EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: paticumbia on October 17, 2010, 02:57:28 am
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I work as an industrial air compressor Technician and troubleshoot alot of electronics like microprocessor controls with 4-20mA and i also troubleshoot motors. I have a clamp on meter to measure high amp draws but am looking for a meter thats withing my budget for troubleshooting and checking transducers. I am looking at the Amprobe AM-270 or the 34Xra i'm just wondering which one would be better? is the Amprobe AM-270 better than the 34 or 37Xra? it says industrial multimeter on it and that gives me the impression that its more heavy duty. Is there a video test on this new Amprobe AM-270 to see how it performs that i can see?
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G'day,
I meant to reply to this yesterday, so here's a very condensed version of my general opinion; Get the meter with the best safety rating, and the features/ranges you need. That makes it, from my reckoning, the AM-270.
It measures voltage, resistance and low current with decent accuracy, and it's got a great CAT IV 600V rating. Sounds like the machine for the job.
P.
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Dave covered the Amprobe 34XR-A in his $100 multimeter shootout.
He also did a review of the 37XR but it's listed as Meterman since it was before Amprobe absorbed Meterman.
You can see his multimeter reviews listed on the Wiki ...
http://www.eevblog.com/wiki/index.php?title=Manufacturers#Digital_Multimeters.2C_Hand_Held_.28DMM.29 (http://www.eevblog.com/wiki/index.php?title=Manufacturers#Digital_Multimeters.2C_Hand_Held_.28DMM.29)
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I have seen the reviews on the Amprobe 34XR-A and the 37XR-A I just haven't seen anything on the AM-270 and how it compares along the Amprobe Brand and in comparison to some of the others in the same price range. the AM-270 doesn't have the Magne-Grip™ Holster but then again i've never used that and i don't really know how useful that will be. Has anyone been able to use the AM-270? It looks more rugged to me. the Update Rate Digital Data 5 per second nominal is higher then the 34XRA too. One thing i didn't like on the blog of the 34XR-A is the jacks on the left that werent that secure from how he described it and i don't wanna purchase a meter that ends up breaking in the first year.
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If the choice is only between those two, i'd get the AM-270. Better resolution and better accuracy, wider capacitance range, also it has a 3x to 6x lower burden voltage on the mA and uA ranges respectively.
Downsides are that it can only measure frequency to 125KHz as a secondary function and doesn't display duty cycle.
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So I'm guessing it would be okay to check voltage on VFD's and checking frequency since it goes up to 125Hz and i onlygo up to 100Hz.
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Yes, it'll do fine measuring that- It's upper limit is actually 125 K Hz, not 125Hz :P It may not have such a great low frequency measurment (I'm talking sub 10Hz), but that usually doesn't matter.