Mastech MS2010B / 32-800 Low Current Clamp Meter

[ocw]

Having found a Mastech MS2010B - 32-800  leakage current meter for $99.00 I decided to pick one up.  It's more commonly available for $130 - $180.  Besides leakage currents (the AC current difference between two wires) it can measure low single wire AC currents down to 10 uA resolution.  Attached is a summary of my verification of its specifications.  I compared it to the specifications measured on a UT210B.

It would be nice if it measured DC currents as the UT210B does, but I'm sure that would raise its price.  Its lowest AC currents range measures up to 40 mA with 0.01 mA resolution.  It can measure up to 600 A and 600 VAC with a CAT III rating.  Like most other leakage current ammeters, its clamp is a little bigger and heavier than normal.  It had reasonable accuracy measuring low AC currents, although I found it a bit under its specified rating.  At 500 mA and above its accuracy was very good.  I stopped my measurements at 2 amps, expecting the higher currents to have similar accuracy.  It has a low pass filter which can be activated to limit the effects of high frequency noise.  I found that it was down about 10 dB at 950 Hz and 40 dB down just above 5 kHz.

I can also measure the sampled frequency while it measures either current or voltage.  Either a minimum 16 mA current or a  170 mV voltage needs to measured for a frequency to be shown.  I was able to measure the frequency from 3 Hz up to 270 kHz with good accuracy, generally being one digit low.  The actual frequency resolution seen didn't always match the value shown on its specification sheet.

Its capacitance measuring abilities aren't the best.  I didn't find it all that accurate and it only measures up to 100 uF.

I can measure temperature and comes with a K thermocouple.

It's nice to now have a way to measure leakage currents.  However, if you don't have a need for a lower cost way of measuring that or other small currents, other meters are probably a better choice.