"GregS" wrote in message
...
In article , Bob Parker
wrote:
I don't know anyone who doesn't have difficulty reading those
atrocious blue-bodied 1% resistors, me included/especially. That's why
the Mark 2 meter's kit notes includes this little caution:

"Note that the kit for the Mk.2 version
contains 1% resistors. It's notoriously
difficult to correctly identify the colour
bands on these, so check each one's
value with an ohmmeter before soldering
it to the board."

I was just thinking. What are all the other uses one could use the meter
for. Like measuring resistors, coils, ??? I have used mine to measure
low ohms resistance in wiring.

greg

It's good for reading non-dynamic resistances, like low value resistors, but
maybe not some wirewounds, which have significant inductance. You can also
use it, if you use very sharp tipped probes and make sure that it is
correctly zero'd, to chase down rail shorts on PCBs. There is enough
resistance in the copper tracks to be able to see the resistance dropping,
as you probe the tracks, and get closer to the shorted IC or decoupling cap,
or whatever is causing the short. Put a deliberate short across a board and
try it. Obviously, the thinner the tracks, the more it shows up. You can't
measure coils with it because these represent a dynamic resistance, of
opposite characteristic to a capacitor, when tested with an AC source, as
the ESR meter produces. They will represent a high AC resistance when
excited in this way, and it will be outside the 100 ohm range of the meter.
Even if it came up less than that, it would still not be an accurate
representation of the true DC ohmic value of the coil. It is fairly easy to
put together a low ohms meter with an opamp, for measuring coils. Could be
useful for checking things like EW modulator coils for shorted turns.

Arfa