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Multimeter for beginner.
shapirus:
--- Quote from: Cwmdu on March 22, 2023, 07:14:56 pm ---I was told get a clamp meter in case I start messing about with cars (which is probable), it is difficult to blow anything up with a clamp meter.
--- End quote ---
That's what you generally want to stay away from until you have experience and understand what you're doing.
Clamp meter is used to measure current in a non-intrusive way, which, that is correct, makes it very difficult to blow something up. Get it if you need it. But I think I won't be very wrong guessing that you won't have much to measure in the car besides the engine start and battery charge current. Does it justify spending money on a clamp meter? That's up to you, but if you decide to get one, make sure you find a model that has both DC and AC measurement modes. As usual, there are decent inexpensive chinese meters.
TizianoHV:
A clamp meter is really useful but you'll need also a multimeter to measure lower currents. (if your circuit draw 100mA a clamp meter is useless).
Two years ago I bought a ANENG AN8009 for 25€. For the price is really capable and robust. I used it at work and it fell on the ground from 2m (6 feet) twice, long battery life, cable detector....
Maybe would be more useful a dc-ac clamp for oscilloscopes? (it has no display and you can use an oscilloscope or multimeter to read the value...)
mwb1100:
Starting off with a $20 or less meter is fine for low voltage electronics work (there a bazillion of them out there,and nearly all except the absolute cheapest will give accurate enough readings for volts & ohms). I'd agree with the previous recommendation of watching Dave's $50 shootout even if the low end landscape has changed. The info in it will give you an idea of what's important to look for.
I recently got one of these to check out (I can't really explain why - I already have more meters than I know what to do with):
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8641Y7 (note, there was a 20% off coupon checkbox when I bought - look for it if you decide to pull the trigger)
I haven't put it though all the paces yet, but initial impressions were good:
- within 1-2 counts on all V and Ohm measurements
- fast continuity buzzer (might need better probes for best results here)
- the NCV function works better than many other meters I've tried
- it has really good 1.5 to 12V battery test functions that load the battery and works better than the simple V check. For example, a marginal 12V "23A" battery I have shows as 11.5V on any meter's V function, but on this meter's 12V battery test with the load it shows 8.2V explaining why some of the functions of the device the battery is in don't work very well.
One minor downside is that there's no capacitance function. I haven't tested the current measurements.
But if you want a professional quality meter and are willing to spend up to around $100 USD (which isn't a bad price for a pro meter) the Brymen BM235 would be worth a look. Brymens aren't particularly easy to find in North America. Dave sells his own eevblog-branded version of the BM235 on the eevblog.com store part of this site, but it can also be had (for less than $100 USD including shipping) from www.welectron.com.
Before ordering, email welectron for an "EEVBlog" discount code to save a few bucks.
DX1:
A scope may be a good call to start with.
With starter stuff like a multivibrator a multimeter is not very informative, because the signal is dynamic.
What about a graphical multimeter? EG ET828.
Fungus:
--- Quote from: Cwmdu on March 22, 2023, 07:14:56 pm ---I was told get a clamp meter in case I start messing about with cars (which is probable), it is difficult to blow anything up with a clamp meter.
--- End quote ---
True, and cars use currents higher than a non-clamp meter can handle (assuming you're going to measure currents).
Still... I'd buy a cheap meter for now and get a clamp later on. A meter like the one above will work much better on the workbench.
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