Poll

Shall we put "meters with built-in flashlight" in the same category as "meters with transistor tester",  ie. guaranteed to be junk?

Yes
No
How will I solder SMD parts without my flashlight?
Don't you know it's dangerous to work with electricity while holding a flashlight with your teeth!
It's spelled "torch", but yes.

Author Topic: Meters with built in flashlight?  (Read 1717 times)

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Online FungusTopic starter

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Meters with built in flashlight?
« on: October 18, 2021, 04:54:36 am »
Let's put this important question to bed once and for all.
 

Offline bob91343

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2021, 04:59:17 am »
How about with a built in soldering iron?
 

Online FungusTopic starter

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2021, 05:04:09 am »
How about with a built in soldering iron?

Only if both probes could heat up so I can solder both ends of a component at once.
 

Offline ledtester

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2021, 05:05:36 am »
Probably less crazy than one with a Bluetooth speaker:

https://youtu.be/AtIKU6wliYg
 

Online FungusTopic starter

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2021, 05:13:57 am »
Anybody have tales of people who lost their front teeth during an electrically-induced spasm?
 

Offline Zoli

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2021, 05:21:56 am »
Here's one:
http://content.amprobe.com/DataSheets/AM-510%20Digital%20Multimeter.pdf
And is completeluy useless as a flashlight... As multimeter, is above Aneng, but way below Fluke(year-on-year stability).
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2021, 05:56:36 am »
I have a Mastech 2108 which has a "flashlight" bloody colonials for the jaws, and I can tell you it's bloody useful; when you're reaching in the bottom of an old panel board with those 400V tails bolted onto busbars, I REALLY want to see where I'm putting my hand, tyvm!
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Online tautech

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2021, 06:08:36 am »
DMM leads with built in lighting would be far more useful.

No one heard of headlamps ?  :-//
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Offline HKJ

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2021, 07:37:42 am »
DMM leads with built in lighting would be far more useful.

You can sort of get that with some DMM's:

 

Offline blacksheeplogic

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2021, 07:38:45 am »
DMM leads with built in lighting would be far more useful.

No one heard of headlamps ?  :-//

I have some probe clip-on's in a draw somewhere with a LED (I think they are Fluke branded). Don't remember why I bought and I don't remember every having used them. I think they came with a probe set I bought for one reason or another.
 

Online J-R

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2021, 08:08:42 am »
I picked this up one day in a fit of madness:

https://www.keysight.com/us/en/product/U1176A/led-probe-clip-light.html

It "works" if your workbench is a dimly lit dive bar, but otherwise it's laughably bad.  It comes apart easily enough, so I have plans for an upgrade at some point...
 

Offline Kleinstein

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #11 on: October 18, 2021, 08:49:40 am »
Some light at the meter is not that bad. At least it can be made in a safe way. The cheap LEDs are isolating be default. Transistor test function usually comes with compromised safety - otherwise the function is not that bad.

However for direct use while measuring the light at the meter itself is usually at the wrong place. Today most cell phones provide a light too, so the exrta light is no longer that much needed.

Probes with light may be a nice idea, at least in come cases for more fine electronics.
 

Online FungusTopic starter

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #12 on: October 18, 2021, 09:54:35 am »
Today most cell phones provide a light too, so the exrta light is no longer that much needed.

Yep. You can hold s phone on the back of the meter and get a much brighter light.

« Last Edit: October 18, 2021, 10:00:19 am by Fungus »
 

Offline ogden

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #13 on: October 18, 2021, 07:57:03 pm »
Not that bad idea actually 8)  Even industrly heavyweights have "torch for your DMM" solutions:

https://www.keysight.com/zz/en/product/U1176A/led-probe-clip-light.html
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #14 on: October 18, 2021, 08:00:04 pm »
Some light at the meter is not that bad. At least it can be made in a safe way. The cheap LEDs are isolating be default. Transistor test function usually comes with compromised safety - otherwise the function is not that bad.

However for direct use while measuring the light at the meter itself is usually at the wrong place. Today most cell phones provide a light too, so the exrta light is no longer that much needed.

Probes with light may be a nice idea, at least in come cases for more fine electronics.

The light in the clamp jaws of my Mastech 2108 is in exactly the right place, and means I don't need an extra hand for a phone or anything else, as my other hand will be keeping me from falling head first into the pit under the panel board in the LV side of the substation.



I also have some probes with a light on the red one. I think it looks like the hunter-seeker from David Lynch's 1984 Dune film...


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Online J-R

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2021, 09:09:58 pm »
These days there are tons of great LED headlamps and flashlights with magnets/clips.  So if I'm doing real work I have no use for anything less.
 

Offline BeBuLamar

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #16 on: October 18, 2021, 11:41:51 pm »
I didn't vote because none of the choice fit my thought. I do not think such a meter is junk but I don't want it because flash light eats battery a lot and I don't want to change battery in my meter often.
 

Offline xrunner

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #17 on: October 18, 2021, 11:51:11 pm »
Normally sparks fly when I use a meter so I don't need the built-in light.  :-DD
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 

Offline Kean

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #18 on: October 19, 2021, 02:53:41 am »
My Fluke 771 Milliamp Process Clamp Meter has a tiny white LED built in, but to be honest if you can benefit from that tiny amount of illumination to see what you are doing you should probably not be working in the cabinet.
 

Online FungusTopic starter

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #19 on: October 19, 2021, 09:45:56 am »

I also have some probes with a light on the red one.

I always wanted something like that for continuity testing , ie. the probe lights up when there's continuity.
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Meters with built in flashlight?
« Reply #20 on: October 21, 2021, 05:19:28 pm »
My Fluke 771 Milliamp Process Clamp Meter has a tiny white LED built in, but to be honest if you can benefit from that tiny amount of illumination to see what you are doing you should probably not be working in the cabinet.

Yes well, sometimes you just have to get the job done. Very carefully.
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