Ulu Posted March 12, 2022 Report Share Posted March 12, 2022 (edited) I started wiring electric things as a child. Little motors and radios, phonographs and telegraph sets. (Tele-what? Yeah, that long ago…) About the age of 12 I started fixing junk TVs. I bought this little Midland VOM from the RadioShack in Duluth, with money made as a paperboy. It was about $8 in 1968. (You could buy a new Corvette for $5k back then.) It has real jewels (tiny rubys) in the meter. The glass is cracked, but I have always maintained the batteries, and It still works great after 54 years. I have modern digital meters nowadays, but I keep this one around because those digital meters are not great for measuring transient voltages. An analog meter updates continually but digital meters only update when the computer “polls the input”, and that happens on a schedule decided by the designer. What that means is that if you were trying to read the peak voltage of a transient, the digital meter may not give you the full value, because it doesn’t know to poll at exactly the right instant in time. Anyhow, I own six or seven different meters designed for automotive electronic and AC power work. Actually I shouldn’t count the number seven because it’s a Kobalt and it’s a Total POS. Don’t ever buy a Kobalt. Some of their tools are OK but the meters are complete dung. I bought one because I wanted a another meter to measure capacitors for a project I was doing. I didn’t want to keep flipping my meters back-and-forth because I was monitoring transient voltages with another meter. The Kobalt meter did not last one day. After flipping the switch back-and-forth a few times during the day it got fussy then quit working completely. My newest digital meter is a $300 Fluke, and it does very well. I doubt that most A/C professionals would use anything but a Fluke. But I will never give away this little Midland. It has been with me forever, and it has been hooked up to every vehicle I have ever owned at some time. Edited March 12, 2022 by Ulu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LazyK Posted March 13, 2022 Report Share Posted March 13, 2022 I've got several meters as well, analog Amprobe, and a couple digital Klein. But my go to is the old Archer/Radio Shack that was my first. Purchased it in the early 70's for probably under $10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper Posted March 13, 2022 Report Share Posted March 13, 2022 Well, you can pay more than you did for your Fluke to get a US made Simpson 260 analog meter. Or you can pay almost nothing for a Chinese analog meter. Not much between. I looked at Triplett meters, apparently the "cheap" ones are made in China, the expensive ones here. Based on Amazon customer info, Triplett doesn't mention it. As a side note, I used to be a the calibration tech on the destroyer I was on. The Simpsons got calibrated once a year, they were always off. The Flukes got calibrated once a year, they were never off. Drop a Simpson, if it didn't shatter the Bakelite case, it was out of cal. Flukes didn't care. Personally, I would not buy a Simpson based on that. I would also never use an analog meter for anything critical, not that anything on a car is critical. Using it to watch needle deflection is fine. Using it to align a weapons system, not so fine, lol. If I really needed to see "needle deflection. I would grab the oscilloscope. Speaking of oscilloscopes, you can get an inexpensive kit to turn your lap top into one and use that to analyze your ignition system. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulu Posted March 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2022 Thank you Sniper. I have been considering something like that ‘scope ap for my garage. I have a dedicated desktop computer out there for looking up parts manuals et Cetera. I have other ones if that won’t work. It would be nice to tell things like if I had a lot of distributor wiggle throwing the timing off. What did you think of the Fluke clamp-on meters? I bought one of those and I bought the 115 to replace the pitiful Kobalt. (Now somewhere in a landfill I suppose.) Mostly I have the 115 for checking capacitors. I have other digital meters to do the same stuff except for that but they are cheap things like the master mechanic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 I use Fluke stuff exclusively for work, company pays for it. I have several of their clamp one ammeters, they work. Kind of bulky so sometimes getting it around the one wire I need to measure can get tricky, that's the only complaint I have. I am not wedded to Fluke though, I do have two personal ones, but I also have an Actron CP7677 automotive meter that measures dwell and rpm. It does what I need it to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooljunkie Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 13 hours ago, Sniper said: Well, you can pay more than you did for your Fluke to get a US made Simpson 260 analog meter. Or you can pay almost nothing for a Chinese analog meter. Not much between. I looked at Triplett meters, apparently the "cheap" ones are made in China, the expensive ones here. Based on Amazon customer info, Triplett doesn't mention it. As a side note, I used to be a the calibration tech on the destroyer I was on. The Simpsons got calibrated once a year, they were always off. The Flukes got calibrated once a year, they were never off. Drop a Simpson, if it didn't shatter the Bakelite case, it was out of cal. Flukes didn't care. Personally, I would not buy a Simpson based on that. I would also never use an analog meter for anything critical, not that anything on a car is critical. Using it to watch needle deflection is fine. Using it to align a weapons system, not so fine, lol. If I really needed to see "needle deflection. I would grab the oscilloscope. Speaking of oscilloscopes, you can get an inexpensive kit to turn your lap top into one and use that to analyze your ignition system. You wouldnt have a link to this kit by any chance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooljunkie Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 I have been watching a fellow on youtube, AVE. Did a review on fluke, and hes not impressed with one of the recent fluke models. i also have an analog meter from radio shack.from the 70’s. But it has seen a rough life of auto repair and hit the floor way too many times. Being a mechanic, stuff happens. Bought a snap on digital meter, it puts up with my abuse. My go to for the most part is a power probeIII. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 2 hours ago, Tooljunkie said: You wouldn't have a link to this kit by any chance? I just googled "laptop oscilloscope" and there are many choices. I haven't sprung for one though, I have a nice Fluke O'scope I can use when I need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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