Products > Test Equipment
Vichy VC99 Multimeter Review and Teardown
Simon:
--- Quote from: T-23lol on November 16, 2012, 12:00:06 am ---Hello, I have a little problem with my Vichy VC99. I have damaged my temperature measurement part of multimeter by high AC current. I have been measuring temp while my probes for voltage measure was conected to the multimeter and circuit with 230V. I know ... i have been stupid. |O Now It displays only OL .
I have changed transistors Q1 and Q2 whitch was exploded but i have also damaged rsistor R39. This resistor is absolutely cooked and I don't know value of this one. Please can somebody help me and tell me value of resistor R39 ?
Thank you very much for your help and sorry for my bad english.
--- End quote ---
A good opportunity to dump that piece of junk and get something safer and more reliable.
Rick:
Yeah it's not good. Very slow... I am hating it now.
T-23lol:
Thank you for your help Bored@Work. But my VC99 have R39 100R value. In scheme in that PDF it is 180R but this is too much and my meter have been showing to me 190°C in 22°C room :-D . So I put there potentiometer and tried to find good value of R39.
for Simon and other: I don't have money to have multimeter or even 2 like fluke for example. For my purposes (hobby, education and little works) is this perfect machine. I am student and I don't have money for expensive multimeters. I am using this Vichy and other 2 multimeters like Excel DT9205A and china RE830B and they are fine.
I know, I can kill myself when I will be measuring high Voltake like 1000V and multimeter explode but i will not measure somethink like that. Maximal what can happen to me is that I will make some idiocy like that one with measuring temperature without disconnecting previous measuring and i will damage my multimeter. But it is not so horrible and it is not so frequent.
I think that if I buy something like Vichy VC99 and I don't need make measurements 8-10 hours in day every working day in year and if I will not make money with my equipment, then buying something like fluke for example for 200€ it is too luxury and it is only throwing money out of window.
For Rick: Yeah, I know, the worst is that delay when I am waiting for beep when I have been controlling short circuit. But for that I am using my cheap excel multimeter ant that beeps immediately. Delay in other functions is not so bad I think and I don't have problem with that.
Again, this is great multimeter for hobby and so. Enough reliable, accurate and for very good price.
(Sorry for my bad English, I believe that you understand what I wanted to say) Thank you
Rick:
You can buy a Fluke 27/FM for as low as $25 on ebay. I have bought one (for $35) recently it is spot on for Volts, Currents and resistances, except that it is 3200 count but the great advantage is Fluke 27/FM is true rms (the full grey one, sometimes misleadingly the yellow ones with charcoal front are also presented as True RMS by sellers). As pointed out by people in this thread earlier, VC99 is not true rms. You can buy a fluke 83 (I believe this one is not trms) for about $60-$70 if you find the right opportunity. Recently they have sold even a Fluke 87 for $48 (with some scratches on the lens but there are apparently products such as Novus 1 2 3 that I haven't tried myself yet, to polish the lens), a fluke 83 was sold for $38 a few days ago. Really, you need to watch and jump on the good opportunities. Yesterday a brand new Agilent U1272a was sold for $191, it costs $390 on amazon or more if you buy from an authorized dealer... May be people know something about it and can tell us. I don't know.
VC99 is also slow on voltage and other measurements I noticed, not only the continuity test. Or is it just mine???
T4P:
yes, the VC99 is slow in every imaginable way.
Anyway, the fluke 83 is NOT true-rms
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version