Jim Yanik wrote:



After reading all this,I checked the $3 DMM I bought at a Harbor Freight
sidewalk sale,and it turns out the *input Z is only ONE megohm*. YUK!

But that's the greatest "extra" meter since sliced bread.
Seriously. It costs next to nothing, so you are not afraid
of abusing it, which means you can toss it in your tool box
or your glove box or the trunk. If you fry it, drop it, the
dog eats it, aliens from the UFO beam it up and disect it,
whatever, it is essentially no loss. You treat (or should
treat) your "real" meter far more kindly, and use it when
you need more confidence in your measurements. That Harbor
Freight meter is surprizingly accurate, in the sense that
you expect that a $3.00 meter just _has_ to be way out of
whack. It's not. If you absolutely have to know the exact
number, you wouldn't use it - you'd measure with your "real"
meter. But for most of the measurements people make with a
DMM, the $3.00 meter is fine. And that $3.00 includes the
9v battery!


I only bought it as a 2nd DMM,for monitoring PS outputs and the like.
The manual did not list that particular spec,either....


Perfect use for that meter. :-)

Ed