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| Radio Shack 22-172 DC clamp meter review/teardown |
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| NiHaoMike:
I recently bought a Radio Shack 22-172 DC clamp meter for automotive work (tracing down the cause of battery draining over a few days in a 2002 Ford Taurus, turns out to be door switch intermittently making contact with door closed). Radio Shack had a sale on that particular meter (normally $70, now $60) and I also had a $10 off coupon, so I got it for $50. Pros: * Up to 800A AC or DC current measurement with 10mA resolution on 40A range, all for $50. * Supposed to be rated for CAT III 600V. The clamp itself has insulated tips. * True RMS works quite well. Cons: * Annoying beep when changing ranges, but continuity mode is so slow as to be nearly useless. (I disabled the buzzer after that.) * Current range drifts badly, but that might be an inherent limitation of DC current sensing. * DSP seems to be mounted to the board in a manner similar to how cheap electronics are constructed, but I have seen some high quality devices also using that construction, so I'm not sure what to make of it. * No RS232 output. * No wired mA and uA mode, but understandable as that would require an expensive HRC fuse to maintain the CAT III rating. * There's a thin jumper wire going from the input board to the range switch, would that impact the CAT III rating? |
| Omnibro:
I was just gifted one of these on a job yesterday. It's in very good condition, feels a lot like my 65 dollar Ideal clamp meter. Very happy to have it, as xraytonyb from Youtube has said, 'he who dies with the most meters wins' |
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