On Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at 10:57:44 AM UTC-4, rangerssuck wrote:
I need a new meter for my toolbox - I've done some looking and I haven't yet found something that fits everything on my wish list and I'm wondering whether you guys have any suggestions. Here's some of what I'm looking for (in no particular order):

PHYSICALLY RUGGED
TRUE RMS
SELECTABLE LOW IMPEDANCE (hides "ghost" voltages)
CLAMP FOR CURRENT
LEADS FOR CURRENT (all the clamp meters I've seen lack regular current measuring capabilities. This is a problem when servicing 4-20 ma circuits and the like.
FREQUENCY MEASUREMENT for VFDs

All that and just a generally good meter for field service.

Thanks.

Oh, I've got plenty of meters including four Fluke 8840As, three clamp meters, a logic analyzer and a couple of mixed signal scopes, but none that suit the needs of field work. My career path has taken a turn opposite to yours (and many others). After 30-odd years in an office and at a bench designing products and at the age where many retire, I've finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I really enjoy the hell out of fixing up tired old machinery and putting in new controls to get a lot more life and use out of them.

If you recall a year or so ago I was tackling the ageing refrigeration at an ice skating rink. I fixed about a million refrigerant leaks, installed a bunch of new sensors, replaced pretty much every wire in the machine and installed a modern controller (of my own design - I had used these in the past and have boards in stock). The thing is now purring like a (very loud) kitten and running perfectly. What started out as a planned $2 million replacement estimate (from the City Engineer) became more like a $50 thousand fix..

A bonus is that I picked up (on ebay) a spare pair of compressors and motors, identical to the ones in this system for a whopping $5,500 delivered. A pretty good deal considering that a single oil pump (which I needed) is $8,500 from York.

A second bonus is that I got myself EPA 608 certified, which must be good for something, though even before I got the license I took delivery of 5000 pounds of R22 and nobody asked to see any papers.

But what's missing is an all-in-one meter. Do the manufacturers really think that you do either big currents or small currents but not both? Sheesh.