I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this in the description
of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Must not be very accurate.

Anyone have opinions about Vichy products (other than the water)? It seems
Vichy is trying to suggest Vishay, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality
resistors.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:08:38 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this in the description
of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Well, what can you expect from text [sic] equipment? ;-)

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:08:38 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this
in the description of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Well, what can you expect from text [sic] equipment? ;-)

Slopey proof reading, for one...

On Apr 25, 1:08*pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this in the description
of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Must not be very accurate.

Anyone have opinions about Vichy products (other than the water)? It seems
Vichy is trying to suggest Vishay, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality
resistors.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

"hr(bob) " wrote in message
...

I like the freebie Harbor Freight coupon digital multimeters.
For what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with
kid gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters
we had at Bell Laboratories where I worked.

The Vichy is interesting because it has functions that one rarely finds on
inexpensive DVMs.

I have one of the Harbor Freight DVMs, which I carry in my toolbag.

"hr(bob) " wrote:
On Apr 25, 1:08?pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this in the description
of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Must not be very accurate.

Anyone have opinions about Vichy products (other than the water)? It seems
Vichy is trying to suggest Vishay, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality
resistors.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

I had to prod around in a machine that uses 208v with a $5 looking
multimeter recently.

I was pretty concerned about the entire thing having a solder blob work
loose and throwing the thing into a current range and exploding and taking
off my hand and face.

Cydrome Leader wrote in
:

"hr(bob) " wrote:

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

I had to prod around in a machine that uses 208v with a $5 looking
multimeter recently.

I was pretty concerned about the entire thing having a solder blob
work loose and throwing the thing into a current range and exploding
and taking off my hand and face.




two things to know about the $3/freebie HF DMM;
1.input Z is only 1 MegR.
2.the input jacks solder joints crack and become intermittent.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

"hr(bob) " wrote:

On Apr 25, 1:08 pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this in the description
of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Must not be very accurate.

Anyone have opinions about Vichy products (other than the water)? It seems
Vichy is trying to suggest Vishay, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality
resistors.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

You must have been there at the very end--before 1984, a fancy DMM
wouldn't have been visible above the noise at Bell.

When I was a postdoc at IBM Watson in 1988, a colleague was thinking out
loud one day about buying a fancy lock-in amplifier. "Well, it's stupid
to buy one, and I probably don't need five, so I'll order three."
Bell had money to waste like that too.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

Jim Yanik wrote in
4:

Cydrome Leader wrote in
:

"hr(bob) " wrote:

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

I had to prod around in a machine that uses 208v with a $5 looking
multimeter recently.

I was pretty concerned about the entire thing having a solder blob
work loose and throwing the thing into a current range and exploding
and taking off my hand and face.




two things to know about the $3/freebie HF DMM;
1.input Z is only 1 MegR.
2.the input jacks solder joints crack and become intermittent.


I forgot one of the most important things;
the first DMM I got read VERY high,a 1.5 volt cell read almost 2 volts.
the exchange DMM read much closer to 1.5V.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

You must have been there at the very end -- before 1984, a
fancy DMM wouldn't have been visible above the noise at Bell.

I worked at Bell Labs the Summer of 1970 -- a terrible mistake. Anyhow, they
spent money like water.

On Apr 26, 5:50*am, Phil Hobbs
wrote:
"hr(bob) " wrote:

On Apr 25, 1:08 pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this in the description
of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Must not be very accurate.

Anyone have opinions about Vichy products (other than the water)? It seems
Vichy is trying to suggest Vishay, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality
resistors.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. *For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

You must have been there at the very end--before 1984, a fancy DMM
wouldn't have been visible above the noise at Bell.

When I was a postdoc at IBM Watson in 1988, a colleague was thinking out
loud one day about buying a fancy lock-in amplifier. *"Well, it's stupid
to buy one, and I probably don't need five, so I'll order three."
Bell had money to waste like that too.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot nethttp://electrooptical.net

They may have had a monopoly, but at least they knew how to give great
customer service, so I personally didn't care. Even knowing the
service cost more, overall, still didn't care. Interesting, eh?

They may have had a monopoly, but at least they knew
how to give great customer service...

If they did, they lost the knowledge. AT&T is one of the worst companies you
could do business with. They just don't give a damn.

On 4/26/2012 9:45 AM, Robert Macy wrote:
On Apr 26, 5:50 am, Phil Hobbs
wrote:
"hr(bob) " wrote:

On Apr 25, 1:08 pm, "William
wrote:
I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this in the description
of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Must not be very accurate.

Anyone have opinions about Vichy products (other than the water)? It seems
Vichy is trying to suggest Vishay, a well-known manufacturer of high-quality
resistors.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

You must have been there at the very end--before 1984, a fancy DMM
wouldn't have been visible above the noise at Bell.

When I was a postdoc at IBM Watson in 1988, a colleague was thinking out
loud one day about buying a fancy lock-in amplifier. "Well, it's stupid
to buy one, and I probably don't need five, so I'll order three."
Bell had money to waste like that too.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot nethttp://electrooptical.net

They may have had a monopoly, but at least they knew how to give great
customer service, so I personally didn't care. Even knowing the
service cost more, overall, still didn't care. Interesting, eh?

Thanks to judge Green, we don't have that black corded dial phone
on the wall anymore.
Ok maybe a little facetious, but my parents had the same phone for
35 yrs, with a few extra turns on the ringer coil I added when a teen,
to trigger some unremembered project.
Mikek

On Apr 26, 8:11*am, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
They may have had a monopoly, but at least they knew
how to give great customer service...

If they did, they lost the knowledge. AT&T is one of the worst companies you
could do business with. They just don't give a damn.

that was way back when, not now.

Jim Yanik wrote:
Cydrome Leader wrote in
:

"hr(bob) " wrote:

I like the freebie Harbor freight coupon digital multimeters. For
what I need they are fine, and I don't have to treat it with kid
gloves like I used to do with the expensive voltmeters we had at Bell
Laboratories where I worked.

I had to prod around in a machine that uses 208v with a $5 looking
multimeter recently.

I was pretty concerned about the entire thing having a solder blob
work loose and throwing the thing into a current range and exploding
and taking off my hand and face.




two things to know about the $3/freebie HF DMM;
1.input Z is only 1 MegR.

half of that is in the probes alone.

2.the input jacks solder joints crack and become intermittent.

assuming they were even soldered correctly to begin with.

So the most improbable thing was wrong with the machine. Not one, but two
open heating elements, and the spare from the spares kit was also open.

Instead of trying to track down house marked west german era immersion
heaters with strange bends, we're looking at having custom ones made here.
I can't wait to see the quotes on those things.

William Sommerwerck wrote:
"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:08:38 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I was browsing eBay for cheap multimeters, and found this
in the description of the Vichy [sic] VC99...

"Dual-slop DC/AC converter..."

Well, what can you expect from text [sic] equipment? ;-)

Slopey proof reading, for one...

Putt knot yore trussed inn spall chequers.


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