Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44
US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44
US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

The Dick Smith meter is the one designed by Bob Parker, who pops up on here
from time to time. I have had one in daily use now for several years, and I
can recommend it without reservation. It has a very clear unambiguous
readout, and is autoranging. It also has an automatic offset feature to zero
out the probe and lead resistances. It has withstood everything that a busy
workshop has thrown at it, without once failing on me. It paid for itself in
the first couple of repairs that it was used for.

The kit does not contain any particularly small parts, and is well
documented. If you can solder reasonably well, and your iron has a
reasonably small tip, and you can carefully follow a set of instructions, I
think that you would be able to manage it just about. I think that it is
also available ready built for a very reasonable extra amount, if you really
weren't confidant to build it.

Arfa

My worst experience with the Dick Smith one was that I screwed up and
grabbed those leads instead of my VOM. Consequently I put 120VAC across it
and severely let the smoke out - time for a new one. Now I have two red
leads on it to make it more apparent that I don't have the VOM leads.

Other than that, it has worked well for me. Oh, the kit was also fine -
just follow the directions and put on the smallest items first. That way
it's easier to have the board be stable for soldering. I also decided that
I would take one value of resistor, and install all of that value at one
time. Kind of helped me make sure that I got the right ones in the right
places. I knew that I had to find enough homes for them until I ran out.

WT

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44
US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

The Dick Smith meter is the one designed by Bob Parker, who pops up on
here from time to time. I have had one in daily use now for several years,
and I can recommend it without reservation. It has a very clear
unambiguous readout, and is autoranging. It also has an automatic offset
feature to zero out the probe and lead resistances. It has withstood
everything that a busy workshop has thrown at it, without once failing on
me. It paid for itself in the first couple of repairs that it was used
for.

The kit does not contain any particularly small parts, and is well
documented. If you can solder reasonably well, and your iron has a
reasonably small tip, and you can carefully follow a set of instructions,
I think that you would be able to manage it just about. I think that it is
also available ready built for a very reasonable extra amount, if you
really weren't confidant to build it.

Arfa

Wayne Tiffany wrote:

My worst experience with the Dick Smith one was that I screwed up and
grabbed those leads instead of my VOM. Consequently I put 120VAC across it
and severely let the smoke out - time for a new one. Now I have two red
leads on it to make it more apparent that I don't have the VOM leads.

Other than that, it has worked well for me. Oh, the kit was also fine -
just follow the directions and put on the smallest items first. That way
it's easier to have the board be stable for soldering. I also decided that
I would take one value of resistor, and install all of that value at one
time. Kind of helped me make sure that I got the right ones in the right
places. I knew that I had to find enough homes for them until I ran out.

WT

What!?! For shame! Total disregard for the *supposed* to be parts left
over rule?

Ken

In article ,
Wayne Tiffany wrote:
My worst experience with the Dick Smith one was that I screwed up and
grabbed those leads instead of my VOM. Consequently I put 120VAC across it
and severely let the smoke out - time for a new one. Now I have two red
leads on it to make it more apparent that I don't have the VOM leads.

Yes. I've recently built one and it's very good. But why supply standard
test leads while the sockets are the same colour? Surely you could open
the test lead packs and pair them up to the same colour - wouldn't matter
if red or black.

--
*Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article ,
Wayne Tiffany wrote:
My worst experience with the Dick Smith one was that I screwed up and
grabbed those leads instead of my VOM. Consequently I put 120VAC
across it and severely let the smoke out - time for a new one. Now I
have two red leads on it to make it more apparent that I don't have
the VOM leads.

Yes. I've recently built one and it's very good. But why supply
standard test leads while the sockets are the same colour? Surely you
could open the test lead packs and pair them up to the same colour -
wouldn't matter if red or black.


Just put some colored heat-shrink tubing on the ESR meter's leads at the
probe end;that IDs them.

Paint is not going to stick well to flexible plastic insulation.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

In article , Jim Yanik wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
:

In article ,
Wayne Tiffany wrote:
My worst experience with the Dick Smith one was that I screwed up and
grabbed those leads instead of my VOM. Consequently I put 120VAC
across it and severely let the smoke out - time for a new one. Now I
have two red leads on it to make it more apparent that I don't have
the VOM leads.

Yes. I've recently built one and it's very good. But why supply
standard test leads while the sockets are the same colour? Surely you
could open the test lead packs and pair them up to the same colour -
wouldn't matter if red or black.


Just put some colored heat-shrink tubing on the ESR meter's leads at the
probe end;that IDs them.

Paint is not going to stick well to flexible plastic insulation.


I use some short leads with two small alligator clips.

greg

Wayne Tiffany wrote:

My worst experience with the Dick Smith one was that I screwed up and
grabbed those leads instead of my VOM. Consequently I put 120VAC across
it
and severely let the smoke out - time for a new one. Now I have two red
leads on it to make it more apparent that I don't have the VOM leads.

Other than that, it has worked well for me. Oh, the kit was also fine -
just follow the directions and put on the smallest items first. That way
it's easier to have the board be stable for soldering. I also decided
that I would take one value of resistor, and install all of that value at
one
time. Kind of helped me make sure that I got the right ones in the right
places. I knew that I had to find enough homes for them until I ran out.

WT

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44
US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

The Dick Smith meter is the one designed by Bob Parker, who pops up on
here from time to time. I have had one in daily use now for several
years, and I can recommend it without reservation. It has a very clear
unambiguous readout, and is autoranging. It also has an automatic offset
feature to zero out the probe and lead resistances. It has withstood
everything that a busy workshop has thrown at it, without once failing on
me. It paid for itself in the first couple of repairs that it was used
for.

The kit does not contain any particularly small parts, and is well
documented. If you can solder reasonably well, and your iron has a
reasonably small tip, and you can carefully follow a set of instructions,
I think that you would be able to manage it just about. I think that it
is also available ready built for a very reasonable extra amount, if you
really weren't confidant to build it.

Arfa


On my one I put some very very big diodes anti-parallel directly across the
4mm terminals, (not on the PCB). I am not sure what would happen if it
were connected to the mains (line) but I think it now has at least half a
chance of surviving until the main circuit breaker disconnects it, since
diodes often fail short circuit. Anyway I hope not to test this.

Chris

Arfa Daily wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44
US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

The Dick Smith meter is the one designed by Bob Parker, who pops up on here
from time to time. I have had one in daily use now for several years, and I
can recommend it without reservation. It has a very clear unambiguous
readout, and is autoranging. It also has an automatic offset feature to zero
out the probe and lead resistances. It has withstood everything that a busy
workshop has thrown at it, without once failing on me. It paid for itself in
the first couple of repairs that it was used for.

The kit does not contain any particularly small parts, and is well
documented. If you can solder reasonably well, and your iron has a
reasonably small tip, and you can carefully follow a set of instructions, I
think that you would be able to manage it just about. I think that it is
also available ready built for a very reasonable extra amount, if you really
weren't confidant to build it.

Arfa

I'll second that, my experience with this meter is exactly that of
Arfa's. It's paid for itself 50 times over. I would emphasize "solder
well" tho'
Richard

Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44

US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

I just built the Dick Smith kit. Very nice kit, I thought. The parts
seemed high quality, except for the battery holder arrangement, which I
thought was pretty lame (two multiple AA cell holders "mechanically
connected" by soldering a pin of one to the other). The instructions
weren't bad, although the reference numbers for the figures were
mismatched, which was a bit confusing at first.

The PCB layout matched the provided parts very well, and it ran
perfectly the very first time I powered it up (which, I should probably
add, does not happen to me very often.)

Cheers.

OK, sounds like the Dick Smith kit is the way to go. Now to decide
whether to get it from Canada or our world cup bound friends at the end
of the earth...

Please post the source ... at $44 for the kit you found a bargain.

I too built the kit and had no problems. Took about an hour or two as I
recall and worked first time. My only complaint with the kit was the poor
color coding on the resistors was hard to read and required constantly
removing my glasses ... but then again my eyesight isn't what it used to be
either.

Bob

wrote in message
oups.com...
OK, sounds like the Dick Smith kit is the way to go. Now to decide
whether to get it from Canada or our world cup bound friends at the end
of the earth...

The $44 US is $69 Australian dollars, the link is he

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.st...uct/View/K7214

I have an email in for shipping costs and whether they will ship to the
US.

The other source is $82 shipped and is in Canada.

http://www.flippers.com/esrktmtr.html

In article ,
Bob Shuman wrote:
I too built the kit and had no problems. Took about an hour or two as I
recall and worked first time. My only complaint with the kit was the
poor color coding on the resistors was hard to read and required
constantly removing my glasses ... but then again my eyesight isn't what
it used to be either.

Don't think it's just you. Those metal film ones with the blue body are
near impossible to read. I just measured them - after eliminating the
obvious ones which were more than one and still on their paper links . ;-)

--
*Real women don't have hot flashes, they have power surges.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

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."


Bob



On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 23:03:41 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Bob Shuman wrote:
I too built the kit and had no problems. Took about an hour or two as I
recall and worked first time. My only complaint with the kit was the
poor color coding on the resistors was hard to read and required
constantly removing my glasses ... but then again my eyesight isn't what
it used to be either.

Don't think it's just you. Those metal film ones with the blue body are
near impossible to read. I just measured them - after eliminating the
obvious ones which were more than one and still on their paper links . ;-)

"Mr. Land" wrote in
ups.com:

Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44

US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

I just built the Dick Smith kit. Very nice kit, I thought. The parts
seemed high quality, except for the battery holder arrangement, which I
thought was pretty lame (two multiple AA cell holders "mechanically
connected" by soldering a pin of one to the other). The instructions
weren't bad, although the reference numbers for the figures were
mismatched, which was a bit confusing at first.

The PCB layout matched the provided parts very well, and it ran
perfectly the very first time I powered it up (which, I should probably
add, does not happen to me very often.)

Cheers.


*My* DSE ESR meter is powered by a single 9v battery -with the usual 9v
battery clip. (free-floating under a piece of foam)

What's this about AA batteries? Did the meter kit change?

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

In article ,
Jim Yanik wrote:
*My* DSE ESR meter is powered by a single 9v battery -with the usual 9v
battery clip. (free-floating under a piece of foam)

What's this about AA batteries? Did the meter kit change?

Mine came with AAA holders. Something about there being a confusion about
using a PP3 in the instructions. I don't like AAA unless size matters as
in the UK they cost the same as AA. So I changed to AA since I had holders
'in stock' ;-)

--
*(over a sketch of the titanic) "The boat sank - get over it

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Jim Yanik wrote:
*My* DSE ESR meter is powered by a single 9v battery -with the usual 9v
battery clip. (free-floating under a piece of foam)

What's this about AA batteries? Did the meter kit change?

Mine came with AAA holders. Something about there being a confusion about
using a PP3 in the instructions. I don't like AAA unless size matters as
in the UK they cost the same as AA. So I changed to AA since I had holders
'in stock' ;-)

--
*(over a sketch of the titanic) "The boat sank - get over it

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Mine's a few years old now, but came with a standard 9v battery holder.
Mind, I did have to complain to Bob about poor battery life. My first
battery only lasted about 2 years ... !!

Arfa

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 01:49:16 GMT, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Jim Yanik wrote:
*My* DSE ESR meter is powered by a single 9v battery -with the usual 9v
battery clip. (free-floating under a piece of foam)

What's this about AA batteries? Did the meter kit change?

Mine came with AAA holders. Something about there being a confusion about
using a PP3 in the instructions. I don't like AAA unless size matters as
in the UK they cost the same as AA. So I changed to AA since I had holders
'in stock' ;-)

--
*(over a sketch of the titanic) "The boat sank - get over it

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Mine's a few years old now, but came with a standard 9v battery holder.
Mind, I did have to complain to Bob about poor battery life. My first
battery only lasted about 2 years ... !!

Arfa



Hi, are these meters available in UK.

Apologies about that!
I was replacing the batteries about once per 3 months with typical
use, though some people complain that they hardly last any time at
all. Maybe they always leave the meter on until it turns itself off?
The 78L05 regulator can be replaced with a low dropout voltage one,
which extends battery life a bit.

Cheers
Bob


On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 01:49:16 GMT, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:

Mine's a few years old now, but came with a standard 9v battery holder.
Mind, I did have to complain to Bob about poor battery life. My first
battery only lasted about 2 years ... !!

Arfa

wrote in message
oups.com
Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for
$44 US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...


I can't comment on those ESR meters, but if you are willing to consider
something a bit more costly, take a look at the Peak ESR60
(http://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/jz_esr60.html). It reads both the
capacitance and ESR which can be handy if your DVM doesn't have a
capacitance scale.

--
James T. White

I have both the DSE (made from kit) and the Atlas. I carry the Atlas and
use it almost exclusively because of the size. If you get one get the hands
free kit.

Building the kit is time comsuming but not hard. Great value product.

Leonard

"James T. White" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
oups.com
Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for
$44 US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...


I can't comment on those ESR meters, but if you are willing to consider
something a bit more costly, take a look at the Peak ESR60
(http://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/jz_esr60.html). It reads both the
capacitance and ESR which can be handy if your DVM doesn't have a
capacitance scale.

--
James T. White