Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?


Mark Z.

In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus, etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Not an AVO Model 8? Still made up until recently - cost about 650 gbp.

--
*On the seventh day He brewed beer *

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

On Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:07:51 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus, etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Not an AVO Model 8? Still made up until recently - cost about 650 gbp.

I am still using an AVO 7 in leather carrying case and an AVO 25
multimeter.

Mark D. Zacharias wrote in message
...
Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?


Mark Z.




Have you ever tried repairing one ?
Or even ,for the experience, removing the movement and replacing it without
spring/seating/ bias problem ?
Once you master that then coil winding must be a sinch


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

Mark D. Zacharias wrote in message
...
Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?


Mark Z.




Here's an oddity, 5 inches across in a 10x10x10 inch case
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:gra...ogue_meter.jpg
Don't know what make, says Model 32 , surprisingly in a wooden not bakelite
case and porcelain terminal insulators, as it says "Tropical" on the legend.
I used to use it along with a couple of circa Gohm glass encapsulated
resistors for measuring EHT, now use a purpose made EHT 100:1 divider


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
...
Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus, etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?


Mark Z.


AVO 8 Mk IV. Never did like the ones that they scaled in 3s and 10s. The
Mk IV is 2.5s and 10s. It was issued to me on my first day as an apprentice
on my very first day of work out of school nearly forty years ago, all
fresh-faced and ready to take on the world ...

Both me and the meter look a bit longer in the tooth, and battered around
the edges now, but we both still work, just about ! d;~}

Arfa

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
...
Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus, etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?


Mark Z.


AVO 8 Mk IV. Never did like the ones that they scaled in 3s and 10s. The
Mk IV is 2.5s and 10s. It was issued to me on my first day as an
apprentice on my very first day of work out of school nearly forty years
ago, all fresh-faced and ready to take on the world ...

Both me and the meter look a bit longer in the tooth, and battered around
the edges now, but we both still work, just about ! d;~}

Arfa


Yeah, sometimes the scales are a bit disappointing for the type of stuff we
use these things for. I mean a 300 volt scale to measure 120 AC gives a
less-than satisfactory indication, as does 12 volts DC on a 50 volt scale.
Still usable of course, but accuracy may suffer a bit.

These days it seems there is less and less actual troubleshooting with
meters and 'scopes, though. We have a Sony guru who only grabs the DMM maybe
once every month or two. Any more it's mostly boards, lamps, fans, panels,
etc.

I might keep an eye out for a Mark IV...I think I've seen them on eBay a
time or two.


Mark Z.

"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote:

Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Mark Z.


http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.terrell/614.jpg


--
http://improve-usenet.org/index.html

aioe.org, Goggle Groups, and Web TV users must request to be white
listed, or I will not see your messages.

If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in
your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm


There are two kinds of people on this earth:
The crazy, and the insane.
The first sign of insanity is denying that you're crazy.

Meat Plow writes:

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 06:53:17 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Just a Simpson 260.

Yep, What modern general purpose DMM has a 5 kV range?!

--
sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

What modern general-purpose DMM has a 5 kV range?!

What modern general-purpose DMM has room for such a big range resistor?

"Samuel M. Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
Meat Plow writes:

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 06:53:17 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Just a Simpson 260.

Yep, What modern general purpose DMM has a 5 kV range?!

--

Well, I do have an RCA WV-38A with 5 kV ranges, but I virtually never need
any of that. About the highest I ever go on a regular basis is the 200 volt
line on a CRT set or the Vs voltage in a plasma.

I might just pick up a Simpson of some variety or other though. The 260 XLPM
looks pretty good - I like the extra ranges compared to a regular 260 and I
must confess that between my advancing old age and laziness from using a DMM
the past 20 years, simple precautions I learned in tech school need to be
relearned. The other day I inadvertently put my Fluke 8800A probes across a
50 volt DC source while on a 200 ohm resistance setting. Didn't seem to
damage it, but boy, I sure gotta watch that stuff. Hopefully the relay
protection on the Simpson would prevent damage from any such stupidity.

Mark Z.

In article ,
Samuel M. Goldwasser wrote:
Meat Plow writes:

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 06:53:17 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus, etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Just a Simpson 260.

Yep, What modern general purpose DMM has a 5 kV range?!

Doesn't make much sense if using standard test leads. Far better to use
specials for EHT which include an attenuator.

--
*What do little birdies see when they get knocked unconscious? *

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

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Dec 2008 21:17:25 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:


"Samuel M. Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
Meat Plow writes:

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 06:53:17 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Just a Simpson 260.

Yep, What modern general purpose DMM has a 5 kV range?!

--

Well, I do have an RCA WV-38A with 5 kV ranges, but I virtually never need
any of that. About the highest I ever go on a regular basis is the 200
volt
line on a CRT set or the Vs voltage in a plasma.

I might just pick up a Simpson of some variety or other though. The 260
XLPM
looks pretty good - I like the extra ranges compared to a regular 260 and
I
must confess that between my advancing old age and laziness from using a
DMM
the past 20 years, simple precautions I learned in tech school need to be
relearned. The other day I inadvertently put my Fluke 8800A probes across
a
50 volt DC source while on a 200 ohm resistance setting. Didn't seem to
damage it, but boy, I sure gotta watch that stuff. Hopefully the relay
protection on the Simpson would prevent damage from any such stupidity.

Mark Z.


The 260 XLPM is a good choice but the 8P does have overload protect
also and might be a few bucks cheaper.

I learned on my 260 but other than having that bit of nostalgic value
it really doesn't cut it like my old Fluke 77 does. I still do use it
though when working on tube amps for monitoring different critical
voltages.

I have a Fluke 85 series III and like it a lot - it's my "standard" to
compare others to.

Mark Z.

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Dec 2008 21:17:25 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:


"Samuel M. Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
Meat Plow writes:

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 06:53:17 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision
Apparatus,
etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.

Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?

Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?

Just a Simpson 260.

Yep, What modern general purpose DMM has a 5 kV range?!

--

Well, I do have an RCA WV-38A with 5 kV ranges, but I virtually never need
any of that. About the highest I ever go on a regular basis is the 200
volt
line on a CRT set or the Vs voltage in a plasma.

I might just pick up a Simpson of some variety or other though. The 260
XLPM
looks pretty good - I like the extra ranges compared to a regular 260 and
I
must confess that between my advancing old age and laziness from using a
DMM
the past 20 years, simple precautions I learned in tech school need to be
relearned. The other day I inadvertently put my Fluke 8800A probes across
a
50 volt DC source while on a 200 ohm resistance setting. Didn't seem to
damage it, but boy, I sure gotta watch that stuff. Hopefully the relay
protection on the Simpson would prevent damage from any such stupidity.

Mark Z.


The 260 XLPM is a good choice but the 8P does have overload protect
also and might be a few bucks cheaper.

I learned on my 260 but other than having that bit of nostalgic value
it really doesn't cut it like my old Fluke 77 does. I still do use it
though when working on tube amps for monitoring different critical
voltages.

My problem with the 8P and some other later Simpsons is those stupid
inverted banana plug inputs. I need to be able to use conventional banana
types.

Mark Z.

In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
My problem with the 8P and some other later Simpsons is those stupid
inverted banana plug inputs. I need to be able to use conventional
banana types.

Only on extra low voltage, I hope? ;-)

--
*Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it*

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

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
My problem with the 8P and some other later Simpsons is those stupid
inverted banana plug inputs. I need to be able to use conventional
banana types.

Only on extra low voltage, I hope? ;-)

--
*Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it*

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

Extra low? Never had a standard banana type arc or cause a problem this way,
and used them up to at least several hundred volts. The Simpsons used them
from the 3 series until the 7 series, IIRC.

Mark Z.

"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
...

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
My problem with the 8P and some other later Simpsons is those stupid
inverted banana plug inputs. I need to be able to use conventional
banana types.

Only on extra low voltage, I hope? ;-)

--
*Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it*

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

Extra low? Never had a standard banana type arc or cause a problem this
way, and used them up to at least several hundred volts. The Simpsons used
them from the 3 series until the 7 series, IIRC.

Mark Z.


Website specs would suggest that fully insulated ones are good to 3.5kV RMS
minimum. I have a pair on the end of a cable feeding HT of around 2kV to a
144MHz tube based linear, and they have never given me any problems.

Arfa

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 06:53:17 -0600, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

:Started collecting them pretty recently - Weston, Eico, Precision Apparatus,
:etc. Even a Japanese JRC vom from about 1950.
:
:Wondering what cool old meters you guys have at work or at home?
:
:Care to share thoughts / reminiscences?
:
:
:Mark Z.
:


If you check out the list of manufacturers here http://www.radiomuseum.org/ you
can get some good info and pictures on old analog meters among other stuff.

I managed to pick up a 60's era Unigor 3 made by Goerz (Austria) on Ebay and
this has a 5kV input range on it.

In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
My problem with the 8P and some other later Simpsons is those stupid
inverted banana plug inputs. I need to be able to use conventional
banana types.


Extra low? Never had a standard banana type arc or cause a problem this
way, and used them up to at least several hundred volts. The Simpsons
used them from the 3 series until the 7 series, IIRC.

Not a question of them working - but one of safety.

--
*Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

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

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
My problem with the 8P and some other later Simpsons is those stupid
inverted banana plug inputs. I need to be able to use conventional
banana types.


Extra low? Never had a standard banana type arc or cause a problem this
way, and used them up to at least several hundred volts. The Simpsons
used them from the 3 series until the 7 series, IIRC.

Not a question of them working - but one of safety.



I don't really see them being any safer. Regular bananas have been safely
used for decades plus. I don't doubt that somewhere along the line somebody
probably sued somebody and this is why we now have those ridiculous inverted
bananas, but I won't accept them for normal applications.


Mark Z.

In article ,
Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
Not a question of them working - but one of safety.



I don't really see them being any safer. Regular bananas have been
safely used for decades plus. I don't doubt that somewhere along the
line somebody probably sued somebody and this is why we now have those
ridiculous inverted bananas, but I won't accept them for normal
applications.

I'd guess there are specs about touching a live pin with an object of a
particular size. There are in the UK where mains plugs have the top part
of the pins insulated to prevent this And of course the pin of a banana
plug can be 'live' if not fully inserted and possibly touched. The usual
answer to this is a shrouded banana plug - and this arrangement doesn't
stop a plain one being used if you must. But means the device as supplied
with its own test leads conforms to safety regs.

Many inexperienced users will check mains circuits with a cheap DVM so it
makes sense to prevent easily avoidable accidents.

--
*If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before

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