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Bench multimeter current measurement (Keysight vs Rigol)
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Veketti:
Dear All,

Some time ago I bought my first bench multimeter Rigol DM3058E which is 5½ digit bench multimeter. I think some sort of test equipment bug bite me and I aquired more professional Keysight 34461A. I was comparing these two and was quite a bit amazed that when measuring currents with both I got following results at 12VDC from lab power and through 10kohm resistor.
Rigol 1.20655mA (Lab power supply Agilent 66321B showed 1.206mA).
Keysight 1.194697mA (Lab power suuply Agilent 66321B showed 1.195mA)
And 66321B with just the resistor 1.207mA.

Did I do something wrong, but is it normal that the more expensive Keysight adds so much series resistance to render the current reading useless? I'm amazed of the Rigol, as it basically didn't affect the reading.
Secondly I was wondering that the Keysight, being 6½ digit compared to Rigol 5½ show same amount of digits (when voltage is dual digit) as the Keysight shows 012.xxxx and Rigol 12.xxxx. So the Keysight loses one digit resolution by showing extra zero prefix.
KungFuJosh:
I'm confused by your question. The Keysight reading is more accurate than the Rigol reading when compared to the lab PSU. How does that make it useless?
DaJMasta:
A better check would be to put both meters in series with your source, then while the series resistance of the whole circuit is higher, the current through the two has to be identical, so you can see if they are actually measuring differently.
Fungus:

--- Quote from: Veketti on May 02, 2024, 03:29:45 pm ---Did I do something wrong, but is it normal that the more expensive Keysight adds so much series resistance to render the current reading useless? I'm amazed of the Rigol, as it basically didn't affect the reading.

--- End quote ---

The "burden voltage" (which is what you're seeing) will be listed in the manual for each - very easy to compare the specs without even measuring anything.
Veketti:
Burden voltage is higher on Keysight than what it is for the cheaper Rigol so that's why it's affecting the reading more. Is higher burden voltage then sign of better multimeter or the opposite? Why isn't the multimeter taking the burden voltage into account when showing the reading? Or were you supposed to check the datasheet and manually calculate the real reading by taking the burden voltage into account?
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