What was your first multimeter or voltmeter?

[eliocor]

When I was very young I was lucky to "use" the ICE 680R: it was my father's one (bought at the end of sixties).
Before I played with another model  (I remember it was in a wood box and the cable insulation was made of "fabric"): I will ask to my father which model it was... It should yet be at his home!!! 

[david77]

Oh yes I've got one of those ICE 680R's lying around somewhere too. The cap range is scary: They use the 50Hz power line frequency to measure caps. There's even a scary power cord included.
*shudders*

[elliott]

I think that in both the "Way Cool" and the "You Gotta Have Balls To Use It" categories, the Pifco wins hands down Is it rated for line volt testing?

No kidding, anyone who would go near 240V AC with that thing is nuts. I wouldn't mind having a safe, reasonably modern analog multimeter in the pocket watch form factor though.

Manual scan:
http://www.bygonebytes.co.uk/Meters/Pifco%20All-In-One%20Instructions.pdf

[Kiriakos-GR]

Unbelievable but I found pictures on the web of my first analogue, that I had when I was 15 years old. 

That's a nice 28 years back,  travel in time .. LOL

The exterior is Bakelite.

[IanB]

I think that in both the "Way Cool" and the "You Gotta Have Balls To Use It" categories, the Pifco wins hands down Is it rated for line volt testing?

No kidding, anyone who would go near 240V AC with that thing is nuts. I wouldn't mind having a safe, reasonably modern analog multimeter in the pocket watch form factor though.

Manual scan:
http://www.bygonebytes.co.uk/Meters/Pifco%20All-In-One%20Instructions.pdf

Ah, it's designed for battery powered radios, DC only. That's not quite so terrifying.

[Ronnie]

Soar ME-540 made in Japan   

[vk6zgo]

Unbelievable but I found pictures on the web of my first analogue, that I had when I was 15 years old. 

That's a nice 28 years back,  travel in time .. LOL

The exterior is Bakelite.

My first multimeter was identical to yours,but it was labelled "Sanwa"--this was in the 1960s,they were around for a long time!

VK6ZGO

[Kiriakos-GR]

Well this analogue meter belonged originally to my father, he was an cars electrician and died when I was 15 years old.
Even so he must had it for a decade or more in his shop.
One wild guess would be that he go it around 1972 - 1975.

He had a major passion with tools, I bet that he is proud of me, I had double or triple the amount of tools that I had found from him.  

[slipjointed]

We all have our humble beginnings.  I remembered, when I was at San Jose State University, a Spanish woman civil engineering student, showed me her Fluke 77 Series One digital multimeter, that she won in her high school contest and her stellar grades, too.  She was pretty.  She started with a Fluke 77 Series one.  My start was humble, a Radio Shack Micronta analog multimeter.  I did not upgrade to a Fluke 8060A (broke and traded in), until community college electronics trade school.  What was your first multimeter?  I have relative who is an electrical engineer and licensed, but he used his Simpson 260 analog multimeter.  He never upgraded, that is all he use, even with the brittle plastic phenolic case.

I started with a Micronta almost identical to yours. Even the cardboard box was the same.

[deephaven]

I think that in both the "Way Cool" and the "You Gotta Have Balls To Use It" categories, the Pifco wins hands down Is it rated for line volt testing?

No kidding, anyone who would go near 240V AC with that thing is nuts. I wouldn't mind having a safe, reasonably modern analog multimeter in the pocket watch form factor though.

Manual scan:
http://www.bygonebytes.co.uk/Meters/Pifco%20All-In-One%20Instructions.pdf

Ah, it's designed for battery powered radios, DC only. That's not quite so terrifying.

I remember getting it as a Christmas present. My parents also bought me a 'magicians' set and were really dissappointed because all I wanted to play with was this meter. Little did they know what this was a start of 

[lmester]

Bummer,  I was looking for my first analog multimeter. It's stored here somewhere...  A basic analog meter.

 My next meter is an NRI  VTVM. I still occasionally use this meter. VTVM's  have some advantages. A really high impedance.

 Next was my first DMM.

 A BK 380 Multimeter. I inserted four C batteries. Last power up for this meter was about ten years ago. It's still working!

[cheetahkid]

Avo 8 mk5 I think it was first multimeter.

[oldway]

It was not my first multimeter but the oldest I remember: Hioki AF-105

I then bought an electronic voltmeter that was so complicated that I never used all its possibilities: Hansen UV47

While saving my pocket money for a long time, I was able to buy a multimeter of quality which was very useful to me: avometer model 8.
I still have one now.

My first digital multimeter purchased used in 1993 was a Fluke 73.
I modified it to have the choice of the range (like 75) because the automatic range was annoying with variable voltages.
I still use it today.

[VK5RC]

An old analogue  Sanwa 460-ED, 100,000 Ohm/V,  I still have it and it works.

[SeanB]

Hioki 3001, and still have it. Abused a bit over the years, and had a few "incidents" with it as well, but it has survived and still is reasonably accurate on DC volts, so so on AC volts ( what do you expect, very non linear scale and not good below 5VAC really), and the resistance ranges have had a few little repairs over the years, due to leaking batteries and such.  I keep a pack of 0.5A glass fuses in the one battery compartment inside, just in case I need them.

[cdev]

My first voltmeter was homemade with parts scavenged from a the dumpster of a local factory.

My first real multimeter which I still have was a Micronta 22-203u. After I got my first DMM I removed the batteries so no worries about them leaking.

Its very handy to have an analog meter sometimes. I've checked the accuracy and its still good.

[Kleinstein]

My first meter was a Russian build µ4324 analog one from the early 1980s. It did not like measuring the resistance of a 160 V transformer output - but was repairable and still working. It has quite a lot of ranges, though the mirror scale is missing. I still use it from time to time.

[ocw]

I think that my first meter was a Lafayette 99-5004 multi-tester.  It unfortunately didn't survive a bounce test on a concrete floor.  However, I still have its instruction sheet.  That didn't rate being called a manual, however it included a schematic diagram of the meter.

I've attached portions of the instructions.  Note that for resistance measurements it required a Burgess Y10 15 volt battery.  It had a 33 uA full scale meter.  "The best components have been used in the assembly for accuracy and long life."

[SingedFingers]

This. I murdered it, several times and repaired it.



Then the cat pissed in it and I couldn't bear to use it because of the awful smell, so I bought another one with about 6 months of pocket money:



Ironically now I use a Fluke 8021 I picked up last week which was made BEFORE both of them were!

[Housedad]

God, I don't know which model, but it was a Radio Shack purchase back in 1974.   Too long ago and long, long gone.

[joeqsmith]

Some sort of VTVM that was given to me.

[D3f1ant]

Some DSE (or maybe it was David Reid) brand thing when I was about 10, it exploded when  I  stuck it into the mains with selector on ohms.
Needless to say my daughter's first multimeter has some safety features.

[nanofrog]

RadioShack/Micronta 22-201A analog in my case (long gone).

[med6753]

Heathkit V-5 VTVM. Still have it. It's been re-capped and any out of tolerance resistors replaced. Also ditched the selenium rectifier for a silicon diode in the B+ supply. Fully calibrated


My first DMM was a Fluke 77 which unfortunately was permanently damaged by a leaking battery.

[Brumby]

It was a long time ago and I don't remember the make or model - but there are a few things I do remember...

It was early to mid 70's - and I bought it from George Brown in Sydney.  Analogue, of course, but I made sure it was 20Kohm/volt.  It cost me $20 - and I can remember laying out five $2 notes and two $5 notes to pay for it.

It served me well until one unfortunate event when set on a current range.  The was no fuse protection and the exercise proved fatal to the meter.  The ensuing vapour deposition was contained within the case, producing a very nice circle of copper about 15mm across on the inside of the back cover.

Until then, it had served me well.


Oh yes ... it had a mirrored scale, of course.