Newbie needs some advice on equipment.

[Findingmyway]

Like I said newbie here, putting together a hobby lab, but would like to lead to more but don't know the extent of my abilities and how far I'll get to. Right now I am asking Santa for a new multi meter. Question is should I spend $400-$500 on a bench multi meter or buy a cheaper but good hand meter and some other supplies? Would buying a bench meter now be better? Would I need it in the future if I become better at it? You get the conundrum I'm in. Sure you exp guys where at the same point. Thanks. Would rather fallow the advice of others than make the same mistakes.

[Vgkid]

Buy a decent handheld meter, and other supplies. There are some decent afforable small bench multimeters that are good(not familiar with them) hopefully others will chime in. Do you have an o-scope yet?

[Findingmyway]

No scope yet bought the hakko fx-888 that was a learned lesson. Bought a piece of garbage at first. So this is why I'm asking for some good advice. Don't have all of money have to put it all together over time. Just would like to make the right purchas s from here on. Bought the cheesy China power supply as well. That was my sec mistake. So now I'm not buying anything until I get more informed. One big hurdle is living in Canada and in my city there is only one supply store,which isn't that great. Most of the things I would like to get costs are usually quarter more than USA pays plus the shipping. So I really need the good advice and make the right purchases from here on. So far again I have the hakko soldering station and the cheesy power supply and and old multimeter which I think was prob a decent one yrs ago. But it's getting old and the dial is starting to go.so I need a multi meter and whatever else you guys can suggest. Santa is giving me about $500 to spend for xmass. I have been checking out the B&K precision 2831E or 5491B. Last few days on thinking is that something I really need or like you said buy a hand held and some other supplies. Thanks again look forward to the advice .

[moya034]

I agree with Vgkid, you need an o-scope before a benchtop multimeter. Get a cheap handled meter now, and invest in a scope like then 1054z, or a used analog scope.

[Simon]

You won't need a bench multimeter for a long time. Get a good basic meter and then go for a scope, DON'T get an OWON scope, they are horendous. Depending on what you do a signal generator can be very useful.

[AlxDroidDev]

I am a hobbist like you.

Some people here will say you can never have too many handheld DMMs! I believe you need at least 2 average ones to begin with. The Fluke 17B+ is a good entry level DMM. There are good and inexpensive ones from UNI-T as well.

One DMM that is surprisingly good is the Mastech MS8260E (or F, G). It is a cheap Chinese DMM, but does the job done. Its latest revision, MS8260G, has auto-range. It is great as a hobbist's first DMM. When you can, upgrade them to more advanced DMMs, from Agilent, Fluke and so on.

The o-scope is a good thing to have as well, but I believe it can wait.

Before that, you need a good adjustable or programmable power supply, preferably with negative output too (if you plan on working with opamps). You can roll your own, which is a good thing and you'll learn a lot in the process. For those in North America, there are often good used units (HP, BK Precision, etc) on eBay.

You can also make your own basic signal generator, which won't feature as many bells and whistles as a commercial model, but that will also serve as a valuable learning experience.

[Lightages]

IMHO, avoid Mastech. I have never seen one I would buy. They are, or were, built very poorly. For much less than the Fluke 17B+, you can get a Uni-T 139C. It is a nicely built meter for the price, has pretty good input protection, and only costs $50. You can get two UT139C for the price of one 17B. Many people will tell you it is very useful to have two multimeters to measure things like voltage and current at the same time.

Other good options include the Amprobe AM5x0 series, the Brymen BM257S at $135 shipped to you door, or perhaps the Amprobe AM270.

[naragon1]

Five hundred dollars can go a long way. I'm not an expert by any means, but I was in a similar boat about four months ago. What equipment you decide to get would depend on what you're interested in doing/learning next. Here's the equipment I've acquired over the past few months.

Multimeter (~ $50 US)
I bought an Extech EX330 which has served me well for my needs - it's not a Fluke, but it's been great.

Power Supply ($90 - eBay)
HP E3610A  15V/3A. This thing is rock solid and I bought it, in part, based on this video Dave did on this particular power supply.()

Oscilloscope ($120 - eBay)
Tektronix 2245 100MHz - 4 channel analog scope. I'm still gunning for a Rigol 1054z, but I decided to start out with this analog one on the advice of a couple of folks whose opinion I respect, plus I've always wanted a Tektronix and was eventually going to get one.

Function Generator ($200 - eBay)
My most recent acquisition. I came across this brand-new,in the box, BK Precision 4040A 20 MHz function generator and I had to jump on it. It normally goes for about $600 retail.

I'm not suggesting you should go the same route, but if you're patient, you can find some good deals on equipment that is in good condition on eBay and build a decent lab setup for $500.

[mtdoc]

Five hundred dollars can go a long way. I'm not an expert by any means, but I was in a similar boat about four months ago. What equipment you decide to get would depend on what you're interested in doing/learning next. Here's the equipment I've acquired over the past few months.

Excellent choices IMO - especially the power supply and scope at those prices!