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At work, we had a Fluke that also functioned as an Oscilloscope, but It fails your requirement for not costing a bloody fortune, Im not even sure it measured frequencies.
Keep your eyes open for a Fluke. Stay away from Extech, Centech, any of those bargain basement POS's. I've been in the test equipment calibration and repair business for almost 22 years. As the saying goes "You get what you pay for". You just can't beat a Fluke when it comes to a DMM. I know they can be kinda expensive, but worth the investment.
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No matter where you go, there you are!
I'm not sure what a decent one will cost. Can I get something of decent quality (Probably not a Fluke. ???) for somewhere around $150? (Don't laugh too hard!)
[This message has been edited by pgmrdan (edited 07-31-2005).]
I have a Fluke 110 multimeter that reads frequency depending on the range you want.
Here is a site that tells you about it. http://www.testequity.com/products/885/
I bought mine on sale thru MSC about a year ago for $94, it has served me well so far and is made quite tough compared to others. This is the picture of the 110,111,112 series.
[This message has been edited by Mcruff (edited 07-31-2005).]
[This message has been edited by Mcruff (edited 07-31-2005).]
I'm a little surprised the Fluke only measures frequencies up to 50 kHz while some other meters I've seen go up to 4 MHz and 15 MHz but that's not critical for me. Based upon the prices of the other units I question their accuracy. The Fluke is probably right on the money.
Other than that the Fluke 110 series looks really good.
[This message has been edited by pgmrdan (edited 07-31-2005).]
The only meters I actually trust. Cost depends on whether you want true RMS etc.
You mentioned frequency measurement....
You can get a good counter for cheap, used. It will go higher and generally be a better counter than the DMM, and not having it built-in means a lesser cost DMM.
I prefer the component measuring function to the counter. Usually you don't get both.
But your choice.
The "Scope-meters" are pricey..... I was going to buy one, but the scope was a low freq, only a few hundred kHz, and the price was up around 1K...
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Fluke all the way. I just bought several 189 for my clients lab. They are really nice. And they're a Fluke :-) The Older Tek TX1 TX3 DMM are really nice also if you find a used one. Just buy the most you can afford. Its like a nice Lathe or Mill buy all you can afford.
I recently bought a Fluke 112 for use around the house, very nice meter. It costs much more than the average POS meter, but it is one of the cheapest Flukes and from that perpsective is quite affordable and has alot of useful features (True RMS, MIN/MAX/AVG/HOLD) for the $$$.
The Fluke 110 series (110,111,112) are meant for general HVAC and electrical maintenance, not for hard core electronics use, thus the reason they only measure to 50 khz. The average user in those industries would have no reason to measure frequencies other than the AC line freq or perhaps the freq out of a VFD which would normally be 10 khz or lower. When measuring higher frequencies, the cheaper meters often need a pretty high input level to trigger the counter, and normal test leads aren't ideal for high frequencies.
I went for the 112 instead of the 110 or 111 since it had the backlight. The 111 and 112 can measure current, the 110 cannot.
A handy feature is that they allow a short term current reading of up to 20 A, most meters only measure to 10 A.
Even though I wanted a meter to do both basic electrical work (check AC freq and voltage, automotive checks, batteries) I also needed to have an accurate meter for electronics hobby work like measuring resistors, capacitors, etc. and the 110 series is accurate enough for what I would play with.
Compared to other cheapies I've owned in the past, I paid the extra $$ for a Fluke soft case and expect this meter to last longer than the 2-3 years I get out of the cheap ones before they stop reading correctly.
A friend has a meter from Sears that reads frequency that sells for $30. I bought a used dual trace 60 mhz scope for $90,no probe w/ multiplier, I think it is a Tecktronics like I used in school but they were 100 mhz. You want a isolation transformer to go with the O scope.
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