Products > Test Equipment
seek multimeter that not eat batteries or turn off
huggybear404:
Looking for meter that keep running a full workday without scream at me after 3 mins and turn off when I have hands stuck inside high voltage equipment, not the most ideal time to beep and make me jump... and also not bankrupt me or cost an amount that will never make me dare use it.
Is the XDM1041 a good choice or are there better options in same or lower price range ? I tryed ask seller if this will stay on or beep to interrupt me
but none knew the answer and it says nothing in manual about it. Any serious issues that should make me not order this ? does it use only internal 5v supply ? maybe add battery inside to keep it running for days even without needing the grid is a good idea ?
I tryed several handheld meters and seems all of them stay on max 5 mins before turn off so every time I want measure I have to restart it
and they still eat batteries like candy. seems almost all use aaa or 9v which is 6 of same cells. Am I the only one that think some rechargable cell is a good idea ? Tho even if I mod the cell the meter will still default to turn off. I know some meters have secret option to stay on but never remember this
setting.
one idea I have is using cheap ebay meters and a 5v mobile power adapter , upside is its very cheap at a few $ in parts, it likely is not very accurate
and I fear risk of shock if the cheap china mobile chargers break down. and also will be challenge and complex to put ranging switches and resistors in a small portable box. Especially if I want option for A , V and ohms in same meter. With the low price it may be good to make one of each tho.
Any other or better options to fit my needs ? or other suggestions ?
nightfire:
Depends on what your requirements are. If you need an affordable bench multimeter to simply circumvent turning off, then probably yes.
If you look for special things, maybe not. As an affordable alternative to a cheap handheld modded with battery connectors (the old Flukes had this, like the old 8020A), surely yes, if you primarily probe voltages.
But: Whats your usage profile?
xrunner:
Are you sure that the manual for your meter does not offer a way to cancel the auto-power off? The handheld I use allows that to be turned off (UNI-T UT17B Pro).
I don't know why the meter would "eat" batteries like you are describing even when used all day. Does it have a backlit display?
IanB:
I suggest two things:
(1) Read the user manuals of prospective meters on-line to find meters that have a way to cancel the auto-power-off.
(2) Consider meters that use a 9 V battery. Because such batteries have low energy content, the meter must be designed to have low power consumption. If a meter requires 4 or 6 AA cells it is probably a power hog.
I have some RadioShack meters that satisfy points 1 and 2. I have left them switched on for hours at a time doing data logging without draining the battery. I know these particular meters are now unobtainable, but I suspect there are other meters with similar characteristics.
mwb1100:
Approximate alkaline battery life (from the manuals - not measured by me) for some meters that are well built for being "stuck inside high voltage equipment" and that have a mechanism to turn off auto power off:
- Fluke 87v: 400 hours
- Fluke 179: 300 hours
- Brymen BM235: 250 hours (doesn't need APO to be disabled - whenever there's a reasonable reading, the APO timer is reset)
- Brymen BM257s: 220 hours (est)
As far as I can recall every meter I've ever had that features APO had some mechanism to disable it. A simple solution to not remembering how to do the disable is a piece of tape that you write on "Hold SELECT to disable APO" (or whatever). Use a label printer if you want it to look nice.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version