Advice and opinion on suitable multimeter for student/hobbyist please
Hi All
I'm increasingly finding use for a multimeter in my Electronic Engineering studies as well as my personal hobbies and even my work as a computer/network technician.
I'm looking to purchase my own, but I don't know which specifications are significant to me.
I realise these may be hard questions to answer without detailed requirements, but I'm not far enough through my course to be able to be specific about my requirements, I've asked my tutor for advice but he was less than helpful.
Once I'm further through my studies my ambition is to be able to diagnose and repair/replace such things as old CRT computer screens, perhaps even LCD screens, maybe even more advanced pcb's and electronic devices if I'm capable.
I'm aware that most commonly capacitors fail on these so I assume I want a multimeter that's good with capacitance?
In a couple years I would like to be able to design and build home automation electronics like automatic door openers/closers, pressure switches, motion activated lights etc. So I would like a multimeter that would prove suitable in such tasks.
Given my budget and limited knowledge of electronics I've come across two multimeters that I like. Namely Uni-Trend's #-Link-Snipped-#and #-Link-Snipped-#.
(Links are to manufacturers website product specifications)
What I don't know is;
Hopefully I've given enough info and asked in the right thread, if not please let me know.
Thanks,
I'm increasingly finding use for a multimeter in my Electronic Engineering studies as well as my personal hobbies and even my work as a computer/network technician.
I'm looking to purchase my own, but I don't know which specifications are significant to me.
I realise these may be hard questions to answer without detailed requirements, but I'm not far enough through my course to be able to be specific about my requirements, I've asked my tutor for advice but he was less than helpful.
Once I'm further through my studies my ambition is to be able to diagnose and repair/replace such things as old CRT computer screens, perhaps even LCD screens, maybe even more advanced pcb's and electronic devices if I'm capable.
I'm aware that most commonly capacitors fail on these so I assume I want a multimeter that's good with capacitance?
In a couple years I would like to be able to design and build home automation electronics like automatic door openers/closers, pressure switches, motion activated lights etc. So I would like a multimeter that would prove suitable in such tasks.
Given my budget and limited knowledge of electronics I've come across two multimeters that I like. Namely Uni-Trend's #-Link-Snipped-#and #-Link-Snipped-#.
(Links are to manufacturers website product specifications)
What I don't know is;
- The 70D has conductance - is this a big benefit? I've not covered conductance in studies but have read the wikipedia article.
- Is the 79999 display on the 70D better or worse than the 40000 display on the 71E? It appears that by having a higher count it has lower accuracy - I don't know enough to gauge what the pros and cons of this are.
- The 71E appears to have a wider capacitance and frequency measurement range, actually in most measurements; Is this a significant advantage over the 70D?
Hopefully I've given enough info and asked in the right thread, if not please let me know.
Thanks,
Replies
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Ashraf HZHeya, welcome to CE!
Looks like you chose some nifty multimeters. They are more than enough for hobby purposes. If I had to pick either, I'd get the 70D just because the RS232 interface is easier to hack with than the USB 😀
I personally use a cheap $15 Brother multimeter. One of the connectors got loose after a few months, but it was an easy fix.
If you can skimp a little on the multimeter, you can try getting a portable waveform generator/oscilloscope that you connect to your laptop or PC called CircuitGear GR-101. Costs around $180.
You can check it out here: #-Link-Snipped-# -
omniscientAfter looking at that CircuitGear GR-101 I'm definitely going to be investing in one in the future, great tip!
The serial/usb aspect isn't important to me, I'm tending to the 71E just because it seems to handle wider ranges with higher accuracy.
Thanks for the response Ash.
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