External power for hand held meters?

[hostile]

I wish they made an adapter for external power on DMM like the Brymen and Fluke handheld meters.  Anyone seen as such or made their own?   Just seems like it would be nice to use one as a bench meter and leave on for long periods of time. 

[themadhippy]

 can of safety  worms waiting to be opened.

[coromonadalix]

Gossen  on the 28 and 29s  have ac-dc isolated adapters ...

Some here had integrated  huge battery pack  under their meter with the charge circuitry

But some meters  whatever you put for supply power, will simply shutdown,  some meters can change this in the menu settings  ...


I have such a pack for the Fluke 189, with 4x  C type battery it can go up to 400 hrs  but never tried that


And yes you open some dark doors  if not done properly  for ground insulation   

[Jeroen3]

Flukes scopemeter 123 has one. It is a weird thing because a standard DC barrel isn't deep enough in the enclosure for the high common mode voltage of the circuits you could be measuring.

[TomKatt]

can of safety  worms waiting to be opened.

I'd rather invest in more batteries than give up the protection that isolated equipment provides...

But I could see the desire for low voltage bench work...   How about some rechargables?

[BillyO]

Maybe get yourself a good Fluke 8050A.  I have seen them in working condition for well under $50 US.  4 1/2 digits, plus uses an isolated linear power supply.  Can sit there turned on and ready for your needs any time you want it.  If your handy you can get one that needs a bit of repair.  I recently got one for about $26 and had to replace a CD4054E LCD driver chip in it - but now it's 100% and back in business.  Didn't even need adjustment

[GLouie]

Old Fluke handhelds used to have AC adapters available, such as the 8060 and D801. The manual warned against using anything but the Fluke adapter, which had a custom, extra long coax plug. That could be a problem today if you get an old meter - finding the approved adapter, and that will still probably not meet modern safety standards.

I assume newer safety standards and better efficiency made that go away. Most handhelds run so long anyway, although a few are power hungry. I use Eneloop rechargeables for all AA or AAA, and Energizer lithium in the old Fluke 8060A, even though I do have the Fluke AC adapter.

[tautech]

I wish they made an adapter for external power on DMM like the Brymen and Fluke handheld meters.  Anyone seen as such or made their own?   Just seems like it would be nice to use one as a bench meter and leave on for long periods of time.

There's good reason why proper mains powered bench meters have been made for decades, maybe you should consider investing in one.

[joeqsmith]

I wish they made an adapter for external power on DMM like the Brymen and Fluke handheld meters.  Anyone seen as such or made their own?   Just seems like it would be nice to use one as a bench meter and leave on for long periods of time.

I made my own.  You can read about my experience here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/the-bm235-does-not-accept-lithium-batteries/msg1031797/#msg1031797

[Fungus]

There's good reason why proper mains powered bench meters have been made for decades

They have advantages, sure, but that doesn't answer the question of why handhelds can't be mains powered.

can of safety  worms waiting to be opened.

If only they could print a CAT rating on the front that corresponds to that.

[Fungus]

Maybe get yourself a good Fluke 8050A.

They're huge compared to a handheld...

Maybe get one of those tiny-footprint Owons: https://www.google.com/search?q=OWON+XDM1041&tbm=isch

[Fungus]

There's a few meters with 1000-hour battery life and no auto-power-off. You can leave them on all day and they'll still go for months.

The real question is: Why can't they make those meters with a little solar panel to extend the battery life even further? They could probably go for years... 

(eg. Like CASIO calculators)

[chinoy]

My Fluke 105B has a d/c jack.
It also has a bat bay for a custom bat. But fluke bats cost too much. So I made my own pack using two li-ion bats.
When I want accurate readings. I prefer to use just the bat to power the unit.

At some point I want to add a bat pack to my hantek dso5000 series scope.

[RoGeorge]

Metrix mtx3283 works with 3 x AA rechargeable batteries, and has an AC adapter that can power the instrument and/or recharge the batteries without removing them from the instrument.  A nice instrument, just that it's too slow.

[BillyO]

They're huge compared to a handheld...

I had assumed he already had a handheld and wanted something for his bench.  While the Fluke 8050A takes up some area, it has a nice flat top that can be used to stack other stuff on, is the same width as the Owon, not as high and costs about 1/4 as much.

See if you can do this with the Owon:

[themadhippy]

is the same width as the Owon, not as high and costs about 1/4 as much.

were can i buy a working  fluke 8050A for £29 inc vat?

[Bushougoma]

I'd just get a good bench meter a Keithley 175 or it's more accurate Microvolt brother the 197 can be had for under $100 on e-bay.

They have auto range capability and diode check mode only thing they don't have is a continuity beeper. The 197 even supports 4 wire resistance measurements.

I have both and they're my go to bench meters use them more often than my Fluke 87-5.

[BillyO]

were can i buy a working  fluke 8050A for £29 inc vat?

Including vat?  What a strange query.  As a matter interest, what are you comparing that price to?

Try eBay.  That's where I found the one I got for the equivalent of  about £16.  It was working but had one weak display driver, which I got for about £0.50.  Our taxes are 13%.  You can add that on if you like.

Here's the place I got mine, except these are 100% good, if you're not so good at electronics work:  https://www.ebay.ca/itm/325470804246?epid=10015460561&hash=item4bc7925916:g:a9gAAOSw32hjEih2

If you can do a bit of electronics repair, here's the pile I got mine off: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/374419355296?epid=10015460561&hash=item572d21f6a0:g:fPMAAOSwa7djo20K

[Fungus]

Here's the place I got mine, except these are 100% good, if you're not so good at electronics work:  https://www.ebay.ca/itm/325470804246?epid=10015460561&hash=item4bc7925916:g:a9gAAOSw32hjEih2

$50 + $79 shipping + taxes ... adds up to ... quite a lot for a manual ranging meter with limited functions.

[themadhippy]

Including vat?  What a strange query.  As a matter interest, what are you comparing that price to?

Im comparing it with  the owen linked to above that cost £116.34 delivered to my door,complete with warranty.As for the vat,well a price that dont included it suddenly gets 20% more expensive  when you goes to pay

[BillyO]

$50 + $79 shipping + taxes ... adds up to ... quite a lot for a manual ranging meter with limited functions.

That place is a 30 minute drive from me where I do a lot of my grocery shopping (everything is far from where I am).   But it serves to illustrate the pricing.  And that's Canadian funny money too.  More like $35US or 30GBP.

But if you want that odd-ball shaped Owon .. go for it.  Like I said, it seems the OP already has a modern handheld meter and just wanted something for the bench.  Auto ranging is for woosies that can't push a single button.  It's not a deal breaker for me anyway.

[nctnico]

I wish they made an adapter for external power on DMM like the Brymen and Fluke handheld meters.  Anyone seen as such or made their own?   Just seems like it would be nice to use one as a bench meter and leave on for long periods of time.

Why not get a bench meter then? There are many models out there. My personal favourite is the Vici VC8145 but Uni-t and others also make 4.5 digit bench meter that are very affordable. The added bonus is that these meter can also be stacked on top of other equipment.

[BillyO]

Im comparing it with  the owen linked to above that cost £116.34 delivered to my door,complete with warranty.As for the vat,well a price that dont included it suddenly gets 20% more expensive  when you goes to pay

2 things.

1)  That price does not include VAT.  The Royal Mail (or whoever does your customs) will catch that and charge the 20% + any duties + processing fees + + +.

2) Warranty?  Good luck with that.

[hostile]

Have a couple bench top multimeters.  Flukes and HP.   Just curious in having an extern power for handhelds on the bench.  Most of my work is low voltage embedded systems, so not too concerned.

[themadhippy]

That price does not include VAT

Dont it, would you like to see the invoice ?

Warranty?  Good luck with that.

Not a problem as its down to the company i purchased it from ,a well established name  in the uk ,who are part of a larger global company,to deal with warranty claims,not the manufacturer.