EEVBLOG #75 - Digital Multimeters

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Just an FYI, there are not the same by a long shot.  The problem is not racial, its about the development of their engineering talent and the quality of the workmanship.

HK and PRC are one in the same.  HK just reflects the management arm, most hard core manufacturing is done in PRC.

Taiwan is ROC, and until recently, both design and manufacturing was exclusively Taiwan.  PRC and ROC are theoretically enemies from history, but $$$ is making friends of these long term foes, with Taiwan sending manufacturing to PRC with management in ROC.

At this time, ROC is a 1st world country.  They have R&D houses in the USA. China is rated ~ 92/182 while Taiwan is 25th.  The US is #13 while Australia is #2, using the UN rating scale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index#Countries_missing_from_latest_report


That said, Taiwanese products are usually high to highest design and manufacturing quality.

And how long should the humble multimeter be subject to such criticism? Rightfully till the end of the world.
@Simon: It is the evil world of outsourcing. Fluke, Agilent, Extech and probably all big manufacturers have manufacturing plants in China. Can you accept Agilent having the top of the line hand held multimeter outsourced to Malaysia. The results are obvious. And do not be confused by 'Made in Hong Kong' or 'Made in Taiwan' or 'Made in R.O.C.': they are all from the Chinese herd. We have got trampled over to such an extent that whenever I pull the remote display from the Fluke 233, people would exclaim 'look what the Chinese have managed!'
Actually, the Chinese people really manage to foster out of the box ideas and never seen before products. If we have got any Chinese member among us, be proud because the country is fast forwarding with innovations. They board ten times as many engineers as Europeans for the same emolument. But in an attempt to make it ten times more affordable, they make products look like steel, act like glass.

[Reuben]

This is a copy of a reply I posted on the fluke 117 review.
I have the 117 and like the non contact feature because I work with high voltage.

I also have a fluke 16 which is a continuation of the fluke 12. It measures temperature and uA as well as caps. I had the fluke 12 for 10 years which only cost me 100 in 1994. I fell in love with this meter immediately. It had low Z was small, rugged and had 4 push buttons. I found the low z great for many things including discharging capacitors and testing batteries and power supplies.

These low end meters had a little known feature which Dave would love. The fluke 16 still has it although i did not find it in the manual. I believe you use the range button when in diode mode. It has a latch open and a latch close to check a cable for shorts or breaks. If you hold the leads together and hit a button it will detect a momentary open, but has a display which shows up as —__ on the display. otherwise the display looks like —–. Like a logic transition. Correct me if wrong, but this is a feature not included in higher models, I believe.

Love the blog Dave keep it up. Electronics has been my passion for over 20 years.

Reuben

While I am on the topic of meters I love, I have an Ideal amp meter with a tight sight display. There is a little rubber boot over a second display in the end. This is great for high hanging wires. This meter has min max capacitance, frequency through the jaws and an analog bar graph. It also has a great back light and huge digits. Sorry fluke, but I like this better than yours especially at under 200.
It looks and feels “sexy” as Dave would say. I had it checked by a calibration lab and they said it was “spot on”.

More on ideal amp meter. I have had it for 4 years. I really like the canvas belt holster and it comes with wonderful probes which come apart to put a huge black alligator clamp on the black lead for one handed testing. It is also cat III and IV. Check it out .

I have been using ideal’s vibrating low impedance meter (wiggy} for about 6 years and you want to talk rugged? I dropped mine from 50 feet. It has a solenoid which vibrates and a analog meter with ever famous neon lamps. Strangely, works well to test unloaded frequency drives.

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There's nothing like real world testing, to show what stuff can really do. 

This is a copy of a reply I posted on the fluke 117 review...
While I am on the topic of meters I love, I have an Ideal amp meter with a tight sight display.

[haglered]

This is the blog that introduced me to dave and this forum.

I was doing research until all hours on digital multimeters (after buying a cheapy) trying to learn how to use it.

I found it helpful and educational about what to expect from digital multimeters in general and what to look for when I buy a better one.

No flames here Dave.

[sonicj]

I also have a fluke 16 which is a continuation of the fluke 12. It measures temperature and uA as well as caps. I had the fluke 12 for 10 years which only cost me 100 in 1994. I fell in love with this meter immediately. It had low Z was small, rugged and had 4 push buttons. I found the low z great for many things including discharging capacitors and testing batteries and power supplies.

These low end meters had a little known feature which Dave would love. The fluke 16 still has it although i did not find it in the manual. I believe you use the range button when in diode mode. It has a latch open and a latch close to check a cable for shorts or breaks. If you hold the leads together and hit a button it will detect a momentary open, but has a display which shows up as —__ on the display. otherwise the display looks like —–. Like a logic transition. Correct me if wrong, but this is a feature not included in higher models, I believe.

i have a fluke 12 that was handed down to me 5 or 6 years ago. the buttons didn't work at first so i never bothered to learn most of the functions other than voltage and continuity. i had no idea it did the continuity break logging! aside from the lack of current measuring and some complications with the zebra connectors, its been a great first level troubleshooting meter. especially for free!
-sj

[vk3yedotcom]

Has any other EEVBlog episode been parodied?  (by another Dave - from a few days ago)

[jancumps]

Has any other EEVBlog episode been parodied?  (by another Dave - from a few days ago)

Where's the 26 minutes of extra waffle? 

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Has any other EEVBlog episode been parodied?  (by another Dave - from a few days ago)

Awesome
And I can undenstand You oral  speaking (I can`t understand Dave`s english)