Any good quality off brands that would do the trick?

I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re.
their cases. Bit when I wanted something with more functions for the bench, I
didn't need something quite so stout.

I bought an Extech EX330:

http://www.extech.com/instrument/products/alpha/ex330.html

It's got capacitance and frequency measurement as well as temperature
measurement. (Mine came with a bead-type probe but I see some EX330 meters
that are not bundled with a probe. Look closely.) I think I paid about $50.

Jameco has a good selection:

http://www.jameco.com

I still think there's nothing like a Fluke but the competition is closing in
on them very quickly.

(I cross-posted to the s.e.repair group. I think these guys n' gals would be
able to give some good experiences re. meters.)

Good luck,
--
DaveC

This is an invalid return address
Please reply in the news group

On 2007-08-19, DaveC wrote:

I bought an Extech EX330:

http://www.extech.com/instrument/products/alpha/ex330.html

The biggest drawback I've found to the Extech meters is that they are
very slow to auto range (in every mode) compared to a Fluke. Also, while
hunting for the right range they display bogus values in the other ranges.
My Fluke 10 takes about 0.5s to go from Megaohms down to ohms and displays
dashes while it's doing that. My EX470 takes 4+ seconds and displays
some intermediate values. After it reaches ohms it takes another second
or so to settle.

--
Ben Jackson AD7GD

http://www.ben.com/

DaveC wrote:
I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re.
their cases.

Not just the cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a
little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested
that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of
magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.

--
"You know the difference between cannibals and liberals?
Cannibals only eat their enemies."
-- Lyndon Baines Johnson

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:20:56 -0500, clifto wrote:

DaveC wrote:
I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re.
their cases.

Not just the cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a
little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested
that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of
magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.

I agree on Fluke robustness. Pretty much the same story with my 8520A
bench meter.

I wanted to make my own high voltage probe. At a flea market I had
aquired some glass encapsulated resistors that were multi-megohm. I
thought they would be perfect for my probe divider, so I built one in a
plastic tube. Tried it at some hundreds of volts and it seemed to be
working as expected. I applied it to something like 1700 V. The tube
was clear plastic, and to my horror the resistor lit up with plasma and
ugly clicking noises came out of the meter. Looking at the meter, the
fluke display had switched to Klingon or something. Expecting disaster,
I power cycled the Fluke. It came back to life and was fine.

That resistor still baffles me. As I said it was in a glass tube and was
at least an inch long. It looked perfect for HV. My guess is that it was
filled with some gas to deliberatly short itself at some voltage in the
low KV range.

rex wrote:

I agree on Fluke robustness. Pretty much the same story with my 8520A
bench meter.

I wanted to make my own high voltage probe. At a flea market I had
aquired some glass encapsulated resistors that were multi-megohm. I
thought they would be perfect for my probe divider, so I built one in a
plastic tube. Tried it at some hundreds of volts and it seemed to be
working as expected. I applied it to something like 1700 V. The tube
was clear plastic, and to my horror the resistor lit up with plasma and
ugly clicking noises came out of the meter. Looking at the meter, the
fluke display had switched to Klingon or something. Expecting disaster,
I power cycled the Fluke. It came back to life and was fine.

That resistor still baffles me. As I said it was in a glass tube and was
at least an inch long. It looked perfect for HV. My guess is that it was
filled with some gas to deliberatly short itself at some voltage in the
low KV range.


Did you clean all body oil and other contamanints from the resistor
before you used it? A single fingerprint on a one inch glass HV
resistor could cause arc over, and for it to self destruct.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:38:15 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

rex wrote:

I agree on Fluke robustness. Pretty much the same story with my 8520A
bench meter.

I wanted to make my own high voltage probe. At a flea market I had
aquired some glass encapsulated resistors that were multi-megohm. I
thought they would be perfect for my probe divider, so I built one in a
plastic tube. Tried it at some hundreds of volts and it seemed to be
working as expected. I applied it to something like 1700 V. The tube
was clear plastic, and to my horror the resistor lit up with plasma and
ugly clicking noises came out of the meter. Looking at the meter, the
fluke display had switched to Klingon or something. Expecting disaster,
I power cycled the Fluke. It came back to life and was fine.

That resistor still baffles me. As I said it was in a glass tube and was
at least an inch long. It looked perfect for HV. My guess is that it was
filled with some gas to deliberatly short itself at some voltage in the
low KV range.


Did you clean all body oil and other contamanints from the resistor
before you used it? A single fingerprint on a one inch glass HV
resistor could cause arc over, and for it to self destruct.

It clearly arced inside. It looked like a neon tube not a simple
arc-over. The voltage I was measuring should not have come anywhere
close to arcing across that length. That's why I'm thinking it was
designed to do that. I looked for the resistors yesterday to see if I
could find markings, but I can't find where I stashed them now.

clifto wrote:
DaveC wrote:

I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re.
their cases.


Not just the cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a
little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested
that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of
magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.


Try a Simpson 360.

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email:

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

Don Lancaster wrote:

clifto wrote:
DaveC wrote:

I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re.
their cases.

Not just the cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a
little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested
that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of
magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.

Try a Simpson 360.

Is that some kinf of BIZARRE joke ?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Simpson-360-Digi...QQcmdZViewItem

Bwahahahahahaha !

Graham

Don Lancaster wrote:
clifto wrote:
Not just the cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a
little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested
that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of
magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.

Try a Simpson 360.

Always loved 'em. A friend has one. I finally persuaded him to keep it in
the house and buy a cheapo DVM for garage use. It's not that the 360
couldn't take it, but he's already run it over with a car once and
scratched the case.

--
Homeopathic martini 2.0 (thanks, Ron T.):
6 oz. *Sapphire* gin (that's very important)
2 almond stuffed olives
Expose to a picture of a bottle of Cinzano for 15 seconds

On Aug 23, 2:13 pm, Don Lancaster wrote:
clifto wrote:
DaveC wrote:

I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re.
their cases.

Not just the cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a
little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested
that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of
magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.

Try a Simpson 360.

I recommend one of these:
http://www.alternatezone.com/files/Cake.jpg

Dave.

On Aug 21, 9:03 pm, rex wrote:
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:20:56 -0500, clifto wrote:
DaveC wrote:
I use Fluke meters in the field because they're pretty "bullet-proof" re.
their cases.

Notjustthe cases. My 77 got hit years ago when I got the test lead a
little too close to a flyback transformer. The size of the arc suggested
that I exceeded the maximum allowable voltage by one or two orders of
magnitude. The meter was unfazed, no change in calibration or looks.

I agree on Fluke robustness. Pretty much the same story with my 8520A
bench meter.

I wanted to make my own high voltage probe. At a flea market I had
aquired some glass encapsulated resistors that were multi-megohm. I
thought they would be perfect for my probe divider, so I built one in a
plastic tube. Tried it at some hundreds of volts and it seemed to be
working as expected. I applied it to something like 1700 V. The tube
was clear plastic, and to my horror the resistor lit up with plasma and
ugly clicking noises came out of the meter. Looking at the meter, the
fluke display had switched to Klingon or something. Expecting disaster,
I power cycled the Fluke. It came back to life and was fine.

That resistor still baffles me. As I said it was in a glass tube and was
at least an inch long. It looked perfect for HV. My guess is that it was
filled with some gas to deliberatly short itself at some voltage in the
low KV range.

It may have been a precision high impedance feedback resistor for the
type of instrumentation amplifiers used on Faraday collectors and
other scientific instruments to measure minute currents. They are
normally only ever used at very modest voltages and are optimised for
lowest possible noise in that application.

From what you describe I would hazard a guess that is what you had.
Typically they are in the 10^7 to 10^9 range - their manufacture was
(is?) a black art.

Regards,
Martin Brown