extreme accuracy, what I need from a dm in diode mode is to beep during probing - a long beep for a short where the reading is below 0.1V and a short beep when the voltage drop is between 0.1V - 1V. Now, I use a Fluke 179 which is perfect for what I’ve described above, BUT…. I am recording YouTube videos with my repairs and I need to display on the screen my DMM readings. Because of this, I moved from the Fluke to a Uni-t 181a that I could write a software for to have it displayed on the screeen. I don’t very much fancy the uni-t as it does not short beep the way I want it.
Both Agilent 34401a and new dmm s like the dm858 have the scpi protocol that I can interface with my software. My question is:
Does anyone know if the Agilent beeps in diode mode as per my requirements?
Also, same question about the dm858 or any of the newer dmm s that I can find as new for a price tag up to 400 eur?
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any info related to this as extremely few are using the diode reading.
Out of the new DMMs I prefere the Rigol due to its form factor, although I am a huge Agilent fan.
I believe the new dmm s are easier to implement in my software. Agilent proves to be a bit more strict with the scpi protocol, for example I have a new Owon P4305 PSU and an old Agilent E3632A. Interfacing Agilent was a struggle compared to the Owon although both use scpi. For example, the Agilent needs to be in remote mode to have a proper output reading which locks the front panel, so to change the voltage for example, need to take it out of remote, adjust from the panel, then place it back to remote.