"Don Y" wrote in message
...

I don't tend to do much design/debug work outside of my office so can
rely on almost everything being line powered. E.g., I pulled an LCD TV
into the living room last night to troubleshoot power supply (or
main board) issues. Need 120V in order to test the TV so I've got
that same 120V to power my DMM, DSO, etc.

I keep a HF DMM in the garage for the times when I suspect the battery in
one of the vehicles may be low or faltering. But, then, I'm really only
looking at how it *sags* when cranking and don't really care much about
the
*actual* voltage that it is reporting. Probe battery terminals vs.
battery
cables to see if a high resistance connection, etc.

Or, operating as a glorified continuity tester...

I worked in a large plant and mainly used meters in the field. If they had
been line powered, I would have needed 50 to 100 feet of power cord.

I just got a HF DMM (free with purchase) a few weeks ago when the local
store opened. Checked it to about 30 volts of DC and 130 volts of AC
compaired with my Fluke meter. Most of the time the HF was within one
number of the last digit. Ohms were slightly off, but probably within spec.
As I did not need to, I did not try it, but there is one adjustment inside
the meter to calibrate it.

It surprises me how accurate the inexpensive stuff is from China. I bought
4 3 digit DC volt meters (just a circuit board with displays and wire leads)
for around $ 5 shipping included. Hooked all of them and a Fluke to a 0 -24
volt supply. All of them but one read the same thing. That was to a tenth
of a volt. The other was sometimes off by one on the last digit. It had an
adjustment, but did not try it as the meter was close enough for me.