Analog multimeters...... are the cheap-o's okay.....

[taste_tester]

Ok, please don't get scoff at me old timers of the forum, DMM's already existed when I was born 
I decided I should have an analog multimeter in my assortment of tools for the rare occasion I don't want to wait for one of my nice DMM's to range.
But it seems like my only options are the really old Simpson one (a VOM?), and seriously vintage stuff or really cheap looking stuff.

Is there any reason I shouldn't get one of the $10 ones? I figure this is maybe for checking some zener diodes and resistance every now and then, nothing serious and definitely no high voltage or AC measurement beyond a couple volts peak to peak.

I can't imagine a way a VOM would help me with stuff like computer motherboards because I typically use a cheap DMM which works fine unless I need really accurate voltage measurements or something. However maybe it would and I don't know it.

[ataradov]

for the rare occasion I don't want to wait for one of my nice DMM's to range.

Get a manual range DMM. With analog meters you will be waiting for the needle to settle and then interpret the reading. It potentially takes longer than ranging and reading a DMM.

There is a reason analog meters went away, they are worse than DMMs in all possible respects.

[CatalinaWOW]

for the rare occasion I don't want to wait for one of my nice DMM's to range.

Get a manual range DMM. With analog meters you will be waiting for the needle to settle and then interpret the reading. It potentially takes longer than ranging and reading a DMM.

There is a reason analog meters went away, they are worse than DMMs in all possible respects.

Well, they do have one advantage.  The voltage and current functions still work when the battery is dead.

The OP will still be doing manual autoranging with an analog meter, selecting the range switch, and on many meters picking which scale on the dial applies. 

Another big disadvantage of the analog meters is low input impedance.

As Atoradov says you are better off with a DMM.  I still own several analog meters, and never use them, using instead one my several DMMs. 

[radiolistener]

it depends on what you're planning to do with multimeter. If you're want to measure some low battery or low Voltage circuit, it's ok. But if you're planning to use it for mains, it's better to buy something branded with protection, it's more safe

[Kleinstein]

The resistance function on most analog meters is relatively poor, e.g. with a nonlinear scale that makes it slow and inaccurate to read. There a DMM is really be better choice, even if autoranging can be slow.
Another problem with the ohms ranges on analog meters is that they often don't have much protection. Accidently measuring a resistor at a 12 V supply may damage the meter -  a DMM has a good chance to withstand 110 V or 230 V (though not recommended).

Beside not needing a battery for volts and amps  another positive side is often a relatively low burden voltage in the amps mode (often in the 100 mV range). Some DMM really suck in this respect, especially auto ranging ones in same ranges.

An analog meter may be OK to see unstable voltages and may be preferred by some for trim jobs, as the needle may be faster than one can read the digits. For this a cheap meter may be OK, though the speed of the analog meters also varies. Cheaper is not always slower, but they may not care that much about damping.

Autoranging is more like a thing why one wants a DMM. If needed there are still cheap DMMs with manual ranging, though often with limited current ranges.

[jonpaul]

Bonjour: Been using meters since 1960s....paid $15..50 for VOMs over the years.

Old classic Analog: Vintage VOM/Multimeters (some 1..3 % accurate, mirror scale) at Ham Radio  fleas and epay, CL, etc.
Simpson 260, Triplett 310, 630. Great for tuning and High voltage use.

Cheapest digital: Harbor Freight DVM, 3 1/2 digit   ("7 function"   $7)

https://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-63759.html

Years ago,   $5 and even FREE if you had a coupon.

Got  six,  quite useful!

Jon

[taste_tester]

Got  six,  quite useful!

Jon

Thanks, but this does not address if these devices are useful in the context I'd be using them. After seeing the other posts I feel a cheap manual range DMM should actually do the job fine. IS there a need for an analog VOM if i am not messing with tubes and other vintage? It is not seeming like they have much use in a modern context.

[jonpaul]

Analog meters are best if a fast changing signal needs to be adjusted, eg tuning a transmitter or tube bias.

may digital have long delay between reading updates, eg 1/3 second.

Jon

[EPAIII]

I just love these discussions where analog meters are dismissed as useless and digital meters are claimed to be the only way to go. My career spanned over 45 years and I had purchased my oldest analog meter at least 5 years before that (new when purchased). Add another 11 years for retirement and that first analog meter is getting very old. But it still works and, with an accessory probe I can measure up to 50 kV. It's input impedance (10 MOhms) is equal to the old spec for VTVMs which were the thing when I bought it. The only compromise was it's accuracy which was around 5%.

But 5% is plenty enough for most purposes. Since then in addition to a number of digital meters, I have had many analog ones. In most of the shops where I worked there was ALWAYS a Simpson 260. ALWAYS! The model is over 50 years old and Simpson simply can not take it out of production. People want IT. I presently have three of them and they are the first meter that I reach for whenever doing something. But it is not a $10 meter. Even the used ones that are in ill repair sell for more than that.

So, what do I recommend for $10 or $15? Frankly, I don't have any suggestion, either analog or digital, in that price range. I have had $12 or $15 meters. I still have at least one, a Radio Shack analog model. It works, but I have had problems with the jacks which are cheaply made. And I have had two or three of the HF inexpensive digital meters. One died outright and I never even made an attempt to see what was wrong beyond trying a new battery.

I think around $20 to $25 price is the least I would recommend either a digital or an analog one. At that point you move up to a somewhat better built meter which will, absent downright abuse, last longer. I would say to look for a name brand or a store brand with a year guarantee.

Digital or analog? That is the burning question. I will say the advantages or disadvantages given by others here are not real important at that price. Accuracy? Unless you have a specific need for a particular accuracy, then the 2% or 3% that most analog meters offer is enough. Input impedance? A high input impedance is desirable to avoid loading the circuit and distorting the reading. But VOMs or mulitmeters are rated in terms of Ohms per Volt, usually 20,000 or 30,000 Ohms per Volt. This rating applies to the full scale readings so a 1 Volt scale, which is often the lowest scale on a VOM or multimeter, will have an input resistance of 20,000 or 30,000 Ohms on that scale. And on a 10 Volt scale the number will be ten times as much or 200 kOhms or 300 kOhms. Now that's not 10 MOhms like a DDM, but it is high enough for most purposes. Finding a peak or minimum value? Most will agree with me that a wiggle of an analog needle is far easier to detect these than a digital reading that is jumping around. So much so that a number of the better digital meters have a bar-graph scale that grows with the reading. Inaccuracy in the resistance scales on analog meters? Er, just how accurate are the digital ones? Anyone ever checked that. The specs. for the digital meters specify their accuracy at full scale, not below that point.

My advise to someone who is starting in electronics or to someone who has only occasional need of a meter is to buy a good analog one.

[BeBuLamar]

I can not see the advantage of analog meter but if you want one you want one. But you should go for the good one not cheap one. Analog meters are now more expensive to make. In fact I think it's OK to use a $5 Habor Freight DMM than a cheap analog.

[Bobson]

If you don't know where do you plan to use an analog meter, you better get inexpensive autoranging TRMS DMM with fast bar graph.

P.S. I have and use about 15 analogs, but almost all are expensive ones (with original prices $500 or even $1000+). And I use them for certain tasks mainly. Good analog meters are MORE expensive than comparable digital ones nowadays. Especially rare TRMS analog meters.

[rooppoorali]

You can try Sanwa Analog multimeters. Those are good and have wide measurement ranges.

[Peabody]

I have two analog meters, and still use them from time to time.  Sometimes you need to be able to see whether the needle is stable, or twitches a bit.  I also use them to check capacitors since my DMM (which also isn't very good) doesn't do that.  And I use them to measure MCU sleep current on the 50uA scale.  I don't know if the $10 ones are any good.  Look for 20,000 ohms per volt.

[MrAl]

Hello,

Yes discussions about analog vs digital volt meters (and current meters) can get interesting.

In my experience there are different brands of meters at various price points and the old saying kicks in about you get what you pay for, but some of the cheap analog meters can be very very useful because their response can be very fast, and faster than most digital meters that are not expensive enough to be fast (such as a scope/meter that would be super fast but also much more expensive).

The main tradeoff is accuracy.  The analog meters do not have the resolution that a decent (and not too too expensive but not too too cheap either) digital volt meter has.  If you need to measure 12 volts you may get away with an analog meter, but if you need to measure 12.001 volts you are going to need a good digital meter.  The only exception to this rule i can think of is if you use a zero center analog meter and good quality voltage reference where you can adjust the reference until you get a zero, and with that you can get some very good accuracy and resolution also, but that's very uncommon to see today.

The other main tradeoff is speed of response.  Many of the low to mid range digital meters take a considerably long time to settle to some usable reading.  The time it takes to get a stable reading for a digital meter vs an analog meter can be into the second.  Some analog meters respond very fast even the low cost ones.
I use two analog meters almost daily.  One is to measure the car voltage, the other is to measure the line voltage inside the house.
If the line voltage changes suddenly, the analog meter catches it while even a good 100 dollar (USD) digital wont see anything at all.  This is good to see when you have a load that draws a large start up current and then levels off, so you can judge the line impedance as well as think about if the load is bad.
The advantage of the one in the car is that it can help to determine the aging of the battery.  If when starting the car the meter drops from 12v to 11v when new then a few years later drops from 12v to 9v you know the battery is getting too old.  It is hard to see that quick change on a digital meter unless it is one that is made for fast response, and that means more expensive.
I should note however that the analog meters i use for both of these applications are 'panel' meters.  Panel meters often just have one range, such as 0 to 15v (car) or 0 to 150v (in house line).  There is no adjustment of the range unless you add your own resistors and a switch.  These meters are usually pretty fast so you get immediate results.

In the end you get what you pay for, and what specs you want in the meter.  You read the specs, note the accuracy and ranges and speed of response, then make your choice.
My advice though is to not go with the super cheap when it comes to the digital meters.  These can be very bad.  I would say if you pay less than $20 USD you are not going to be happy unless you get lucky.  If you pay around $50 you should be happy unless you want better resolution, then you may go up to $100 or more.  For example i paid around $19 for one of my digital meters and $350 (USD) for a much better one, but they are both useful.

You have to remember once you buy a meter you are stuck with it unless you can sell it, and if you use it daily or weekly or even monthly you dont want to have a meter that is not very good as it will be with you for every measurement you make and so it will always be questionable and make life difficult.  Get a better meter, you only have to get one and it will last for 10 years or better.  I have some meters that are 25 years old and more.  They dont have the resolution of the ones i got more recently, but they still work well.
Also, since many of the newer meters have more than 3 and a half digits, go with one that has at least 3 and 3/4 digits.  A 3 and 1/2 digit meter reads a 12v battery as for example 12.34 volts, but reads a 23 volt battery as like 23.4 volts, so you drop one digit with the higher voltage there.  If you get a 6000 count meter, then that battery reads 23.41 so you pick up an extra digit just because of that higher count.  The 3 and 1/2 digit meter count only goes up to 2000, so you see the difference there, and many of the newer ones but not too expensive are 6000 count meters.  If you want to go to 60000 count then you have to shell out more money though, possibly $300 or more.

Good luck hope you find something useful and not too too expensive, but not too too cheap either.

[rstofer]

Changes in voltage are sometimes easier to see on an analog meter.  I have a Simpson 260 and a Heathkit I built about 60 years ago.  Both are still useful from time to time.

[rstofer]

Dave does a review of inexpensive Pocket meters (with his definition of Pocket).  The Aneng 8008 isn't considered a Pocket multimeter so isn't included.  It is the subject of another video.

https://youtu.be/LCFEonQDkQU

Search Google for 'eevblog inexpensive multimeters' - no quotes...

[Ed.Kloonk]

Is there any reason I shouldn't get one of the $10 ones? I figure this is maybe for checking some zener diodes and resistance every now and then, nothing serious and definitely no high voltage or AC measurement beyond a couple volts peak to peak.

Analog meters are very useful for monitoring in the background. For $10 you do get quite a lot of meter that doesn't need to require batteries to stay on.

If you have a nice digital meter, my Fluke for example, will have a fairly good bar graph on the screen which can be used to observe fluctuations like you can with a analog.

That said, a cheap digital meter with a bar graph "thrown in" can be painful to use. Be prepared to throw out the $10 meter (or maybe it's leads) when it starts playing up. A number of my cheap meters have had their range switch or guts removed, been marked accordingly and repurposed in semi permanent locations.

[rstofer]

I don't recall if I have seen Dave use an analog meter on any of his bench videos but w2aew has for certain

https://youtu.be/xR0RfmmRhDw

[Kleinstein]

Inaccuracy in the resistance scales on analog meters? Er, just how accurate are the digital ones? Anyone ever checked that. The specs. for the digital meters specify their accuracy at full scale, not below that point.

Looking at the resistance scale of my analog meter, I would say it gets hard to read better than 5-10% and this already need some carefull eyeballing and though on the more log scale. The meters error comes on top.
Speed wise one also needs to adjust for zero or full scale, depending on the range and battry voltage.

My cheap $25 DMM has in most ranges resistance specs of 0.8% of the value + 2 out of 6000 counts. These specs also include other than full scale readings.

Getting acceptable specs only near full scale is more a problem with an analog meter, especially the current ranges. The voltage ranges often have 1:3:10 steps, but the current is often only 1:10 spacing. Reading at some 10% of FS with an analog meter gives quite some error. The analog meter specs are more like +-1% of the value  +-1-3% FS. So at 10% of the FS the error may be 10-30% of the reading.

[strawberry]

paralax analogmeters are good (~0.01%)and expensive
any cheap china meter are not close to any vintage meter

[Old Printer]

Ok, please don't get scoff at me old timers of the forum, DMM's already existed when I was born 
I decided I should have an analog multimeter in my assortment of tools for the rare occasion I don't want to wait for one of my nice DMM's to range.
But it seems like my only options are the really old Simpson one (a VOM?), and seriously vintage stuff or really cheap looking stuff.

Is there any reason I shouldn't get one of the $10 ones? I figure this is maybe for checking some zener diodes and resistance every now and then, nothing serious and definitely no high voltage or AC measurement beyond a couple volts peak to peak.

I can't imagine a way a VOM would help me with stuff like computer motherboards because I typically use a cheap DMM which works fine unless I need really accurate voltage measurements or something. However maybe it would and I don't know it.

Simpson still makes the 260, but it's not cheap. I watch Craigslist for a variety of things and see older good quality analog meters show up for good prices. I have a thing for quality tools, and if patient, I usually find an excellent deal on good quality gear.

[BrokenYugo]

Spend at least enough to get a proper 50uA movement (50uA range), the little super cheap ones with less sensitive meters and pin jacks aren't even close to safe or correct.

Also note that Sanwa meters are very commonly faked, buy carefully.

[TimFox]

Analog multimeters with 50 uA movements are often called "20,000 ohms/volt", referring to the full-scale voltage.
The Simpson 260 is an example. 
Really cheap analog meters with 1 mA movements are only 1,000 ohms/volt, and should be avoided.
Analog "VTVMs" usually had 11 megohm input resistance (independent of voltage range), of which 1 megohm was in the probe handle, close to the probe point, for DCV.
This is very useful when probing a node where the capacitance of the probe and cable would upset the high-frequency behavior of the circuit (such as the plate of a vacuum-tube RF amplifier).
(In ACV mode, they usually have lower resistance than that.)
One place I find analog meters superior to DVMs is when adjusting something for null voltage.

[BeBuLamar]

Ok, please don't get scoff at me old timers of the forum, DMM's already existed when I was born 
I decided I should have an analog multimeter in my assortment of tools for the rare occasion I don't want to wait for one of my nice DMM's to range.
But it seems like my only options are the really old Simpson one (a VOM?), and seriously vintage stuff or really cheap looking stuff.

Is there any reason I shouldn't get one of the $10 ones? I figure this is maybe for checking some zener diodes and resistance every now and then, nothing serious and definitely no high voltage or AC measurement beyond a couple volts peak to peak.

I can't imagine a way a VOM would help me with stuff like computer motherboards because I typically use a cheap DMM which works fine unless I need really accurate voltage measurements or something. However maybe it would and I don't know it.

Simpson still makes the 260, but it's not cheap. I watch Craigslist for a variety of things and see older good quality analog meters show up for good prices. I have a thing for quality tools, and if patient, I usually find an excellent deal on good quality gear.

Both Simpson and Triplett still make analog meters. Neither is cheap. As I said I see no advantage with analog meters including varying voltage. Bar graph on DMM is good enough for that. Most DMM can be set to manual ranging. But I do want analog meter and i have the Simpson 260 and I think I will buy a Triplett.

[Vtile]

Sanwa FET voms are extremely slow (I do mean slow!), I was disappointed and can not find an easy way to make it quicker eg. changing a smaller filtering caps or similar. Not that I would have reverse engineered it, but nothing obvious.

I do actually prefer old passive analogue (super deadly ... yeah right) when doing mains test circuits etc. (on my homelab) as my live wire monitor. I do trust them better than any (2nd hand) DMMs around. There is just a galvanometer and a few (70 years old) passive components.. But that meter is AVO8. At work the way to go is handheld dmm (1k€ price range), but at least once a week I run on situation where I would like to have analog (amplified) with me. Eg. adjusting some instrumentation involving interpolation of values to reach perceived equilibrium with devices with hysteresis to give an example.

Analogue (passive) meters today are best in noisy environment in current or voltage scales, where DMM electronic go haywire... Eg. If you try to measure some cheap electronic flyswatter (1kV+) The cheap $10 analogues are kind of pointles, but might work in some obscure job they also lack the 1kV+ ranges many old analogs do have. Eg. AVO8 or Taylor, depending on decate produced, might have eg. 3kV AC/DC native ranges.

Arnoux or similar still in business (I think it might be part of fluke) used to have a hybrid, where there were both analog and digital on same meter.

There is also some merit in learning curve in analogue with low imput impedances etc. In the end cheap chinese you mainly do find are better to throw on the car toolbox (the old museum car) as it will not run out of batteries, like car some times does.